The David Pakman Show - 8/21/25: Texas does it, Trump cracks, disaster economic headlines

Episode Date: August 21, 2025

-- On the Show: -- California Governor Gavin Newsom joins David to discuss his redistricting strategy aimed at countering Republican gerrymandering in Texas -- Texas Republicans pass a Trump-backed gerrymander while Gavin Newsom launches a direct counterstrike with California redistricting -- Donald Trump faces backlash as tariffs drive up costs with rising prices hitting John Deere PepsiCo Sony and electricity bills -- Trump demands rate cuts that would inflate the value of over one hundred million dollars in bonds he recently purchased -- Kellyanne Conway lashes out as Gavin Newsom trolls Trump online and undermines her defense of Trump’s approach to history and media -- Right-wingers from Sean Hannity to Ted Cruz spiral over Gavin Newsom’s trolling -- Trump explodes on Truth Social with a late-night rant praising Texas gerrymanders, attacking Gavin Newsom, and threatening Colorado -- JD Vance embarrasses himself by claiming homeless people make Union Station dangerous while protesters boo him, Stephen Miller, and Pete Hegseth -- On the Bonus Show: Republican congressman says dead people told him they voted fraudulently, Trump says U.S. won't approve new solar and wind projects, African Union wants a map that better represents Africa's size, and much more... ⚠️ Ground News: Get 40% OFF their unlimited access Vantage plan at https://ground.news/pakman 🔊 Babbel language learning: Get up to 60% OFF at https://babbel.com/pakman 🛡️ Incogni lets you control your personal data! Get 60% off their annual plan: http://incogni.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, my friends. It is time to make Texas regret what they just did in service of Donald Trump. They did it. We're going to be speaking to California Governor Gavin Newsom in a little bit about what California is up to. But we now have to contend with the fact that Texas has done it. If you have been wondering whether Republicans in Texas could push gerrymandering any further, the answer is yes, they can.

The Texas House has rammed through this aggressively partisan redistricting map. We call it gerrymandering. This is exactly what Donald Trump requested that they do. And the whole point of it is without changing anything about the makeup of the state, by redrawing the congressional maps, they can give five more Republican states. seats in the House or they can get five more seats in the House for the Republican Party. And this is before a single ballot has even been cast for 2026. The vote in Texas, purely a party line vote in the Texas House.

Democrats did everything they could to block it with a walkout, which we talked about. Republicans retaliated by assigning state police chaperones to fellow Democratic lawmakers so that they couldn't leave again. And this is very abnormal. This is extraordinarily undemocratic. I would vote today to ban all partisan redistricting and all of it. But we don't have that opportunity right now. This is sort of hardball power politics.

Texas showed the rest of the country they are willing to go really far to lock in minority rule. And so this is where it gets interesting. Governor Gavin Newsom is not putting out angry press releases or very strongly worded letters. I spoke to him about this and we're going to play that conversation for you a little bit later on in today's show. And he is doing something that Democrats almost never do, which is matching Republicans move for move.

California Democrats are now looking to push through their own mid-decade redistricting map aimed at flipping five Republican seats in California to Democratic seats to completely neuter what Texas is doing right now. This is not symbolic. This is a counterstrike to what Texas is doing. Now, in saying that Democrats should do this, I'm not suggesting Democrats go and commit crimes. I'm not suggesting Democrats go and lie. I'm saying we don't unilaterally disarm and we fight fire with fire. So I want to restate the importance of my moral position on this. And you can determine whether this is appropriate or you might hear me say this and go, David, that's a post facto rationalization. You've lost your mind. Fine. Let me know if that's the case.

If I could ban partisan gerrymandering nationwide tomorrow, I would do it without hesitation. I don't want either party drawing district lines to lock in power. And I will ask Gavin Newsom his position on that as well. That is not the world that we are living in today. We live in a world where Texas, Florida, Missouri, Indiana, these Republican-led states, they have and are redrawing maps to entrench Republican control and to try to prevent Democrats from ever taking control back of the House of Representatives in this. that world where we exist, Democrats can't just sit back and hope voters see through it and vote

a particular way anyway in 2026. It's just not going to work. It's mathematically overwhelming. And so you either fight fire with fire or you're going to get burned. And again, I want to make this important distinction. I don't believe that the left and Democrats should stoop to everything that the Republican Party does. I don't think that the left and Democrats should start deliberately lying, committing crimes, doing corrupt acts, spreading disinformation, undermining elections. That is corrosive stuff. That degrades democracy. It's wrong no matter who does it. But we're talking about something a little different here. Gerrymandering is a tool for controlling who gets into power in the first place. If Republicans are using the tool to take more and more power,

Democrats refusing to use the tool is like showing up to a knife fight empty handed. Why would you do that? You will never win again. But the catch is the following. And I believe that this is something that both the governor and I understand. The math is not as simple as we gerrymander, they gerrymander, and we win. And this is something that I'm going to press Newsom. about. Republicans control more states. Republicans have more maps that they could redraw. They've already redrawn some of them. And that's sort of the impetus and catalyst for a lot of this. But there's a question of if everybody plays this game, the net result could be a stalemate or it might even grow the advantage for the Republican Party. Texas redrawing to get five seats and California

redrawing to get five seats. Okay, well, that seems like sort of like a net. And then there's the idea, what about if Illinois and New York go ahead and do more of the same? And maybe in those states there's an advantage. But there's an analysis from Dave Wasserman that says if every state were to gerrymander to the max, every state that's legally allowed to do it, redistricting between censuses or sensi, that it actually is better for Republicans than Democrats. And so that's a real question. And then the House will still come down to a handful of swing districts in the states that don't change their map. So the reality here is you can't call moral high ground out of a gerrymandered house. You can't get control back. That's a clumsy way of saying it. You're not

going to get control back of a gerrymandered house by saying, hey, the other side is gerrymandering and that's really bad. You're just not going to win. And so at a certain point, there has to be a decision made. Are we trying to win to get power to try to fix some of this stuff or aren't So Texas has decided to play the game. They've pushed forward on that legislation. Fine. What we have to do now is make them regret it. Let's make their five stolen seats cost them 10 seats if it's possible.

Five of them might come in California. If California voters in November decide that that's what they want to do. And maybe there will be others coming from elsewhere. So the whole idea here is we need to get power to then end the practice. once and for all. Hilariously, to some degree, if Democrats do this and it helps to win the House back in 2026 and then Democrats propose a ban on all politically motivated redistricting, I assume Republicans will do what they've done in the past, which is say, no, we don't want that.

We want to keep partisan politically oriented redistricting. We could have a path to never having this conversation again. But Republicans actually love the partisan gerrymandering, even if they claim. that Democrats are the ones that are really doing it. So Texas did it. It's now time to make them regret it if we can. We have a number of disastrous economic headlines. And we are going to discuss tomorrow on the show how so much of what is going on is completely self-inflicted by the Trump administration. I'm going to go through a number of economic headlines and we're going to talk about their implications. First and foremost, John Deere, a company that Donald Trump

loves and has much touted as a great representation of what's good about American innovation and business. Well, in the wake of Donald Trump's tariffs, John Deere is announcing mass layoffs. We will link the article. This is going to affect more than 200 workers at three Midwestern plants. 15 employees will be fired in Illinois. 50 workers at that same plant in a different plant in Illinois are also going to be fired 71 in Waterloo, Iowa. What the statement put out by the company says is that as stated on our most recent earnings call, the struggling agricultural economy continues to impact orders for John Deere equipment. This is a challenging time for farmers, growers, and producers and directly impacts our business in the near term.

The primary drivers for the change from last quarter are increased tariff rates on Europe, India, and steel and aluminum. John Deere layoffs as a result of Donald Trump's tariffs, optional, not necessary, not a required response to some calamity. Trump wanted to do it and he did. Next, Pepsi will be hiking prices on the soda concentrate by 10%. This will start on September 7th. Sources told the beverage news outlet that finished canned and bottled soda sold to distributors will also climb three to five percent, depending on the brand. Earlier this week, the soft drinks darling launched drips by Pepsi, a new line of sodas, blah, blah, blah. Trump promised groceries were going to be going down. And instead, we now have wholesale vegetable

prices up 38%. And we now have a Pepsi concentrate. rate up 10% and Pepsi canned drinks up three to five percent. Not exactly what Donald Trump promised us. Electronics. The Verge now reports that Sony is raising prices for its much loved PlayStation 5 starting. It says tomorrow, which is today because the article is from yesterday. Sony is raising the price of all PlayStation 5 models by 50 bucks. Sony cites the challenging. economic environment, including, you know where I'm going, the tariffs that President Trump has placed on imported products. By the way, Microsoft has also raised the price of Xbox hardware and accessories, including bumping up Xbox Series X digital to 550 bucks. Nintendo also increasing

the cost of accessories for its Switch 2. And it also raised the price of the original Switch. because of the impact of tariffs. Not a global economic condition, not a pandemic, not a business cycle, Trump's optional tariffs, which he is waging as a trade war that he thinks he will easily win. What about energy which Donald Trump also promised would come down? This is exhausting folks. I mean, this is really dystopian. Electric bills are up 10% so far this year, why they could keep getting.

costlier. I just got the highest electrical bill I have ever had for, it was for July. And it was extremely hot, extremely hot. And then also, you know, with a new baby, we're trying to keep the the house cooler all day than we otherwise might if we're like out working and such. So that combined with the price increases record record electric bill. I think it was, I think it was 550. But I mean, just not even close the most expensive electrical bill I've ever had. The report from Forbes, electricity bills are up 10% since the start of the year. They could rise another $170 a year for households by 2035. Thanks to, uh-oh, the repeal of clean energy tax credits, new tariffs, and the rapid expansion

of electricity, hungry data centers to fuel a boom in AI. Two of those three things have Donald Trump's orange face all over them. The repeal of the clean energy tax credits didn't have to do it. Trump wanted to. New tariffs didn't have to do it. Trump wanted to. So we are building up this picture where look at the totality. Electronics prices up.

Electricity prices up. Grocery prices up. Soda prices up. John Deere is laying off people. creation, the lowest in three years. Manufacturing activity. Biggest decline in, I believe it's in five years. What is going on here? And the big story is that we are the victims, not of global circumstance, not of circumstances beyond our control, not of business cycles or pandemics or natural disasters. We're the victims of Trump's egomaniacal, narcissistically self-centered,

economic policy where he wants to portray himself as the big strong boy, nobody's stronger. What a big boy. And of course, he is pushing through with ideas that were bad from the beginning and that never should have happened to start with. Is everybody loving it? Let me know. Also, let me know what you're seeing in your community. What is the most concerning single sign?

Is it a local company doing layoffs, restaurants that are closed, prices, let me. me know what it is info at david packman dot com appending supreme court case could strip our fourth amendment rights and allow immigration agents to come into our homes for any reason no probable cause needed all while republicans try to twist things so that you think this is all great for america this should be the biggest story in the u.s right now but it's almost impossible to keep up with the millions of moves that Trump is making every single day. That's why ground news exists. Ground news is an app and website that exposes the blind spots and spin before it takes control of our opinions. Ground news is the smarter, more reliable way to stay informed when MAGA is banking

on us getting distracted. I'm partnering up with ground news to give you 40% off the same vantage plan that I use. So you'll pay only five bucks a month for all. of their premium features, just go to ground.news slash Pacman or use the code Pacman in the app when you sign up. The link is in the description or scan the QR code. We may have figured out the real reason that Donald Trump is obsessed with getting Jerome Powell to lower the federal funds rate. It has nothing to do with the economy.

It has nothing to do with what's good for the country. It may be as simple, as simple as Donald Trump. has money to make if the federal funds rate declines. Let me explain. Trump has been demanding that the federal reserve slash interest rates for a while now. And some of his demands have not been for like a 25 or 50 basis point cut. Trump's been talking about the Fed lowering lowering interest rates three or four full points, something the Fed would only ever consider doing, number one, much more slowly than three or four points at a time. You usually see a quarter to half a point at a time. But more importantly, something the Fed would only really consider

doing if the economy is in trouble, if they need to boost the economy. Thanks to new disclosures, we now know that Donald Trump could make a lot of money. Donald Trump's wallet could swell like his ankles if the federal funds rate were to be reduced. Let me explain why. Why demand a rate cut when the economy is doing really poorly? if you claim the economy is doing really well. It makes sense to ask the question. We might have figured it out. Since his second inauguration, Donald Trump has purchased personally over $100 million

in corporate state and municipal bonds. So like Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo, Qualcomm, a long list of state bonds, a long list of state bonds, a long list of local government bonds. And so here's the very simple math. This is like we, I learned this in, I guess it must have been money and banking first year of econ or something like that. So when, here's the way it works. If you buy bonds, bonds have a purchase price and a yield.

You might buy a thousand dollar bond that pays five percent. Cool. Lower rates mean that bonds you already own start to be worth more. Let me explain how that works. Bond prices and interest rates move in opposite directions. When rates go down, older bonds that pay a higher interest rate become more valuable. Why would that be? Well, think about it. If I was able to go out and get a 5% bond for a thousand bucks, rates go down. Now all of a sudden, bonds only pay 4%. Why would I now go and spend $1,000 on a 4% bond? I would be willing to pay more than the thousand for a bond that pays 5%. Now, this is not the exact math, but all of a sudden, the bond I might have purchased for a thousand bucks that paid 5%. Someone might be willing

to pay me $1,100 for the bond. Because if they go out on the public market, they're no longer going to get 5%. So in order to get a higher yield, they're willing to pay me more for that bond. This is why they move in opposite direction. So here's the kicker. Trump has bought a hundred million dollars worth of bonds. If and when the Fed lowers rates, Trump's bonds with the higher rates are now worth more. Trump can sell them and make a whole bunch of money. The more downward pressure Trump can put on the federal funds rate, the more his bonds are going to be worth on the open market. Fed cuts rates, Trump's bonds spike in price, instant windfall. And so when you see Trump out there patting Jerome Powell and going, this guy's got a lower rates for me, he's too late Jerome Powell,

Trump would benefit from that personally. Now, the White House is doing its usual dog and pony show. The White House is saying, oh, no, Trump's portfolio is managed by a third party. He doesn't have a role in managing it. But he still knows what he's got going on. This is like when Trump, oh, I'm going to put my businesses in a blind trust. Right. But you still know if you own hotels, right? You still know you have a hotel in Washington, D.C. that diplomats and foreign dignitaries can stay at. By the way, Trump didn't end up doing that. But even if he had. So this is a guy with a long history of using the presidency to self-enrich to help himself, his family or his friends.

You look at the 2017 tax cuts, slashed corporate rates, boosted profits for companies whose stock he owned, created this qualified business income deduction, which was a boon for many people sort of of Trump's ilk. He did deregulation and rolled back environmental and financial rules and that benefited sectors that Trump's invested in, banks, for example, and energy. Trump promoted spending on infrastructure and tourism that increased the value of luxury real estate, like his golf resorts, tariff waivers. Trump has granted selective exemptions for products, including ones that he is involved in.

And so, you know, you see this and you can almost laugh. Like, can you imagine if Obama had done this? Forget about Biden. I know people go, David, stop talking about Biden, if Biden had done it. All right. Well, forget about Biden. Imagine if, as Trump calls him, Barack Hussein Obama had done this. What do you think they would be saying?

They would be saying anti-American. We told you that the Kenyan Marxist Muslim wasn't going to have America's best interest in mind off with his head, 25th Amendment impeachment. If Barack Obama, imagine we learned, Obama spent a hundred million Obama. didn't have a hundred million when he was president. Put that aside. Obama spent a hundred million on bonds and then aggressively said cut rates, even though the economic circumstances didn't support aggressive rate cuts. The very same Republicans defending Donald Trump today would have been holding round the clock hearings about corruption and self-dealing. And it would

have made Hillary Clinton's Benghazi hearings look like child's play. But with Trump, it's Thursday, guys. That's it. It's Thursday. So going forward, when you hear Donald Trump talking about the feds got to do the right thing. Jerome Powell's too late here. Just remember that this is a guy who has turned the presidency into a personal profit center before. He's doing it again. Lower rates might help you a little bit. Like maybe you could get a mortgage for slightly cheaper. Except by the way, home prices and mortgage rates also tend to move in opposite directions. Mortgage rates. Mortgage rates go down. Hope values tend to go up because with a lower interest rate, people can now afford more home for the same monthly payment. The point is, it might help you a little bit. It is going

to help Trump a lot. And imagine if he can make a couple percentage points on $100 million in bonds. That's Trump for you. Can't say I'm surprised. Kelly Ann Conway was wildly triggered on Fox News. She does not like being wrong. Kelly Ann Conway is the on again, off again, advisor to Trump. To be perfectly frank, I don't even know if she has. Let's see how they have her listed here. I don't even know if she has a formal role right now. I guess she may not.

All right. Let's listen to what she had to say. She doesn't like what Gavin Newsome is doing. She says he's trolling and it's cringe and only Trump can get away with this sort of thing. And look at Gavin Newsome. He tried to do this, was it a radio show, a podcast, whatever he tried to do. Now he's busy trolling on social media and it's cringe. It's falling flat.

I'm sure they'll come after me now. Who cares? Because there's Donald Trump is one of one. Only he can do what he's done with social media, with podcasts, in the way he's done at 900 rallies and counting. The thing that he does that we all miss and don't talk enough about is he just works harder than everyone else. Right.

And look at Gavin Newsome. It's that simple. You can't do what Trump does. does. When Trump does erratic all night, all caps posts to social media, completely unbecoming of the office of the presidency, Trump's crafted a way to do that. That is coherent and it makes sense. It's not embarrassing. But when Gavin Newsom does it, that's a totally different story. Completely different story. They can't get over just how furious they are that Gavin Newsom is doing the same thing Trump has been doing since day one.

which they supported except Gavin isn't Trump. Gavin's not orange. He's not separating families. He's not doing the things Trump does. So they're really, really mad that Gavin Newsom is satirically doing something that Donald Trump has been doing, which they have no problem with. The topic then came up and Kelly Ann really gets triggered on this show. The topic came up of Donald Trump wanting to essentially be the curator of the Smithsonian, Trump posting that the Smithsonian has too much woke stuff going on and they're too focused on how slavery was bad and Trump's going to send his people through there to evaluate each museum exhibit and determine what's woke and what's not. Kelly Ann Conway hilariously says, we didn't elect Trump to be curator of the Smithsonian.

He doesn't want to do that. And Jessica Tarloff points out that's exactly what he said he wants to do. But we didn't hire him to be the curator of the Smithsonian. There are people far more qualified to tell that story. And guess what? I think it's fair. You know, when I have I've mentioned this before, so in front of a audience that didn't necessarily agree with me. Like, it should be okay to say Robert E. Lee is a traitor, and we should get his statue down. And it should be okay to just talk about this slavery as one of the worst things in certainly American history and world history. At Dana, we didn't elect President Trump to be curated to Smithsonian. He doesn't want to do that.

Yes, he does. What he wants to do with our museums that are taxpayer-funded is make them educational, informative, and not rewrite. history and he wants to do with them. He's done with the universities, what they're doing with their agency. Isn't that funny? Listen to what Kelly Ann says. She says, Trump doesn't want to be the curator of the Smithsonian. Actually, he put out a tweet saying that that's exactly what he wants to do. She says he wants to make our museums educationally informative and not rewrite history, except Trump's the one who's saying, we're playing up too much that slavery was bad. We really need to stop doing that at the museums. It's Trump who's trying to rewrite history.

We are sort of in an environment here where they are now regularly defending Trump on the basis that they actually should be attacking him. That it, that's how backwards things have become. And it's interesting because if you pay attention to right wing media and Fox is the five is an interesting one because they actually do have one left voice, Jessica Tarlov, who's there to push back a little bit. So it's not a completely uncontested echo chamber. They are now often conflicting in their defenses of Trump.

You often hear defenses of Trump now that couldn't both possibly be true. In other words, Trump's good because he's getting involved in something and good because he's staying out of it. That's a classic one. It's great that Trump got involved here. It's great that Trump's not getting involved here. And these sort of incoherence, this sort of incoherence, these sort of inconsistencies are really common when the primary prism through which political support is.

established isn't an adherence to policy. It's not, well, listen, Kelly Ann Conway, for her, immigration, tax policy, and NATO are really important. Here's what she believes. And as long as Trump adheres to what she believes, she's a, I know you're hearing that and going, what are you talking about, David? It's just a cult. That's all it is. And that's the point. When the support is based on personality and the leader is seen more of as a pseudo-deity cult leader type than just an elected official where let's try to get them to do things we think are good for the country and good for the world, you end up with these completely inconsistent positions from people like Kelly Ann Conway.

So extraordinarily triggering, but nothing compared to the level of trigger that is happening as a result of what's going on with Gavin Newsom. Gavin Newsom is living rent-free in the very oversized heads of many Fox News hosts, one of those being Sean Hannity. Last night on Fox News, most of the prime time shows were focused on Gavin News. They weren't focused on ending conflict around the world. They weren't focused on the growing cracks in the American economy thanks to Donald Trump's economic policy.

They are obsessed with Gavin Newsome. And I believe that that is because what Newsom is doing is working. Here is Hannity attacking, ridiculing the social media approach of Newsom in mocking Donald Trump. He's so jealous they didn't come up with this themselves. Now currently, he and a social media team, they are busy trying to mock President Trump on X by posting messages in all caps. He's trying to pretend to be Donald Trump.

Gavin is also attacking Fox news host. He's trying to be conservatives into social media fights. He's actually referred to our own Tommy Laren's account as Yelp for toilets, which is great, by the way. Very clever and funny. She'll join us in a moment to respond. Gavin now currently, the anger is growing. They wouldn't be spending all damn night talking about Gavin Newsom if this wasn't getting to them

and working to some degree. They hate the numbers that the social strategy is getting. They hate that Newsom, by the way, that Newsom's actually engaging with independent media in a way that previously Democrats were not. Here is more from Hannity saying that what Newsom is doing will not help them except with his existing Looney base. I have a point. Results matter. A new performative, confrontational style. Maybe it wins your points with the loony radical base in your party. But America is not going to vote for that record. Well, let's wait and see. Ted Cruz ranted for so long about Gavin Newsom that they started playing him off with music. Cruz was so flipped out about it that they just kept play. It's like when the Oscars acceptance speech goes too long, they just keep going and

going and then the music comes in louder and louder they are booing they're unhappy and you know what this is illustrating that all the rest of these democrat cities could reduce crime to it reminds me Sean of when Gavin Newsom when president she from China came to San Francisco Newsom cleaned up all the homeless people and drug addicts and that told all the people of San Francisco he could have done it last week or last month but he didn't because they didn't matter nearly as much to him their kids didn't matter as much as the leader Ted don't you hear the music you're supposed to stop talking communist China.

Well, said, and by the way, congratulations to you, Governor Abbott and the- Yeah, congratulations to everybody about the gerrymandering scam that you got through. Fox News then actually read one of Gavin Newsom's all-caps tweets, which again, they're trying to talk about how lame, stupid, and cringy it is. He got them to read the tweets. That is a major, major victory. Gavin Newsome is in on the act now. Did he say Garvin?

Gavin Newsom is in on the act now, firing back at Trump about the redistricting. On X last night, Donald, you see all the caps, right? Do you notice the style? You see what's going on here, right? Donald Trump, the lowest polling president of recent history. This is your second to last warning. The next one is the last one. Stand down now where California will counterstrike legally to destroy your illegal crooked

maps in red states. Press conference coming, hosted by America's favorite governor, Gavin Newsom. Final warning. Next, you won't like it. Thank you for your attention to this matter. All right. So they read one of his tweets, major victory. And then you know how they always say, oh, liberals can't take a joke and liberals are so sensitive

and liberals find any little word that they find offensive. Well, here's a segment arguing that Gavin Newsome was ridiculing Greg Abbott's disability by saying that he rolled over for Trump. He, like, he's in a wheelchair. He rolled over. The idea that Gavin Newsom was making fun of Greg Abbott's disability with that statement is so pathetic. But even if it were true, I thought they were the ones who said liberals can't take a joke and they need to be coarser and just, you know, don't don't, don't police every little thing. Listen to this. Congressman Greg Abbott, who is in a wheelchair, and Newsom says he rolled over for Trump. That's almost as bad as Jasmine Crockett calling him Governor Hot Wheels.

You know, we asked for a statement and Newsom's office said something flippant like, you know, oh, you're so woke, he'll get over it. Abbott will get over it. Your response to that. Can you imagine? He rolled over for Trump, which is a classic way of saying they're just doing Trump. bidding. They laid down for Trump.

Oh, we're offended. What we're offended. He's making fun of a disability. No, he's not. Give me it. Newsom has broken their brains. And then finally, finally, my favorite clip, Dana Perino saying, why won't Newsom's wife tell him to cut it out?

The thing is, or at the debate, the other thing for me is that for the last week, Gavin Newsome and why am I giving him advice? You have to stop it with the Twitter. thing. I don't know where his wife is. If I were his wife, I would say, you are making a fool of yourself. Stop it. Do not, do not let your staff tweet. And if you're doing it yourself, put the phone away and cut it out, Gavin. It's really stupid. If this weren't working, if this weren't attaining purchase, it wouldn't be on all day on Fox News. They don't know how to deal with it. Now, I'm going to, of course,

give you the other side of this. And we'll talk to Gavin Newsom after the break. Triggering Fox News with your tweets, it's fine, right? But you've got to figure out how to make this redistricting thing actually work. And that's what we're going to be talking about with Gavin Newsom after this short break. You say you'll learn a new language every year, but few of us actually follow through. That's why I always recommend Babel. It's the app that finally made language learning stick for.

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It's great to welcome back to the program, California Governor Gavin Newsome. Governor, first and foremost, I do want to thank you for your attention to this matter. It's really important that we be here to talk about this. So I want to talk about three things. I want to talk about redistricting. I want to talk about the reaction to the proposal. And then just what, if anything, you think this idea means or suggests about how Democrats should go forward in 2016?

and 28 in dealing what with what they're up against. So the plan here, of course, is redraw the maps conditionally if voters want it and if Texas or another red state do the same with a time limit of 2030 estimated that this would put five additional seats in play from California, three, which would be pretty reliable pickups, and And two, that would be more toss-ups and maybe strengthen some other seats potentially. Is that like the 30,000 foot arc here? No, I think you nailed it. It's temporary.

It's transparent and it's democratic, meaning the voters will ultimately decide. The transparency is in the maps themselves that will be on the ballot. And the temporary nature is a really important point you underscore that will continue to maintain our 15 plus year status of having an independent redistricting commission. But under these emergency measures in response to what has occurred in Texas and other states, we will change the maps for congressional seats only in 26, 28, and 30, and then revert back to original form. I will say this. Texas appears now to have moved or is about to move, so this notion of conditioning it no longer necessarily is applicable or at least relevant necessarily.

And I imagine the legislature themselves may consider that as they make the final vote, perhaps even amending that out as a condition since now it's self-evident that we'll need to move forward in response to what Texas has done. One of the concerns from some in my audience is, is this a race to the bottom in the sense of if someone does it and then someone responds and then someone responds? Here's my view on it and I want to hear from you. Republicans to a great degree have already done it. And so what we're talking about here is, I think if you had the option to ban partisan

gerrymandering nationally, I believe you would support that. I certainly would, but I don't support unilateral disarmament and saying we're not going to do something they've done, which leads to losing, which leads to never getting power with which to change any of these things that I don't like. And so I'm curious to hear from you. I mean, would your preference be that we do away with all of this stuff, but that's simply not where we find ourselves? Yeah, not only is it a preference. It's in the legislation.

It's actually going to be on the ballot. We're going to affirm California's support for national independent redistricting. That is going to be on the ballot. That is what the legislature is currently voting on and will be on the November 4th ballot in California. So we absolutely agree with that framework. But it's to your point, this notion of unilaterally disarming. You know, holding a candlelight vigil, talking about the way the world should be, if you're going up against an opponent that is not playing by the rules, that's cheating, it's malpractice not to do something about that. It's dangerous, as in this case, because you're quite literally putting the rule of law and you're substituting the rule of Don. You're quite literally eliminating a co-equal branch of government because this rigging is not going to be limited to Texas. They'll continue to roll up other states. states, and at least we're asserting ourselves, not just with moral authority, not just talking

about the way the world should be, but with formal authority, the size of 21 state populations combined California. And so we can actually punch back. We can neutralize what Texas appears to be doing as we speak, likely to be advanced this evening and tomorrow. And we can do so in a very democratic way, a very different way than Greg Abbott and Donald Trump are doing it. Folks like Dave Wasserman and others have run the numbers on the hypothetical of, okay, Texas

does it and then California does it. But then what about everybody jumping in on this? And his concern or not concerned, it's my concern based on his analysis, is that the blue states are pretty much maxed out other than in California in terms of what can be done. And some examples are you look at Illinois, which has been talked about and the numbers there don't really leave much to do. New York maybe has a little more opportunity, but the rules there are more complicated and there are legal doubts as to whether New York could do what you're looking to do in California

and the other states simply have too small of a population. So the point here, Governor, is if everybody does it, if Texas and California doing it opens the floodgates, that it's actually not that useful to Democrats and may not give much of a net benefit at all. Have you seen those numbers? Have you thought about that analysis? Yeah, there are different estimates. Maryland may be able to move.

I do think Texas, I do think a Hockel in New York, they have a little bit of movement. There was some expression of concern a few years ago in terms of what they did or didn't do in that respect. And look, I'm not here. It's not what happens to us. It's how we respond to what happens to us. And we're responding to what happened to us in Texas, what's happening in real time. If we don't do it, they will do it. They've done it.

And they will continue to do more. At least we can punch back. At least we can neutralize the largest state that likely is moving forward in this afternoon, and that's Texas. And then we can put pressure on those other states and potentially put pressure on other blue states to at least test your theory of the case, test the theory that some are asserting. But if we don't do that, we're toast. He's going to rig the election.

And you think for a side, look, it's not just rigging election. It's the voter suppression. You saw with a vote by mail, the assertion that he's got lawyers working on an executive order on vote by mail. He's going to vandalize that. He's doing it with intimidation tactics. He did it at the Democracy Center when we announced this campaign last week. On the hollow ground of where we interned the Japanese in the 1940s, like quite literally, on the exact same location, putting ICE and border agents, border patrol, was there intimidating.

That is a preview. I promise you. Pay attention. That is a preview of things to come. It's coming to a voting booth near you. It will happen. They will intimidate. They will suppress the vote.

And it's also setting up the inevitable. You know it because we experienced it after January 6th, where he tried to light democracy on fire, try to destroy this company, and he tried to dial for votes with the Secretary of State in Georgia. He is setting up if he loses, when he loses, if we push back and fight back to say it was rigged, somehow was stolen.

And don't think for a second what you saw today, that charade, that carnival, with these carnies, with the Vice President of the United States, with the Defense Secretary, representing the Pentagon, and Union Station in D.C. And Union Station in D.C. with National Border Patrol, or with, excuse me, with the National Guard behind him, and the guy who's architecting all of these ice raids, Stephen Miller himself. I mean, what more evidence of authoritarianism do you need? These guys aren't screwing around. We can no longer screw around. It's all at stake.

It's happening in real time. People need to wake up, need to open their eyes. We can't continue to play by the old set of rules. This guy doesn't play by any rules, Donald Trump. It's the rule of Don, not the rule of law. One of the interesting things has been watching the reactions both to the redistricting proposal, but also the sort of mocking satirical all-cats. capital letters tweets, both from the president himself and sort of the Fox News types, number

one, the all caps posts from Donald Trump have stopped. And so for as much as Dana Perino wants to say, why isn't his wife telling him to cut it out? For as much as she wants to say that and saying that it's cringe, Trump's no longer doing it. So clearly it's getting to someone who's realizing, man, maybe I do seem kind of silly when I do it. But then interestingly, you mentioned, you know, the ICE presence at your press conference last week. The idea that individuals subject to targeting by ICE would show up at this press conference, the idea of it is just so silly. It's clearly a technique to intimidate. My view from the

outside is that this is getting to them to the right wing media ecosystem and to the president himself. Have you heard anything from behind the scenes of what the reaction has been beyond what we can see publicly? No, it's interesting. I reflecting on your observation, the way you framed the question. I think it has. I mean, I keep using the phrase because I really believe it. These are all acts of desperation, not strength. These are acts of weakness, weakness masquerading as strength. You don't need to show up and intimidate if you're on the winning side of an issue, quite the contrary. You don't need to stand down. You're all caps, you know, the diatribe and all this and all the memes and everything else that you've tried to create and

trying to dress up as Superman and everything else or the Pope, unless you've been exposed a little bit. And I hope in the context of us in their social media account that we're exposing that we, you know, that people have allowed this to be normalized. They've allowed the President of the United States to act like a six-year-old. And somehow it's been accepted. And so this is, you know, really what we're trying to do is we're trying to punch back a little bit of sense of humor. I think that's important. Democrats, you know, let's bring a little sense of humor to this. It's a cultural issue. He wins on the culture. He keeps, he plays in that space. Democrats need to play in that space. So I'm trying to look. I'm trying to iterate here.

I'm trying to punch above my weight a little bit. I'm not, I'm humble enough. There's enough grace to understand. I don't, I'm just, I'm one person trying to respond to this moment, trying to take some accountability, responsibility, and just try new things. See what works. And I just encourage every Democrat out there. You don't have to be an elected office. all of us to do the same because it's not normal what's going on. It's not. Every day, something extraordinary happens. And we can't say, well, we're not surprised. When we say we're not surprised, we're accepting it. We're complicit. And so this whole effort is really about a pattern interrupt. It's about being held to account. It's about putting a line in the sand

and say, we're not going to cross it enough, no more. Governor, if the proposition fails based on the vote of the residents of California, is that it for the idea? I mean, would you just say, hey, listen, we try it. Maybe it for the idea of the 249 years, the enduring values of the founding fathers, it may. I mean, that's not a gross. And by the way, that's a hell of a statement.

And forgive me, if someone says, they roll your eyes, say, that's hyperbolic. Hold on. It's not hyperbolic. We know what he tried to do. He tried to steal the last election. Now he's doing it in plain sight. He's rigging the 26th election before one vote is even cast. He's sending out his goons and masks and everyone else in his private police force.

That's what's happening now. One of the largest private police forces in the world now that has been funded with unprecedented resources. This is serious. He put the U.S. military, active duty Marines, not overseas. He never moved them overseas, hasn't in his first term or even his second. term. He moved into an American city in the United States of America. He's going after. He's going after redistricting, not just mid-decade, but he's also talking about who should be included in the next census. Across the spectrum, these are acts of authoritarianism. If you think we're going to

celebrate 250 years of the best of the Roman Republic and Greek democracy, co-equal branches, the government, the rule of law and popular sovereignty, those values, the best of our founding fathers next year, I think you're mistaken. If we fall short, if we don't stand up for the rule of law, if we don't stand up and fight back against Trump, we may lose this thing. We may lose this thing. It's that important. And so I can't encourage people more. If you're in another state, your state of mind should be supportive of what we're doing. That's why it's Prop 50, all 50 states, what's at stake is what we often take for granted. And that's why I just pray people are tuning in and not tuning out to this effort.

Governor, last thing I want to ask you about in thinking about 26 and also 28, I have five or 10 questions I could ask you about 28 that I know you won't answer. So I'm going to skip over those. Let me ask you the one that maybe you will answer, which is as you look around, do you see a favorable bullpen for the Democratic Party right now in terms of the choice that voters will get to make in 28 as you see just to pick a few people, Gretchen, Whitmer and Josh Shapiro and, you know, whoever people like, there's, there seems to be no shortage because one of the concerns has been time for a new generation, too much power for the old

guard, et cetera, whether or not at some point you might be on that list. Do you like the bullpen right now? Oh, it's off the charts. I was just with Senator Booker. I'd add to the list. What an extraordinary. I mean, you've got these unbelievably talented people like Pete Buttigieg, one of the most gifted communicators. What a mind. What a gift to the Democratic Party, to democracy. You mentioned a few outstanding governors, too. There's more. I mean, even Tim, you know, I'm a, I love Tim Walts. I love what Bashir is doing down there in a red state and punched it above his way and his political success. We've, we've never had a group, and I say this, I'm a member of the DGA Democratic Governor's Association. I couldn't say this seven, eight years ago, is the

deepest bench we've had in my lifetime of governors. You've got all these talented Chris Murphy types, and forgive me types. But I mean, Chris himself, people in Congress, congressional representatives in the House, not just U.S. senators. And then you've got that lineup that we're all up on stage, the Klobuchar's of the world, and the Bernies of the world, and AOC. I mean, hey, I'm proud of my party, and it's across the spectrum. And so people can see themselves in all of these leaders.

And I didn't even mention West Moore. I go on and on. And you want the sort of brass knuckles of a Rahm Emanuel who's assert himself. I mean, this is a pretty formidable group. Someone will emerge. And that will be up to all of you. And it's a question of timing. Do you meet the moment?

And again, talk about humility and grace for anyone that endeavors to do that. But I will say this, if I may, David, just to not push back, but to reflect. It's exactly, as you said, 2028, it's not about the guy or gal in the white. horse to save the day. Right. We get too fixated on that. It's about the hard work, the grind between now and 2026, in between now and 2026, and then beyond. And that's where we just need to keep our eyes focused. All right. We've been speaking with California Governor Gavin Newsom. We'll have information about the redistricting proposal and all of the other things that we talked about. Governor, always appreciate your time. Thank you. It's great to be back with you.

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Try it risk-free for 30 days and get 60% off an annual plan. When you go to incogny.com slash Pacman, the link is in the description. The pressure is clearly getting to Donald Trump, and he suffered another overnight cracking meltdown with post after post to truth social, 1 a.m. back at it at 6 a.m., riddled with lies, but really a sort of peek behind the curtain into the narcissistic collapse that is taking place here. I want to go through a few of the things on his mind and talk about the important policy and cultural and political implications here. Trump starting, quote, speaking about the redistricting effort of Texas, Trump said, quote, big win for the great state of Texas.

Everything passed on our way to five more congressional seats and saving your rights, your freedoms and your country itself. Texas never lets us down. Florida, Indiana, and others are looking to do the same thing. More seats equals less crime, a great economy, and a strong Second Amendment. It means happiness and peace, but Republicans, there is one thing even better. Stop mail-in voting, a total fraud that has no bounds. Also, go to paper ballots before it's too late. At one-tenth the cost, faster and more reliable.

If we do these two things, we will pick up a hundred more seats and the crooked game of politics is over. God bless America. Trump, of course, ignoring that the motivation for what they're doing in Texas, is merely a thirst for power. It's just an adivistic desire for taking control unilaterally, tyranny of the minority. That's all it is. Maybe Gavin Newsome in California and maybe some other states can do something to push back against it. Maybe they can't. And of course, Trump talking about no mail in ballots, no voting machines. This is his latest authoritarian explosion, which we've covered extensively. Trump then continuing with another post, end mail in voting

and go to paper ballots, 100 additional seats will go to Republicans. The idea being that the will of the voter is that Republicans have 100 more seats in the House, but only because of the inherent fraud and criminality of mail and voting. Do Republicans not have 100 more seats? Total fantasy. Complete fantasy. Trump continues. 59% approval rating for President Trump, massive lead over.

the Democrats. A reminder of Trump's fragile ego, a reminder of the triggeredly nature of Donald Trump and how his thirst and need for approval from others is an unending characteristic of his personality. But I was able to find no serious approval poll in which Trump is in the 50s. It's hard to find them even in the 40s. Trump's approval mostly is in the 30s. Trump then turning his attention to Gavin Newsom. Not a surprise. Gavin Newsom's getting attention. Gavin Newsom's a better speaker than Trump. And Gavin Newsom doesn't seem to constantly have cognitive glitches like Donald Trump. Trump posting, quote, Gavin New Scum is way down in the polls. He is viewed as the man who is destroying the once great state of California. I will save California. President Donald

J. Trump. Of course, the truth is in 2008, betting market. for the presidential nominee, Newsom is up. In 2028, opinion polling for the Democratic nominee. Newsom is up. In polling within California as to his mid-decade redistricting initiative, support is way up. So often it's just what's Trump saying? The opposite is probably true. Trump then engaging caps lock once again, he couldn't resist.

MSNBC is doing so poorly in the ratings that they are looking. to change their name in order to get away from the stench of their fake news product. So much fun to watch their weak and ineffective owner, Concast, headed by dopey Brian Roberts, hopelessly and aimlessly flailing in the wind in an attempt to dissociate itself from the garbage that they created. MSNBC is a failure by any name. I'm not a big fan of MSNBC, so I'm not going to be here to defend MSNBC. I also think the new name MS now is terrible, just absolutely terrible. And we talked about that on the award-winning bonus show yesterday, but Trump is just so obsessed. This is the president, and this is what he's wasting time on.

Trump then continuing, just like our southern border is now 100% secure. That's a lie. Washington, D.C. is safe again, and we have just begun the process of revival. The truth is troops were mostly sent to low crime areas of Washington, D.C., where they would be more visible. And in addition to that, this deployment of troops to D.C. has led to a reduction in dining reservations in D.C. by 30%. Trump's military, who could have a guess that militarizing the streets of D.C. was not exactly going to be an invitation to go out and have your tacos, right? Trump continuing, any California school district that doesn't adhere to our transgender policies will not be funded.

Thank you for your attention to this matter. Trump throwing in a little transphobia. And then finally, Trump threatens Colorado if they don't release a convicted criminal that supports Trump back onto the streets. Trump posting, quote, free Tina Peters, a brave and innocent patriot who has been tortured by crooked Colorado politicians, including the big mail-in ballot supporting the governor of the state. Let Tina Peters out of jail right now.

She did nothing wrong, except catching the Democrats cheat in the election. She is an old woman and very sick. If she is not released, I am going to take harsh measures. Now, of course, the truth is, the truth is that Tina Peters was involved in a whole bunch of different fiascos. She was charged for her role trying to steal the 2020. election from Donald Trump and she was a important note of disinformation with regard to Biden stole it type conspiracies. And now Trump is saying if you don't release her, I'm going to get personally involved.

Spoken like a true authoritarian. This was all night, folks. This is what it's 3 a.m. What is Donald Trump doing? Well, he's sitting on his bed, toilet, we don't know. And he's putting out messages like these. Terrifying. And if you think that the vice president's doing better, I've got news for you.

It's not going so well. J.D. Vance suffered a public collapse in a completely fiasco PR attempt. Yesterday, J.D. Vance, the vice president, went with Pete Hegseth, the Secretary of Defense and Stephen Miller, a architect of Trump's propaganda and his most vile policies. They went to Union Station in Washington, D.C., to talk about how is he was. It's crime ridden and it's all terrible and blah, blah, blah. Reporter goes, why are you here? Like, there's no crime here.

Shouldn't you go to the high crime areas? And JD goes, no, no, no, you've got homeless people. Yes, president. Why are troops stations here at union station on the national mall instead of areas in the sea where crime is statistically highest? Well, if you've ever been to the union station in the last few years with your family, you know the crime is actually extremely high right here in union station. You have vagrants.

You have drug addicts. You have the chronically homeless. You have the mentally ill who harassed, who threatened violence, who attack families. So what you have at Union Station that just most of what he mentioned isn't a crime, okay? He's saying you've got people here who are homeless or on drugs, neither of which should be a crime and neither of which is in DC, although they're trying to criminalize it. You've got homeless people and people on drugs. And some of them are harassing people.

Okay, I'm against that. No doubt about it. You can't hang out at Union Station and just harass people. But that's the major crime that's going on. Then he goes, and they're attacking people. I looked up that the number of such incidents is extremely low. And what's extra crazy is that a lot of these National Guard troops that are being sent to D.C., they are being sent from red states that have cities within.

in their state with higher crime rates than D.C. If the governors want to reduce crime by using their national guard, you don't have to send them to D.C. Send them to the cities in your own states where crime is even higher. But no, we've got vagrancy, vagrancy, major crime. We need troops to deal with homeless people. Then they gave Stephen Miller a chance to speak. And it was as nauseating as you can imagine. And the voices that you hear out there, those crazy communists, they have no roots, they have no connections to the city, they have no families they're raising this city, they have no one that they're sending to school in this city, they have no jobs in this city, they have no

connections to this community at all. They're the ones who've been advocating for the 1% the criminals, the killers, the rapists, they're drug dealers. And I'm glad they're here today because me, Pete, and the vice president are all going to leave here and inspired by them, we're going to add. have thousands more resources to this city to get the criminals and they get members out of here. Yeah, this is completely performative bullshit. There's no other way to say it.

And you know what? They were mercilessly booed by protesters and thank goodness for that. Some violent, crazy people who were screaming at kids with a few crazy liberals who were screaming at the vice president, but I think that's a very worthwhile trade to make because we want our people to be able to enjoy our beautiful cities. And the last thing I'll say is to the American people, D.C. is already safer than it was nine days ago, but we're to make it safer still to come. This is your city. You should feel free to come and visit here, have a meal, see all these incredible monuments and actually enjoy yourself. So just booed mercilessly the entire time. This is all a theatrical event. None of this is real. They are saying that the biggest crime problem in the country is a city. whose crime rates have declined precipitously. They send in troops and send them to the low crime

areas where they will be more visible, extreme areas where I was recently, you know, walking around, going to dinner, and there's just troops milling about now. That's not actually where the crime is. The troops are coming from states that have higher crime cities than Washington, D.C. But the governors are saying, we're not going to deal with it here. We're going to send them to Washington, D.C. to be part of this theater. So at least J.D. got booed. But what a pathetic attempt. What a pathetic attempt they are making to make themselves seem like they're actually doing something here. Now, on the bonus show today, we are going to talk about a MAGA Republican who says that dead people personally told him they fraudulently voted. The dead people said it. I'm dead and I voted. Okay. Trump says that the US will no

longer approve solar or wind power project. Why? They're killing the birds. And the African Union backs a campaign to replace the Mercator projection map that distorts the size of Africa. This is interesting. These maps have a lot of politics in them. We will talk about all of that and more on the bonus show. You can sign up at join packman.com and make sure you're getting my substack news letter by going to substack.davidpackman.com.