The David Pakman Show - 3/3/25: Trump Zelenskyy Oval Office meltdown, DOD blocks our show

Episode Date: March 3, 2025

-- On the Show: -- Reviewing the embarrassing and globally humiliating Oval Office fiasco in which Donald Trump and JD Vance yell at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy -- Brian Glenn, the boyfriend of Marjorie Taylor Greene, dresses up like a reporter and asks Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy why he isn't wearing a suit -- The Atlanta Fed predicts a GDP decline in the first quarter of 2025, suggesting growing concern over a potential Trump economic collapse -- Elon Musk appears on the Joe Rogan podcast and it does not go well -- New questions surface about Donald Trump's reading ability after Trump appears to hand a letter from King Charles back to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and asks Starmer to read it out loud -- Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard gives an interview to Fox News that is indistinguishable from the interview a Kremlin spokesperson would give -- David explains why Plato's concerns about democracy are suddenly very salient -- Donald Trump's Department of Defense appears to have blocked The David Pakman Show -- On the Bonus Show: High school graduate who can't read or write is suing, Microsoft announces Skype will close, alarms raised over Fyre Festival 2, much more... 🍵 Pique: Get 20% OFF delicious Pu’er Teas at https://piquelife.com/pakman 🥐 Wildgrain: Use code PAKMAN for $30 off & free baked goods at https://wildgrain.com/pakman 🩳 SHEATH Underwear: Code PAKMAN for 20% OFF at https://sheathunderwear.com/pakman 🪟 3 Day Blinds: Buy one get one 50% OFF at https://3dayblinds.com/pakman ✉️ StartMail: Get 50% OFF a year subscription at https://startmail.com/pakman 🍷 Naked Wines: Use code PAKMAN to get 6 bottles for $39.99 at https://nakedwines.com/pakman -- Become a Member: https://davidpakman.com/membership -- Become a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/davidpakmanshow -- Get David's Books: https://davidpakman.com/echo -- TDPS Subreddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/thedavidpakmanshow -- David on Bluesky: https://davidpakman.com/bluesky -- David on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/davidpakmanshow

Speaker 1 Speaker 3 welcome to the show. If you're hearing this clearly, you survived the weekend and what a weekend it was. We're going to talk about the oval office meeting with Trump, JD Vance and Zelensky. We are going to talk about the new GDP decline prediction from the Atlanta Fed and so much more, including this completely whacked out Tulsi interview where she seems almost like a Kremlin spokeswoman. It's really outrageous stuff. I have a very exciting announcement. I have here with me the first hardcover copy and it is it's stiff as a board. I can't even bend this thing. The first hardcover copy of my book, The Echo Machine, were just three weeks plus a day

away. It's all happening. If you would like a signed copy, David Pakman dot com slash booksmith. I'll be up at Brookline Booksmith in a couple of weeks signing books, 550 so far to be signed. Going to be quite quite a day bringing a bunch of big Trump style Sharpies. But the first hardcover book is in my hand. There's a picture of me in it, which is really crazy. But this is really exciting. Also want to say thanks. Thanks to so many of you. Last week, we went from being ranked around 120th on the top news podcasts to 60th. OK, from 120th to 60th, we are making a big push on the audio podcast. We passed Tim Pool. We passed Benny Johnson. So help

us keep it going. No matter where you listen, no matter where you watch, you can subscribe to the podcast for free on Apple podcasts and Spotify. It really helps us. And updates on ratings coming up. Very, very. We've got the strongest marks these days. It's hard to believe. All right. Listen, global shame. This is the only way that I can genuinely and honestly and frankly describe to you the completely abortive press conference in the Oval Office with Donald Trump, J.D. Vance and the Ukrainian president, Vladimir Zelensky. Now we are seeing in the reaction to this event gone wrong, completely different worldviews, because there are those who saw what I am about to play for you. Donald Trump and J.D. Vance berating and yelling at Zelensky as a a sign of strength.

This is how alphas behave. It was so great for Trump and J.P. Mandel to put Zelensky in his place. He should be more thankful. He should be praying at the altar of Trump. This is not the global interpretation. And in fact, world leaders rallying behind Zelensky after embarrassing and childish treatment of him by Trump and J.D..

So let's pick this up. This was a 50 minute event overall. Let's pick this up where it starts to get very dicey ceasefire. All of them told me that he will never go. We signed him with gas contract, gas control. Yes. But after that, he broke in this ceasefire. He killed our people and he didn't exchange prisoners. We signed the exchange of prisoners, but he didn't do it. What kind of diplomacy, J.D., you are speaking about? What do you mean?

I'm talking about the kind of diplomacy that's going to end the destruction of your country. Mr. President, with respect, I think it's disrespectful for you to come into the Oval Office to try to litigate this in front of the American media. Right now, you guys are going around and forcing conscripts to the front lines because you have manpower problems. You should be thanking the president for trying to bring it into this country. I've been to Ukraine that you say what problems we have. I have been to come one. I have actually I've actually watched and seen the stories

and I know what I've watched TV. Mr. President happens is you bring people, you bring them on a propaganda tour. Mr. President, are, do you disagree that you've had problems bringing people into your military? And do you think that it's respectful to come to the oval office of the United States of America and attack the administration that is trying to prevent the destruction of your country. A lot of questions. Let's start from the beginning. First of all, during the war, everybody has problems. Even you, but you have nice ocean and don't feel now, but you will feel it in the future. God bless. God bless. God bless. You will not have a war.

Don't tell us what we're going to feel. We're trying to solve a problem. Don't tell us what we're going to feel. I'm not telling you. Because you're in no position to dictate that. Remember that. You're in no position to dictate what we're going to feel. We're going to feel very good.

You will feel influenced. We're going to feel very good and very strong. You will feel influenced. You're right now not in a very good position. You've allowed yourself to be in a very bad position, and he happens to be right about it. You're not in a good position. You don't have the cards right now. With us, you start having cards.

Right now, you're playing cards. You're playing cards. You're gambling with the lives of millions of people. You're gambling with. You're playing cards. You're gambling with the lives of millions of people. You're gambling with World War Three. You're gambling with World War Three. Putin sitting at the Kremlin just loving this, loving this. And what you're doing is very disrespectful to the country, this country. It's back to you far more than a lot of people said they should have.

Have you said thank you once? No, you should be groveling, Mr. President, groveling on the floor. In this entire meeting, you said, thank you. You went to Pennsylvania and campaigned for the opposition in October. Offer some words of appreciation for the United States of America and the president who's trying to save your country. Please, you think that if you will speak very loudly about the war, you can... He's not speaking loudly. He's not speaking loudly.

Your country is in big trouble. Can I ask? No, no. You've done a lot of talking. Your country is in big trouble. I know. You're not winning. You're not winning this. You have a damn good chance of coming out okay because of us. Mr. President, we are staying in our country, staying strong from the very beginning of the war.

We've been alone. And we are thankful. I said thanks in this cabinet. You haven't been alone. We gave you, through your stupid president, $350 billion. We gave you military equipment. And you men are brave, but they had we gave you military equipment you and you met a brave but they had to use our military what about this if you didn't have our military equipment you invited

me to have our military equipment this war would have been over in two weeks in three days i heard it from putin in three days this is something maybe less in two weeks of course yes it's going to be a very hard thing to do business like this. I tell you, just say thank you. I said it all. Don't sign up to American. Except that there are disagreements and let's go litigate those disagreements rather than trying to fight it out of the. So anyway, you know that. If there is anything that we can say with certainty here, it's that this absolutely humiliating event drove Europe to the defense of Ukraine, pushed world leaders to say, hey, you know what? We're actually seeing this for what it is in our countries, no matter what's happening in

that Oval Office. And something very strange seems to be where all of a sudden they're on the side of the authoritarian, brutal dictator Putin. We stand with you. And this included Canada. This included the UK. This includes France. This includes our Western Democratic allies. Now, there were questions as to whether this was a planned ambush. You know, this event was 50 minutes and it went haywire during minute 45. So my instinct is, no, it wasn't a planned ambush, but this was the boiling over of a Trump administration that's extraordinarily enamored with Putin and just very skeptical of Ukraine, the defender, the aggrieved in this particular situation. We have to also acknowledge that there are people you look online in the typical enclaves of MAGA ism and you see them absolutely thrilled that someone

finally put Zelensky in his place. This guy shows up. He doesn't say thank you. He doesn't even wear a suit. And we'll get to the suit part a little bit later. And Trump and J.D. finally had the testicular fortitude to put this guy in his place. If that's your view, you are not going to be on the side of democracy when it comes to global affairs. You're going to be on the side of authoritarianism and autocracy,

dictatorship and invasions and taking things by force. That's not the side that the majority of Americans are on, fortunately. So planned ambush. If you're determined to do this, I don't think you wait until minute 45 out of a 50 minute event, especially since it's sort of related to the dynamics with with Zelensky. But was there a boiling over that was there based on emotions prior to this meeting? Yes, it does seem that way. So now the question is, it appears as though the U.S. is going to pull back in terms of support of Ukraine, at least based on how this went. It seems like our allies are mostly going to push forward and expand their support of Ukraine. What happens now with Putin, who is loving that this took place?

That's the critical question when it comes to the future of Ukraine. Marjorie Taylor Green's boyfriend dressed up as a reporter and attacked Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky because he wasn't wearing a suit and saying more generally, why don't you wear a suit? Do you own a suit? This was a particularly embarrassing video for what supposedly is a free press. This guy really doing a great job of pretending to be a reporter. But we know he's nothing other than a tool of Trumpism.

Here is the moment during the Oval Office fiasco during which Brian Glenn, the boyfriend of radical and repugnant reactionary Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, said, do you even own a second? My second questionie Taylor Greene said, do you even own a second question for President Zelensky? Do you ever why don't you wear a suit? Why don't you wear a suit? You're the highest level in this country's office and you refuse to wear a suit. Just want to see if you do own a suit.

Yeah, yeah. Problems. A lot of Americans have problems with you. I don't have such. I will wear a costume after this war will finish. Yes. Maybe maybe something like yours. Yes. Maybe some something better. I don't know. We will see. Maybe something cheaper than. Yeah. Thank you. There was some lost in translation moment here where it appeared as though Zelensky is calling what Brian Glenn is wearing a costume like C.O.S.T.U.M.E. Apparently this this was a this was a translation issue because there's a Ukrainian word which sounds almost exactly like costume.

It's spelled with a K and it means a suit. So that that little detail may have been a kind of lost in translation moment. But this is part of the we're really big and tough and we tell it like it is. Why don't you wear a suit? Now, I wonder, would Brian Glenn, had he been around earlier in the 20th century, would he have asked the same question of Winston Churchill when Winston Churchill went to the White House and as we put up the picture here for you as well, did not wear a suit because he was also at war. Would the same question have been asked?

Would Churchill have been called disrespectful by Brian Glenn? Well, the difference is that when it came to World War Two, the United States was decidedly against dictatorial autocratic authoritarianism, whereas the Trump White House, when it comes to Russia and Ukraine, seems to subtly and lately not so subtly beyond the side of the authoritarian dictatorial autocracy, which is led by Vladimir Putin. So Glenn, of course, is a pathetic lapdog for Trumpism. He goes out there and he'll do whatever needs to be done to please his handlers.

And by handlers, I don't mean the, I don't mean at whatever network he's at now. I don't even know where he is. Is he independent? Is he still at right side broadcasting? I mean the Millie, the, the cultural and social milieu of Trumpism in which he's now invited to Mar-a-Lago with Marjorie Taylor green and the whole thing. And so he's willing to go out there and ask the very stupid questions. Uh, what an embarrassing event for the United States, the world is looking, you should see the emails I've

gotten from people all over the world saying, David, we are so sorry to see the United States under Trump taking the side of the anti-democratic forces globally. And of course, if you've been following Trump, you know, he's not impressed with our Western liberal allies. He's impressed with dictators and autocrats and authoritarianism's authoritarians and a Brian Glenn doing his part to show I'm with you guys. I'm with you huge fan. Peaks Poor Tea is naturally fermented. One of our sponsors today is Peaks, who make delicious poor tea. These are absolutely delicious. I've become a huge fan. Peaks Poor Tea is naturally fermented, delivering probiotics that can support gut health and digestion. It's sourced from 250-year-old tea trees, which means it's as nutrient-dense as tea can get. I love Peaks Black Puerh tea. It's nice and bold, perfect for after

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25 minutes. Wow. If you're ready to bring all your favorite breads, pastas, and pastries right to your doorstep, check out Wild Grain. You can build your box of artisanal pastries, breads, and everything right now. And for a limited time, wild grain will give my audience $30 off your first box plus free croissants in every box. When you go to wild grain.com slash Pacman to start your subscription free croissants in every box and $30 off your first box. Go to wild grain.com slash Pacman. The link is in the podcast notes. The David Pakman show continues to be funded primarily by our audience through the membership program. I can't thank enough all of the folks who signed up at join pacman.com in February. We are now into March and I invite you to get instant access to all of the folks who signed up at join Pacman dot com in February, we are now into March

and I invite you to get instant access to all of the member benefits. This includes the bonus show, the commercial free audio and video streams, the members only soundboard and all of the other stuff that you can read about at join Pacman dot com. Also, thank you so much to everybody who has preordered my forthcoming book. We are trying to now push to 7000 preorders by March 25th. I've got the first hardcover copy here in my hands, and you can preorder it signed at David Pakman dot com slash booksmith or not signed or the audio book version or the Kindle version at Barnes and Noble, Amazon,

or any local bookstore of your choice. Well, it is happening. The GDP now model is predicting a GDP decline in Donald Trump's first quarter in office. The Atlanta Fed's GDP now model is predicting that gross domestic product in the United States will go down, not up 1.5 percent for the first quarter of 2025. That's right. Trump walks in the door and the first GDP number is now expected to be a decline. Now, I want to be fair and objective here. This forecast is not an official Fed prediction. It's based on early economic data. It could change. But here's what we do know. This very same model was predicting two point three percent growth just weeks ago. Donald Trump then took office.

Consumer spending has collapsed. Consumer confidence has declined. Exports are falling off of a cliff. Eggs are at the highest price they've ever been in the history of the United States. And now we are looking at negative growth. Now I'm scared and I'm sorry and I'm sad to say this, but this might just be the beginning. When you look at what we know, consumer spending shrank in January. That's when people are often spending holiday bonuses they received or gift money.

But this year, down 0.2 percent. And after adjusting for inflation, consumer spending down 0.5 percent. That is a brutal indicator of economic confidence. Secondly, exports, as I mentioned, exports are dragging down the GDP projections from a slightly negative contribution of minus 0.4 percent to a disastrous minus 3.7 percent. The effect of exports on GDP, the labor market is starting to soften. Unemployment claims have now hit their highest level since October. The bond market is flashing recession warnings with a inverted yield curve, historically

one of the most reliable indicators that something not so good is coming. And while all of this is happening, what is Donald Trump doing? Is he putting together a coherent economic strategy? No, of course not. He's screaming about retribution. He's scolding and yelling at President Zelensky. He's threatening journalists. He's working on these mass deportations that will further destabilize the economy. And he is playing a hell of a lot of golf. And just understand, MAGA will not take responsibility for this.

If we go into a recession, if unemployment spikes, if businesses start closing, do you know who they're going to blame? It's not going to be Trump. It's not going to be their own disastrous economic policies. It'll be Biden's fault. It'll be the fault of immigrants. It'll be the fault of corporations that went woke or of D E I C R T. Maybe they will rehabilitate. Trump inherited an economy with significantly cooled inflation, steady job growth, right?

You don't, you don't have to believe everything was perfect on January 20th. As I have told you, we look at the indicators. It's not mind blowing, but the Biden numbers were pretty good wages rising in excess of inflation. And we're starting to see the cracks, jittery markets, businesses that say, man, the tariffs will determine what I should be doing. Complete and total uncertainty, I guess, will wait also. And now just dropping this hammer of the expectation of negative one point five percent GDP growth. Remember, we were told that Trump's policies would be so pro growth that it doesn't matter if they cost money. It doesn't matter if the tax cuts for the rich and corporations that are now being pushed

are going to be revenue negative because they will stimulate the economy so much that GDP will go up and revenue is going to then increase. That's not the prediction of the Atlanta Fed. Now, let me address one other aspect to this. And I think this is sadly, I may have to do this a number of times. I continue to get emails from people saying, David, you seem delighted at the economic misery that may be forthcoming. I am not rooting for this much the opposite. Call me self-centered and greedy. I don't want to be logging into my mutual fund account, my retirement account, my daughter's

five twenty nine and seeing a bloodbath. So this is not political. We are reporting the facts as we get them. I gave you the economic indicators on January 20th. We gave it a month, just like I said, we would. I gave you the economic indicators a month later. It was, I think March 20th, maybe it was a weekender in any case around March 22nd or 23rd. I reported to you, here's what the economic indicators did in their first month. Some of these are completely flat. Some of these are starting to look not so good.

I am not rooting for this. I am rooting for the opposite. I would like the country to do well under Trump because what's most important to me is not Trump's legacy, but what is the state of suffering or thriving of the average American? And it gives me no pleasure to report to you that this GDP expectation has now done a complete and total 180. I hope it's wrong.

Like I said, this is just a prediction which could be wrong or it may change. And that's what I'm hoping for. But right now it is not looking so good. Elon Musk suffered a total collapse on the Joe Rogan podcast. The topic of the Nazi salute came up. The topic of Social Security came up. The topic of Elon being assassinated came up. And this is about as bad as you could imagine it being. Let's start with Joe Rogan saying, how could it be that you buy Twitter for billions and then people call you a Nazi? And Elon explains he is definitely not a Nazi. When you're going through all this USA stuff. Yeah. Like here's what's weird.

First of all, what is it like to buy a company for $44 billion and then people call you a Nazi on that same thing that you bought? I did not see it coming. Isn't that funny? It's classic. So funny.

Rogan's just in stitches. People will gobble anything down. Oh, he's never gonna stop what um what is it like like all this like people used to the left was in love with you yeah and now the same idiots are calling you a nazi it's the most bizarre thing i've ever seen in my life you know one of the things they they love talking about is people used to think one thing about you and now they've changed what they think. And that's crazy. But sometimes the opinions of people change based on what the person does. Elon used to be this sort of doofusy, awkward kind of antisocial tech guy who dramatically accelerated electric

vehicles by his actions at Tesla and so on and so forth. And so we saw him as a kind of benign guy who was doing some good things. Now, all of a sudden he's wrapped up in political extremism. He's getting involved in all sorts of, you know, he said something about how his son died because of the woke mind virus. All this crazy stuff. And so, yes, it is a different Elon Musk. So people's opinion of him have changed. That's not crazy. I mean, there's so many examples of people saying my heart goes out to you. A little enthusiasm that probably wouldn't be recommended with hindsight.

Yes. But I was obviously meant in the most positive spirit possible. Yes. Yeah, obviously. Obviously. But it's so strange where people want to think that you are openly public, publicly doing secret Nazi, seagull hand motion. It's openly, publicly, secretly. Openly, publicly, secretly.

And now I can never point at things diagonally. I can only point at things there and there. And then I see you have to divide that. Yeah. Because that's where the spaceship is over there. It's ridiculous. It's ridiculous. It's ridiculous. CNN, when I was in all my trouble.

It's absurd. Every time CNN used a photo of me, it was one of the photos from the UFC weigh-ins where I go like this. Welcome to the weigh-ins. So every photo is me. Every photo is me. It's absurd. It's so crazy. It's deliberate propaganda.

Yes. So they know it was not it was obviously not meant uh it in a negative way that it was that i'd literally said my heart goes out to you and it was very positive the entire speech was all right so it's all cool but then more substantively elon drops this bomb about how social security is a ponzi scheme listen to what he had to say. I mean, the government's one big permit scheme, if you ask me. Yeah, well, you can tell me better than anybody.

Social Security is the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time. Right, explain that. Oh, so, well, people pay into Social Security and the money goes out of Social Security immediately, but the obligation for Social Security is your entire retirement career. Oh, boy. So you're paying – you're paying – like if you look at the future obligations of Social Security, it far exceeds the tax revenue. Far.

Have you ever looked at the debt, the debt. Elon is so incoherently explaining this that I'm just going to take over. So so he says Social Security is a Ponzi scheme because the money that's paid in by the people still working immediately comes out. Now, a Ponzi scheme would be there's really no money invested. OK, so the way a Ponzi scheme works would be investor number no money invested. OK, so the way a Ponzi scheme works would be investor number one invests a million dollars and you think that it's invested in a mutual fund, for example, and it's not right. Just like the people running this fund are just taking the money. The next person comes in and invests two million dollars. And then when the

first investor wants to pull their money out, their supposed earnings come out of that two million dollars that the second investor put in. But there's never really any underlying investments like it eventually collapses when there aren't enough new investors to pay the returns. That's a Ponzi scheme. It's it's a very defined type of scam. Social Security is a pay as you go system. So that's what Elon is kind of getting at here. Current workers pay into it and that funds benefits for current retirees. It's not it's

not a Ponzi scheme. It's not designed to generate profits. It's just a system based on the full faith and credit of the U.S. government. The U. The US government has the authority to tax it as the authority to borrow. It's not a secret that it's pay as you go. Social Security is designed to be self-sustaining over time. Now, the issue we are coming up against is that as more people retire, if you have more retirees relative to workers, you can have an insolvent or partially insolvent Social Security trust fund right now if nothing is done right. This is this is if you do nothing. The trust fund would be depleted in the mid 2030s. That's if you make no changes, but it would still be able to meet 75 to 80 percent of

scheduled benefits. So it would be depleted in terms in terms of accumulated money. But everybody would still be able to get 80 percent of their promised benefits. It's not a collapse. It's just a shortfall. Now with some small adjustments, we've talked about a slight raise to the cap. There's a bunch of different ways to do it. You solve the problem.

That's not a Ponzi scheme. It's the system as designed with a growing imbalance of workers to retirees, which needs to be addressed, not the Ponzi scheme that Elon makes it out to be. Now, at another moment during this interview, they spoke to Grok. Grok is the Twitter AI chat bot sort of version of chat GPT. Very funny stuff. No, she's just a pain in my ass. Yes. Yes. Isn't that funny? It's just it's a really, really funny stuff. And finally, Elon Musk says some of the stuff he's up to, some of the stuff he's talking about, it could get him assassinated. And what other methods?

I mean, this is really going to get me assassinated. It's like I'm not lengthening my lifespan by explaining this stuff, to say the least. I mean, I was supposed to go back to dc how am i going to survive this book is going to kill me for sure um so um in fact i i do think like this it's like i actually have to be careful that i don't push too hard on the corruption stuff because it's going to get me killed. Right. If he really this is why he won't be able to root out corruption because he's ready to do it. He's ready to do it, but they'll kill him. You know. Yeah. You know, it's all right. Anyway, the the fact that this guy is arguably the most powerful person in American government

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Can Donald Trump read? This is the question that people have been asking since Donald Trump was handed a letter from King Charles by British prime minister Keir Starmer and handed it back asking Starmer to read it out loud. Now, if this sounds familiar, it's because everything old is new again. You might remember back from Donald Trump's first term, my giga viral video. Oh, does Donald Trump know how to read? And in that video, we looked at widespread evidence that Donald Trump, while not literally illiterate, maybe functionally illiterate, struggling

to read and partially may simply be too vain to wear the reading glasses that he appears to need. Another reason why he tries to avoid reading off of papers in public. Now there is a new video that is once again raising concerns about this. In this video you will see Trump sort of act like he's reading this letter from King Charles, but he doesn't address anything in the letter. He hands it back and asks Starmer, tell us what is in this letter. Once again, raising the specter that this guy has very limited reading ability. It's my pleasure to bring from His Majesty the King a letter.

He sends his best wishes and his regards, of course, but he also asked me to bear this letter and bring it to you. So can I present the letter from the King to you? Thank you very much. Am I supposed to read it right now? Yeah, please do. I will do. I've got to tell him what your reaction is.

I need to know. He's a great gentleman. A great, great gentleman. Oh, that's... Well, that is really nice. I must make sure his signature's on that. Otherwise, it's not quite as meaningful. It is, and that's quite a signature, isn't it? Beautiful.

He's a beautiful man, a wonderful man. And we appreciate it. I've known him, gotten to know him very well, actually. First term and now second term. Perhaps you'd like to say what that very important paragraph. Yes. Please tell us what it says. This is a letter from His Majesty the King. It's an invitation for a second state visit. This is really special. This has never happened before. This is unprecedented. And I think that just symbolizes the strength of the relationship between us. So this is a very special letter. I think the last state visit was a tremendous success. His Majesty, the king wants to make this even. All right. So you get it. And this just won't go

away because it's always weird when Trump is handed stuff to read. Now, you may recall this Pete Davidson story. Pete Davidson from Saturday Night Live has gone on record saying that the guy can't read. I have one story I'm allowed to tell and it's hilarious. You're allowed to tell? What happened with the Trump story? Okay, so he's like, he doesn't really know how to read.

For real. Yeah, and he loves to improv. So during the table read, he like, before we were going to read each, before he had to read each line, and he's the host so he's at everything, he, like, before we were going to read each, before he had to read each line, and he's the host, so he's at everything. He would go, I'm not going to say this. I think I'm going to say it the way I want to say it.

Is that okay? Is that okay, Lauren? Is everything? And everybody's like, what? And then this is my favorite part is there was a sketch that we wrote where he's at Disneyland with his daughter. And the line is, all right, let's get out of here turkey legs like let's like go get turkey legs and he doesn't know how to read so he went all right let's get out of here turkey legs he called his daughter turkey legs maybe that was his improv oh no it no, it wasn't. And then he looked

at like he doesn't get it. Like he thinks if everybody's laughing with him, but we're all laughing at him. And it was like. So anyway, I don't know what's going on with Trump's reading. It's not a new story. It just won't go away. And every opportunity, it seems like he's struggling. Now, I'm going to be totally frank with you. He may just need reading glasses and he doesn't like the way he looks with them. So he's looking at blurry words on the page that it could be that simple. But with Trump, you just never know. And once again, can the guy read? I don't know. Tulsi Gabbard, the new director of national intelligence gag went full Kremlin spokeswoman during a Fox News interview yesterday.

How truly humiliating for the United States. Sounding very much like Dimitri Peskov, a Putin propagandist, Tulsi accuses Zelensky of escalating. He should have not escalated and just let Putin take what he wants, help himself to whatever. What happened in the White House after close to an hour of conversation when President Zelensky directly challenged President Trump and Vice President Vance in front of the media and the American people. He really showed his lack of interest in any real good faith negotiations. This is the pro Putin reaction to what happened in the Oval Office. Zelensky was rude. Zelensky caused an exclamation, uh, escalation

rather he's part of the problem. And meanwhile, very calm, very demure Vladimir Putin just says, let's get together and chat. Putin's being the adult and Zelensky is being like this escalating little kid thrown tantrum. I can tell you there were a lot of conversations that were happening through different emissaries, both for Zelensky and for President Trump, leading up to his visit there to the Oval Office. And President Zelensky's immediate escalation there was frankly quite a surprise. This has created a huge rift in the relationship. President Zelensky, as you pointed out in the clips that you played, doesn't believe that that he did anything wrong and that there was no issue with what he brought up in the Oval Office with President Trump. There's there's going to have to be a rebuilding of any kind of interest in good faith negotiations. I think the idea that

Putin and Trump will be doing the good faith negotiations with no problem, but Zelensky is going to have to be a good boy and he's going to have to help rebuild before any good. It is just a laughable perspective. Now, there was another moment during this interview where there was a very simple opportunity to criticize Putin for his aggression and for his invasion. And Tulsi just pivots to instead attacking President Zelensky. Also, that is a freaking predator right there. More alignment. And they should be with the US when it comes to those freedoms and things you talk about. Certainly those are not things that you would say that Russia or Putin celebrates or bestows on his own people. That's correct.

I would not make that claim, and it's clear that that's not the case, nor does President Trump. But that's not really what we're talking about here. We're talking about many of these European countries, and Zelensky himself, who claimed to be standing and fighting for the cause of freedom and democracy, when we actually look at what's happening in reality in these countries, as well as with Zelensky's government in Ukraine, is the exact opposite. You have the canceling of

elections in Ukraine. You have political parties being silenced or even criminalized or thrown in prison. You have the freedom of religion, churches being shut down. You have political opposition being silenced. You have total government control of the media. Now just about everything she points to there is happening in Russia far more heavy handedly and thanks to Putin. Now some of what she says is taking place in Ukraine. For example, elections are suspended in Ukraine during times of war. I don't like that. I think that it would be good to have elections anyway. We did it in

the United States during the Iraq war. Okay. I don't like it, but Zelensky didn't come up with that. That is part of Ukrainian law. This subjugation of media control, that that's what's happening in Russia. And there seems to be just an unwillingness to, uh, to hold both countries to the same standard, even when it is clear that one country, Russia is the aggressor here. Now finally in this interview moments after being shown polling that shows most of the American people don't really like Trump's cozying up to Putin. Tulsi goes, Oh no, no, no. Americans are celebrating what Trump is doing.

Dimitri Peskov saying what the U.S. is doing is changing the game and it largely coincides with our vision. What do you make of Russia celebrating and saying what the U.S. is doing lines up with their vision? They're going to say what their position is. What we should pay attention to here in the united states of america is the american people uh so many people across the country celebrating the strong leadership that president trump and vice president vance demonstrated in the oval office

something we have not seen over the last four years of the biden administration we finally have a president who's going to stand up strongly and fiercely and unwaveringly for the cause of peace and freedom for the American people. How heroic, how heroic, despite the fact that the American people don't like Trump's cozying up to Putin, taking, giving him the benefit of the doubt and attacking president's Alensky. Despite that, it was so strong what JD and Donald did in that oval office. And she absolutely loves it. My how far Tulsi Gabbard has fallen and you know, like her or hate her. Hillary Clinton was right about Tulsi and a lot of people didn't want to hear it years

ago, but at the end of the day, she was completely correct. show you ads, even your most personal communications. That's why I recommend you check out start mail. Unlike free email services, our sponsor start mail never scans or tracks your emails. It also blocks tracking pixels, which companies and hackers use to capture your IP address. And when you delete an email and start mail, it is gone forever, keeping your information private. Start mail allows you to create unlimited email aliases, protecting your identity and reducing Thank you, David. That's about two dollars a month for a personal plan or about three dollars a month for a business plan. Plus, get 25 percent off additional accounts for team members. That's S.T.A.R.T.

Mail dot com slash Pacman for 50 percent off. The link is in the podcast notes. Ever walk into a store and have absolutely no idea what wine to get? It happens to me every single time because I don't know anything about wine, which is why I love our sponsor, Naked Wines. Naked Wines is a subscription service that just connects you directly to the world's finest independent winemakers. So you can get award winning wine delivered straight to your door with my code Pacman.

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maybe Plato was onto something. Maybe letting ignorant clowns decide how we run our country is a bad idea. Now, before the MAGA people start flipping out, I'm not actually calling for the suspension of democracy the way they did multiple times. I am pro-, but this is sort of a thought experiment. And I do find myself feeling like Plato did. Now, I'm not saying let's put in some dictator or philosopher king. I am saying Plato's biggest fear about democracy is playing out in real time right now in the United States. What Plato said was that unchecked democracy will eventually fail under its own stupidity or the stupidity of the average voter. If you let everyone vote as we do in democracies, at least supposedly, if you're uninformed, if you're detached from reality,

you're still allowed to vote. And when that's the case, eventually the loudest and the most shameless liars will win. The ignorant will end up in charge. And what are we seeing today? We're seeing a con man reality TV show host with dozens of felony charges as president of the United States. We're seeing the guy who bragged about I'm going to be a dictator on day one is the president. We're seeing the guy who bragged about I'm going to be a dictator on day one is the president. We're seeing the guy who gives unqualified friends and family jobs be the president. The guy who yells at the Ukrainian president while kowtowing to the Russian dictator is the president.

And this is really not about left and right. This is simply about whether facts, logic and basic reality can survive when millions of people prefer entertaining nonsense over the truth. And MAGA is the sort of final boss of entertaining nonsense. It's really Plato's nightmare. Now, democracy assumes an informed electorate. It assumes that people will act in their own best interests. But what happens when a significant chunk of voters are so propagandized to so ignorant and so detached from reality that they can't even recognize a scam or what's truly in their best interests?

What happens when they actively vote for their own destruction? Maga voters cheer when Trump says he wants to gut social security because of fraud. They applaud when Trump brags about giving tax cuts to billionaires while those they're struggling to afford groceries because it's going to be pro growth and great for everybody. They chant his name when he calls for shutting down the government programs that they depend on. They pray at the altar of Trump when he proposes tariffs that they are going to end up paying for.

So maybe Plato had a point because Plato warned that democracy left to its own devices eventually will elect the worst among us and that if enough voters reject expertise and reject reason and choose leaders based on who yells the loudest, democracy is going to eat itself. And here we are. So what do we do? What we don't do is we don't sit back and kind of wait for a magic genie to fix it all. We need to stop treating ignorant propagandized voters like an unfortunate side effect of democracy and say this is an existential crisis. This is not the way democracy was supposed to work because if Plato was correct and democracy is doomed to collapse under the weight of its own stupidity, the only

real way forward is to fight like hell for an informed democracy. If we still believe that for all of its failings, democracy is the best system we've come up with. I tend to still believe that it is. And so I want to be clear that I'm not actually calling for the suspension of democracy. What I am pointing out is that when the population, when the electorate gets as painfully ignorant and uninformed, and it's so easy to bamboozle as we are seeing here in the United States, we end up with really unqualified, dangerous people in power. And once you open that door, once the genie is out of the bottle to stick with that,

um, it's extraordinarily difficult to get it back in. And that's what we are seeing. I mean, as I, as, as we started the show today and I said, you know, most of the world sees the office fiasco with Trump, JD and Zelensky as embarrassing for the United States. Most of the world has said, oh, wow, the U.S. is really going full dictator and saying the dictator who invaded is the guy we should defer to. And the democratically elected president who's defending his country needs to be berated and yelled at in the Oval Office. Most of the world said we should come to the defense of Zelensky here. Here in the United States, a lot of MAGA saw that and said, good for Trump and J.D. for being tough. Now, I didn't mention this earlier, and it does bear mentioning. I don't know how many of you noticed Secretary of State Marco Rubio sitting next to J.D. during that. You can't always know

what people are thinking from how they look. But by all accounts, Marco Rubio looked disgusted with what was going on. He seemed disgusted with the way that Trump and J.P. Mandel were treating Vladimir Zelensky. And so my suspicion is and I'm going to talk to some Republicans kind of off the record this week. My suspicion is that a large share of the Republican Party right now did not like that and were not impressed and are not impressed with the way in which Tulsi and Trump and J.D. and others are more and more kind of favoring Putin. We will see. It is starting.

The Trump Department of Defense has blocked the David Pakman show on all of their computers, but other right wing commentary websites are allowed. This is yet another reason to believe that just as I was recently warned by some lawyers, expect this administration to come after independent progressive media. Now I got an email from a viewer and this viewer, um, is an active duty service member. And by the way, thank you for your service. This viewer wrote to me and explained what is going on and said, quote, Hey there, David Pakman, sir, I am an active duty service member and very proud subscriber to your program. And I tried accessing your website from work today.

I was very surprised to see that your website is blocked on our department of defense network. Take a look at the attached screenshot. Interestingly, conservative websites like American conservative and Hot Air are not blocked, even though they should also fall under streaming media philosophy and political advocacy. Thankfully, we can still access your YouTube channel. Thanks for everything you do. That's right. My website, The David Pakman Show, is apparently too dangerous for the brave men and women defending our country. Here he is trying to access it. But as you can see, blocked, you know what isn't blocked? Right wing sites like

the American conservative right wing sites like hot air. So let's step back here for a second and talk about what's going on. The Defense Department claims that this is about restricting access to streaming media philosophy and political advocacy. OK, so does right wing propaganda not count as political advocacy? Now I'll be up front. I don't know if this was a deliberate choice by the Trump era holdovers or people at DOD? Is it an algorithmic decision? Is it a board I.T. guy playing favorites?

I don't know. But what I do know is that the conservative content pipeline is alive and well in our military military because we've been hearing for years about how right wing content, whether it's Fox News blaring in the mess halls or extremist YouTube channels filling recommendations feeds. It is dominating, dominating military culture. And before some mega keyboard warrior says, well, just watch David on YouTube if that's what you want. Yeah, luckily, YouTube is still accessible.

But that's not the point. The point is that if this were happening in reverse, if Breitbart were blocked, but you could access David Pakman dot com from DOD computers, Republicans would be melting down on Fox News right now about woke censorship and left wing propaganda. So what do we need to do? First of all, this needs to get attention. I want to hear from other members of the military. Have you seen similar issues?

What other websites are blocked? What other websites aren't blocked? I would love to get more information. Secondly, we must support the independent shows that it is now clear the Trump administration is going to target however they can. It costs nothing to subscribe to our YouTube channel. It costs nothing to subscribe to the podcast on Apple podcasts and Spotify and to leave a review. Now, of course, shows like ours do have memberships. Doesn't have to be this one

support, whatever show you want to financially. It's an option to support us. But at the end of the day, this is about information access. And if a sitting president can push disinformation and an ex president can demand military tribunals for his enemies and a former general can suggest coups, then maybe we do need to be more worried about this than just what my website being blocked signals and realize that there is a building. Whoa. website being blocked signals and realize that there is a building, whoa, there is a, uh, sort of building consensus here for this sort of bias and lack of objectivity. And we need to keep a

very close eye on it. So it doesn't have to be this show that you support, but understand that independent progressive media right now really needs your support. If it's helping us get to 3 million YouTube subscribers, great. If it's helping some smaller show get to a hundred thousand YouTube subscribers or get their first hundred reviews on Apple podcasts, the bigger the ecosystem is, the better position we will all be to come to our shared defense, sort of like NATO. Uh, if, and when the, you you know what starts to hit the fan, which quite frankly seems to already be happening. Now, on today's bonus show, we are going to talk about a high school graduate who doesn't know how to read or write, and she's suing, saying she is the victim. Secondly, Skype is going away. Microsoft says Skype will close down. And finally,

the fire festival seems to be back. Fire Festival two. It's not clear it really exists. It's a wacky situation. Get instant access to the bonus show by signing up at join Pacman dot com. Remember, you can preorder my book out in just three weeks. The Echo Machine, anywhere you want on the back. Beautiful blurbs from Brian Tyler Cohen, from Barbara McQuaid, from our friend Ben Mizellus, from the Midas Touch Network. There is a picture. It is not, strictly speaking, a picture book, but it's mostly words. But if people you know only do picture books,

there is one picture in the book and a couple of charts. Uh, if you want a signed copy, you go to davidpacman.com slash booksmith or go to davidpacman.com slash echo, or you can get the Kindle version. You can get the audio book, the whole thing. I will see you on the bonus show. We've got a whole week of shows and I will be live for the state of the union address tomorrow evening. I hope you will join me starting at 8 p.m. Eastern, 5 p.m. Pacific, YouTube, Twitch, Facebook, live for the state of the union interviews, all sorts of stuff see you then