The David Pakman Show - 5/19/25: Biden has cancer, Trump threatens Bruce Springsteen

Episode Date: May 19, 2025

-- On the Show: — Joe Biden diagnosed with aggressive metastatic prostate cancer, MAGA immediately floods the internet with conspiracy theories — Audio from Biden’s deposition leaks, right-wing media erupts with claims of dementia based on five selective minutes — Trump delivers rambling, incoherent speech in Qatar about drones, trees, groceries, and imaginary lumberjack tournaments — Conservative lawyer John Yoo says Trump’s plan to suspend habeas corpus would be stronger grounds for impeachment than either of the first two — Mike Pence criticizes Trump’s tariffs, gifts from Qatar, and violations of the Emoluments Clause — Trump lashes out at Bruce Springsteen for criticizing him abroad and suggests there could be consequences when he returns — Trump stumbles through a Fox News interview, calls nuclear weapons “the N-word,” brags about oil quality, and defends accepting a $400 million jet — Trump spirals on Truth Social with posts about the Autopen, Walmart, and rigged elections -- On the Bonus Show: Mexican ship crashes into Brooklyn Bridge, Trump DOJ considers making it easier to indict members of Congress, more than 2,000 Starbucks baristas strike over new dress code, much more... 💰 Kikoff helps you build your credit! Get your first month for $1 at https://getkikoff.com/pakman 🛌 Helix Sleep mattresses: Get 27% OFF sitewide at https://helixsleep.com/pakman 🛡️ Incogni lets you control your personal data! Get 60% off their annual plan: http://incogni.com/pakman 🥦 Lumen lets you master your metabolism. GET 15% OFF at https://lumen.me/pakman 💼 Odoo: Try it completely FREE for 14 days (no credit card needed) at https://odoo.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

Welcome to the show. The news broke yesterday that former President Joe Biden has been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer that has already metastasized to his bones. It is what's called a Gleason nine grade group five. That is very serious as far as prostate cancer goes. And immediately this has generated some very extreme conspiracy theories from the MAGA. Right. Let's discuss the diagnosis. Let's discuss the allegations and really just figure out what do we have evidence for at this point in time. So according to the statement put out by the former president's office, Joe Biden's prostate

cancer has already spread to his bones. It is believed to be hormone sensitive, meaning that there is the hope that with treatment it can be managed. And right on cue, the MAGA conspiracy machine has kicked into overdrive. Now, before we get to that, Donald Trump putting out a statement that was mildly normal. OK, Trump putting out a statement on Truth Central that says, quote, Melania and I are saddened to hear about Joe Biden's recent medical diagnosis. We extend our warmest and best wishes to Jill and the family. And we wish Joe a fast and successful recovery. Did Trump write it? Nobody knows, but at least it was published

and it's sort of normal. But but but they are already flooding social media with the claim that this all proves that Joe Biden's been secretly sick for a long time, that Democrats knew about this prostate cancer for a while, that it was covered up even during the 2024 election. An example from Donald Trump Jr., one of the most vile and disgusting MAGA characters there is, who said, what I want to know is how did Dr. Jill Biden miss stage five metastatic cancer or is this yet another cover up? So let's discuss what's being alleged. The allegation here is that all of this was part of a plot to pass the presidency to Kamala Harris and then throw the election on purpose, that it was known that Biden was sick, but it was covered up. Here's the thing. None of this is backed by evidence. I spoke to a urologist friend yesterday. What we know is that men over 75 are typically not routinely screened for PSA. You're you're the blood test that would be normal under four for prostate cancer screening unless you have symptoms or a family

history. The reason being that the PSA result alone in those over 75 can be not particularly useful and sort of send you down a garden path of testing that may not really be in the best interest of the patient. So the allegation is there's no way that everything was completely normal a year ago and suddenly he's got metastasized prostate cancer. Well, first of all, it's not even clear that Biden was getting his PSA checked because he's over 75. Now, do you check the PSA of a 75, 80 year old because he's president, even though it wouldn't normally be indicated? Maybe. But we don't have information about that at the moment. Biden's in his 80s.

No known family history of prostate cancer. Gleason nine prostate cancer is less common. It's very aggressive. And by virtue of being very aggressive, it can go from relatively undetectable to metastasized in months, not years. So that all is possible. And that's what makes it so dangerous. Now, if you're asking a different question, if you're saying, is it possible, is it possible that he had a high PSA a while ago and had already been tested and the White House

knew and maybe Biden had already started treatment while he was in office and it was all covered up. It's possible. We have no evidence of that at this point in time. There's also no evidence that the diagnosis was hidden. There's no there's no evidence of any of that. And so the allegation that MAGA is jumping to, which is there's no way prostate cancer gets this bad this quickly. Therefore, he clearly has had prostate cancer at least since he was president, if not for years, and it was covered up. There is simply not a shred of evidence to support that. Now, if evidence were to come forward, that would be a different story. But where I found my mind going is what happened to this country, especially if you're younger, you might not remember that there was a time where political

parties had disagreements over policy, but they wouldn't sink to this level of low. We now have a party that has no policy, the Republican Party, and things have gone so haywire that we have this tribalistic idiocy and mudslinging on this disgusting level. And it seems as though the election of Barack Obama was an inflection point where the right started swimming in overtly gutter politics. And it's really escalated every single year since. So that's what we know about Joe Biden's prostate cancer. We wish him the best. His family is evaluating treatment options. There are options. And now the question is to see to what degree these options will work for him, a decision

that he and his family will, of course, make in the midst of the Joe Biden cancer diagnosis. The Biden dimension narrative has just gotten its biggest boost yet. Audio from Joe Biden's classified documents interview has been published and the MAGA crowd is absolutely losing it. This is Joe Biden's interview with special counsel Robert Hurd. This is what a lot of people have been waiting for, expecting this to show that Biden didn't even know what year it was. He didn't know anything. And predictably, based on four and a half minutes of audio, the right wing outrage machine is having a complete and total meltdown.

They are saying these clips show Biden can't recall any details. He can't recall any dates. And now the headlines are flying around. Proof of dementia, unfit to serve. Biden was disabled. MAGA influencers are sort of acting like they've uncovered, you know, the Zapruder film of cognitive decline. Now, I'm going to be very upfront with you, as I always am. I've already said for a long time that Joe Biden shouldn't have run for reelection. I said it all along politically. And then on the decline issue, I came to that conclusion after his June

27th debate performance, which was a disaster. Biden had obviously declined. Now, this audio with this audio sounds like to me, frankly, is someone being extremely cautious in a legal interview, maybe even to the point of being dishonest. Now, we'll talk about whether dishonesty or cognitive decline or worse. But before we even dive into this audio, understand that Biden sat with Robert Herr for six hours of interviews. What has been selectively released are about four and a half minutes. So at the top level, understand that you're getting a carefully curated four and a half minutes out of six hours. Now, let me lay it all out. We're going to listen to some of the audio and then you tell me whether you agree with my assessment or

you disagree. But first, let's listen to during this time, we were living in Chambers Road and there were documents related to the Penn-Biden Center or the Biden cancer center shot or your book. Where did you keep papers that related to those things that you were actively working on? Well, I don't know. This is what, 2017, 18, that period? Yes, sir. Remember, in this time frame, my son has either been deployed or is dying. And so it was... And by the way, there were still a lot of people at the time when I got out of the Senate that were encouraging me to run in this period, except the president.

I'm not, they're not mean things. I mean, he just thought that she had a better shot of winning the presidency than I did. And so I hadn't, I hadn't at this point, even though I'm at Penn, I hadn't walked away from the idea that I might run for office again. If I ran again, I'd be running for president. And so what was happening though, died in May 2015. I'm not sure the months are, but I think that was him. That's right, Mr. President. And what's happened in the meantime is that Trump gets elected in November of 2017. 2016.

16, 2016. All right. So, what about 2017? That's when you left office, January of 2017. Okay. That's when you left office in January. So that's like a that's like a smoking gun moment they're talking about where Biden seems confused about actually the election was 2017 rather than 2016. Biden clearly referring to a document and saying, why does this refer to 2017?

And of course, that's referring to the inauguration of Trump. Okay. So is this video evidence of the guy with the best memory? No, it's not. This is a guy being questioned by a special prosecutor in an investigation about classified documents. What lawyers typically tell people in this situation is don't speculate, don't elaborate, don't recall anything you don't have to. And if

you're unsure, you say, I don't remember. Now, we all know that in a trial setting, especially under oath, repeatedly saying, I don't remember, I don't recall, it can become a huge liability. If the opposing attorney knows what they're doing, just relying on I don't remember when you do can be a real problem because that can be weaponized by a skilled prosecutor and the evasiveness will paint you as dishonest or incompetent or sometimes both. They box you in. They find contradictions.

They bring out documents, timelines, other witnesses to expose your selective memory. If you suddenly remember something later that you said you didn't remember, then it looks like you're lying. If you stick to I don't recall, it starts to sound implausible. So we know that in front of a jury, this stuff can backfire in a closed door interview where cautious vagueness is sort of the norm. I don't particularly find the, I don't recall stuff to be evidence of cognitive decline. Maybe it is, but I don't in this context look at it and say, I can tell that that's cognitive decline rather than legal strategy.

He was there to avoid being indicted. And ultimately that worked. Now, if you want to argue, David, if he's just relying on, I don't recall for legal reasons, dishonestly, I think that's worse than cognitive decline. Maybe you're right, but that's not the issue that Maga is making out of this. So I think it's important to say a few things of the six hours they've cobbled together, four and a half minutes that are the absolute worst four and a half minutes.

And the outrage feels a little selective, right? I mean, Donald Trump's out there mixing up names, calling fictional terrorists, very nice guys saying Hitler gave a speech at the Eiffel Tower. Can you it's all it's all nuts. So the outrage is selective. But Biden being cautious in a legal interview is the end of democracy based on the worst four minutes out of six hours that you can pull. I don't know. I don't know. I mean, listen, he obviously declined. I said after the debate, I don't think that he's going to be able to stay in this thing.

I still think Biden shouldn't have run to begin with. All of that. This audio for me, it's just not the bombshell that they have determined that it is not even close. If anything, it's just more proof that in modern politics, how something looks matters way more than what it actually means. And MAGA is betting everything on that illusion because they can't win on reality. Now, in the midst of this, we now have the we have the Joe Biden prostate cancer diagnosis that has sucked up a bunch of the energy around this. But the four and a half minutes, it's not awesome. I don't listen to it and go, this is the most with it person in the world. But as the smoking gun that they've been saying for years now that it is falls a little flat

for me. My wrong. I want to hear from you. Info at David Pakman dot com. Let me know what you think. You know, no matter how fast time seems to be flying by, it is never too late to make some progress. If you're saving for a big purchase like a home or a car and you need to build credit, kickoff can help. They are the number one credit building app in the app

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Go to Helix Sleep Dotcom slash Pacman to check it out. The link is in the description. The David Pakman Show is, of course, an audience supported program. Our primary funding source is the membership program. You can read about it, sign up and instantly get all of the great member benefits at join Pakman dot com. Every day we do an extra show called The Bonus Show. Oh, the bonus show where you want to make money. Everybody else that makes money to fund themselves is bad. Making a little

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nonsensical speech that had nothing to do with foreign policy. And it really had everything to do with whether he's still mentally capable of doing the job in Qatar. Trump was supposed to lead a diplomatic roundtable. And instead, he went on a 25 minute rant that left people wondering, does Trump even know what he's talking about? Does he even know where he is? A few of the moments at one point, Trump started talking about drones circling you with fire and trees falling over and hiding behind them. Then he launched into this long winded detour about Sean Duffy, who Trump said wrongly

said runs the Department of this or that and says Duffy was a tree climber. I mean, just incoherent stuff. When you look at what's happening with Russia and Ukraine, the drone is killing tremendous numbers of people. You hide behind a tree and the drone comes down and it circles you with with fire. You don't have a chance. The tree comes down also, by the way. It's so intense that I mean, you see these trees being knocked down like like they're being sawed down by a top of the line timberman like like, you know who, Sean Duffy, you know, that Sean Duffy, the head of the Transportation Department, who's working right now in the airports and getting a system because Biden didn't do a thing.

Totally lost. These are these are non sequiturs. This is complete freeform thinking. It's just completely it's nowhere. And there was more of this continuing to sort of raise the alarm a little bit more each time. What is this guy talking about? Going to be given that out pretty soon.

But but what people don't know about Sean, because I mentioned lumberjacks, that Sean, you probably didn't know this, that I'm not talking about this. This is a different Sean. Sean Duffy, the head of transportation. He's a great Sean, though, I have to tell you. But Sean Duffy was the world champion for five years, climbing trees and down, up and down, world champion. So that's what you call a serious lumberjack. And he's doing a fantastic job, too.

Really respected guy and terrific guy. And I mentioned the champion because when somebody is a champion, he's the world champion for a long time. He came down when you come down those trees coming down at a rapid, he said that started getting you back. You will often break your back. Anyway, so I'll stop this one just because it just goes on and on and on. At another moment during the trip, this in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, this weird groceries thing.

And again, people look around and they go, what is he talking about? Jobs, because to me, the most important jobs, I want jobs and we have costs are way down. Groceries are where they have a term grocery. It's an old term, but it means basically what you're buying food. It's pretty accurate term, but it's an old-fashioned sound. But groceries are down, costs are down, eggs are down. They were, first week they were hitting me with eggs were up 200%, and now they're down to a number that is amazing, down 97%, 98% from where they were.

And everybody, they said, you won't have eggs for Easter. Well, we had everybody had eggs for Easter at a very reasonable price at the White House. We had a little Easter egg roll and we had hundreds of thousands of eggs purchased. All right. You know, if if Barack Obama or Joe Biden or any other president had stood on the world stage and at every single public appearance rambled like this for nearly an hour. It would be national news. We would be seeing headlines about cognitive decline.

Medical experts would be on TV discussing strokes, dementia, the 25th Amendment. But with Trump, people shrug or they actually say what many Magapatamians have been saying and Magadonians actually have been saying about this trip, which is such strength, such gravitas, just an incredible thing. This is the oldest president in American history. And after years of hearing him speak, we've seen the decline. You look two years ago, you look four years ago, you look six. The thoughts are more jumbled. The stories go nowhere. The speeches are increasingly difficult to follow. And so this is not even about embarrassment or humiliation on the world stage, although it is about that. This is about risk. The president

has access to nuclear weapons. The president makes decisions that impact global stability. If he can't stay focused or remember who's running what or why he's even in the room, that is not a quirky personality trait. It's not an endearing element of his personality. It's a problem. It's just not normal. And when a president shows up in a foreign country and rambles for 25 minutes about burning trees and cable wiring and fantasy lumberjack tournaments, people have a right to say, is this guy fit to serve? And the biggest ball drop on this is the fact that most of the media, corporate media, legacy media, they are not treating it like it is a story. And that's probably the most despicable and terrifying part of all of it. When torture guy says what you're

doing is unconstitutional, You've really gone too far. Who am I talking about? Well, John, you is the conservative lawyer who you might recall during the Bush administration defended waterboarding. John, you now says Donald Trump's suspending habeas corpus would be grounds for impeachment. His exact words are that it would be stronger grounds than either of Donald Trump's first two impeachments. And John, you is the guy who spent years arguing that the president should have broad war powers. And even he is saying that Trump's new plan would blow through the Constitution like it's not even there.

So what's going on? Well, we've been covering it. Trump's deputy, Stephen Miller, said the White House is actively considering the suspension of habeas corpus to deal with what they call an immigration emergency. That means you have to call these things what they are. That means jailing people indefinitely without a trial, without charges, without due process. You just lock them up and you sort it out later. Maybe if you get around to it. Stephen Miller tried to argue that it would be justified because we have an invasion of undocumented immigrants that justifies Trump having emergency powers. The problem is that legal scholars on both sides say that's

absolute nonsense. The Constitution only allows suspending habeas corpus during a real rebellion during an actual invasion, not a political talking point, not chaos at the border, not whatever Fox News says is scary this week. And again, John, you is the Bush era lawyer who helped justify torture. And he says there is zero chance that suspending habeas corpus in this situation would hold up in court. He even warned that if Trump tries it, military officers might refuse to follow the order. I hope that they would. Now, here's the part that's even more disturbing. Congress does not seem to care. Only Rand Paul so far has said anything meaningful about it. Most Republicans just kind of shrug.

Lisa Murkowski says she's got to look into it. Josh Hawley blamed judges. Rick Scott ran away from the question altogether. And that tells you just about everything you need to know about it. The only thing that will ever convince the Republicans to turn on Trump is if they think keeping him hurts their own seats. That is it. Principles don't matter. The Constitution doesn't matter. Democracy doesn't matter. Self-preservation is all that matters. And until they start treating Trump like a political

liability and not just behind closed doors, but in public, this is not going to change. This is what we've been saying for months now. And you know, maybe they will change eventually. Independents, we've already said. Are starting to say this is too much. This is too much. We've heard from all sorts of different people, but people write to me, they go, my mom is

complaining that it's what's going on. It's time for impeachment. And this this just can't continue. When you start losing independents and even some Republican voters, that is when things really could start to shift. We aren't there yet. OK, but the John you thing is definitely a sign. We're watching the lines of democracy get tested again and again and sort of hoping

that someone in power remembers the oath they swore. And that involves protecting and defending and upholding the Constitution. If torture guy becomes the most reasonable Republican in the room, we are in deep, deep trouble. And as I've said before, when John you goes, oh, this would never hold up in court. And OK, and so what if a court says something and the Trump administration ignores it and there's no mechanism or political will to enforce it, what does it mean that a court would never go for it? And so on this issue, John, you is completely correct. The problem is we've seen the courts won't go for this answered

with we don't care. Turn the plane around. We don't care. You can't deport these folks. We don't care. And so far with zero consequence. So the follow up that I wish John, you would deal with is fine. Imagine a court says it and then Trump says we don't care what happens next. And so far, I've not heard any answer to it. Did you know that countless commercial databases and people search sites are storing your personal information? Anyone from an employer to a former partner can use these platforms to get details about your online presence, your home address, phone number, email, license plate, family members, financial information, even political views.

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The link is in the podcast notes. Former Vice President Mike Pence is absolutely trashing Trump in the latest viral attack, and we're going to look at it, but I do feel like I need to do a certain little bit of a disclaimer here. Mike Pence is not the hero here. Mike Pence is not brave. He's not principled. He's not suddenly been redeemed for all of his horrible and disgusting actions during Donald

Trump's first term. But every once in a while, Pence does say something so blatantly obvious that it puts Trump's madness in sharp relief. And that's why we are going to look at this string of clips that's going viral. Pence is doing what almost no one in the Republican Party is willing to do, say basic, verifiable, noncontroversial truths about Trump, truths that make Trump look like a lunatic. Let me give you the first example here and then we'll talk about it. Chris and I, I've never been a fan of American presidents criticizing America on foreign soil. And to have the president in

Saudi Arabia questioning America's global war on terror and describing it as nation building and interventionist, I thought was a disservice to generations of Americans who wore the uniform,

who took the fight to our enemy, you know, in Afghanistan and in Iraq. And particularly giving that speech in Saudi Arabia, where 15 of the nineteen nine eleven hijackers hailed from and not including Osama bin Laden, I thought was was unfortunate. You know, the ick factor with Pence is absolutely unmissable. I mean, truly just disgusting. And at the same time, he's not wrong about a lot of this stuff. And the topic of tariffs came up, which I found very interesting. Now, Mike Pence is against the blanket tariffs of Trump. Great. He's right about that. But Pence stood aside

when Trump's first term tariffs did the exact same thing. And Pence sort of suggests, well, I was against them then, but I wasn't the president, so I just kind of stood aside, but I told Trump privately about it. We ask you about the tariffs from the first term. They added some 80 billion dollars in higher prices for Americans, increased prices on things like tires and washing machines. Why didn't you say there are attacks during the first administration well i i probably did in the hallways but the president gets to make the decision told president that directly well sure how did you respond when your vice president

of the united states my view was always this i'd favor the president with the full range of my opinion in private. And then when he made the decision, my job was to support his decision, absent some higher calling or higher obligation that one has. And I fully supported his approach on tariffs, but I was never confused about who pays tariffs. This is this is pathetic. It's sort of a pathetic honesty. Pence is saying, I knew Trump was lying to the American people about tariffs during the first term.

He knew that Americans were paying the price. Pence did. And his big act of bravery was whispering concerns to Trump in the hallway. And this is a perfect example of GOP cowardice. Admit Trump was wrong years later and only when it is safe. Now are my expectations of Mike Mike Pence too high? Is it unreasonable to think that a vice president disagreeing with the president can't possibly do anything or say anything publicly, maybe. But this new retrospective concern about Trump's policies, I'm finding it pretty pathetic, if I'm completely honest with you.

Pence kept talking about the tariffs and he acknowledges, yeah, listen, Trump's tariff plan is the biggest peacetime tax hike on the American people in the history of this country. This happens to be. President Trump says foreign countries pay for the tariffs. He says they're going to make the country rich. And yet you have said you've called them the Trump tariff tax. Why?

Well, well, first off, the initial reciprocal tariffs that he unveiled would be the largest peacetime tax hike on the American people in the history of this country. Oh, boy. As I said, I'm glad he's paused that. And as we're seated here, I understand the president is going to make an offer to 150 countries. But look, we he and I talked many times about trade. Here in Indiana, we're one of the leading exporting states in the country. What we make here, what we grow and raise here, we sell around the world. I've always believed that trade means jobs, but I came to respect President Trump's willingness to use the threat of tariffs to negotiate as we did with the new trade deal with Canada and Mexico. We renegotiated South Korea.

We were well down the road of a trade agreement with Japan, with the UK, with the EU during our time. But there's no question in this administration that he is surrounded, it appears to me, with people that nurture his more protectionist instincts. And as the president has said to me many times, he has a sense that other countries pay tariffs. He has a sense. I like that. When the reality is when Americans buy goods overseas, the company that imports those goods in this country pays the tariff and more often than not passes that along in higher prices to consumers.

All right. So listen, Mike Pence is right. This is how terrorists work. The tariff war punishes Americans more than it punishes anybody else. Tariffs are taxes on imported goods. Consumers pay the tariffs through higher prices since the tariffs are imposed by the federal government run by Trump and they are effectively taxes. Trump is imposing new taxes on the American people. That's all true. OK. When Trump did it on a smaller scale during his first term, Pence says he would whisper to Trump in the hallway about it. I get it. OK.

The chain of command. But it's not exactly a profile in courage. Now, I'm struggling to see this as a profile in courage. The topic of the plane gift from Qatar came up and all of a sudden, despite Trump's actions during his first term, getting all sorts of gifts that clearly violate the emoluments clause during the first term, during which Pence said nothing. Now, Mike Pence has discovered the emoluments clause to the Constitution. The gift to the United States, they ought to they ought to take that 400 million dollars and plow it into infrastructure on our military base. So you're saying President Trump should turn down this plane? I think he should. I think, look, others have observed there are profound issues, the potential for intelligence gathering,

the need to ensure the president of the United States is safe and secure as he travels around the world. And of course, also, there are very real constitutional issues. The Constitution prohibits public officials from accepting a present, in the words of the Constitution, a present from a foreign state. Now, they may have some basis through chain of titles through avoiding that. But I think it's just a bad idea. And my hope is the president will think better of it. You know, so listen, I mean, Mike Pence has discovered the emoluments clause to the Constitution

and it took a private jet from Qatar for him to say the quiet part out loud. Now again, Pence is correct, but Trump has been violating the emoluments clause to the Constitution since day one of his first term. Foreign governments booking rooms at Trump's hotels so that they can cozy up to his administration. And Pence said nothing. But now he remembers what the Constitution says. What what a gift from Mike Pence. And then finally, finally, again, Pence is right about this stuff, but it's just like a little too little, a little too late. Pence rightly points out that Trump used to find the Qatari leadership to be anti human rights and disturbing in all of their beliefs and actions.

And all of a sudden, now that they're giving him a plane, he's not so concerned. But Mike Pence remembers going to accept a 400 million dollar luxury jet from Qatar to use as a temporary Air Force one. He said he'll eventually donate that to his presidential library. Do you think President Trump should accept a military aircraft from Qatar? Well, I think first we've got to remember who Qatar is. We've got a military base there. I have members of our immediate family that have deployed to the region. But Qatar has a long history of playing both sides. They support Hamas.

They supported al Al Qaeda. Qatar has actually financed pro-Hamas protests on American campuses across the United States. And so the very idea that we would accept an Air Force One from Qatar, I think is inconsistent with our security, with our intelligence needs. And my hope is the president reconsiders it. Mike Pence is not the good guy. OK, he enabled Trump every step of the way. He defended Trump's Muslim majority country travel ban, helped stack the Supreme Court, turned a blind eye to nearly every single abuse of power. But now that it's over and Pence's political career seems to be totally cooked, he's willing to say some basic minimal entry level truths. Two sides to this,

not a profile encouraged. I don't suddenly have a great respect for Mike Pence, but it is also true that this alone, these statements alone, the fact that Pence is willing to say, hey, you know, we used to believe this stuff and we used to say it. It does make Trump's behavior look unhinged, even accounting for the fact that it's the Republican Party. So let's not celebrate Pence. Let's pay attention to what it means when even Pence says this stuff. And it's a reminder of just how far this Republican Party has fallen. Trump is now threatening Bruce Springsteen in a completely unhinged truth social post. Trump unloads on Springsteen for criticizing him while abroad, saying, quote, I see that highly

overrated Bruce Springsteen goes to a foreign country to speak badly about the president of the United States. Never liked him, never liked his music or his radical left politics. And importantly, he's not a talented guy, just a pushy, obnoxious jerk who fervently supported crooked Joe Biden, a mentally incompetent fool and our worst ever president who came close to destroying our country. If I wasn't elected, it would have been gone by now. Sleepy Joe didn't have a clue as to what he was doing, but Springsteen is dumb as a rock and couldn't see what was going on. Or could he,

which is even worse. Here comes the threat. This dried out prune of a rocker. His skin is all atrophied, ought to keep his mouth shut until he gets back into the country. That's just standard fare. Then we'll all see how it goes for him. This is Trump threatening to punish American citizens for criticizing the president while physically overseas. That's where we are right now. This is what dictators say before they pull someone's visa.

And remember that Trump supports free speech. He told us many, many times. So what we now have is a sitting president personally attacking a private citizen's appearance. His skin is all atrophied, his speech and his patriotism for expressing political views while abroad and then hinting at consequences when they try to reenter the United States. Then we'll see how it goes for him. And of course, we know that people have been detained and harassed when reentering the United States.

Springsteen, by the way, has been openly political his whole career. He campaigned against Reagan in the 80s. He played Biden's inauguration. He's written albums about working class struggle, political disillusionment. None of this stuff is new. What's new is that we now have in Trump a sitting president using government power to imply retribution for speech to, by the way, completely protected speech extra judicially.

Trump is implying that a private citizen for the supposed crime, which is not a crime, of course, of criticizing the president while overseas could face some form of state retaliation when he reenters the country. There is no law that says you can't criticize the president abroad. There is no statute that makes political speech illegal if it crosses borders. And so what Donald Trump is hinting at is a punishment outside the bounds of the law, using government power not to enforce rules, but for personal vengeance. Trump doesn't like what Springsteen said about him. And so authorities and the power of federal

law enforcement will be sent at Springsteen. This is how authoritarian systems function. It's not through formal laws that everyone understands. It's through this vague, menacing threat where arbitrary actions will be used. Let's see how it goes for him. And when the president starts suggesting that reentering your own country is contingent upon not criticizing him when you're outside of the country, that is authoritarianism. We have reached it. Trump following up later in the weekend with a demand for an investigation, Trump engaging caps lock and spitting out on truth, quote, How much did Kamala Harris pay Bruce Springsteen for his poor performance

during her campaign for president? Why did he accept that money if he is such a fan of hers? Isn't that a major and illegal campaign contribution? What about Beyonce and how much went to Oprah and Bono? I'm going to call for a major investigation into this matter, not just an investigation, a major one. Candidates aren't allowed to pay for endorsements, which is what Kamala did under the guise of paying for entertainment. In addition, this was a very expensive and

desperate effort to artificially build up her sparse crowds. It's not legal for these unpatriotic entertainers. This was just a corrupt and unlawful way to capitalize on a broken system. Thank you for your attention to this matter. Bunkers, authoritarianism. The mask is fully off. You'd better be careful when you come back into this country. You don't want to know what might happen. We're going to do an investigation. It's crimes.

It's illegal. We've reached it. And so for everybody saying, oh, he might not really go that far. He's going that far. He's going that far. The question is, is he going to get away with it? I am fearful that the answer is yes, he is. If you're running a business and feeling stuck juggling the logistics, the multiple apps,

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Donald Trump's very swollen and sweaty physical appearance has raised eyebrows in what was meant to be a complete and total softball interview with Fox News is Brett Baier. We're going to look at it. There are moments when Trump seems utterly lost and completely unable to put together a single coherent sentence. He was asked by Brett Bayer about the infamous and ongoing investigation into the assassination attempt of Donald Trump. He seems just gone, gone. He is barely able to put together a single straightforward, non meandering, coherent sentence. Take a listen. I'm mobile. You're the president. No, I know. I know. I know. I'm relying on my people to tell me

what it is. You know, we have deep seated craziness in this country and I'm relying on my people and so far they, and they're good. He seems to be remembering what he was told to say and he's just completely unable to remember. So he's stringing together random words. But so far they, and in this case it's secret service, They tell me it's fine, but it's a little hard to believe, to be honest with you. OK, it's a little bit hard to believe as I get that throbbing feeling. Yeah, yeah. I get a little throbbing feeling.

If you find out, we'd love to know. We know. I know. No, I know. People ask us. It's a little bit. It's a little bit strange. We have incredible people in there now. So with total respect, Brett Baier would love to know the outcome of the investigation into

the assassination attempt against Donald Trump. Barely a single completed thought or sentence there. At another moment during this interview, Trump pulls out another rhetorical or linguistic tool that he loves, which is referring to nuclear weapons or as some like to say, nuclear. I don't say that, but some do. Hold on. Do I have it here? Nuclear collaboration. Right. Trump refers to nuclear weapons as the N word. And again, just seems utterly lost. Every everyone was stronger, stronger. To a point where the next ones are going to be, you know what the N word, you know, the

N word is right. Nuclear. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for the clarification. You want to clean that up? No, that's it's the N word. That's a very nasty word.

Right. In a lot nasty word. Right. In a lot of nasty ways, the N word used in a nuclear sense, that's the worst thing that can happen. And I think they were very close. The hatred was great. And I said, we're going to talk about trade. We're going to do a lot of trade. Don't forget, Iran wants to make a deal with us badly for a lot of reasons.

What what are we to make of this? What sort of statements are these? This this is it. It just doesn't. It's a conversation. It's it's surreal in a way because we see two humans, right? We see two members of Homo sapiens. We see so much that we're accustomed to. They their mouths open and close. We hear audio. They are words we recognize nuclear word, perfect, et cetera. But it doesn't mean anything. And we are left to figure out, was that an actual conversation? The topic turned to oil. I guess Trump is trying here to talk about oil techniques and again, just just meandering endless. You know, I think they want to make a deal.

You know, you say to yourself, they have massive oil, by the way. They have oil that lasts for 300 years. They have a lot of oil. People don't realize they're one of the biggest in the way. They have oil that lasts for 300 years. They have a lot of oil. People don't realize they're one of the biggest in the world. And it's very good oil, meaning it's it's pure, perfect stuff. They don't have to, you know, spend a fortune on on gases and energy in order to melt the rock and everything. One thing Trump hates is spending any money on gases. And they have pure, unadulterated, good oil. And you say, why does somebody that has that kind of oil, other than being politically correct,

but when you have unlimited amounts of oil and gas, why are you putting up, you know, why do you need civil nuclear? I just don't see it. But I mean, are you going to call for it all? I think it's fine. I think nuclear is fine for civil if you have a country with no oil. But if you're sitting on one of the largest piles of oil in the world, why are you talking about putting up nuclear trumps for nuclear?

But he's against it. If you have oil, if the oil is good and not the kind that you need gases for, I guess president of the United States, Brett Bayer acting like this is all a normal conversation. Trump then weighing in on trips and money and Ukraine. I'm going to just be very upfront here. I couldn't tell you what point he's trying to make here. I haven't seen you get personal on true social. You said, Vladimir, stop.

He hasn't stopped. And you would once said that maybe you need to look at other things like sanctions or banking. Okay, so because maybe they need to be pressured in a different way. And I'll do that if you think that I don't see 5000 people outside of the money, which is a big deal. But the money is the money, the money we can make up. I can make up the money on one trip like this.

Okay. I mean, I guess Trump sees these as sort of like sales trips where he gets money. Think of it this trip. I made. Twelve times the money that we're talking about. I mean, Trump made money on the trip. How many cars did you see in a few days? I've always been good at the minds of a pressure in Putin, right? I mean, I know, but I've always been good with money. I make money. I made it four days. I made 12 times what we spent in Ukraine.

So the money is the money. What I'm going to get a great Q3 bonus. What bothered me? I hated to see the way it was, you know, excuse me, pissed away. All right. So I guess Trump says the money is no big deal for Ukraine. I don't like how it's being spent, but I can make it back really easily on a Middle East sales trip or something like that. Trump then just Brett Bayer throwing a bouquet at Trump and says,

how do you do it with such a grueling schedule? And Trump's answer is genetics. Genetics stops. It's a pretty grueling schedule. A lot of people said, how the hell do you do it? By the way, how the hell do you do it? I don't know. I think it's genetics. It's genetics. I had a father who was very strong and I had a mother who was very strong. They lived to ripe old ages and they were great people. There you go. Genetics allows Trump to do what he does, which is a terrifying concept. And then finally, the luxury 747 from Qatar. Why is it OK for Trump to accept it? He finally explains it here.

And he suggested this. And and I said, you know what? That's very nice. That's very nice. I appreciate it. What would be the price? He said, there is no price. I said, hmm, that's nice. Now, this plane's not for me. This goes to the United States Air Force for whoever is president. It then goes to Trump's Presidential Library Foundation. And at some point it'll be like Ronald Reagan.

It'll be decommissioned. You know, it's 11 years old. So it stays until it's decommissioned. Yeah, it'll be decommissioned because they won't want to. Plus, they'll have the other two planes by that time and they'll be brand new planes, et cetera. But I just want to say it was a radical left story that a lot of people, including you. I asked the prime minister about it specifically.

And he said, you know, he didn't understand the reaction back home and you know, he made that clear. There you go. Oh, what a crazy world we now live in. And, uh, there is a, you know, we have to remember that inside of our little bubble, we see this and we say, he can't think he can barely put together a sentence. None of this makes any sense. He's justifying authoritarianism. He's justifying bribes. He's justifying everything. He doesn't understand anything. But there is a non insignificant part of this country

that sees this interview and goes, that's what I voted for. Go get him. Donald Trump also posted a series of truth social rants so extreme and paranoid and so openly authoritarian that you have to ask, how much worse is this going to get? I want to start with the idea that the auto pen has become such a tool of conspiracy theorists. An auto pen is a device that presidents use to sign documents of different kinds. Trump is now claiming that the auto pen is part of a massive criminal cover up that somehow rigged the 2020 election. Here's what Trump posted. And this this is really weaponized stuff. Quote, Whoever had control of the auto pen is looking to be a bigger and bigger scandal by the moment. It is a major part of the real crime that the presidential election of 2020 was rigged

and stolen. Millions and millions of people knew that. But the radical left Democrats waged a campaign of inoculation and innocence like none that had ever been waged before. This is why the unselect committee of political thugs who were given a full and complete pardon by the person who wielded the now illegally used auto pen deleted and destroyed all evidence and information from their corrupt and vicious witch hunt against me and many other people whose lives were completely shattered and destroyed by this historically criminal event. Remember, all that happened is Trump lost. Trump is calling it people's lives were shattered by a criminal event.

You lost an election. And then Trump continues. Remember it all began with dirty cop James Comey, Obama, a hapless and cognitive cognitively impaired sleepy Joe Biden. And my now very famous accusation that they spied on my campaign. Whoever had control of the auto pen is just the beginning. The biggest crime of all is that the 2020 presidential election was rigged.

I Maga won the election by millions of votes and everybody knows it. God bless America for the fight has just began begun. This is a man screaming into the void and commanding loyalty from tens of millions of people. And he still can't move on from an election he just plainly lost over four years ago. And then he gets into Wal-Mart and the tariffs. Last week, I reported to you Wal-Mart is predicting higher prices thanks to the tariffs. Trump is now threatening Wal-Mart, demanding that they eat the tariffs instead of raising prices because they're his own tariffs. Trump saying, quote, Wal-Mart should stop trying to blame tariffs as the reason for raising prices throughout the chain.

Walmart made billions of dollars last year, far more than expected between Walmart and China. They should, as I said, eat the tariffs and not charge valued customers anything. I'll be watching. And so will your customers threats earlier to Bruce Springsteen, now threats to Walmart. Trump continuing on the bullying of the Fed around interest rates, saying, quote, The consensus of almost everybody is that the Fed should cut rates sooner rather than later. Too late. Powell, a man legendary for being too late, will probably blow it again. But who knows? Here's what ties all these posts together. Rage, paranoia and a thirst for revenge. Palpable. He's still obsessing over 2020. He's threatening private companies. He's

laying the groundwork to punish judges and officials, even citizens like Bruce Springsteen, who don't fall in line. Extraordinarily dangerous. And this is the sort of rhetoric that leads people to commit violence. We saw it on January 6th. We saw it again when a man tried to breach an FBI field office. We're going to see more of it if this continues. This is not just Trump venting. This is Trump signaling what he wants to do with power. And he's daring people to try to stop him. Nobody around him has the slightest clue how to reel him in. Now, on the bonus show today, we are going to talk about a lot of things going on. 2000 Starbucks baristas are striking over a new dress code. What's up with the dress code? I will tell you. The DOJ is looking to make it easier to indict members of Congress.

We know what they want to do. They're they're not hiding it at all. And finally, we will talk about the Mexican ship that crashed into the Brooklyn Bridge, leaving some casualties, injuries and disbelief among many. What on earth happened? All of those stories and more on today's bonus. Forget about Tesla. The bonus show. You can sign up at join Pacman dot com. You can use the coupon code. It will end soon to save about 50 percent. And please, please, please remember to get on my Substack newsletter. You can email info at David Pacman dot com and say, David, put me on that newsletter or sign yourself up by going to David Pacman dot Substack dot com.