The David Pakman Show - 2/26/25: Elon gets a govt contract, consumer confidence collapses

Episode Date: February 26, 2025

-- On the Show: -- Elon Musk's SpaceX gets a massive government contract after Donald Trump said they would not get any government contracts while Musk works for DOGE -- Consumer confidence collapses under Donald Trump to its lowest in four years -- Another shocking near-miss plane crash, this one at Chicago's Midway Airport, amidst the desire to cut the FAA by Donald Trump's administration -- The Trump-MAGA Republican meltdown has begun as the civil war grows --The White House's explanation for the bizarre bruise on Donald Trump's hand makes absolutely no sense whatsoever -- Despite their claims to "Alpha Male" status, Trump and MAGA are the real "beta males" -- Would Donald Trump be willing to stage or allow a terrorist attack against the United States for political gain? -- Donald Trump's plan to sell residency and a path to citizenship for $5 million to foreigners is unveiled as the "Trump Gold Card" -- On the Bonus Show: House Republicans pass budget resolution as first early test of Trump's agenda, Rachel Maddow's staff to be laid off as part of MSNBC overhaul, Texas measles outbreak grows to 124 cases, much more... 🤖 Sponsored by Venice: Use code PAKMAN for 20% off a Pro Account at https://venice.ai/pakman 😺 Smalls cat food: Use code PAKMAN for 50% off & free shipping at https://smalls.com ✉️ StartMail: Get 50% OFF a year subscription at https://startmail.com/pakman ☕ Beam melatonin hot cocoa: Code PAKMAN for up to 40% OFF at https://shopbeam.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

. Welcome to the show, my friends. Well, well, well, just days after we were told Elon Musk would not be getting any government contracts while he's doing this extraordinarily important and powerful work for Doge, Trump told us he's personally keeping an eye on it very strongly, very alpha. Elon Musk's company, SpaceX, has received a government contract. Yes, that is exactly what's going on. Let's break down this spectacle of corruption brought to you by the unholy, ungodly alliance of Donald Trump and Elon Musk. Just days after Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency, which, you know, sounds like it's

something pulled from about 80s movies, slashed hundreds of critical jobs at the FAA, including safety personnel. Musk's company, SpaceX, has secured a beautiful deal with the FAA to manage U.S. airspace using his own Starlink satellites. If that doesn't scream conflict of interest, is there any such thing as a conflict of interest? Remember this from a few days ago. Will Elon secure any government contracts while working on Doge? And Trump says, no, no, no, we wouldn't let him. And I'm personally monitoring everything. They need our protection. Yes.

And the efforts that he's undertaking with your party, you granted a new authority this week. Will he secure any new government contracts while he is working on? No, not if there's a conflict, not if there's a conflict. There's no conflict, I guess. What difference does it make? But we won't let him do any of anything having to do with the conflict. Are you personally checking to make sure there's no conflicts? Yeah, I am. I am. He answers to you. Sure. It is. Trump's personally involved. He's in up to his elbows checking for conflicts of interest. Now, this is the type of conflict. This is the type of deal rather that smells, I would argue, worse than the bathroom where Trump had the classified documents stacked up to the gaudy

chandelier. This is the kind of deal where Musk, who loves to act as though he's above the rules, gets to be above the rules and he gets to cash in on a government contract while slashing jobs at the agency responsible for regulating his company. Think of it. And by the way, we'll get to what's going on in aviation. Another near miss this time at Chicago's Midway Airport. On the one hand, we have a situation with aviation safety where even if we don't blame Trump, we would all come to the table and say this is not the time to slash FAA.

This is not the time to slash safety personnel, reduce air traffic control. But that's exactly what they're doing. And meanwhile, in swoops, Elon Musk, like a Phoenix rising over the horizon to say, hey, you know what? Give me some money and my Starlink satellites are going to be able to do some of this work. Now, for those who might believe Elon when he says I'm not involved in a lot of these companies. Sure, I'm the owner, but I'm not running it, I'm not involved in a lot of these companies. Sure, I'm the owner, but I'm not running it. I'm not the administrator. I'm not, you know, fill in the blanks. Elon Musk is not a passive observer here. He is actively involved. They're

shipping thousands of Starlink terminals to the FAA. He got involved with Starlink and Ukraine. And meanwhile, they're cutting FAA staff responsible for to some degree regulating the business of these satellites. Consider that those satellites are governed and regulated by the very FAA that is being cut. So it's all a mess. It's backroom deals. It's conflicting interests and it's a complete and total reckless disregard for public safety. And it puts the FAA in a situation where it's now stuck trying to balance legitimate safety concerns with dealing with the fallout from Elon Musk's mass layoffs and his criticism of the very system that regulates him.

And the fact that the Trump administration with which Musk is in bed with doesn't even care that the FAA is being gutted for Musk's benefit is proof that it's rigged for the wealthy. It's rigged for the powerful. Yesterday I did this segment. I don't really believe in the deep state, but to the extent that there is one, it's Trump and Musk. It's another reminder. Musk has also already been in trouble with the FAA previously for violating launch regulations and and causing literal explosions. But instead of being held accountable, he gets to fund the very agency that's supposed to oversee his company.

And don't forget that the Trump administration tried to cover up the fact that the FAA was losing crucial safety staff as all this went on. They said, no, no, no, nothing and no one's safety related here. But the people responsible for keeping air travel safe are suddenly expendable. And it's Starlink satellites with a deal for Elon that are going to swoop in. So what is this at the 40,000 foot level? Excuse the pun. This is what happens when you mix a capitalism that is not regulated enough with blatant corruption, a disregard for public safety and naked cronyism and nepotism. That's what you get. Musk and Trump making it crystal clear that the rules do not apply to them.

Will the FAA become an extension of SpaceX? It's not a stretch. It it's only February. It seems like this is just the beginning. All right. I'm starting to get the emails, the emails that I got during Trump's first term, which say, David, you seem like you're rooting against the American economy. You're rooting for a collapse. You're rooting for a recession or a depression to prove some political point. And of course, to that, I say, thank you. You're lucky stars every day.

You're not Dave Pakman. That's right. You wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of these emails. It's much the opposite. Okay. receiving end of these emails. It's much the opposite. OK, I am not alone in being concerned about what we're seeing in the economy, but I made it very clear. I'm always rooting for the country. I'm always rooting for those who live here. I'm rooting in favor of the economy. I made this clear when Trump was inaugurated. I said, I hope he succeeds in the sense of helping the country.

I'm skeptical, but I hope he does. And many people wrote to me and they said, David, why? Why would you hope for that? I hope for that because I don't want to see suffering. I don't want to see unnecessary economic problems, but I am concerned. And you know what? I'm not alone. We have now seen the sharpest decline in American consumer confidence

during this month that we have seen in four years. In four years, we have never seen a larger single month decline in consumer confidence than fell to 98 from 105, 98 from 105. The expectation was there would be a modest drop to 102. Consumer confidence has dropped to 98. This brings the index to its lowest level of consumer confidence since 2022. The sub index declines also are reflecting concern. The index that reflects market and business conditions went down to 136 from 139. The expectations index, which measures the short term outlook for income and economic conditions

went from 82 to 72. These are relative indicators, right? What we care, what we care about is the proportional drop. And we are also seeing rising inflation expectations. So the 12 month inflation expectation is up from five point two to six percent. Now you might say, I thought inflation was three percent. Yes, this is an expectations index. Where

do consumers expect inflation to be a year from now? And consumers expect it to be at 6%. They see eggs out of control. They see groats series out of control. And people are very worried about the Trump, uh, policy, uh, tariff policy. Um, and there are serious reasons to consider that this is going to negatively affect the economy. So this raises concerns about a consumer slowdown and economic slowdown, a reduction in economic growth, the inability of people to afford things. We already have a situation where almost half the country can't meet an unexpected $400 expense without going into debt, meaning putting it on a credit card or borrowing or taking out a loan. This can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. And so one of

the things we're going to be following extremely closely, we started it earlier this week as we are one month into the Trump presidency. What, where does unemployment go? Where does inflation go? Where does, what do GDP numbers start looking like once we get that them for the QF Q4 of 24 and Q1 of 25? How closely does the concern that consumers clearly have right now manifest in the economic data? It remains unclear the direction of this economy. And one of the things that I've said before and I will say again is that the economy was

pretty good before covid under Trump. I don't say that it's because of Trump. But when you stay out of here's the reality. OK, the American economy does not work for a lot of people. We have poverty. We have hunger. We have lack of access to health care. There is no question that it is not a perfect economy. But one of the things that is true is that when you sort of stay out of the economy's way, meaning you don't under regulate

and you don't overregulate, you don't dump in politically motivated tariffs, you don't make empty, belligerent threats just to see what happens when you kind of stay out of the way and don't do anything too nuts. The economy is dynamic and diverse enough that it tends to do pretty well tracking global business cycles when you get in the way, whether it's COVID getting in the way, whether it's a failed COVID response getting in the way, whether it's unnecessary tariffs, whatever the case may be, that's when the economy doesn't do well. So it's conceivable that Donald Trump could have a pretty okay economy, not by virtue of what he does, but by virtue of what he doesn't do. If he stops the tariff talk, if he doesn't look to put in deficit raising tax cuts for

the rich and corporations, if he just kind of behaves like a normal person and says, let's let the the American economy do what it can do, it would likely be OK or at least as OK as any other Western developed countries economy. What he is threatening to do has very much the possibility of sending creating an inflection point and sending the economy into a tailspin. So for those writing in going, David, you seem so eager to see the economy collapse. No, no, no, no. I am not eager at all. I'm concerned. And I'm concerned, especially because of folks that don't have the, uh, uh, sort of the safety net of what some of the blue States provide. And this is, it's Trump voters in red States, but it's also non Trump voters in red States who are going to suffer all the same.

So that's the data we have now. Consumer confidence at its lowest point in four years, biggest drop in four years. We will see what the next month brings. By now, you've probably heard about deep seek. It's now the number one app on most app stores, but every conversation you have with deep seek is stored on Chinese servers and subject to Chinese censorship. If you want to try deep seek without sharing all your conversations with Beijing, then let me recommend our sponsor, Venice AI. Venice.ai is a generative AI platform. It's private and it's permissionless.

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A couple of programming notes. My book related interviews are starting. I'll give you a sense over the next. I'll pull up my calendar here and tell you what what I'm going to be up to. I will be interviewed for who, what, why they're writing a great piece about my book. I am going to be on with. Hold on. Where am I here? I'm going to be on with Ryan Holiday. I'm going to be on the Mark Thompson show. I will be on with the Dolemars. I will be on with Brian Tyler Cohen and Brian Tyler and Tyler Cohen and Brian Cohen. They're all going to be interviewing. It'll be like a huge panel. A politics girl is going to be having me on. I will be with Midas touch. I will be on the gist.

I will be on with Leonard Lopate on the great WBAI for a long form interview. I am going to be down in Texas with Ryan Holiday. Looks like I'll be on with Matt Dillahunty down in Texas as well. So in any case, we're ramping up a lot of these interviews. We'll be bringing you clips and all of it. And remember that you can preorder my book at David Pakman dot com slash book. And if you want a signed copy, specifically a signed copy, they are available only and exclusively at Brookline Booksmith, David Pakman dot com slash booksmith. Every book ordered there by March 7th will be signed and delivered to you. I'm going to be going up there soon. And so far, it's about

five hundred and ten copies that I will be signing. I think I can do them in forty five minutes that I've done the math. I think if I can do, you know, something like 15 books a minute. Anyway, it's going to be it's going to be a big signing day and we'll get some video of that. All right. So David Pakman dot com slash booksmith. We have another stunning near miss airplane crash. This one at Chicago Midway Airport.

I have the video here. Southwest Airlines jet aborted landing at Chicago Midway as a private plane. You will see here come in and cross the center runway unauthorized to do so. We've heard the air traffic control audio. This jet that you see crossing the runway as the Southwest airplane aborts. The landing was told to cross the left runway, but to hold short of the center runway. The private jet did not do that. It crossed the center runway and we have yet another one of these incidents. Now there are two things that are at the same time true. On the one hand, this is not an isolated event. It's part of another disturbing trend of these near miss incidents that we are seeing.

At the same time, I've been inundated with messages from pilots and aviation experts and concerned citizens saying, you know, David, these near miss incidents have nothing to do with Donald Trump. We have the air traffic control audio. The air traffic controllers told the private jet do not cross the center runway and the private jet crossed the center runway and the private jet cross the center runway. It has absolutely nothing to do with Donald Trump. And I would generally agree. And I've gotten emails from pilots that say aviation safety is complex, but it is not tied to recent

policy changes. And I would agree that it is very complex. The reason that the conversation about Trump and Doge keeps coming up when we see these incidents is that the FAA and the NTSB, which investigates these these incidents are stretched very thin. Investigating these incidents in the middle of this backdrop of staffing cuts and threats to lay people off in mass form from Trump and from Musk can't possibly be helping the situation. And it's a reminder. We certainly even if you don't blame Trump for, you know, this jet crossing the runway, which I don't, if what we are seeing are these incidents and the backdrop is cutting FAA, cutting NTSB, cutting ATC and giving Elon a contract for Starlink satellites. That is a problem. The Trump administration under this guise of eliminating

fraud, waste and abuse has laid off about 400 employees at the Federal Aviation Administration. That includes people directly supporting safety inspectors directly involved in airport operations. These aren't paper pushers. OK, these are the people who maintain the infrastructure that keep the skies safe. And so when Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy says anything related to critical safety is not affected, I don't believe it because we know the folks that have been laid off. When you cut support staff to the critical safety people, you overburden everybody who's, who's there and you increase the risk of errors and oversights. It's like removing the pit crew from a race car team and saying, we have not taken any equipment away from the driver. The driver still has all of the technical stuff and has as many practice hours as that.

OK, but you've removed the pit crew. And so that's a problem. Now, who's leading the charge? It's Musk. It's the guy who's running the Department of Government Efficiency. And while Musk's SpaceX has vested interest in airspace operations, just got a contract. We talked about it at the top of the show. He's influencing policy that could compromise aviation safety.

And it's a conflict of interest that should be obvious to anybody. So the cuts are part of a broader agenda to shrink government at the expense of safety in many different areas. So to people who see this and they say this particular jet crossing the runway has nothing to do with Trump. I'm with you, but it's essential to see the bigger picture and the staffing cuts under the current administration weaken the foundation of aviation safety infrastructure. And when you systematically dismantle the support systems that keep the skies safe,

these incidents become more likely. It shouldn't be a political pawn to keep the skies safe, these incidents become more likely. It shouldn't be a political pawn to keep the skies safe. And when you see an incident like this and you say, OK, if anything, we just need more safety individuals or more training or more resources or whatever the case may be, you might say, well, we're fine where we are or we need more cutting and cutting haphazardly. The way that Trump and Musk have been doing is the wrong direction. So you don't have to blame Trump for this incident to realize that the direction he's going is very much the wrong one. It seems very clear that we are starting to see the escalation of the civil war between

the Republican Party and Trump and MAGA. You might call it the Republican meltdown. If you thought that the Republican Party couldn't get any more dysfunctional, think again, because the last few weeks have been absolute chaos. And instead of fixing their problems, Republicans are setting everything on fire and the Trump MAGA versus Republican civil war is growing. Let's break down the different elements of it.

First of all, House Republicans, Medicaid cuts are blowing up the budget fight. We will talk on the bonus show about what the House passed yesterday. House Speaker Mike Johnson tried to wrangle the party behind Trump's economic plan. It includes $4.5 trillion in tax cuts, $2 trillion in spending cuts, and $880 billion that comes out of Medicare. It passed. But even some of Trump's most loyal cronies like Jeff Van Drew are panicking. And he's right to panic because if you gut health care for millions of working Americans, it is arguably political suicide and Republicans end up trapped. Do they please Trump or they try?

Do they try to avoid getting wiped out in 2026? And it doesn't seem like both are possible. That's the first major point of conflict and contention. Number two, House versus Senate, the budget war. Senate Republicans are basically throwing House Republicans under the bus. Lindsey Graham and others say, let's do a much smaller package. Let's focus on security and defense rather than doing what the House Republicans are trying to do. Trump he's flip flopping as usual. Sometimes he backs house hardliners. Sometimes he cozies up to Senate

Republicans. It's what can I say to get the people in the room with me right now to like me? And the result could be a legislative train wreck that might derail the entire agenda before it starts. Number three, at the state level, we are starting to see cracks. The Michigan Republican Party saw a Trump loyalist get crushed in that state Republican leadership race to lead Michigan Republicans. Jim Runstad defeated Michonne Matic. That's the same Michonne Matic who's been indicted for her role in the 2020 fake electors scheme. And this is not just Michigan drama.

What we are seeing among Republicans trying to figure out who's going to lead us in Michigan is a warning sign that there are Republicans getting sick of the election conspiracies and MAGA chaos. It took a few years, right? But some of them are getting sick of it. The point is that if more parties start pulling back at the state level, the political machine of Trump could be weakened very quickly. Number four, Maga communism.

Now it sounds crazy. I wish I were making this up, but there's an actual movement trying to merge Trump style nationalism with socialist rhetoric. They call it Maga communism. This guy, Jackson Hinkle is leading the charge. And the idea is to take left wing economic language, strip it of solidarity with workers and twist it into this nationalist authoritarian mess. And there are some hardcore MAGA fans that are looking at this and saying that's the wrong direction. It's fringe for now, but the fact that it exists really shows how fractured and desperate

the right wing movement has become. And then number five, we look at the Colorado Republican Party in total meltdown mode. State Party Chair Dave Williams in Colorado decided to go all in on the anti LGBT rhetoric. And there's been significant backlash. Party officials resigning, not necessarily because they stand in solidarity with LGBTQ people, but because they recognize that in Colorado, it's losing strategy. Donors are pulling money. Moderates are walking away. This is the problem with making the culture war your entire brand. Eventually you alienate

everybody except the most extreme voters and the Republican party is now fighting on all fronts. You've got fiscal conservatives versus mega populists. You've got traditional conservatives versus extremist factions. You've got interventionist on foreign policy wings up against the new Trump. We're against wars thing while actually enabling brutal authoritarianism and looking the other way. You've got state party leaders versus Trump's kind of looming shadow and the cracks are widening into these full on fractures. My interest in this is that because

the Democratic Party does not seem to have figured out what the hell to do to take back some semblance of control here. I don't think I can rely on the Democratic Party right now to try to fix this thing. So I'm really putting a lot of eggs in Republicans destroy themselves basket. And let me say a little bit more about that. I did hear from many of you after my interviews with Senator Cory Booker, Senator Elizabeth Warren, Senator Amy Klobuchar, Senator Adam Schiff, and many of you said, David, they don't seem to have a clue how to fix this thing. Smart people, nice people, heads screwed on straight. But I don't know that they have any idea how to actually take back the narrative. And I'm concerned about the

same thing. So we're going to work on fixing the left. But we also should encourage the right to eat itself. And MAGA versus Trump versus the Republican Party right now is exploding. And I say we allow it to happen. Let me know what you think. And remember that we are pushing towards three million YouTube subscribers. Let me see where we are right now. Last week, when we started the push to three million, we were one hundred and fifty five thousand subscribers short. We are now one hundred and two thousand subscribers short. We have in five days done away with a third of the gap to get to those three million subscribers. Let's do it. YouTube dot com slash the David Pakman show. We'll take a quick

break and the show will continue. If you're still using a free email service, your emails are often being scanned and tracked even after you, David. the David Pakman ShowT. mail dot com slash Pacman for 50 percent off. The link is in the podcast notes. Well, the White House has given an explanation for the very bizarre and concerning bruise on Donald Trump's hand. The White House says that it's the result of shaking hands with people. This might be the most ridiculous White House explanation since alternative facts kind of became part of the lexicon. The White House press secretary, Caroline Leavitt, wants us to believe that Trump's bizarre, huge bruise, which they used makeup to

try to cover up, is from shaking hands with people. Now a couple different things. First of all, have you ever developed large visible bruises from shaking hands? Unless there is some underlying condition or potentially some medication, none of which we've been told Trump is taking, it doesn't make any sense. Now there are conditions and medications that can make you bruise easily. We've not been told that Trump is taking any of those medications nor has any of those conditions. And in addition to that, think for a moment bruising easily for

medication or a condition which we've not been told Trump has fine. Maybe, maybe they're just lying, but the bruise from shaking hands would not cover the entire upper part of Trump's palm. If that were the case, it doesn't make any sense. The statement put out by the white house says Trump is quote, constantly working and shaking hands all day, every day. So we're supposed to believe that the same guy who was famously so germaphobic that he didn't even like shaking hands and called it barbaric and a curse is now gleefully shaking hands so much and so often that he has a very strange looking huge bruise.

So let's talk about what we're actually seeing here. The bruise is deep. The bruise is prominent, even with what appears to be pretty obvious makeup applied to conceal the bruise. Think about that for a moment. If you need to cover up bruises with makeup, we are not talking about a casual handshake injury. We're talking about something that's happening regularly enough that they've put in place a cosmetic protocol. Now, remember when Queen Elizabeth the second had similar bruising on her hand just two days before she passed away, medical experts pointed to that and said IV sites or places used for regular blood draws can start to look like that. We've not been told

that there would be any reason for Trump to regularly be receiving IV medication or be regularly getting blood draws such that this would be going on. Now, IV bruising is the most logical explanation. It's a pretty distinctive pattern. It's the same spot where medical professionals place IVs. It's been recurring. We've seen this. I think it was in over the summer at one point, maybe during the fall. So every medical professional looking at these images is thinking the same thing, but we're supposed to believe it's from handshaking and notice how they immediately start pivoting their explanation to Trump is such a man of the people. And he's so committed in this unwavering way to just be out there shaking hands. It's the classic deflection. Being a man of the

people has nothing to do with unexplained bruising. It's like classic deflection. Being a man of the people has nothing to do with unexplained bruising. It's like asking why your car won't start and being told the mechanic is patriotic or something like that. So here's what's revealing. We know this is not the first time we've seen this side over the summer side in the fall, recurring bruises in the same spot for six months. It doesn't sound typical from handshaking to me. And of course, we go back to transparency, supposedly the most transparent this and that of any administration. Trump again said he would consider releasing his full medical report.

He said it in the December meet the press interview. He didn't do it. And we are increasingly suspecting he's being treated for something or for whatever reason, he is regularly getting blood draws from that spot on his hand. Nothing has been disclosed that would explain that. And the absurdity is palpable because if the White House can't give a straight answer about something as visible and concerning as unexplained bruising, what else aren't they telling us? So yes, it's about the bruise, but it's also about transparency. It's about the bizarre relationship the

administration has with basic truth. And, you know, uh, we have to just try to get the answers from people who claim to be transparent, but very obviously are not. So I'll leave it to you. What do you think is the explanation for the bruising and is the most obvious explanation IV site for some condition or regular blood draws that we haven't been told why would be necessary? Uh, is the next step we have to get to in figuring out what this is? Is it the I.V. or is it something else? Let me know what you think. Info at David Pakman dot com. Ah, the alpha male, the strong, independent, self-assured leader who never backs down, doesn't whine, certainly doesn't cry when things don't go his way. At least that's what Trump supporters claim to value.

But let's be real. When you actually look at Donald Trump and his loyal base, what you see is the opposite of self-proclaimed alpha energy. What you see is a master class in beta male behavior. And today we're going to break it down. Now, I want to start with Trump himself. Donald Trump, the self-proclaimed tough guy spent his entire presidency trying to project an image of strength. But what do we honestly see when we look at the guy? We see a guy who throws tantrums on Twitter. I'm sorry, X and troth central. Whenever anybody criticizes him, we see an obese, unathletic guy who lacks physical strength. We see a man who refused toletic guy who lacks physical strength.

We see a man who refused to accept the results of the 2020 election, not because he had evidence, but because his fragile snowflake ego couldn't handle losing. And instead of manning up the way Maga likes to say and conceding like every other damn president in modern history, he threw a years long tantrum, filed dozens of frivolous lawsuits and incited incited a violent insurrection. Is that an alpha move? No, that's the behavior of a spoiled little kid who didn't get his way. And then we move from Trump to the Republican Party, also self-proclaimed alphas. Remember that at one point the Republican Party claimed to stand for family values and fiscal responsibility and strong foreign policy against authoritarians and dictators.

I've almost forgotten about it because the moment Trump came along, they threw those principles out the window because they're terrified of him. They're terrified of his base. They're terrified of his Twitter rants. And as recently we have heard, they are terrified of Elon Musk bankrolling primary challengers against them if they step out of line. Is that alpha behavior? So instead of standing up to Trump, they capitulate to his every whim and nothing says strong

leadership like cowering in the corner in fear of a guy who can't even spell correctly in his social media posts. After all, we then go to foreign policy. There was a time when the Republican Party prided itself on standing up to dictators and defending democracy. Did they do it in ways I agreed with? No, but it's what they prided itself on standing up to dictators and defending democracy. Did they do it in ways I agreed with? No, but it's what they prided themselves on. And now Trump and his supporters are practically begging Ukraine to surrender to Vladimir Putin. They've turned America first into America alone. They've abandoned our allies and they love these authoritarian regimes. Why? Because Trump admires strong men like Putin.

Trump knows that they are the alpha image Trump aspires to and his followers are too busy simping for their dear leader to notice the irony of it. Nothing says alpha like cheering a dictator while wearing a don't tread on me shirt and a maga hat. Right. And then finally there's the victim mentality, the constant victimhood. Trump supporters love to talk about how a snowflakes on the left can't handle opposing viewpoints. But have you ever seen a group more obsessed with playing victim?

They're terrified of change. They're terrified of change. They're terrified of minorities. They're terrified of anything that challenges their worldview. And meanwhile, they go cancel culture everywhere while they try to ban books that trigger them. They whine about woke ism while clutching pearls over a rainbow flag and they claim to be patriots while undermining democracy. Folks, this is not alpha behavior. This is snowflake insecurity masquerading as strength.

And finally, we can't forget the ultimate beta move, blindly following a leader who doesn't care about you. Trump spent his entire life screwing over workers and dodging taxes and exploiting anyone he could for personal gain. And yet his supporters treat him like he's some kind of Messiah. Why? Because they've tied their identities to him. They've staked their fragile egos in his success. And when he loses, they can't handle it. Instead of accepting reality, they retreat into conspiracy theories and alternate realities. It's not strength. It's delusion. At. Instead of accepting reality, they retreat into conspiracy theories and alternate realities. It's not strength. It's delusion. At the end of the day, Trump and his

supporters are the opposite of the alphas that they claim to be. They're insecure. They're reactive. They are desperate for validation from their orange leader. They try to project strength, but they crumble at the slightest criticism. And meanwhile, politically, they say they value freedom, but they cheer for authoritarianism. They talk a big game about winning, but they can never handle losing. So the next time you hear a Trump supporter talking about alpha males, just remember when Trump won in November, we on the left said, Hey, you know what? He won. We don't like it.

We don't agree with it. It's not who we would have chosen, but he won. That's the alpha behavior. That's not what you are seeing from them. The betas are the ones who need a reality TV star to tell them what to think. And they're all over on the other side. Let me know what you think. Many of us have struggled with sleep at one point or another.

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Here's the question I want to explore with you. Would Donald Trump be willing to either stage or allow a terrorist attack against the United States if he thought it would help him politically? This is based off of an email I received that suggested this was something that he would do. So let me get one thing clear. Trump is a man of extreme impulses. He's all about image. He's all about perception. He's all about how he is seen by others. He needs to be seen as a hero, the man who can solve all problems. And that's where the idea of staging something as dramatic as a terrorist attack could come into play. Now, before people get triggered and go, David, how dare you step back for a moment and think about the man that we're dealing with? Trump has a history of bending the truth to fit his narrative. We've

seen him embrace any crisis that boosts his image, or we've seen him downplay a real crisis when it doesn't serve his agenda, whether it's taking a Sharpie to a hurricane map or whether it's rewriting who is the aggressor in a global conflict. We've seen him praise authoritarian figures looking for ways to impose control. And at the core of Donald Trump's temperament is an undeniable fact. He loves to be the man in charge during moments of national peril. Think back to his obsession with I'm now a wartime president during covid. Why? Because it's a power move. Would he go so far as to stage a terrorist attack? Well, here's the thing. Trump is a man driven by ego. He desperately wants to be seen as strong and resolute and the one who can lead us through any storm. He would love to have a 9-11 style

moment when he could show up, get on TV and declare that he's the only one who can protect us. But there is a twist here and there's a major problem. I don't believe Trump's nearly competent enough to pull it off and neither are the people that are working for him. And there are multiple reasons why Trump, even if he wanted to, would not be able to get away with something like that without everybody figuring out what happened. Now, this is separate from whether Trump's morality or ethics would make him plausibly willing to do it. But first, let's just talk about the facts. Trump's incredibly impulsive, as I mentioned, to stage a terrorist attack would require

a level of coordination and secrecy that Trump doesn't have and his people aren't competent enough to maintain. Remember when he tried to get that coffee tweet to stay secret for a few hours? I mean, there's just not a chance you think he could orchestrate a full scale national conspiracy and keep it quiet. I hesitate to believe it. His impulsive nature would make any such plan a walking time bomb of leaks and accidental exposure. Secondly, there's the logistics. Trump couldn't even handle the basics of White House pandemic response without making a mess of it. Think of the botched military operations, his love of chaos over strategy. He would be setting himself up for catastrophic failure. But imagine for a moment that Trump

pulled it off. If Trump orchestrated an attack, it would quickly unravel. Even an intelligence community led by Tulsi with its sophisticated surveillance and interagency coordination. I think that we would find out about it. And don't forget the public reaction. Do you think his approval rating would rise after a staged attack? People wouldn't see him as a hero. They'd see him as an architect of mass destruction, because frankly, that's what he would be. Not to mention the consequences of something like this for the people involved. The fallout would be immediate. And I believe that even many of his loyal followers would not go for it. So morally and ethically, Trump would love to have a 9-11 moment. He would see it as this is how I will cement my legacy as the ultimate strong man. But there's a difference between being in wanting something and being able to actually

pull it off. So from a moral standpoint, is Trump the type of person that would stage a terrorist attack? I don't know. Is he the type of guy who would look the other way in preventing one with the idea that then it would be an environment in which he can rise to be a global or national hero? Maybe. I don't think that he would. If here's the thing with Trump, he's able to convince himself that there is a greater

good in anything he does. And when you look at why would he take the Sharpie and change the hurricane map? Well, it was politically inconvenient. And Trump, I'm sure, would say to himself, we are going to be better off if people see me as being omniscient and right about everything. And therefore, I am justified in changing this hurricane map with a Sharpie, even if it terrifies people in Alabama who have no reason to be scared that the hurricane is really coming their way. Trump has never been shy about leveraging crisis for personal gain. The reality is I don't think he has the competence and I don't think he and the people around him can maintain the secrecy that

would be needed to execute something like that. So in the end, it's not really about whether Trump could put a pull off such a stunt. It's about whether he could get away with it. I don't think he could. He tries to be a master of manipulation, but I think he would not be able to do it and therefore he wouldn't try. Let me know what you think. Let me know what you think. I want to hear from you. Do you ever feel like everything with the modern Republican Party is a cheap cash grab? Well, here we go again. This time it's U.S. citizenship for sale for the low, low price one time only of five million dollars. Yes, Donald Trump has announced his gold card plan, which, according to him, is going to

replace the existing EB-5 visa program. Let's listen to Trump explain it. Get a load of this. We're going to be doing something else. It's going to be very, very good. We're going to be doing something else. It's going to be very, very good. We're going to be selling a gold card. You have a green card. This is a gold card.

We're going to be putting a price on that card of about $5 million. And that's going to give you a green card privileges. This is not a dream or a nightmare. This is happening. Plus it's going to be a route to citizenship and wealthy people will be coming into our country by buying this card. This is happening. done before or anything like this, but it's something that we're going to be putting out over the next, would you say two weeks out? Do you want to say a couple of words about it? Sure. Mr. President, do you have to invest a certain amount of money in this country in order to qualify for that gold card?

Yeah, exactly. So the EB-5 program was really, you lend some money, but it was all it was full of nonsense, make believe and fraud. And it was a way to get a green card that was low priced. So the president said, rather than having this sort of ridiculous EB-5 program, we're going to end the EB-5 program. We're going to replace it with the Trump gold card, which is really a green card gold. So they'll be able to pay five million dollars to the. It's a green card gold. So they'll be able to pay $5 million to the it's

a green card gold. By the way, check out the expression on Robert F. Kennedy Jr's face as depraved and disoriented as RFK is. I think he realizes this is just disgusting. US government have to go through vetting. Of course, we're going to make sure they're wonderful world class global citizens. They can come to America. The president can give them a green card and they can invest in America and we can use that money to reduce our deficit. Why do we give out lotteries of green cards? Why do we give out EB-5 for green cards? Let's just cut right to the chase and give it to people who can give us five million bucks. President United States understands that the right answer is why don't we eliminate the deficit of the United States of America instead, which you're not going to do with five million

dollar green cards. I hate to tell you how the gold card, the gold card, well, millions, but the gold card will bring in with it people that create jobs, very high-level people. I think companies will pay to get people in. For instance, you today graduate from the Wharton School of Finance or Harvard or Stanford or any college, and nobody knows if you can even go to work for a company. So Apple and all these companies that want to get people to be working for them will be able to buy a card. And for the people that are number one in their class at top schools, I see that as one of the things. But generally speaking, it'll be people with money and people

that create jobs. And perfect, right? They won't have to pay any tax on income outside of the United States, which are not paying right now. They're not citizens, but they'll have to pay if they create jobs in the United States. They'll pay full taxes like everybody else. So you're getting big taxpayers, big job producers and will be, of course, no one who can afford this actually needs it. Able to sell maybe a million of these cards, maybe more than that. And if you add up the numbers, they're pretty good. As an example, a million cards would be worth five trillion dollars, five trillion. And if you sell 10 million of the cards, that's which you are not going to a total of 50 trillion dollars.

Well, we have 35 trillion in debt. That'd be nice. Now here's the thing. The EBI five visa already allowed wealthy people from other countries to invest in the US in exchange for a green card. Apparently that wasn't grifty enough. And so now the program is really a pay to win system. If you cough up enough cash, you get a direct path to citizenship.

This is not about merit. This is not about economic benefit. This is not even the usual Republican talking point about earning your place in America. This is about cutting a check. And Trump, of course, being Trump is not even pretending otherwise. When he was asked, would Russian oligarchs be eligible for this? He said, I know some nice Russian oligarchs. And it's like, I bet you do, boy.

Russian oligarch be eligible for a gold card? Yeah, possibly. Hey, I know some Russian oligarchs that are very nice people. We know it's possible. They're not quite as wealthy as they used to be. They not quite as wealthy as they used to be. They're not as wealthy as they used to be. I think they can afford I think they can afford five million dollars. So they know a lot of people are going to want to be a lot of people are going to want to be in this country and they'll be able to work and provide jobs and build companies and pay taxes. All of those things. It's an incredible

it's an incredible thing. I mean, this is the group that is the first to hear it. Nobody's heard about it. Nobody ever thought about it. But we've been thinking about it very, very strongly over the. Yeah. So anyway, super strong. It might even come with a Mar-a-Lago membership. So let's break it down. According to Trump and his commerce secretary, the old EB five program had nonsense, make believe and fraud. Now, anytime they mention fraud, it's always like, have you proven that there is fraud? Fraud is a crime. The solution is make the fraud simpler instead of pretending the investment needs to create jobs. It's give me five million bucks and we'll call it a day. We'll bet you give us the five million.

We call it a day. And it's the perfect encapsulation of Trump ism, which is rules don't matter. Ethics don't matter. National security doesn't matter. What matters is who's got the cash. And think about the hypocrisy. Republicans have spent years screaming about illegals and demonizing desperate families trying to come here for a better life.

But if you're a billionaire Russian oligarch, no problem. Just buy your way in. No waiting, no merit tests, no questions asked. Now to be fair, selling citizenship is not technically new because the U.S. has the program where you can get residency for investment. Residency and citizenship are two different things. There are other countries where you can buy residency or you can ultimately have a path to citizenship as well.

Trump's version. Is as blatant as it gets. It's not really about investment or job creation. It's just a transaction. You pay Trump's America first shop and boom, you're on the fast track to a passport. And honestly, why stop at citizenship? We will give a Senate seat for 10 billion if someone wants it or maybe throw in a presidential pardon as a bonus.

Oh, we already do that because we know Trump's entire career has been access to cash. How can I access cash? And of course, the real kicker is that Trump is still pretending to be the populist hero who will save and come to the rescue of the forgotten working class. And meanwhile, he's out here saying you want in just be rich. It's not an immigration policy. It's a clearance sale. And the product is the United States of America. One last thought on this. Trump bragged at the beginning of this ridiculous video.

These rich people are going to come in and they're going to spend and they're going to buy a bunch of stuff. It's going to cause inflation. If Trump really sold 10 million of these citizenship gold cards, do you what? What do you think the effect on prices will be if you add 10 million wealthy adults to the country competing for real estate and bidding up prices, competing for vehicles and competing for whatever? That's going to drive prices up. That's it. It's a classic way

to increase the cost of stuff. It's it's almost beyond belief, but it's not. It's what Trump is doing. We have a tremendous bonus show for you today. We are going to talk about the budget battle and Republicans passing the first test for Trump's tax agenda. We will talk about continued chaos at MSNBC as Rachel Maddow's staff is going to be laid off. And the Texas measles outbreak has surged to one hundred and twenty four. This was optional. We have a measles vaccine. It's very good. It works very well. All of those stories and more on today's bonus show. Get instant access by signing up at join Pacman dot com. Also, remember, you can get signed copies of my forthcoming book, The Echo Machine, exclusively through Brookline

Booksmith at David Pakman dot com slash booksmith. Not signed copies. Kindle version, audio book version read by me, all available everywhere that books are available. Barnes and Noble, Amazon, your local bookstore, et cetera. I will see you on the bonus show and we'll be back here with a new show tomorrow.