The David Pakman Show - 6/11/25: Trump threatens protesters, Tulsi resurfaces with Putin propaganda

Episode Date: June 11, 2025

-- On the Show: — ABC News fires veteran reporter Terry Moran after he called Trump and Stephen Miller “world-class haters,” raising serious questions about free speech and growing media compliance under authoritarian pressure — Trump’s top legal defender Pam Bondi can’t explain the legal standard for invoking the Insurrection Act, revealing how dangerous and clueless Trump’s inner circle is as they threaten martial law — Trump gets confused about what day it is and when he spoke to Gavin Newsom -- Donald Trump claims that "death" has taken place at the LA protests, and is the fault of Gavin Newsom, despite no one having died — Trump delivers a bloodthirsty speech to troops at Fort Bragg, attacks U.S. cities as war zones, and openly calls for jail time for flag-burning—while falsely claiming the 2020 election was stolen — Trump threatens to unleash “very big force” on protesters at his upcoming birthday parade, openly threatening Americans for exercising their constitutional rights — Tulsi Gabbard, now the top intelligence official in the U.S., resurfaces with unhinged Putin-style propaganda accusing elites of planning nuclear war while hiding in bunkers — Elon Musk backs down in humiliating fashion, deleting his anti-Trump posts and apologizing after Trump threatens to yank his federal contracts -- On the Bonus Show: Nationwide protests against Trump’s mass deportation plan, Tulsi asks AI what to reveal about the JFK files, Trump appeals NY criminal conviction, much more... 🩳 SHEATH Underwear: Code PAKMAN for 20% OFF at https://sheathunderwear.com/pakman 🤖 Sponsored by Venice: Use code PAKMAN for 20% off a Pro Account at https://venice.ai/pakman 🔬 Freedom From Religion Foundation: Text DAVID to 511511 or visit https://ffrf.us/freedom 💻 Get Private Internet Access for 83% OFF + 4 months free at https://www.piavpn.com/David ⚠️ Ground News: Get 40% OFF their unlimited access Vantage plan at https://ground.news/pakman 🖼️ Aura Frames: Use code PAKMAN for $30 OFF & free shipping at https://auraframes.com/pakman -- Become a Member: https://davidpakman.com/membership -- Subscribe to our (FREE) Substack newsletter: https://davidpakman.substack.com/ -- 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. A reporter told the truth about Donald Trump and he has now lost his job. This is what the media environment looks like under Donald Trump. We're talking about Terry Moran, who has now been fired by ABC News. He's been there nearly 30 years. Why was he fired? Because on his Twitter, he called Donald Trump and Stephen Miller, quote, world class haters. That is it.

That's the reason. Now, we're going to talk about journalistic standards. We're going to talk about whether it is appropriate for a supposed reporter to be putting out opinions on social media. We'll get to that in a moment. ABC News is formally saying that this was a violation of their objectivity policy. But I want to be really real about what this is. This is about power and fear.

Power, fear and loyalty are the most important currencies and prisms through which the Trump administration interprets, analyzes and concludes. And it is about a quieter way in which authoritarianism spreads. It's not mass arrests. You don't threaten Terry Moran with an arrest. You create an environment through lawsuits and threats where ABC self censors and punishes employees who put out such opinions. And that's maybe the most chilling part of all of it.

ABC News chose to fire Terry Moran. Now let's look at the tweet in question just to remind ourselves what Terry Moran posted on June 8th was, quote, The thing about Stephen Miller is not that he's the brains behind Trump ism. Yes, he is one of the people who conceptualizes the impulses of the Trump is movement and translates them into policy. But that's not what's interesting about Miller, wrote Terry Moran. It's not brains. It's bile. Miller is a man who is richly endowed with the capacity for hatred.

He's a world class hater. You can see this just by looking at him because you can see that his hatreds are his spiritual nourishment. He eats his hate. Trump is a world class hater, but his hatred only a means to an end. And that end is his own glorification. That's his spiritual nourishment. That's the tweet for which Terry Moran was fired.

No government goons stormed the building. No executive order to say if you put out opinions like this, you'll be punished. ABC saw the writing on the wall and it decided to fall in line. Now what would the reasons be? Well, maybe it's the fear of losing access. Maybe it's pressure from Trump's press secretary, Caroline Levitt. We played a clip of her two days ago demanding accountability. Maybe it was the 16 million dollar settlement that ABC quietly paid Donald Trump just a

few months ago over certain things that were said during George Stephanopoulos show. But no matter what it was, this is not an instance of censorship imposed from above. It's censorship that was preemptively embraced. And that is how authoritarianism often works, not with a bang, but with a whisper boardroom decisions made in fear of retaliation. You don't need to jail journalists if you can get their bosses to fire them first. Now, I want to be objective and clear. Journalists are supposed to avoid public political opinions in many organizations. But firing a reporter over one post after 28 years of award winning work, including, by the way, pressing Donald Trump in a high profile interview just weeks

ago, the way so many right wing reporters are not willing to do. This is not so much about standards. It's about compliance. It's about showing the White House that you're obedient. You've learned your lesson from the 16 million dollar lawsuit. You're going to be a good boy now. And the message to other reporters is loud and very clear. Watch your mouth. Don't criticize Trump, even if you're telling the truth, even boy now. And the message to other reporters is loud and very clear. Watch your mouth.

Don't criticize Trump, even if you're telling the truth, even if you've got the resume, even if you've got 28 years of experience and the accolades and the awards, if you've been respectful, it doesn't matter one slip and you're gone. And the textbook chilling effect of this is an authoritarian classic. You don't need to shut down the press when the press is too scared to speak or to speak the truth. Now, I want to also point out there's a hypocrisy here that I think shouldn't be ignored. The same people who scream about free speech and cancel culture are cheering this on and

saying this is the right decision. And Terry Moran should have been fired. You know, Kevin McCarthy called it the right thing. Fox News says Moran's firing is about restoring trust. But trust in what? A media ecosystem that punishes you when you call out haters, because everything Terry Moran said is, of course, true. Now, I do want to remind you that the White House called contacted ABC and said, how do

you plan to plan to punish Terry Moran? That is state pressure. And the question then becomes, what can we do about it? Number one, don't let this stuff slide. We've got to call it for what it is, because authoritarianism doesn't always arrive in boots. It shows up in boardrooms, lawsuits, firing suspensions, investigations and in the HR office to support the reporters who have the courage to speak.

I saw that our friend Ben Micellis over at Midas Touch put out a message to Terry Moran saying you're welcome at Midas Touch. We've got the numbers. You can have just as big a reach as that. Yes, you did it. ABC News. You're welcome at Midas Touch. We've got the numbers. You can have just as big a reach as that. Yes, you did it. ABC News. You're welcome here and support outlets that haven't sold their spine for access or settlement money.

Silence is the point. They want me to stop talking. They want you to stop talking. They want Terry Moran to stop talking later in the show. We'll see what they plan to do to protesters at Donald Trump's birthday parade celebrating the anniversary of the army. They don't want any protests, any protesting. Trump says will be met with big force.

The fascism isn't over the horizon in some distant place. It's here right now. And the people in charge don't have a clue. That's what I want to talk about next. If you're wondering how does a country slide into authoritarianism, there is no greater example than that from this morning from the top prosecutor in the country, attorney general Pam Bondi. This is Trump's sort of legal mouthpiece. She went on national TV this morning, stood out front of the White House.

Actually, this may not be the White House stood somewhere in front of cameras, made statements and then was interviewed on Fox News and admitted she doesn't actually understand the very law that the Trump administration is threatening to invoke the Insurrection Act. I want to walk through it. And this this is absolutely critical. Pam Bondi has become one of the strongest defenders of Donald Trump rolling out this military response in domestic protests in Los Angeles,

the National Guard, subsequently the Marines, threats of doing it elsewhere. Now, we understand the authoritarian playbook. We know that one of the things authoritarian strong men love to do is they like to generate reactions to justify more of a crackdown. And of course, sending the National Guard and Marines to protests that LAPD didn't ask for. Karen Bass, the mayor of L.A., didn't ask for Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, didn't ask for. We knew that in and of itself, they in and of them itself, the decision would incite, which Trump can then use to say, whoa, now we've got to deploy troops to Chicago and San Francisco and wherever else.

So Pam Bondi was asked a critical legal question. What is the legal threshold for when you can use the Insurrection Act? Basic question. What needs to happen such that a president would be legally justified in saying we now have an insurrection. such that a president would be legally justified in saying, we now have an insurrection. This enables me to take further action. She dodges, she deflects and she blames Gavin Newsom. Let's ask that again. What is the threshold for invoking the insurrection? Beyond sure. Are you seeing examples in other cities where the president might have to consider what

will first and other cities? Well, we've seen it in New York, but what happened in New York was very different. NYPD came in right away. NYPD came in and shut it down. We all believe in peaceful protest. You saw New York, there were peaceful protests happening in New York. Much different situation. So, law enforcement, they need to have their hands untied where they can do their jobs. Right now in California, what we're doing is working by bringing in the National Guard, by bringing in the Marines right now to back them up, to protect our federal buildings, to protect the highways, to protect the citizens. So right now in California, we're at a good point. We're not we're not scared to go further.

We're not frightened to do something else if we need to. Right now we're trying to bang it up the sidewalks and something else. What's the threshold? Well, right now, we're right now we're hoping it's going to get under control. We hope the curfew will work and we're going to continue to do everything we can to keep California safe if the government of California is not going to help them. One more question. Dodging, deflecting, blaming California Governor Gavin Newsom, ranting and raving. But the translation is she has no idea. She has no idea or she's unwilling to tell us what is the threshold to say now the insurrection act can be invoked

for two reasons. Number one, it's abundantly clear that we're nowhere near that threshold. And number two, there's the hypocrisy that the real insurrection attempt on January 6, 2021, they are still not calling that. And if you don't call that an insurrection attempt, it's very hard to have any credibility when you're saying that now there is one. So no legal standards, no constitutional guardrails. That's it.

Understand what this means. The Insurrection Act is not a suggestion. It is one of the most serious legal tools that a president can use because it allows for federal military intervention in domestic affairs. And Trump's top legal advocate can't even explain or won't explain when it's an appropriate tool. She's writing a blank check for martial law. We as if we didn't already know she will post facto defend anything that Donald Trump decides to do. So this is real time authoritarianism wrapped in incompetence, sold on TV as patriotism.

When Bondi couldn't explain the legal standard, what did she do? Well, she went right to Fox News and started fear mongering. Let's take a listen to that. So tell me about this lawsuit and what do you make of the governor blaming the president for the actions of illegals in this country, not abiding by the court order, the warrants to come pick them up and the protesters that are now activists that are throwing stuff at the cops? Yeah. Well, it's evidently Gavin Newsom has not been out to the scene. He has not turned on the television set to see the incredible amount of violence that

was happening is happening in Los Angeles. President Trump is going to make America safe again. We're going to protect Americans. And that includes Californians. If Gavin Newsom isn't going to protect them, We are told to. It is extraordinarily difficult to make the case that protests in a few blocks of the city in any way warrant, justify or explain the deployment of federal military force, not just the National Guard, but also the Marines. As I have said so many times, anyone

who's looting should be arrested. People who are attacking police officers are going to be prosecuted. They should be prosecuted. It is the tiniest fraction of what is going on. And it is all contained within just a few city blocks of Los Angeles. My friend, my friends jokingly sent me jokingly, you know, I mean, it's very serious, but sort of satirically sent me video of themselves in West Hollywood sitting outside at a sushi restaurant and just the idea that the city has been overrun with violence, justifying

Marines and National Guard is a joke. Now the protests can be intense and there can be isolated unrest and even looting without justifying the use of active duty troops against American citizens. This is another thing. We see a lot of justification online. A video of someone with a Molotov cocktail. OK, that doesn't justify National Guard and Marines when L.A. has a riot squad and the entire thing. So that's another important thing, because the Insurrection Act requires a breakdown of local law enforcement's ability to maintain order. It's in a few block radius with some isolated incidents of property damage. There has to be no other option to send in

federal troops just not liking Gavin Newsom and wanting him to look bad isn't enough. So this is a very telling moment. And it's telling not just because Pam Bondi is, of course, particularly unqualified to be the attorney general, but because in a way she's the perfect representation of Trump ism right now. Power without any principle, authority without any knowledge of the law and fear without actually presenting any of the facts.

And that's what we see. This legal system that's been bent. It's not even being interpreted. It's just being bent by people who have no clue what they're doing and no interest in finding out, not operating under the rule of law, operating under the rule of Trump and the whims of the orange man. She can't even explain when the insurrection act threshold will have been met because it doesn't matter.

The plan was never to follow the law. It's let's use the law as a weapon. And if Trump's top lawyer doesn't even know where the lines are, how can they be confident they won't cross them? They don't care. They don't care. So it's embarrassing. It's dangerous.

And the fascism is here. We're going to have a commentary on that. I think on tomorrow's show. Let's take a quick break. Make sure you're subscribed on YouTube. the Confidence when you're out and about I've known so many people who were skeptical about those compartments friends who say I heard that ad for sheath what about those compartments and then they try it and then they're amazed at the comfort and breathability when they finally try it. You will thank yourself.

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you can do so at let me actually remind myself exactly where that URL is. You can apply for a You are David Pakman dot com slash free membership. You can sign up at join Pakman dot com and you can also donate memberships to people on our list at that same join Pakman dot com by clicking the This is a Gift box when going through the sign up process. All right. Donald Trump doesn't know what day it is. He doesn't know when he spoke to Governor Gavin Newsom. And this is really a story. I think this is a very simple story. It's an old guy whose memory is failing him. That that's

quite simply what is going on here. This has exploded into a story about cognitive decline and lies versus technicalities and the meaning of words and minutia and semantics. So let me explain to you what is going on. Yesterday, Donald Trump was asked with regard to what's happening in Los Angeles. When was the last time you spoke to Governor Newsom? And Trump says he hesitates and then he says a day ago. Let's take a look. When is the last time you spoke with Governor Newsom? A day ago. Called him up to tell him, got to do a better job.

He's doing a bad job, causing a lot of death and a lot of a lot of potential death. If we didn't send out the National Guard and last. OK, so Trump says that there was death. There hasn't been death. We're going to get back to that. But Trump says a day ago, a day ago, Trump said this on June 10th. Any reasonable person would say a day ago means sometime in the last calendar day. So somewhere between 24 and 36 hours ago, it probably means that Trump spoke to Newsome

on June 9th. Gavin Newsome responded to this by tweeting, There was no call, not even a voicemail. Americans should be alarmed that a president deploying Marines onto our streets doesn't even know who he's talking to. They're making it very clear now based on this, based on this, it would be reasonable to say, well, either there was a call in the last day or there wasn't. Now this eventually got to Fox News. John Roberts said he had been tweeting texting with Trump and that Trump texted him a screenshot of the call log and that the call did take place, except it was three days earlier, not in the last day.

Take a listen to this report on his way to Fort Bragg, North Carolina, where he'll be in just a little while. He said the first call to Gavin Newsom was not picked up. The second call Gavin picked up. We spoke for 16 minutes. I told him to essentially,, and this is quoting the president, get his ass in gear and stop the riots, which were out of control more than anything else. This shows what a liar he is, said I never called. So here is the evidence and here is the call log that the president sent me from his phone. This was June the 7th. Now, granted, this was on Saturday. But look, there is one twenty two o'clock in the morning.

By the way, what does one twenty two o'clock mean? I also think it's relevant to mention when Trump said a day ago that would mean June nine. The call is from June seven and it was actually at one a.m. East Coast time. It was still June 6th in California. So the point here is the one day is very much a stretch. But let me get back to that. Which would have been ten o'clock at night, ten twenty two at night, California time. There was an outgoing call for four seconds and then there was an outgoing call for 16

minutes. So that from the president, which says is proof that he spoke to Gavin Newsom early in the morning, our time late at night, Friday night would have been June 6th, I guess, in Los Angeles. So governor, over to you for the response. OK, so this has become a huge semantic battle. People saying when Newsom said there was no phone call, Newsome's lying. Here's proof of the phone call. My interpretation of this is a different one.

Newsome had already acknowledged that June 6th slash seventh phone call. It was June 6th in California where Newsome was. Here's Newsome acknowledging that that phone call took place. The issue is that Trump is saying he spoke to Newsome about the National Guard and Newsome says that is a topic that never came up. So let's listen now to Gavin Newsome acknowledging that a call did take place on June 6th, three to four days earlier than Trump claimed. Take a listen.

News to as always hit you hard publicly. Just 10 minutes ago, he put out another truth social telling you and the mayor to apologize to the people of Los Angeles. You guys go at it pretty hard publicly, but I know you talk privately. Have you spoken in the last couple of days to the president about any of this? Yeah, we know. We talked for almost 20 minutes and barely this issue never came up. OK.

Newsome's not saying there was no phone call at all. Newsome acknowledged the 16 minute, nearly 20 minute phone call from June 6th. The issue is that yesterday, Trump said that over the last day he spoke to Newsome about sending in federal troops. Newsome goes, we didn't speak in the last day and we didn't speak about sending in troops. This is sort of the crux, but it's becoming kind of secondary. Now, one other note. Donald Trump, as usual, and this is going to round out the evidence and I'm going to give you my final analysis on this. Here is Trump saying that the screenshot

he sent to John Roberts is proof from the phone company. Now, you might understand why this is another element. Taking a screenshot on your phone is not proof from the phone company. It's a screenshot from your phone. And this actually fills in the gaps. Take a look. I did not speak to you a day ago. As you said, you know, officer leader, what's your response? Well, I gave him it wasn't a day goes a little longer than that and I presented the phone conversation to Fox News John Roberts and Molly line at Fox News Because they were the ones that said it and we actually spent 16 point something minutes on the phone

And I told him he's got to get his act together because you're going to have some bad times in Los Angeles if he doesn't. We had a pleasant conversation. The proof was from the phone company. OK, the proof is from the phone company. So what is it that's going on here? You've got to read between the lines. You've got to understand to understand Trump speak. I think quite simply, Trump is a technologically illiterate, clueless old guy whose memory

is failing and he actually adjusts what he says here. Notice here that Trump does not claim once it was revealed that the call was June 6th slash seven, not June 9. Trump claims number one, that he provided proof from the phone company. A screenshot from your phone is not proof from the phone company. It's just a screenshot from your phone. Trump acknowledges it was actually more than a day ago, acknowledges that he was wrong when he said it was in the last day.

But critically, this is the critical part, which makes me believe Gavin Newsom. Trump no longer claims in this video once he has all the information that they talked about the National Guard. Trump much more generically goes, I told them you got to get things in order or you're going to have a bad time. That is a far more generic statement than I am sending in federal troops. So do we care? Does this matter? Is this merely semantics? The important takeaways are number one, Trump's memory really isn't great. Number two, Trump lied that he told Gavin Newsom that he was going to be doing this. And number three, Gavin Newsom acknowledged the phone call on June 6th, last seven.

He just was responding to Trump saying, I told him about the troops in the last day and Newsom's going, there's been no phone call over the last day and on no call where the troops mentioned. Trump is a liar and Trump's memory is terrible. Whether this is the big story it's blown up into, I'll leave it for you to tell me. Let's go back to the issue of death in Los Angeles. Donald Trump is the oldest man ever inaugurated as president. And he delivered another one of those moments that's impossible to spin if you're remotely

tethered to reality. In the video during which he said he spoke to Gavin Newsom over the last day, which we now know not to be true. He declared that Gavin Newsom caused a lot of death, death and potential death, both actual death and maybe even more in the future. It's important to understand that we don't have a single reported death from the protests. Fortunately, we should be happy about that, not even a hospitalization due to violence. Now, you might be saying, David, what about the guy they found near the T-Mobile?

We're going to get to that in a moment. When Donald Trump said this, it was completely inaccurate. Take a listen. When is the last time you spoke with governors? A day ago. Called him up to tell him, got to do a better job. He's doing a bad job, causing a lot of death and a lot of a lot of potential death, a lot of death and a lot of potential death.

No one has died. No one has died. Now, we have reports now of a man found deceased near a T-Mobile in this sort of general area of these protests. There was no evident cause of death. We know nothing about that yet. There's anecdotal reporting that could have been a drug overdose situation. But the point here is all the evidence we have is that that was incidental, still tragic,

but not related to violence from the protest. As of this point in time, if that changes, we will change the reporting. But that had not happened when Donald Trump made this statement. So what is more likely here? Is it more likely that it is a mental detour or a cognitive fail where Trump just thinks there were deaths when they weren't. Or or is this Donald Trump looking to play up carnage that doesn't exist to make his decision to send in federal troops, military and National Guard more justified?

To me, the real concern is that not just that Trump is wrong, he does seem genuinely unaware of what's real and what isn't. He says there were deaths because I guess somewhere in his mind chaos equals death. I don't know, but it's a constant glitch, almost something beyond his control. And he has the power and is deploying the National Guard and Marines on on American soil and making life and death decisions, seemingly with very little grasp of the basic facts. Now, another confused moment during the same event, Trump just kind of rambling incoherently about forests.

And this goes to the general level of confusion and disconnect that Trump is experiencing. Also, when it comes to forest fires. So for years, I've been meeting with heads of other countries and they are forest countries. They call themselves forest Austria and others. And they say we're a forest nation. We live in a forest and they don't have forest fires. And in one case, he said, you know, our trees are much more flammable than California, but

we don't have forest fires because we clean the floor. We sweep the floor of leaves of dead debris, of trees that fall, because after eight. Understand that this is complete incoherence. It's just random words. In months, the tree is like real. It's just random words. In months, the tree is like real. It's like Tindarwood and it goes up virtually exposed. Well, we don't take the trees out. California is a disaster. What they've done in California, they don't do anything. And if you did, you wouldn't. You almost would not have forest fires. And you can say you,

in theory, you shouldn't have any forest as far as and we spend billions and. The way authoritarianism operates when it has decayed from the inside out is that a lot of it isn't clean and strategic. It's sloppy. It's delusional. It's elderly and dilapidated. And it's propped up by people who are either too scared or too loyal to say what is obvious. This guy's not well.

He's rambling incoherently. He says he spoke to Newsome in the last day when he didn't. He then revises what it was that was actually said. We can no longer tell the difference between Trump's dishonesty and Trump's decline. We just can't tell the difference. When he said I spoke to Gavin in the last day, even though he hadn't, was he confused or was he lying when he said that there has been death at the L.A. protests? Was he confused or was he lying?

We don't know, but it all supports the authoritarianism in the same way, which is if you question the leader, you are going to have a problem. Terry Moran on ABC has been fired. Others are being targeted in different ways. So let's take a break. We're going to then talk about how the military is now being propagandized to, including in speeches, which is really disturbing stuff. There is a coordinated campaign right now to force religious beliefs into law and it's moving fast in Texas. Lawmakers are trying to mandate the Ten Commandments in every public campaign religion is the justification. And across the country right now, we see these Christian nationalists really emboldened by the MAGA movement and they're reshaping America.

And it's terrifying. This is why I support the Freedom From Religion Foundation. They've been fighting back since 1978, defending the separation of church and state in courts, in schools and wherever religion tries to take control. of text like be tracked online and so you can access websites and content normally not available in your region. Private internet access is the only VPN that can prove in multiple ways they do not log your internet activity. Their software is open source.

Anyone can see that the VPN is not logging your traffic. Multiple court cases have happened where law enforcement tried to get user activity logs from the company. The company didn't have them. to and my audience gets 83 percent off, which comes out to just two or three a month. Plus get four extra months for free. Go to PIA VPN dot com slash David. The link is in the podcast notes serving the interests of propaganda and authoritarianism. Donald Trump gave a speech at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, yesterday, where he goaded troops into booing fake news, booing Joe Biden and generally pulling them into the political world in a way that I thought that the founders intended and that we aren't supposed to pull members of the military into.

Let's take a look. Another pillar of authoritarianism is politicizing the military. Trump goads the troops at Fort Bragg into booing the very media covering this speech. And for a little news for the fake news back there, the fake news, ladies and gentlemen, look at them. Look at them all. Oh, yeah. What I have to put up with fake news.

What I have to put up with. But they're all right. They've been very nice today. They were impressed with that display. I can tell you that we are not supposed to politicize the troops, but a hallmark of authoritarianism. And in fact, when have authoritarian strongmen dictators succeeded in history when they had the military on their side? So I know it's just a little bit of booing.

Oh, David, aren't you going too far? No. One thing that history tells us as we see slides into the depths of authoritarianism is that success often depends on where is the military in relation to what you are doing. Trump using the language of war, invasion and conquest when he talks about what's happening in Los Angeles. And he says that a lot of the people that now he is trying to get out were led in by Joe Biden blaming Biden in front of the troops, more politicization of the troops, more lies professional under the Trump administration.

This anarchy will not stand. We will not allow federal agents to be attacked, and we will not allow an American city to be invaded and conquered by a foreign enemy. And that's what they are. A lot of those people were let in here by the Biden administration. They just poured right in.

They came from prisons. They came from jails from all over the world. They came from mental institutions. came from jails from all over the world. They came from mental institutions. They were the leaders of gangs. They were drug lords allowed to come into our country. Their countries threw them out. Their countries would bust them or drive them right to our border and say, go in there. You ever come back, we're going to kill you.

You know what Trump doesn't mention, of course, is that the overwhelming majority of those protesting in L.A. are natural born American citizens. And this is very dark language, sort of alluding to the idea of a war within. We are going to war within our country. We have a name for that. It's called civil war. In another just dystopian moment, Trump then he's already goaded the troops into booing the media and he's already blamed Biden in front of the troops. Trump then goes the troops into booing California Governor Gavin Newsom, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass as well. Wearing a uniform because you don't know exactly who they are in Los Angeles, the governor of California and the mayor of Los Angeles, they're incompetent

and they paid troublemakers, agitators and insurrectionists. They're engaged in this willful attempt to nullify federal law and aid the occupation of the city by criminal invaders. It's what invasion conquest boo Democrats. This is pathetic, dangerous, dystopian, but tragically predictable, tragically predictable, tragically predictable. Trump then goes to the topic of Europe and he points to Europe as proof, you would say that immigration is bad. We got to do something about what's happened so quickly as the entire world can now see uncontrolled migration leads to chaos, dysfunction and disorder.

And you know what? They have it in Europe, too. It's happening in many of the countries of Europe. They don't like it when I say it, but I'll say it loudly and clearly. They better do something before it's too late. Now it's important to remember that as Donald Trump weighs in on what's happening in Europe, he has failed on his promise to end the Russia Ukraine war. He has failed on his promise from his first term to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

It's hard to think of someone less qualified to speak on these issues. He then, after already goading the troops in the audience to boo this Democrat and boo that Democrat, then he pulls the election was rigged and stolen stuff. Again, just the disgusting politicization of the American military, unhinged and deranged. Minneapolis was burning down, it was going to burn to the ground and he wouldn't call the guard. And I waited for a long time and and I called the guard, and I saved it, but I wish I would have called it the first day.

And I said, you know, if this ever happens again, because I was thinking about running because the election was rigged and stolen, we all know it. They said, we're going to run again, and if I win, which I hope, remember too big to, we're going to make it too big to rig. But we did. We won by millions and millions of votes. So beautiful to watch. That was such a beautiful nine oh two in the evening. They said, ladies and gentlemen, Donald Trump is projected to be the winner. I said, well, you think that was easy? So one question that has come up is.

You think that was easy? So one question that has come up is. Is the crowd, the military crowd really that friendly to Trump? Or did they arrange the friendly ones to be near the microphones and standing behind Trump? I have no idea. I genuinely have no idea. You know, one of the differences between the Republican Party of old and the Republican Party of today is that there were times when the Republican Party of old and the Republican Party of today is that there were times when the Republican Party of old wouldn't trash cities and states within

the United States. They might say we don't like the leadership. They might say we want different policies. They might say they've gone too far left, but they wouldn't call cities or states trash. But this is Trump's Republican Party. And now it's fine to say things like Los Angeles is a trash heap. And that is exactly what he said. Within the span of a few decades, Los Angeles has gone from being one of the cleanest, safest

and most beautiful cities on Earth to being a trash heap with entire neighborhoods under the control of transnational gangs and criminal networks. It's horrible. It used to be the case that Republicans didn't do this. I still disagreed with them on policy then, but they didn't do this. But now they do. And then finally, Donald Trump suggesting one of his favorite clampdowns on constitutionally protected speech. He's the free speech guy, but he loves the idea of jailing people for burning the American flag. You don't have to do it. You can find yourself offended by it, but it is constitutionally protected speech.

Trump wants that changed. He's been promising this for years. Our country from people that love our country, people that burn the American flag should go to jail for one year. What they should be doing. And we'll see. Nothing screams free speech and small government like telling people if you burn a piece of fabric that you own, we will imprison

you. Get that done. We're going to try and get that done. We're working with some of your senators. I know Senator Josh Hawley is very much involved. So Trump has been promising that they're going to do what they can to make it illegal to burn pieces of fabric that you own, depending on what is on the fabric for a long time. But all of this, as disgusting as all of this was, it is nothing compared to the threat

against speech that Trump levied from the Oval Office yesterday. At this point, it's not even really that surprising when the president of the United States, Donald Trump, threatens Americans with violence. It's like it's Wednesday, you know. But this latest one is particularly chilling. Donald Trump is holding a big birthday parade this weekend. Formally, it's because of the anniversary of the army.

But they've chosen to do it, of course, on Donald Trump's birthday. There's going to be tanks rolling. It's going to be really a gaudy display of authoritarian insecurity if I've ever seen one. But Trump issued a clear warning. If there are any protesters that come out, they will be met with big force, big force. If you want to protest this parade on Trump's birthday force is what you should expect. We won the war and we're the only country that didn't celebrate it.

And we're going to be celebrating big on Saturday. We're going to have a lot of. And if there's any protest or wants to come out, they will be met with very big force. By the way, for those people that want to protest, they're going to be met with very big force. And I haven't even heard about a protest. But you know, this is people that hate our country, but they will be met with very heavy force.

Thank you very much. Notice that Donald Trump didn't say if you protest with violence, if you protest with looting, if you protest and break the law in so protesting. Trump just said if you protest and of course, protesting is a constitutionally protected form of speech. Burning flags is a constitutionally protected form of speech. Trump wants flag burners jailed for a year. Protesting is a constitutionally protected form of speech.

Trump says if you protest, you will be met with big force. So none of this is about safety. None of this is about national security, the integrity of the parade. It is about crushing dissent. Now the First Amendment, of course, says Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. That includes protesting a government parade.

Protesting is not just legal. It's a foundational element of American democracy. There are regimes that crush opposition. Trump wants us to be one of those, but we're not supposed to be. And the idea here is a sitting president publicly threatening protesters with very big force is OK. It's kosher. It's outrageous and unconstitutional.

That's what it really is. And just imagine the outrage if a Democratic president threatened, quote, very big force against anti-abortion protesters outside the White House who were there often when Biden was president. Fox News would be live from the lawn for 72 hours straight. But when Trump does it, it's crickets from the right and even MAGA base people are cheering it. They love it.

So this is how authoritarianism creeps in. We are going to have tanks in the street for the protest, but you don't need tanks in the streets to have authoritarianism. It is going to be the normalization of language that says if you protest, you're a threat and we're going to use force. that is a form of authoritarianism. This is a man who has already deployed active duty Marines on U.S. soil and who has floated using the insurrection act like it's a Twitter poll. I don't know.

I'll just throw it up there. And who sees every act of criticism against him as a personal attack. So when he says we're going to meet protesters with big force, I assume he means it. And he means that you are not going to be allowed to speak in a way that's constitutionally protected. I hope that those on the right who value and support and understand the Constitution will join me and say this is a threat against our rights. You don't have to agree with every protest to defend the right to protest.

You don't have to show up to Trump's parade to know that this is not normal. The president threatening physical retaliation against peaceful, constitutionally protected assembly. We're supposed to see this in history books about collapsing democracies not happening in real time in our own country and for a parade on Trump's birthday meant to inflate his already overblown ego. So call me crazy, but I'm on the side of the Constitution. Trump isn't.

I wish more of his base were. You know, every time we call out Donald Trump's authoritarianism, the right calls it media hysteria. But I want to remind you that Trump admits he's looking for ways to defy the constitution and maybe even pursue another term. Now if you don't know the bias behind your news, you might believe, oh, Trump's just teasing us. There's nothing here. Go to ground.news slash Pacman

and see how media bias influences more than your perception from Trump's policy and ability to understand and undermine constitutional norms. I've been with ground news for years now because this is what they do. They expose the hidden agendas behind reporting sources and make it easy to compare coverage and understand critical issues. Even better, if I'm reading a story on another site, the ground news browser extension will flag the sources, political bias and give me other reports on the same story so I can verify the information. My viewers get 40% off the same unlimited vantage plan that I use. in I find myself asking the same question. What do I get for the fathers in my life who say they don't need anything?

A couple of years ago I nailed it. I gave my dad an aura digital photo frame. Now I can say it is something he actually uses every day. Or a was named the number one digital picture frame by wire cutter. Easy to see why you get unlimited photo and video storage. No subscription setup takes just a few minutes. for David Pakman. Check out that's a you are a frames dot com. Use code Pacman for thirty dollars off their best selling Carver Mat Frame. Terms and conditions may apply. All of the info is in the podcast notes. Well I'm sure that much like me, you've been anxiously asking yourself, where is where

is Tulsi Gabbard? No, I'm kidding. I'm sure you haven't been thinking of that, but she is the director of national intelligence and Tulsi Gabbard has resurfaced to spread Vladimir Putin's propaganda. I know just when you thought, you know, the role of DNI couldn't be twisted into something even darker. Tulsi Gabbard reappears with a full blown propaganda video that really could have been written in Moscow by Putin's top tropic top propaganda. So we're going to look at the video that's been circulating online where Tulsi warns Americans that political elites who she doesn't name are actively trying

to provoke a nuclear war with Russia. Why would they do this? Well, according to Tulsi, because they supposedly have underground bunkers and sophisticated bomb shelters that would protect them. Now, that's not really an explanation as to why the war would benefit them. But I guess it's an explanation as to how they would survive. But consider that this is no longer some like conspiracy YouTuber. This is the director of national intelligence, arguably, although she's certainly defaced to the post, arguably the top intelligence

official in the United States pushing what you would expect to hear pushed on Alex Jones's info wars. OK, so let's take a listen to what she had to say. Soil condemning survivors to agonizing deaths or lifelong suffering. A nuclear winter could follow with smoke and ash completely blocking the sun, plunging the world into darkness and cold, killing crops and starving billions. Acid rain would scar the earth, wiping out entire ecosystems. This isn't some made-up science fiction story. This is the reality of what's at stake, what we are facing

now. Because as we stand here today, closer to the brink of nuclear annihilation than ever before, political elite and warmongers are carelessly fomenting fear and tensions between nuclear powers. Perhaps it's because they are confident that they will have access to nuclear shelters for themselves and for their families that regular people won't have access to. So it's up to us, the people, to speak up and demand an end to this madness. We must reject this path to nuclear war and work toward a world where no one has to live in fear of a nuclear holocaust. This seems more like the trailer to the latest Netflix show than it does, like an intelligence

analysis. I mean, it's not an intelligence analysis. This is adjit prop or we might I might go further. I might call it adjit trash, which I know many of you love It is the kind of narrative that Russia has been pushing for for years now number one. So distrust number two generate paranoia number three elevate chaos in the West where people start arguing as to which side of the Russia Ukraine war we should be on and It's coming from inside the American government. That's what makes it all the more grotesque that Gabbard is doing it from a position of

massive institutional power. She's not a rogue pundit. She's not a fringe YouTuber. She's the director of national intelligence responsible for overseeing CIA, NSA, FBI and more sees the president's the presidential daily brief every morning, has access to every classified threat assessment on Earth. And yet she's parroting a line that sounds ripped straight out of a Kremlin talking point memo that the ruling class is engineering World War Three so they can survive in luxury while

everybody else dies. And even the way she's speaking, the ominous tone with the music and the fear mongering, the refusal to name a single person who's actually involved in this. It all is a classic playbook. Stir resentment, undermine unity, textbook authoritarian disinformation dressed up as do the patriotic thing. Now, of course, no, I don't want nuclear war. Recognizing that Russia invaded Ukraine is the aggressor and could end it immediately

doesn't mean we want nuclear war or that Russia should be bombed or anything like it. And you really have to consider the source here because this is the same Tulsi who spent years flirting with these Russian narratives, who many members of the House and Senate believe is actually compromised and said so when she was nominated to be Trump's DNI defending Assad. Classic Russian narrative, trashing Ukraine, classic Russian narrative, constantly invoking regime change wars amorphously as a deflection for accountability. She has been building to this moment and it is as bad as we could have imagined with the

ominous music and the entire thing. The difference is now she's got the U.S. government formally behind her. And the funniest part is she refers to these shadowy elites without naming anybody sort of. It's a version of deep state, right? She's the deep state now in the sense that she is running the intelligence apparatus, this whole them thing, the shadowy elites. She is them. She is Trump's DNI. Trump is one of these elites. So when she says the intelligence community is corrupt or compromised

or pushing war, either she's indicting herself or she's making it up. Either way, it's absolutely horrifying when we think back to when Tulsi was first nominated for this post and we realized she has no business anywhere near even classified information, never mind running intelligence for the United States. The sort of thing we were worried about is that as an arm of the Trump administration's disinformation apparatus, she would formalize a lot of the worst conspiracy theories and blame the victim or defend the attacker sort of ideology. And she's doing it with I have to say, you know, it's a pretty well produced video as you look at it with the graphics and the music and the dystopian language and the entire thing that she's doing

exactly what we worried she would do if she got into this position. I don't like the I told you so because we still get screwed. We were saying it, but we're still now having to deal with it. So if you've been wondering where she was, not not that I really was, I was glad to see her not not there, but she's back and it's completely terrifying. Donald Trump has won. Elon Musk is now bending the knee. It didn't take long, did it? Elon started publicly attacking Donald Trump, calling for his impeachment, accusing him of being in the Epstein files, warning the United States that Trump's big, beautiful bill was going to bankrupt the country.

But Elon is down on his knees for Trump, the world's richest man. Maybe, maybe it's Putin. I don't know. One of the world's richest men is now apologizing to Trump, deleted some of his most inflammatory posts and started retweeting pro Trump content like nothing ever happened. It's like the Seinfeld scene based on something Larry David did, where George Costanza quits in a rage and goes, I quit. I'm never coming back.

Realize this damn I need the money and just shows up the rage and goes, I quit. I'm never coming back. Realize this. Damn, I need the money and just shows up the next day like he never quit. When he's asked about it, he goes, oh, oh, that that was just a joke. Elon's doing the same thing. And why is Elon doing this? Because at the end of the day, it came down to it. Elon realized that Trump has the real power. It is not the guy with the rocket ships. It's the guy with the federal contracts. And after weeks of escalating the feud at three a.m. this morning, Elon Musk put out a nasty excretion on his own platform X where he said, quote, I regret some. I regret some of my posts about President Trump.

Some of them he regrets. not all of them and says they went too far. They went too far. This is a guy who once told foreign heads of state to go to jail, mocked elected leaders on X, never apologizes. But Trump gets an apology. Why? Because Trump threatened to review Musk's government contracts.

Musk poked the bear. The bear reminded him, I'm bigger than you. I'm the one buttering your bread. So just like rewind a week here, Musk called Trump's legislation an abomination. Trump told I'm sorry, Musk told Americans to kill the bill, says Trump couldn't even have won in 2024 without the money he gave him and then drops the bomb that Trump is tied to Jeffrey Epstein. And that's why the files aren't being made public. So this was not like a mild criticism.

This was a formal declaration of open inter billionaire war. And what changed that that behind the scenes, things started to get very bad for Elon Musk. Trump's inner circle, including JD Vance, started hinting. Elon may want to dial it back a little bit. Trump said he wasn't even thinking about Elon Musk, which is Trump's code for I'm pissed, but I'm going to let you try to fix it yourself. And then Elon starts deleting the Epstein posts, liking pro Trump content, and then does his maya culpa.

The truth is that Elon may be the richest man in the world, but in Trump's America, there's something that matters as much as dollars. And it is called current loyalty. Loyalty is the currency. And Elon bankrupted himself of loyalty very quickly. He thought he could throw his weight around than his money around. But Trump's like a mafia boss in a suit. You know, you come in for him and you miss.

And he then reminds you who's really the boss. Not a single other politician on Earth has ever gotten an apology from Elon Musk. Keir Starmer didn't get one. Justin Trudeau didn't get one. American politicians that Elon has insulted. None of them. But Trump gets it. And that's really the story here. This is not just a celebrity feud. Power in the United States of America right now works like this. Elon owns the platforms. He owns the

satellites. He owns the cars. He owns the rockets. And he is ending up groveling because he criticized Donald Trump. So if Elon ends up in that position, it's terrifying about what it means for anybody else. And this is what authoritarianism looks like and how it works. You can speak, you can speak. But if you say the wrong thing, there's a price. And for Elon Musk, the price was going to be billions of dollars in federal contracts. For you, maybe it's your job.

For Terry Moran on ABC News. It was his job. Maybe it gets worse. So Trump gets the win. Elon surrenders. And the question now isn't does Musk still have influence? It's is there anyone in Trump's America that can dissent without fear if Elon can't? I don't know who's left. Now on the bonus show today, we will talk about the growth of the protests nationally. This is going beyond L.A. Is this a good thing? I think so. But is it playing into Trump's authoritarian hands to become even more authoritarian. Probably we will hear more from Tulsi Gabbard admitting that she asked Chad GPT which of

the JFK files should remain classified. Oh, God. Government by Chad GPT. And then finally, the appeal of Donald Trump's historic criminal conviction continues. And there's some interesting news there. So I would love it for you to be a member so that you can get the bonus show and all of the other perks. You can sign up at Join Pacman Dotcom and you can request a free membership at David

Pakman Dotcom slash free membership. See you on the bonus show. See you back here tomorrow.