The David Pakman Show - 5/29/25: Trump triggered by TACO trade, David considers leaving the country

Episode Date: May 29, 2025

-- On the Show: — Federal court rules Trump’s sweeping Liberation Day tariffs illegal, a massive blow to his second-term economic agenda — Trump declares all-out war on progressive values, using over 150 executive orders to dismantle DEI, environmental, and immigration protections — Republican lawmakers introduce a bill to defund medical schools that acknowledge systemic racism or teach diversity — Donald Trump appears visibly confused in a string of public gaffes, raising concerns about his cognitive fitness — Trump Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt implodes on Fox News, calling for fewer LGBTQ majors and more plumbers — Ben Shapiro turns on Trump over his weak stance on Ukraine, signaling cracks in right-wing media support — David contemplates contingency plans to leave the country as Trump ramps up authoritarian attacks — MAGA Congresswoman Ashley Hinson booed by her own constituents for praising Trump’s economic agenda — Trump supporters finally confront the truth: they’re never getting the Epstein files, and Trump doesn’t want them released -- On the Bonus Show: Jordan Peterson’s viral atheist debate moment, Trump’s possible pardon of Whitmer kidnappers, and a Trump-friendly reality TV couple gets a $36M fraud pardon, much more... 🤖 Sponsored by Venice: Use code PAKMAN for 20% off a Pro Account at https://venice.ai/pakman 🐟 Wild Alaskan Company: Get $35 OFF with code PAKMAN at https://wildalaskan.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 🔊 Babbel language learning: Get up to 60% OFF at https://babbel.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. We start today with a massive legal defeat for the Trump administration. Maybe the key, maybe the only real policy achievement, if you can call it that, although it's been a disaster. The blanket tariffs have been struck down by a federal court. This goes back to liberation day. It is an incredibly ironic situation where what's bad for the Trump administration is good for global markets, which are rejoicing at this ruling. So let's talk about it step by step. These are the tariffs that Donald Trump unilaterally slapped on just about every foreign nation. A federal court has ruled these are illegal and these are outside of Donald Trump's authority as president. Now these two findings against the law outside

of Trump's authority, very common findings with regard to what Donald Trump tries to do and does regularly doing things that are outside of the law and outside of the authority of a president of the United States. Now this is a ruling that doesn't just like poke a couple of holes in Donald Trump's economic policy. This is obliterating, arguably the central pillar of Donald Trump's second term agenda. And the kicker is that when you look at the three judge panel that made this ruling, it's a Reagan appointed judge. It's an Obama appointed judge, and it is a judge appointed by Donald Trump himself. So that's how flimsy this was. Now what happened? Uh, Donald Trump used emergency powers to justify skipping Congress, bypassing

Congress altogether and imposing what we might call 10 plus percent tariffs. Now, some of them were triple digit tariffs on just about every trading partner. He called it liberation day on April 2nd. The court says this is against the law. The administration said that trade deficits, which by the way have existed for 50 years, suddenly qualified the situation as a national emergency. That national emergency is what, according to Trump, justifies him bypassing Congress and saying tariffs on everybody. Court didn't buy it, not even close. And quoting from the ruling here, Trump's tariff orders quote, exceed any authority granted to the president and the I E E P a that's the 1977 emergency powers

law that Trump cited in trying to do this simply doesn't give them the right to blow up global trade on a whim. So the specifics of what this decision does. Number one, it freezes the liberation day tariffs on just about every country. Number two, it freezes the additional tariffs on China, Mexico and Canada. And number three, it freezes Trump's attempt to single-handedly set global economic policy. Now, meanwhile, global markets are cheering stock markets, uh, immediately seeing futures rise and stock markets around the world that, uh, immediately seeing futures rise and stock markets around the world that, uh, we're open on a different schedule immediately accelerate upwards. American businesses celebrated because the pause or the blocking of the tariffs, better said,

gives them more business certainty with regard to what's to come. And for once Democrats and some Republicans actually agreed the blanket tariffs as implemented by Trump or this sort of reckless economic stunt, it has hit a wall. And even Donald Trump's fallback excuse on this, which is, well, Nixon used tariffs in the seventies. That also didn't work because back then Congress was at least partially involved. Trump tried to do this completely solo as he always does. Now, the white house is absolutely furious. Uh, Trump's team says that unelected judges shouldn't be deciding this, but that's exactly what courts are for. The whole point of courts is get people who are allegedly outside the

political fray are the, although they are still political nominees. So it's sort of complicated to say, well, unelected Trump's own argument is it doesn't matter that Elon's unelected. It doesn't matter that the judges I pick are unelected because the people elected me knowing that I get to bring in special advisors like Elon or I get to nominate judges. So when it's convenient for Trump, he goes, no, no, no. Everyone I nominate is in a sense elected because I was elected to do what presidents do.

In this case, he gets a ruling he doesn't like from a court and he goes, these are unelected judges, but that's what courts are for. Stopping abuses of power, especially from a guy who thinks that declaring a trade deficit is the same as declaring war. So this case was brought by small businesses crushed by the tariffs. It was backed by a dozen states and Oregon's attorney general really said it best. Trade decisions can't be made on the president's whim. Now here's the irony that Trump will never admit

that the people in the Trump White House will never admit. When Trump's economic policies declared illegal global markets rally, the Dow ticks up, the dollar stabilizes, businesses go, Oh, what a relief. That is the free market saying Trump's tariffs are a disaster. And that's really the story here. This wasn't really a policy. This was an economic tantrum, global consequences, and it's being dismantled in court. The markets are relieved and the world is breathing a little easier. And once again, Donald Trump tried to govern like a dictator and he got smacked down by the law and the constitution and the judiciary. We'll see what the Supreme

Court does next. So this is not the final word necessarily, but for now it's a victory for law. It's a victory for global sanity and it's a victory for every American who is sick of the possibility of paying more because of one man's ego. So we'll see what happens next, but a major, major loss for Donald Trump. All right. We need to talk about what has happened over these last six to eight weeks, probably even including all of Donald Trump's second term.

Trump's not just back in office. Donald Trump has declared war on every single thing that progressives care about. And this is not hyperbole or I've even seen it pronounced hyper bowl, completely incorrect pronunciation, but some people say it. Who am I to tell them? No, this is not hyperbole. This is not a fake drama. This is what is happening. Donald Trump has signed over 150 executive orders since January. Every single one is like a hit list of progressive policies and values. Dei programs gone. Environmental protections increasingly gutted. Immigration reform. I mean, forget about reform. Look at what they're doing with the mass deportations, denying due process, talking about suspending habeas

corpus. And here is the scary part. There is not even a pretense anymore around this stuff. Trump's admitting, Stephen Miller is admitting the people around Trump are admitting we are fighting what they call radical leftist ideology and he's using the full force of the federal government to try to do it. Let's start with what Trump calls ending illegal discrimination. What Trump has done with that series of executive orders is kill diversity and inclusion programs across the entire federal government. Every program designed to help people of color, women, LGBT folks, it's gone. Trump calls it protecting civil

rights and that's like saying you're protecting democracy by ending elections. The elections risk jeopardizing democracy so we will end elections to protect democracy. It's that sort of backwards upside down, you know, black is white down is up kind of thinking he's ending programs that help marginalized people and saying that's good for civil rights. And even business leaders are freaking out. You know, when you see CEOs complaining, your policies are hurting our bottom line. You know you've screwed up if you claim to be the most pro business president in history or whatever. So these are not liberal activists who don't like what Trump is doing.

These are people who care about money and even they are saying the war on diversity is bad for business. We then move to immigration and this is where it gets truly horrifying. Trump wants to deport 15 to 20 million people. We don't even think there's that many deportable people in the country. You know, the, the belief is it's probably like 11 million undocumented immigrants in the country, some of whom have temporary status of different kinds. You know, there's this sort of concentric circles. Trump wants to deport twice as many people as even exist in the category. So this is not immigration enforcement.

This is a mass deportation on a scale we've never seen unachievable unless you start wrapping up a documented immigrants and potentially even American citizens as he seems to want to do. Right now, roughly half of the country approves, by the way, of what Trump is doing on immigration, half the country cheering for this sort of cleansing as Trump effectively is carrying it out. And then we go to the environmental assault. Trump has signed multiple executive orders, pushing nuclear power expansion with safety as an afterthought. And I say this as someone who thinks the left is too

antagonistic of nuclear power. There's a right way to use it as a bridge, although I think it's probably a distraction. This is not about nuclear power being uniquely unsafe. It's actually a modern nuclear is one of the safest forms of power in terms of, uh, the death toll per energy created. But the whole environment here is cut safety regulations, speed up construction. And that's the sort of thinking that gave us Chernobyl and that sort of thing. New nuclear is much safer. I'm not a reflexive anti-nuclear guy, but we have to understand the way that Trump

is trying to carry it out. But what really gets me isn't Trump merely implementing these policies. It's all under the guise of being against this radical leftist ideology. Caring about diversity. That's radical leftism. Protecting the environment. That's radical leftism, protecting the environment. That's radical leftism, treating immigrants like humans. That's radical leftism. And Trump has said basic human decency is an enemy ideology that must be destroyed. That's textbook fascism. You demonize your opponent's values.

You call them threats. You then use the government's power to try to crush them. So legal experts say Trump's testing the limits of executive power. Sort of an understatement. Okay. Trump's not just changing policies here. He's destroying federal agencies.

He's taking agencies that protect people and gutting enforcement, installing industry insiders and saying all of it is to promote freedom. So we are watching the destruction of everything progressives have been trying to build over decades. Institutions protecting workers, minorities, the environment. It's being torn down piece by piece. And the most infuriating part is that Trump says all of this is based on what real Americans want. As if caring about diversity and pluralism isn't an American value, wanting

clean air, not an American value. The truth is that there's really nothing radical about this stuff. That's just a word they use to try to manufacture consent for what Trump is doing. So what are we going to do? Because Trump is not slowing down over 150 executive orders in a four, almost five months. Every day brings a new attack on progressive values. Another attempt to destroy the social safety net. So we're in an existential fight here for American democracy and we should not pretend that this is just politics as usual.

There's nothing normal about what's going on here. We see the coordinated attack. It's happening right now. The war on the left is here. It's not over the horizon somewhere. The question now becomes, and this is what we've been talking about for some time on the show, are we going to fight back or are we potentially going to watch decades of progress burned down in the name of making America great again? Vomitus. Okay. That's where we are in may, almost June of

2025, a Trump declared war on progressive values. And I have to admit he's winning because a lot of people believe it's politics. One party's in power. They do some stuff. The other party's in power. They do some stuff and that's sort of it. Uh, that's not where we are right now. We are in authoritarianism with a red hat and we need to keep talking about it every day until we figure out how to stop it. And that's some of what we're going to be talking about later today and also tomorrow. Let's take a quick break. Please remember if you're not on my sub stack, get on the sub stack. and place we own our data. It's the only way I'll be able to get a hold of you and you me. So make sure you sign up at David Pakman.com or you can email info at David Pakman.com to sensitive questions, business ideas. They take the information, tie it to your identity and they can sell that to third parties and governments. Chat GPT has the former director

of the NSA on their board right now. That doesn't feel awesome. It took us a long time to truly understand what social media companies were doing with our data. We don't have to make the same mistake with AI and that's why I've started using Venice AI, a generative what for of handing over your most intimate thoughts to a corporation or the government. Go to venice dot AI slash Pacman and use code Pacman to get 20% off their pro plan. The link is in the description. All right. Awesome. New sponsor to talk about. Wild Alaskan Company.

They do sustainable seafood memberships. I'm Alaska, frozen at the peak of freshness and then delivered to you. They've got three curated boxes, the wild salmon box, the wild white fish box and the wild combo box. I got a box that had everything beautifully vacuum sealed. The fish comes in pre-portioned fillets. We had crab. We had scallops. I know I should be saying scallops. I just have

it's just not for me. I call them scallops. OK, delicious and sustainable. They have a sustainable supply driven approach. They get products during the harvest season in a way that doesn't deplete the resources of Alaska's wild fisheries. I encourage you to go to wild Alaskan dot com is it's Remember, you also get commercial free audio and video streams of the show. All of it. You can find at join pacman.com Republicans in Congress have introduced a new bill which would strip all federal funding. That's loans, grants, everything from any medical school that acknowledges systemic racism or has a diversity office at all. This is called HR 3518 and it's getting very little coverage.

And it essentially says if a medical school talks about privilege or racism or health disparities along diversity lines, which is very real by the way, they lose funding period. So here is what the bill bans. No DEI offices allowed, no diversity statements in hiring or in admissions, no instruction suggesting that racism exists in American systems, no special programming based on race and ethnicity. And if you do any of that, you're out of every federal student loan and grant program that exists for medical schools. This is not a joke.

This is the Republican party trying to legislate ideological conformity into the medical field. Now here's the thing. These so-called woke practices, as they describe them, there's a reason that they're standard in modern medical education. Medical schools teach about racial health disparities because they exist. Now, you and I might have different opinions as to, are there DEI programs that are well intentioned, but go too far or are there exempt? We, we can have that conversation, but racial health disparities exist. And so why wouldn't we teach incoming doctors about them?

Black Americans are more likely to die in childbirth. It doesn't mean that the reason is interpersonal racism where white doctors say, I don't care as much about black people, so I'm going to give them worse treatment. It's not that. And in fact, if it were that it might be an easier issue to solve. It is structural to a degree. Indigenous communities have lower life expectancies. The right loves to say that's just because they're alcoholics. That is such an oversimplification and not a sufficient for the way that incoming doctors should be trained.

Latino patients can face language barriers disproportionately that affect treatment. These are not political opinions. These are just medical facts. Diversity offices exist to make sure doctors are prepared to treat diverse populations. That's it. And so courses about social determinants of health, like race and poverty and environment, this helps doctors provide better care. Sometimes that might include asking future doctors to reflect how has your identity or how can identity

shape bias or outcomes? It's not indoctrination. It's basic medical ethics. I have been outspoken against the use of extreme identity politics as a cudgel or as a way to silence people. I'm against it. That's not good. That's not what we're talking about here. We're talking

about important elements of medical education and this bill, HR 35 18 from Republicans bans all of it and it's not subtle. The bill says schools can't teach that there are systemic issues that can relate to race in the United States. They, they, they just, they're not allowed to teach it if they want to keep any of these grants. It's a direct gag order and it is to a degree telling future doctors you can't even learn about care, how care became unequal. It obviously doesn't stop with medical schools. We've talked about it in other contexts already, but this particular bill pressures the agencies that do accreditation of medical schools. Do not recognize degrees from medical schools that have any kind of DEI programming or commitment.

So this is not about protecting civil rights. This is about erasing the ability to talk about them and it doesn't improve education. It polices which ideas schools are allowed to teach all from a party that says that they're about free speech and more speech in more places. So this is a disaster acutely for medical elements of medical, but this is part of a broader effort to purge public institutions of any acknowledgement of inequality. First it was schools, then it was libraries.

Now it's hospitals, medical schools, et cetera. And tomorrow it's going to be the next thing. What Republicans are doing here is redefining reality by defunding the aspects of reality they don't like. We don't want to acknowledge that there are very disparate medical outcomes along class and racial lines. So instead of fixing the disparities, we'll just pull funding from anybody who teaches about it. And if that sounds extreme and like it doesn't exactly support speech, it's because it's extreme and it doesn't support speech. HR 35 18 barely seeing, barely seeing coverage of it.

A completely disoriented Donald Trump was visibly confused. And this would be funny if it weren't so terrifying. We would just focus on the double standard with former president Joe Biden. If it weren't so horrifying that this is going on in clip after clip that I'm going to play for you, Donald Trump, the current president of the United States, remember Biden's out of office. Biden's political career is over. He will never hold political office again. Trump is the president now and he's completely lost. It's not just that he's lost on policy. It's not just that he's lost on policy. It's

not just that he's lost on the facts. He's lost on language comprehension. Here is a reporter asking Donald Trump, when might we see the resumption of interviews for a foreign student visa? Something that the Trump administration has paused. Trump goes on what French, something French. What are you talking about? Take a look at this. When could the administration resume the interviews for foreign students? When do you think your administration could resume these interviews on what? For the foreign students? Yesterday there was for the French, for the foreign students, for the foreign business. What do What are you referring? Foreign visas for what?

Are you talking about for colleges? Okay. So you're off of Israel. Now you're talking about colleges, right? Okay. Well, we're going to see. Look, Harvard has been a disaster. Trump seems to have no idea, no idea what is going on.

This is not a slip up. This is a guy who is increasingly struggling to process language into his big a brain. He hears foreign student visa, I think from a reporter with a French accent, and somehow he lands on the French and then he spirals into confusion about what a visa even is. If president Joe Biden had given an answer like that, Republicans would be filming 25th amendment ads. Every right wing host would be screaming dementia at full volume. But with Trump, it's, I guess it was Wednesday. Another example here. Trump was asked about taco trade, taco meaning

Trump always chickens out. This is something that's been floating around. Trump gets confused and then he spits out a word salad of no relation to the substance whatsoever. Take a look. Mr. President, Wall Street analysts have coined a new term called the taco trade. They're saying Trump always chickens out on your tariff threats, and that's why markets are higher this week. What's your response to that? I kick out.

Chicken out. Oh, and then I chicken out. I've never heard that. You mean because I reduced China from 145% that I set down to a hundred and then down to another number and I said you have to open up your whole country and because I I gave the European Union a 50% tax Tariff and they called up and they said please let's meet's meet right now. Please let's meet right now. And then Trump always in his old age, going back to the tried and true reactions, Trump

has to rap by attacking the reporter. Don't you ever say that again. Nasty, he says. Take a look. But I knew that. But don't ever say what you said. That's a nasty question. Go ahead. To me, that's the nastiest question. Wait a minute. This is not merely confusion. This is hostility as a defense mechanism. He has no answer, so he lashes out and the instinct is always attack the media, attack the reporter. Then the topic of Saudi Arabia and Trump's Middle East trip came out. And once again, Trump claiming with no evidence, he made money and got 5 trillion while he was in the middle East and they brought

it back. The IQ of a Kleenex. Take a look at this. This isn't my war. This is Biden's war, Zelinsky's war and Putin's war. This isn't Trump's war. I'm only here for one thing to see if I can end it, to save 5,000 lives a week and a lot of money. The money being much less

important because I made that money. I went to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and UAE and we brought back $5.1 trillion. So I made that money in about two hours. The money we were talking about, but it's still three. Think of it. $300 billion we've spent with no checks, no balances. They just send cash. Now, as usual, he just doesn't understand how this works. He just doesn't understand how it works. This entire thing about I got 5 million. These are soft, general, hypothetical potential commitments of investment from these countries.

It's funny, when it came to the tariffs, Trump would say, we gave China a trillion dollars and we lost the trillion. As I explained to you, we gave China a trillion dollars. China gave us a trillion dollars worth of stuff. Trump ignoring that then here, Trump goes, oh Arabia and, and Qatar and UAE, they're just giving us money. But what Trump's ignoring is that these would be investments exchanged for goods or services of equivalent value.

Here he doesn't say that. And as I've explained to you a bunch of times now, these are commitments hypothetically over a decade that you need to actually get the projects going for the money to materialize. We got nothing from those middle Eastern countries during Trump's trip. And then finally, once again, Trump with the two week stuff, two weeks. It's always two weeks away, no matter what it is. Take a look at this.

Mr. President, Mr. President, Mr. President, Mr. President, Mr. President. Mr. President, on Russia. Mr. President, on Russia. Mr. President, please. Do you believe the Russians are being disrespectful when they say that your criticisms of Putin are simply an emotional response? And do you still believe that Putin actually wants to end the war? I can't tell you that, but I'll let you know in about two weeks. Within two weeks, we're going to find out very soon. We're going to find out whether or not he's tapping us along or not. And if he is, we'll respond a little bit differently. But it'll take about a week and a half, two weeks. We have Mr. Witkoff is here, who's doing a phenomenal job, is dealing with them very strongly right now.

They seem to want to do something, but until the documents are signed, I can't tell you, nobody can. I can say this. I can say this that, uh, I'm very disappointed at what happened a couple of nights now where people were killed in the middle of what you would call a negotiation. I'm very disappointed by that. Very, very disappointed. Yeah, please. So listen, that that's Trump's version of a loading screen. When he has no answer, when he doesn't know, he just says, we're two weeks from that. He can't answer basic questions. He doesn't know what's happening. He lies with no hesitation and he attacks anybody

who points it out. And he's the one who's actually in power supposedly at this point in time. I don't know what's more terrifying that Trump is the one in power or that he's not really in power and that it's JD Vance and Stephen Miller and whoever else actually controlling things behind the scene. I don't know which is true. And I also don't know which is scarier. Caroline Levitt, Trump's press secretary, went full mask off in a Fox news segment where she was asked about workforce issues. We have real issues to solve and many ideas, by the way, for how to solve them with regard to America's workforce.

And once it gets a little difficult, once the questions get a little bit substantive for Caroline Levitt, she implodes. Here's what she had to say about electricians and plumbers and LGBTQ graduate majors from Harvard, which by the way, I don't know what that is. I don't know what an LGBTQ major is. Take a look at this. And the president is more interested in giving that taxpayer money to trade schools and programs in state schools where they are promoting American values, but most importantly, educating the next generation based on skills that we need in our economy and our society, apprenticeships, electricians, plumbers. We need more of those in our country and less LGBTQ graduate majors from Harvard university. And that's what this administration's position is. And we also are not going to tolerate the illegal criminal

antisemitic behavior that we saw take place at Harvard and many other college campuses across the country. So let's break this down. There is no such thing as an LGBTQ major. She made that up. She gets paid nearly $200,000 a year to do what you just saw, to lie in the White House press briefing room and to lie on Fox news and to lie everywhere that she's interviewed. And she gets paid nearly $200,000 a year for the word salads that sound like they were written by cat turd

on Twitter. And somehow this is supposed to be the professional face of the Trump administration. When they run out of real arguments, they just fall back on culture war nonsense. Now let's have a real conversation about the workforce issues we have in this country. She could have talked about wages. She could have talked about training. She could have talked about labor shortages. She could have talked about, and this is a big one. We have 500,000 open manufacturing jobs in the U S right now. People don't want them either because they don't like the work or they don't like the salary or they don't like the salary for what the work is. That's a real issue. So when Trump goes, we're going to bring manufacturing back. We have 500,000

manufacturing jobs now that we can't fill. But when she's asked about these issues, all she does is attack people that don't exist. LGBTQ graduate majors, and she doesn't do the subject justice. Now, if you really want more electricians and plumbers fund vocational programs, expand apprenticeships, make trade education more affordable, make it accessible in every community in rural and urban areas in red states and blue states. Pay more money to workers in those jobs. People don't avoid those jobs because they are woke jobs or they have become woke jobs. People avoid jobs because the pay sometimes doesn't match the physical toll.

And that's the case with a lot of these labor jobs. Uh, guarantee fair wages and benefits. Guarantee that working conditions will be safe. They're doing the opposite. They're cutting regulations. They're making it okay for work conditions to be more dangerous. So instead of the instinct being, Oh, let's mock people that go to college. Let's offer real options to workers who want to transition careers, especially with AI

and automation, uh, disrupting entire sectors. So the real issue here is not college versus trade. It's not plumber versus LGBTQ major, which doesn't even exist. We're trying to build a country where both are respected, accessible, and lead to a dignified life. No matter which approach you take, you shouldn't have to borrow to meet an unexpected expense of a few hundred bucks. You shouldn't have to choose between a medication copay and food for your family.

And tons of people are in that position. So yes, Caroline Levitt is a cartoon. Yes, she's a disgusting unempathetic troll who earns almost $200,000 a year in taxpayer money while regurgitating this drivel and pablum. But we actually have a bunch of stuff we could work on here and we could improve. So yeah, it's depressing, but you know what? In a year and a half we get to vote again and then we get to vote again in 2028. And if we're all still here and I'm going to talk about that after the break, hopefully we can, uh, we can make things a little bit better. They're customizable depending on what you like and prefer. They've got their classic variety box.

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in an extraordinarily rare moment of clarity, right wing commentator and longtime Trump defender Ben Shapiro who always says, you know, I don't like, uh, the, the bluster, but on policy Trump's pretty good. That Ben Shapiro is now calling out Donald Trump's weakness on Ukraine, especially his both sides approach to Russia's war of aggression. Even the right is now admitting that Donald Trump is projecting weakness. Now this is not about glorifying Ben Shapiro, but there is a lot of interesting stuff to discuss here.

So let's take a look at the clip and then we will discuss again. I'm not sure what he wants from Zelensky that Zelensky hasn't already given him. Zelensky has given him the immediate ceasefire. Zelensky has said he will go anywhere for direct talks. So once he gave him the rare earth minerals deal, it's sort of both sides of him from the Trump administration and from president Trump is the reason why Putin is pushing it. Putin believes he can get away with it. So here's the translation.

Putin is walking all over Trump and even Ben Shapiro realizes it. And I think it's important for us to set expectations. This isn't like a Shapiro defection. He's not denouncing Trump ism or abandoning MAGA, but let's understand this for what it is when right wing media figures like Ben Shapiro start criticizing elements of what someone like a Trump does. It's usually not about morality. It's not about principle. It's not about competence. It's about optics and control. They'll hit

Trump when Trump's position threatens to make the right look weak. That's what this is really about or when Trump's position deviates too far from their preferred policy, like Trump's blanket tariffs, they won't ever touch the bigger issues, the criminality of Trump, the authoritarianism of Trump, the stream of lies, the playing coy and being enamored with the authoritarian strong men around the world. Because at the end of the day, Trump still delivers for their movement. He keeps the base angry. He keeps them activated. He keeps them voting Republican and, uh, attempts to keep Democrats out of office. So criticism like Ben Shapiro's, it usually is like a double purpose thing. It will distance the commentator just enough so that they can look principled

and they can go, look, I can be objective here. When Trump does something wrong, I'm willing to call it out, except he's silent about the authoritarianism and all of that. So that's one purpose of this, but it never threatens Trump's power. That's, that's the double purpose. Let me criticize and make myself look like an objective observer, but I'm not going to do anything to jeopardize Trump's power. Uh, and the, the consent that he's been big picture able to manufacture for what he's doing. They never call for real accountability is the thing. And they never suggest that someone else take over and they certainly don't want to fracture the coalition that keeps the right

competitive. So they'll nibble around the edges. Well, he's wrong about Ukraine. No, I don't know that he should have said that about Ron DeSantis or here's a tweet that was phrased inarticulately, but they never pull the plug. Not the ones with anything really to lose here. But what Ben Shapiro does when he says this is making Trump look weak is that he's exposing a truth. Trump's base mostly doesn't want to hear, which is that Trump is not coming off as strong on foreign policy. Trump's using appeasement. He's, he's wrapping it in tough guy rhetoric or he's trying to, but he's using appeasement. And this is what weakness looks like. Refusing to hold

dictators accountable, pretending there's blame on both sides and getting played in the process. And even if Ben Shapiro, who at one point treated Trump like a conservative savior, if even Ben Shapiro is saying Trump's looking weak here, you know that cracks are forming. Ben's not going to be the guy that ultimately, you know, digs a shovel in there and separates the two sides, but the cracks are forming and maybe it's an opportunity for 26 or for 28. I need to talk to you about something that I know is going to trigger strong reactions

from people in my audience. My only request is that you hear me out first. Okay. The title of this segment is I'm preparing to leave the country. And before you start typing angry comments about how, how I'm abandoning the United States or whatever, I want to be crystal clear. I am not actively planning to leave the United States at this moment. I'm not packing bags. I haven't bought a one way ticket anywhere for my family. What I'm doing is I'm preparing to leave the country should the need arise.

And as I've said to people when they call in, if we all leave, we lose the fight by default, but I will never tell someone, don't do what's best for your family. And so this is a form of prepping in a way it's contingency planning. So let me kind of walk you through what I've been doing over the last few months as the ire of MAGA Trump ism has pushed closer and closer to people that are generally in my situation, adversarial and antagonistic content creators, naturalized American citizens, another group of which I am a member and let's have a rational conversation about preparedness. So number one, I have been exploring what would it take to move to Canada? Canada is a difficult place to move to.

I'm not doing the whole, I'm moving to Canada thing. It's also difficult to move to Canada, but I want to understand the process. What are the requirements? What is the timeline? What is the framework under which I would potentially qualify to move to Canada. It's a very complicated process, but I want to be informed. Secondly, I have been reviewing options in Argentina. Now I already hold citizenship in Argentina. I'm from Argentina. Argentina has its fair share of problems there, right?

It's not like you move to Argentina and all of a sudden your, your problems are gone. There are serious problems in Argentina, economic and also political. This is not about fleeing. It's okay. If I want to go back there, what does that mean for me? What does that mean for my family? Uh, third, I have at the advice of people in my audience, I have, uh, engaged with a law firm that would help me were I to have a problem reentering the

United States. I have found a law firm, uh, that essentially will be on standby when you reenter the country, no matter your status. I'm a naturalized citizen. Should I have a problem that would be someone that says we will be available within X period of time and should you have any issue getting back into the country? I want to make sure I understand my rights as a naturalized citizen when it comes to reentry. And fourth, this is not like passport bro stuff. I've consulted with a specialist about European countries where you can get permanent residency. This is not because I'm planning to become a European resident.

It's because I want to understand what are the options and how does it work? Now you might say, David, why are you spending time and money if you're not planning to leave? And the answer is the same reason people have emergency funds in a bank account, even if they're not planning to lose their job. It's the same reason people have insurance, even though they're not planning to have a car job, it's the same reason people have insurance, even though they're not planning to have a car accident. It's the same reason people have fire extinguishers, even though they don't plan to set any house fires. Things are really uncertain right now and we've seen how quickly things can change.

We've seen journalists and political commentators in other countries face persecution. We've seen civil liberties eroded in places where people thought it wouldn't happen. So am I saying I will need any of this? No. Am I saying it's likely? No, not yet. No, I'm not saying it's likely. I'm saying I've determined circumstances are such that I want to know all of my options.

Now I want to be clear about what this is not. This is not a scheme to avoid paying taxes. I know there are people who say, Oh, you know, you can move to Cyprus and that this is not about that at all. I'm not looking for tax havens. In fact, it's very difficult to renounce American citizenship. It's not something I'm even thinking of. And if you don't, even if you move to another country, you still have tax responsibilities here in the United States. So this is not about shirking any financial obligation. This is not about lifestyle preference. Uh, it's, it's not the passport bro stuff as I mentioned, or, uh, you know, expat fire or any of these

movements. This is purely, I want to understand my options in case circumstances change in ways that make staying here untenable for someone in my position. I still believe as of this moment, right? End of May, 2025, I still believe as of this moment that the most likely scenario is I will never need any of this information. I'll continue living and working in the United States, paying my taxes, contributing to civic discourse, calling the United States home. But if the last four or five months have taught us anything, it's that sometimes unlikely scenarios become a reality. When they do, I want to be prepared.

That's what this is. And it, you know, the fact that I feel like I need to justify contingency planning so extensively probably tell you, tells you something about the current political climate and the fact that this is even is controversial is probably why it makes sense. So have I lost my mind? Let me know. I think I'm being realistic about being responsible in preparation. I want to hear from you. What do you think? Is it reasonable contingency planning what I'm doing or am I overthinking things or am I suffering from paranoid delusions? Let me know info at David Pakman dot com. our sponsor Babel is the app that can help you start speaking a new language in as little as three weeks. I'm busy running a business.

My daughter is running around. So Babel's bite size 10 minute lessons are just perfect for me. I can do it on the go, do it during a lunch break. It's only a little bit of a time commitment each time and you end up with a surprising level of comfort with the language after just a few weeks, which was perfect before my recent trip to Italy. Studies from Yale, Michigan State University and others continue to prove Babel is better and Babel is faster. One study found that using Babel for 15 hours is equivalent to a semester at college in a language class. found Get up to 60% off at babble.com slash Pacman spelled B a B B E L dot com slash Pacman rules Congresswoman Ashley Hinson made the mistake of saying the quiet part out loud and house

Republicans are getting clobbered. Let's take a look at this first clip. I was also proud to vote for president Trump's one big, beautiful bill last week. This is a generational investment. This is a general investment. This is your time. This is a crowd of Republicans. This is a crowd of Trump voters. These are Ashley Henson's own constituents and they are booing her. And when she tries explaining to them, Hey, Trump's fighting for you. The crowd says, no, no, he's not. Take a look.

The election. I think Americans overwhelmingly rejected the status quo for the country. Um, we were seeing an open border, high inflation. Uh, we were seeing hardworking men and women in Iowa and our country feel like their voices were not heard. Families in Iowa have told me for the last four years that we want to make sure we have safe streets, we have affordable groceries and gas, and that kids have opportunity to be able to live out the American dream. And that is what President Trump is delivering for us. And the President is, I believe, fighting for you and fighting for me.

I'm fighting alongside of him. And I think God saved President Trump's life in Butler. I think he saved his life in Butler, Pennsylvania for a reason. I think that he is helping us to save and redirect the future of our country. He is helping deport criminal illegal aliens rather than letting them roam our streets freely. He is ending the abuses of taxpayer dollars rather than treating your money like monopoly money. And he's unleashing America. This is not a blue district. This is not a protest. These are Republican voters and they're

sending a message, which is they're not buying Trump's sales pitch anymore. It is not only Ashley Hinson over in Nebraska. Congressman Mike flood faced a revolt at his own town hall when he tried to say that this new Republican budget, the big beautiful bill is going to reduce the national debt. It's not, it's going to increase it and you actually hear shouts from the crowd of you're making it worse. Take a look. Why is it that only the rich benefit from this and the rest gets stuck having to pay the debt later as we do with this bill. Say that last part again.

Sorry. We have to pay the debt later as we do with this bill. This is not going anywhere obviously it's the thing that I care the most about. This bill, this bill while it isn't perfect is the first time in generations that we've actually made major mandatory spending cuts. We have to grow the economy as much as we cut this in order to get out of this. Otherwise here's the, here's the interesting thing to me though. If we think this is, if we think this is uncomfortable tonight, imagine the day that comes when the bond market.

So this is politically significant. Um, but there's some details here that I think are worthy of a little examination. Trump's big, beautiful bill is this tax and spend package. It was passed at not even 7 a.m. Eastern time with chance of USA USA. It's a big loser, but they want to sell it as a win. In fact, they have to sell it as a win, but it's packed with huge giveaways to the ultra wealthy. That's, that's the way Trump operates. Deep cuts to programs. People rely on very little for working or middle class Americans. Now, even Republican voters are starting to realize this is a con job. It's performative patriotism. It's fake populism. The Trump brand of gloss has worn off and what's left is a party that governs for donors

and for Trump's friends rather than constituents. And you know what? Good for some of these voters. It's not a lot yet, but good for some of these voters. They're waking up to it. Now we should look historically at these intra-party revolts, Republican voters turning on Republican lawmakers because it can go one of two ways. It can fizzle, isolated anger doesn't really spark a major call for a political shift or they can be very impactful and we can look at history. So think of the tea party rage in 2010. It felt like a grassroots uprising against the establishment, but it ended up really getting co-opted by wealthy donors

and right-wing media. People like Joe Walsh ended up out of, out of office and actually turning on the Republican party, bigger picture. It had real anger, but the tea party's anger was funneled right back into supporting the Republican party. You got the tea party caucus. It was just a more extreme form of the Republican party. Nobody was held accountable. And instead people like Paul Ryan and Ted Cruz rode that outrage to power. Now think about 1968 democratic voters, especially young ones revolting against support of the Vietnam war by the democratic party. It led to the rise of Bobby Kennedy. It led to the collapse of the existing democratic coalition. It made

room for Nixon and the Republican Southern strategy. It didn't all necessarily work out the way we would have wanted, but it had impactful, meaningful change. So the question we now find ourselves facing is the anger we're seeing, the boos and the shouts and the rejection of Trump's economic agenda. Does it turn into action? If it's just catharsis for these Republicans who show up and scream, uh, the party is going to be able to absorb it pretty easily. Um, if it becomes organized, if it picks specific targets and says, we want these people out,

if it shows up in primaries, if they break off into their own movement, then the Republican party has a real problem because what we have not seen is an organized anti-Trump movement from within the Republican party. George Conway, Adam Kinzinger, Liz Cheney, Mitt Romney. These are individuals, you know, Republican voters against Donald Trump. We've interviewed some of them, uh, certainly more thoughtful people than we've become used to seeing in the Republican party, but it didn't lead to any serious revolt. And in fact, Trump got reelected relatively easily.

So that's the question we now face. Which way do you expect it to go? I have a message for MAGA today. Trump is never going to release the Jeffrey Epstein files. Stop waiting in no substantive and complete way. Are you going to see the full Epstein files that you've been waiting for for years? MAGA has been obsessed with Jeffrey Epstein, Clint, uh, the Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Hollywood, the elites. They're all supposedly part of some grand conspiracy that goes through Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump. They believe is the outsider hero who is going to expose all of it. But as if Trump hadn't already made it crystal clear, Cash Patel made

it super clear yesterday during an interview with Fox news that the MAGA nuts who were desperate for those Jeffrey Epstein files, you're never getting them, at least not from the Trump administration. Take a look at this. There are the Epstein thing you dealt with Maria. You said, as far as you know, he killed himself. I'm telling you, he killed himself. The other Take a look at this. information from the American public ever. But I'm also not going to rush to get it out there in a format in which they can't rely on it. So on the Epstein matter or any other matters we are diligently working on that. And it takes time to go through years of investigations, years of political maneuvering and years of coverup to get the American people what they deserve. And that's what I'm going to give them on everything. Yeah. So the translation here is you are not getting the files from Trump ever because Trump doesn't want them released.

Remember things Trump has previously said? Remember this one? Mr. President, you said one police said you have seen the documents released. The rest of them. Which documents? You have seen the files? I don't know. I'll speak to the attorney general about that. I really don't know. I'll speak to the Attorney General about that.

I really don't know. I know that we've done — we've done the RFK. The Kennedy — Martin Luther King is out there very shortly. So we'll find out. But we've — and we've really, really announced, we're doing them in full transparency. You know, when we did JFK, people would say, oh, maybe it wasn't all that was all. And then remember this other one from Fox news. Would you declassify the nine 11 files? Yeah. Would you declassify JFK files? Yeah. Would you? I did. I did a lot of it. Would you declassify the

Epstein files? Yeah, yeah, I would. All right. I guess I would. I think that less so because, you know, you don't know it. You don't want to affect people's lives if it's phony stuff in there because it's a lot of phony stuff with that whole world. But I think I would. Trump is not going to expose Epstein's network and he might even be a part of it. There's a reason Trump gets cagey every time Epstein comes up because Trump's former relationship with the now deceased Epstein is more than just a passing acquaintance. Trump and Epstein have been photographed together many times in the nineties and the two thousands Mar-a-Lago parties. Trump once famously said, I've known him for 15 years. Terrific guy.

He likes beautiful women as much as I do. Many of them on the younger side, Trump knows and Trump might be implicated. He later said, Oh, I had a falling out with Jeffrey Epstein. But we have court filings and witness testimony that suggests that their circles at minimum continue to overlap. And one of Epstein's accusers, Virginia Joufray said she was recruited at Mar-a-Lago while working there as a teenager into Epstein's ring or whatever. Trump was also named in Epstein's address book in flight logs, not as frequently as others, but still there.

So the point here is not Trump may have had criminal involvement with Jeffrey Epstein. I don't have any basis on which to make that claim right now, so I wouldn't make it. But Trump is not an outsider when it comes to Epstein. He was right there in the mix with the so-called elites and now Trump has every incentive to keep the files buried. So for all these MAGA people waiting around, Oh, we're going to cash is going to give us the documents or Dan Bonjai. No is going to give us the documents. Now as assistant director of the FBI, you're not getting the documents because Trump doesn't want them released. We've got a great bonus show for you today.

We're going to talk about Jordan Peterson's disastrous Jubilee debate. One Christian versus 20 atheists where Peterson goes, I'm not saying I'm a Christian. Uh, we will also talk about Trump considering a pardon for a group convicted of plotting to kidnap Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer, who was on the show not long ago. And finally, Trump is going to pardon a reality TV couple convicted in a $36 million fraud. What the hell is going on with these pardons? I'll be joined by producer Pat on million David Pakman dot com.