The David Pakman Show - 8/22/25: Terrifying Trump warning, self-inflicted economic disaster

Episode Date: August 22, 2025

-- On the Show: -- Former CIA officer Ned Price warns that Vladimir Putin manipulates Donald Trump with KGB tactics and that Trump aligns with Kremlin interests over U.S. allies -- Conservative figures including Jesse Watters, Kellyanne Conway, and Dana Perino attack Gavin Newsom for trolling on social media while comparing him unfavorably to Donald Trump -- Mike Pence calls on Donald Trump to back sanctions against Russia and criticizes him for weakness as Vladimir Putin escalates aggression -- Donald Trump pushes efforts to end mail-in voting and undermine democracy while targeting independent outlets like MeidasTouch and The David Pakman Show -- Trump inherited a strong economy but has sparked inflation and trade turmoil with tariffs and reckless policies that hurt working families -- Fox Business correspondent Lydia Hu accidentally exposes Republican hypocrisy on gerrymandering while trying to criticize Gavin Newsom -- The Friday Feedback segment -- On the Bonus Show: CIA raids John Bolton's home, and much more... 🌞 Sponsored by BetterHelp: Get 10% off your 1st month at https://betterhelp.com/pakmanshow 🤖 Sponsored by Venice: Use code PAKMAN for 20% off a Pro Account at https://venice.ai/pakman 💪 AG1 is offering you a FREE $76 GIFT when you sign up at https://drinkag1.com/pakman 🛡️ Incogni lets you control your personal data! Get 60% off their annual plan: http://incogni.com/pakman 🛌 Helix Sleep mattresses: Get 27% OFF sitewide at https://helixsleep.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

A former intelligence official who has been on this program is now sounding the alarm about what we've been seeing over the last week or so between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin and evaluating it in terms of the intelligence techniques and strategies that are known to be employed around the world. And he is raising the alarm. This is Ned Price. He's been on this show before. He was recently interviewed by my friend Ben Micellis over at Midas touch.

And I want to focus in on a couple of the key things that Ned said because they are so terrifying and disturbing in terms of understanding the dynamics at play in Trump's apparent subservience to Putin, treating everything Putin says to him with total credibility. And the way in which Putin really seems to be playing Trump. He seems to be running Trump, manipulating Trump, grooming Trump in a non-sexual as far as we know way. So a couple of things I want to focus on. Ned Price explained that one of the tactics that Putin was using on Trump is about manipulation.

And it's about assessing Trump and then blending the false impression to your target that you care about them. And that seems to be what Putin did to Donald Trump when he said, hey, you know what? You were screwed in that 2020 election. These, you won that election by so much. These mail in ballots are killing you. Why would it be in Putin's interest to say that to Trump, especially given that Putin obviously doesn't believe Trump won in 2020? There's really two reasons. Number one, if you say nice things to Trump, Trump tends to believe you so that in the future when Putin says other things to Trump, hey, what about letting me keep Crimea? What about this? Which, by the way, he's already doing. Trump's much more likely to see Putin as a friendly character. Putin clearly has

my best interest in mind. Putin agreed I got screwed in 2020 and that I won and all of this stuff, that he must also be right about these other things. I should hear him when he talks about these other things. And so this really isn't flattery. This isn't Putin being enamored with Trump. What Ned Price explained is that Putin is practicing usual traditional tradecraft. It's the psychological manipulation that Putin learned as a KGB officer and Trump fell for all of it. Trump is so ego driven. He's so self-centered. He's so egomaniacal that if you're praising him, we know that works. If it's the big, strong Putin praising you when Trump is already enamored with Putin, it works really, really well.

Next element of this. Ned Price explained that Putin left Trump with the impression that he likes him and that they can work together. But he also left Trump embracing not Ukraine's view and not the European view on the conflict, but really the Kremlin's view. came out of this meeting repeating stuff like Ukraine really shouldn't have gotten into this war. Of course, Ukraine was attacked. Ukraine is defending its country.

Trump saying, you know, it's sort of looking like Crimea in any deal. It's just going to have to stick with Russia. So the point here is that Trump walked out of this meeting much more, much less a negotiator between Russia and Ukraine with the goal being a just and equitable end to the country. conflict, Trump walked out of there aligning his priorities with those of Russia and with those of Vladimir Putin. And again, it's because of the tradecraft that Putin is so easily able to practice. Ned Price also weighed in during the interview on Midas Touch, which we will link to on the idea of this is a win. The fact that the summit happened is already a win for Putin.

And he said that by having Putin on U.S. soil in Alaska, Trump has undone what dozens of countries have worked for a long time to put in place, which is let's isolate Putin politically, let's isolate Putin diplomatically, and let's put economic pressure on Putin and on Russia, which are the tools we might get to get him to become a better actor. So think about that. Years of coordinated pressure against Russia and with one photo op, Trump welcoming Putin on a red carpet that was laid out by soldiers, American soldiers on their hands and knees. And nothing comes out of the meeting that's good for anybody other than Vladimir Putin. That is a gift to Vladimir Putin. And Trump fell for it. And Trump always goes with this. Why don't we want to get along with everybody?

We want to get along with people. But Trump's too naive and self-centered and credulous to realize that he's being completely played by Vladimir Putin. Okay. Ned Price, former intelligence officer, also said that in a lot of ways, Trump, it wasn't that Trump welcomed Putin as if they are equals. Trump welcomed Putin as if Putin is the superior, the superior. Trump defers to Putin.

Trump believes Putin's obvious lies. Trump clearly is not manipulating Putin. We see all the ways Putin's manipulating Trump. It's clear Trump doesn't have the wherewith all intelligence skills or training to manipulate Putin. And then when they come out of it, not only does Trump just accept everything that Vladimir Putin said. During the meeting with Zelensky and European leaders, Trump left the room to go and call Vladimir

Putin to have a tete a back channel as those negotiations were going on. Putin was the superior here. There's no other way to say it. Ned Price expect concerns that Putin is playing for time. The idea being that nothing will materialize. It's a stalling tactic. It's basically a similar or more developed version of what Kim Jong-un did when he met with Donald Trump.

The difference being Kim Jong-un at least gave Trump some concessions that he never intended to keep, that previous North Korean leaders have given without any intent to keep. And Trump fell for it because he's so naive. Notice that Putin didn't even have to give any of these concessions. Trump came out anyway going, yeah, no, this went absolutely great. And then finally, Ned Price explaining that the vast majority of the European leaders see Trump as a guy whose ego you have to stroke. But they understand that eventually they are likely to have to become more independent of

the United States to actually solve some of these global conflicts. And so the translation of that is our allies think Trump is a clown. But they're humoring him. And if you're Zelensky, remember Zelensky, the White House made a big deal of Zelensky coming out of their meeting and saying, oh, no, it was a great meeting and we're so grateful to President Trump. And it was a great meeting. And Caroline Levitt bragged about this as, look, Zelensky thinks Trump handled this really well.

has no choice because Zelensky got the other treatment last time. Last time in the Oval office, that fiasco, when Zelensky tried to argue or sometimes push back, Trump got agitated and Trump said, you don't have the cards and you've got to do what I say. And it didn't go well. And so Zelensky clearly realizes the only, the currency is loyalty. That's the most important thing. And so other European allies are recognizing that as well. But they also, I'm sure, acknowledge that there's some limit to that. That can't go on forever because otherwise nothing's going to get solved. So that's where we are there.

And Ned Price is right to say there are serious national security concerns about letting Trump loose into these negotiations, which he sees like a real estate deal. But the problem is he is now being manipulated by people who are different than the real estate developer or steel company that you're trying to make a deal with. Maga's brains have been broken by Gavin Newsom. We talked a little bit about this yesterday, but there's more. It is nonstop. You turn on Fox News and almost all you see is people saying Newsom is so cringy.

What Newsom is doing is so stupid. This is never going to work. He's embarrassing himself. Why won't his wife stop him? And while in the first 24 to 48 hours, the criticisms were more about Newsome seems dumb and it's cringy, this sort of thing, they've now started to try to formalize their critiques of Newsom's redistricting plan and Newsom's mocking and satirical approach to Trump on social media.

And so in his infinite wisdom, Jesse Waters tried to talk about masculinity and making the argument that Democrats need someone masculine. It's not Newsome, according to Jesse Waters. It's definitely Trump, though, for the Republican Party. Well, Dana, they ran two moms and a grandpa and they need to run a daddy. The problem is there's no dads in the party. And what, Jessica? In order to have masculine policies, you need to live your life as a man.

You need to live a life of action and you have to live it outdoors. And the first step is having your own compounds. Every presidential candidate or president needs their home base, right? Trump had Trump Tower. He's got his golf courses. He's got the White House now. You call people in. You hold court.

You control everything. That's what they need. Now, I don't know why they don't have that. Maybe they're ashamed of it. Gavin Newsom has a vineyard. Why doesn't he bring in the press to his vineyard and look beautiful? outside with all the grapes. That's how you do it.

Americans love to drink wine. Newsflash Newsom, go to the vineyard, hold a press conference, and act like you're a man of the people. Don't be ashamed of it. Trump does press conferences in front of billion-dollar buildings with his name on it. Kenny Bunkport, does that ring a bell? How about the Bush Ranch?

How about the Reagan Ranch? You do that. You show the American people you know how to work. And then you show them you're a man of leisure. There you go. Jesse Waters, the authority on masculinity, says Newsom needs to do stuff at a vineyard and then show that he is a man of leisure. There's a very interesting idea.

Do we think that Waters has any idea what it is Democrats need to do? We then heard from Kelly Ann Conway. Kelly Ann Conway, as we talked about yesterday, really doesn't like Newson's. Newsom's trolling on social media. And look at Gavin Newsom. 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 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 this. He just works harder than everyone else.

Yeah. And of course, no mention of the fact that Gavin Newsom's tweets are correctly spelled in a proper grammar and syntax. So Kellyanne Newsom's doing everything wrong. Somehow it's deserving of half the day on Fox News, but he's doing everything wrong. His tweets are wrong. His presentation is wrong. His hair style is wrong. His voice is wrong. Everything is just wrong, wrong, wrong. Yet Fox News is obsessed with talking about it 24-7. Okay, this one, I know we've played before, Dana Perino saying the tweets are cringe and his wife should really stop him. The thing is, or the debate, the other thing for me is that for the last week, Gavin Newsom, 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 let your staff tweet. And if you're doing it yourself, put the phone away and start over. And if he's got a big job as governor of California, but if he wants an even bigger job, he has to be a little bit more serious. And here's a bonus because we've been hitting Fox News really hard on this. Fox News is completely obsessed. This did bleed over to the network soon to be renamed MS now. I still can't believe that's what they're doing. Over on MSNBC, soon to be MS now, Joe Scarborough, who went down to Mara Lago to Kiss the Ring, you might remember. Joe Scarborough says that it's embarrassing what Gavin Newsom is doing. Let's listen

to his analysis. The Democrats are trying to find their footing. And it's, it's quite embarrassing, actually. I mean, Gavin Newsom. I mean, have you seen what he's doing online and say, just take a deep breath? Don't, don't try to turn the ship 180 degrees. And they don't know what to do. I have a good idea. Instead of trying to. make school Donald Trump, talk into the camera about affordability. Talk about making groceries like more affordable. Talk about what you're going to do for housing. Talk about what you're going to do for energy prices that continue to go up.

We heard the congressman yesterday talk about energy prices skyrocketing in New Jersey. It's sort of weird advice, at least for Newsom, in the sense that Newsom's the governor of California. And he's promoting an initiative to redistrict in California. Now, if Gavin Newsom does decide to run for president, he'd better damn well be prepared to talk about affordability and groceries and all of the things that Joe Scarborough is talking about. We know, however, that just talking about them doesn't mean you're going to do anything about it.

Kamala Harris, to a degree, failed to talk in an authentic and genuine way about some of those things and she lost. Trump did talk about them, but it was completely disingenuous. His plans never really addressed those issues. If you understood what Trump was planning to do, you would realize he's not going to lower grocery prices. None of these things are going to happen. And what's happening right now wholesale grocery prices up 38 percent. Electricity's up 10 percent. John Deere's laying people off. Jobs reports record low, manufacturing record low. That's what's going on. So if Newsome runs for president, we're going to hold them to that. But right now, the idea that by getting attention and by showing that he's willing to fight, Newsom's doing

something wrong. I just don't see it. I, I, you know, I've seen a lot of Democrats over the last six months try many, many things, a forced swearing that we've seen some Democrats do to seem more hip. And I'm like, this is stupid. This isn't going to do anything. Uh, writing strongly worded letters. Give me a break. At least Gavin Newsom's fighting. Okay. At least Gavin Newsom's fighting. So I want to hear from you. We've had a week of this now. What do you think about what he's up to? at David Pakman.com. Let me know. One of our sponsors is BetterHelp. I am a huge believer in therapy. Let's say you've been thinking for a while about getting into therapy. You know it's the right move. You have things you'd like

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Trump hates Pence at this point in time. They had a complete and total falling out because Pence wasn't willing to be an active participant. He was willing to be a passive participant, but on an active participant in Trump trying to steal the 2020 election from Joe Biden. So Pence has just been criticizing Trump, sometimes more directly, sometimes more implicit. Here he is speaking to Jake Tapper, and Pence says, you got to be tougher. You got to be tougher. You got to be doing sanctions on Putin. This approach of trying to placate him will never work.

And this stuff just infuriates Donald Trump. You thought President Trump was beginning to realize, quote, Vladimir Putin doesn't want peace. Vladimir Putin wants Ukraine, unquote. As you noted, there was no ceasefire agreed to. President Trump seemed to indicate before the summit that that had to happen, or he said there would be very severe consequences. Since the summit, he's dropped demands for an immediate ceasefire. Five Ukrainians were killed overnight.

He's telling people, you heard Whitkoff say, a peace deal, a larger peace deal, can be reached quickly if Putin's demands, which include Ukraine's seating control of the entire Dumbos region to Russia are met. Yeah, we can end this quickly if we just give Putin everything. What do you make of all that? I mean, there are observers out there, people who like Trump, people who are rooting for Trump, who think that Trump got played. Well, look, I've, you know, I served alongside the president for four years.

I know his style in dealing with these dictators. It's the velvet glove, but I think the hammer needs to come, and it needs to come immediately. I think the president, as he welcomes President Zelensky to the Oval Office tomorrow and a whole cast of our allies in Europe that are going to be joining him, I think at the same time he ought to pick up the phone and ask Majority Leader John Thune to immediately pass the secondary sanctions bill that is supported by virtually everyone in the United States Senate. I think the combination of engagement, but also making it clear,

to Putin, that we are prepared to take actions that would literally break his economy even yet Trump's not going to do that while we redouble our commitment to the security of Ukraine and to working closely with our European allies is important. So listen, that is Mike Pence suggesting that Donald Trump do things that he would never, ever, ever, ever do because you only do those things if you don't care about your personal friendship with Vladimir Putin. You would only get tough with Putin if you, number one, weren't terrified of him the way Donald Trump clearly seems to be. But also if you weren't seeking his approval constantly and endlessly. And so Pence is actually right on this. There's only really one way

to go about this with Vladimir Putin. But Trump's not willing to do that. And of course, that's implicit in Mike Pence's commentary here. Pence later said to Jake Tapper, Putin has made his intentions clear. Putin wants to reconstruct the old Soviet sphere of influence. And someone needs to stop Putin because Putin's not going to stop until he gets what he wants or until someone stops him. And of course, the context here is Trump would never be the guy to show that sort of backbone, ever. I said it before.

I'll say it again. And the long history of the last 25 years, Putin has made it clear. He launched an attack into Georgia when President Bush was in office. He attacked Crimea and Ukraine when Obama was in office. After that, disastrous withdrawal in Afghanistan, he crossed the border and started this war three years ago. Putin's made it no secret of the fact that he wants to reassert the old Soviet sphere of influence, what we used to call the evil empire in Eastern Europe. And I think Putin only understands strength.

So while the president and his diplomatic team engage in this in this re-approach with Putin and there seems to be interest in my judgment, Putin's not going to stop until he stopped until he understands that there's going to be enormous cost to Russia. And there's an unflagging commitment to defending Ukraine sovereignty by the United States and our allies. None of that is ever going to happen. on this particular issue, Pence is correct. Pence has correctly assessed Putin's personality. Pence has correctly assessed Putin's goals. Pence has completely correctly assessed that Putin is

not going to say to himself, you know what? I think I'll give up on these ambitions just for kicks. Someone needs to stop Putin. Do any of us believe that Donald Trump is the guy that's going to be able to do that? And then finally, Mike Pence saying Putin can end the violence immediately. That is just, it's that simple. All of this. talk, the equivocation and what can we get to it. The violence could end today if Putin ends the violence. Is there any way? I mean, can you explain or do you understand at all how the summit could end without a ceasefire agreed to? And that would be acceptable. I mean, there are five Ukrainians who are now dead. I'm not blaming it on President Trump. It's obviously President

Putin's fault. But if the ceasefire had happened on Friday, those five Ukrainians would be alive. Well, I just – your question in the last segment was relevant. There's a way that Putin can end the violence immediately, and that's with a ceasefire, but then moved to negotiations. But look, when it ended and we all watched that press conference, and it was clear there was no ceasefire, I must tell you that I was not surprised. I mean, there was an agreement by President Zelensky to ceasefire. back in February. Putin refused it. He's managed to delay the game all the while his military has continued its brutal assault on civilian populations in Ukraine. I think that's the reason why,

look, let's have the dialogue tomorrow at the White House. I'm also going to be praying that it's a productive time and a unifying time among all the leaders in the West and the president and President Zelensky, but at the same time, you know, I've always said the United States posture on the world ought to be, you know, one hand extended in friendship and diplomacy, and the other hand resting comfortably on the holster of the arsenal of democracy. I think Putin is only going to understand that there are going to be severe consequences. There are not. The president promised if there is no problem.

progress from here. The last thing we want to see is for Putin to use this latest delay as a reason to continue this war all the way until the winter hits and the fighting season essentially passes in that part of the war. Let me add one other thing to this because Pence is making a lot of sense on this issue. I still find it to be a deplorable and disgusting person. There are some people on the left. They call themselves the, I don't know what they call themselves.

I call it the revolutionary left. Sometimes they're pejoratively called tankies. They often love Russia. They love North Korea. They love Venezuela. Anyway, they're saying neocons want more war. Of course, Mike Pence is saying you got to be tough. You got to do this.

You got to do that because neocons love going to war. I can't speak to what neocons want. Maybe Mike Pence wants a hot war with Russia. Maybe he doesn't. But I don't know of anyone, anyone on the left that realizes. simple stuff. Russia's the aggressor. Ukraine is defending itself. Trump doesn't seem positioned to really fight Putin diplomatically and economically. We're not talking about boots on the ground. I have not heard from a single person, even the suggestion of a possibility of thinking about

considering going to war against Russia. I don't know anyone who wants that. And so I think it's really important as we think about who is the aggressor? Does Trump have what it takes constitutionally? Or is he just so smitten with Putin that it'll when we're thinking about that, the context is not that we want war with Russia. We're just recognizing that as an arbiter here between Russia and Ukraine, if that's what Trump is going to be and that's what Trump wants to do and that's the role the US will have. We don't want a war, but you're going to have to be tougher with Putin than continually continually delaying sanctions and taking anything Putin tells you and accepting it as if it's unquestionably true. We know that that's not going to work. Donald Trump is not only going after

mail in voting as he announced earlier this week. Donald Trump's going after the entire idea of free and fair elections and going against anyone who attempts to stand in his way. And that includes independent media. And in fact, independent media today is a bigger target for Donald Trump than at any point in his political career of now 10 years. So here's what's happening. Donald Trump announced he's going to lead a movement to get rid of mail and voting and to get rid of voting machines altogether. He announced that on truth social. We talked about it earlier in the week. Trump does not have the legal authority to do that. States decide how to run elections. But that doesn't matter. It's just not really the point. The point is that

that Republican governors and legislatures in red states are probably going to be following Donald Trump's lead. The governors in the red states are not going to file lawsuits. They're not going to argue over the constitutional limits of the office of the president. They're not concerned for the millions of voters that could be disenfranchised by those, by those changes. The impact, by the way, is obvious. Young voters and non-white voters, working class voters, people who move frequently, older folks.

These are the groups that are going to be impacted by such a ruling, which will be bad for Democrats and good for Republicans. It's clear. Trump's not subtle about this. Trump is saying outright, states should act as agents of the federal government, meaning what Trump says they should do. Trump wants them to report results however he wants. Like when he told the Georgia Secretary of State, go and find me 11,000 votes, give me a break.

The fact that he is saying in public, they should do his bidding and report to him, we've been desensitized. been normalized that this is how Trump behaves. This is where independent media comes in. Because if you read the Washington Post's headline about this, it said Trump was previewing an executive order on voting. That's a very banal and inoffensive way of framing. It's like some harmless policy rollout. It's like, hey, it's national bald eagle month. It's Cappy Barrow week at the White House. The corporate press is treating Trump's authoritarian threats as political theater and as business as usual, rather than the declarations of war on democracy that they are. Now, independent media doesn't play that game. We don't worry about losing access or upsetting advertisers.

We have been on Trump's enemies list since day one. And by we, I don't mean this show. I mean the entire cohort, the entire ecosystem. He's called independent media, fake news. He's a reporters by name at rallies. He's encouraged followers to target journalists. And if Trump can get away with dismantling voting rights, the exact same machinery is going to be used to crush dissent. And that includes non-corporate media voices. It's abundantly clear. And so corporate media, independent media, rather, is in Trump's crosshairs, not because we're weak, but because we're increasingly strong. They didn't care about independent media. during Donald Trump's first term, or they barely did.

They now recognize the power. They target independent media. They bring right wing independent media into the White House to try to bolster it. And this is very concrete. This is not an abstract hypothetical. We can see exactly how it would play out. Imagine a 2026, imagine 2026 in a red state that eliminated mail and voting. Polling places are cut.

They eliminate, you know, they go from hundreds. to dozens or something like that. The ones that remain are hours away from many voters. Lines wrap around the block. It's crazy. The weight is long. Voting machines are gone. There's a chaotic paper system that's also underfunded and prone to mishaps. The results aren't released until after Donald Trump's allies have reviewed the results, which is another thing Trump loves the idea of. And any news coverage critical of this process is smeared as election interference. Lawsuits are tied up in friendly courts. Independent outlets covering the disaster find that their reporters are banned from press conferences. They're getting harassed. They can't

even cover the newsworthy nature of what has been done to the elections. So that's why independent voices, it's not just a nice to have. It's really about survival. So I'm not talking about, oh, subscribe to my YouTube channel, but you should, by the way, of course. What I mean is, we need to amplify independent voices more broadly. I'm trying to do my part as well. Share the videos, post the clips, send them to friends and family because the right already has this massive coordinated propaganda machine. They've got Fox News, talk radio, turning point USA, Daily Wire, hundreds of digital channels. They're working in sync. They've got Rumble. They've got Troth Central. They've got Twitter now as well. And our counterweight is kind of like an attempt to do grassroots

amplification, making, doing whatever we can to get the truth out to people. So we have a coordinated effort happening right now on the behalf of the Trump administration to dismantle democracy in broad daylight. Part of the plan involves attacking adversarial news sources. Get independent media to be less bold, to be afraid, to shut up. And if Trump gets his way, there's not just going to be fewer ways to vote. There will be fewer ways to speak. And then the fight will be over before it starts.

That's what I'm afraid of. So I'm always glad to have your support, but support all the shows you think are doing a good job. We've got to build the ecosystem. We're trying to build a movement here. And we're trying to build a bulwark against what is clearly coming because they're telling us that it is. Many of us know it can be tough to stay on top of nutrition every single day, especially when

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But if you find your information anywhere else, you can custom submit that and they will have it removed manually. This is serious protection using incogni can cut way down on the spam calls and the messages that you get, fewer risks, more control over your identity. 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. When Donald Trump waddled back into the Oval Office in January of this year, the economy was not in crisis.

It's an economy that has problems. We have people who can't afford what it costs to live, to rent an apartment. We have wages that over long periods of time haven't kept up with inflation, although for shorter periods recently they have. We have poverty. We have hunger. We have lack of health insurance. There's no question that there are problems to solve without a doubt.

And we have significant inequality. But when Trump re-entered the Oval Office, Biden handed him, objectively speaking, low unemployment, steady GDP growth, cool and stable inflation, job creation numbers that were quite good. And so while we still had problems to solve, by global standards, the year. U.S. economy was the envy of the world. I know that it's sort of cliche to say that, but people in so many different countries would look at the circumstances at the time of the handover from Biden to Trump in January of this year and say that was a pretty good economy. And Donald Trump's assignment was relatively straightforward. You don't really need a master plan. You don't even

really need new ideas. Just don't screw it up. Just sit there, look smug and take credit even though you did nothing. And if you look historically, presidents have coasted on far, far less. Think back to when Barack Obama won re-election. Had Mitt Romney defeated Obama in 2012, Romney could have come in, done nothing and had a great economy because it was clear that the combination of the accelerating recovery from the Great Recession combined with a global business cycle that was at a favorable point in time. Obama's second term had a great economy, but if Mitt Romney had won and done nothing, he also would have had a great economy. But that's not what Donald Trump did when he came back in in January. And so the point of the story is that the cracks we are now seeing in the economy are self-inflicted. These are unforced errors that Donald Trump has created himself.

He almost couldn't help himself. He within months started slamming tariffs on imports. They're on. They're off. They're lower. They're higher. We're threatening. We're doing this.

We're doing that. But the effect of it has been extraordinarily problematic. He picked these trade fights. He bragged that he's bringing in cash from foreign countries, even though, of course, you know by now that it's American companies that pay the tariffs. And the fallout is now starting to become a real problem for Donald Trump. Wholesale prices are going up. Wholesale vegetable prices are up 38%.

Supply chains are jittery. Farmers, grocers and restaurants are feeling the squeeze. Thanks to Trump's DC fiasco, restaurant reservations in DC are down 30%. creation is hitting new low after new low. Manufacturing index indices are as low as they've been in years. And so Trump promised we're going to have more growth than ever. He ended up getting negative GDP growth for a quarter. Trump promised we're going to get grocery prices down. They're actually up. Trump promised we would see a decline in prices, meaning an inflation rate that is lower than zero and negative inflation rate that hasn't happened. It's probably a good thing

it hasn't happened. Negative inflation rates often lead to deflationary spirals. It's not a good thing. But these are all self-inflicted wounds and they were completely foreseeable in their impacts when economists looked at these proposals. And I'm using the term proposal sort of charitably when Donald Trump goes tariff everyone. It's not exactly a proposal in the technical sense of the word. But when economists analyze the tax bill and Trump's tariff rates that he floated and all of this stuff, economists said this will create a problem. This is going to lead to higher prices. This is going to lead to lower jobs numbers. It's what's going to happen. And so when you have a global pandemic, it's unforeseeable. It might be broadly foreseeable. At some point,

we, okay, but the point is the specific timing of the COVID pandemic. That was not foreseeable in the way that slamming tariffs on everyone would have a foreseeable impact. The 2008 financial crisis. Yes, in a general sense, there were people sounding the alarm. This mortgage stuff is going to be a problem. But the specific timing, it came down and people had to deal with it. This is stuff that Trump has created on his own. He inherited a fine economy in pretty good shape. And in record time, he managed to light it on fire.

Now, there's a little bit of an irony to this. Trump spent 2024 fearmongering that if Joe Biden gets reelected, his disaster. economy will get even worse. Or when it became Kamala Harris as the nominee, Trump switched to we will have a 1929 style depression if she wins and communism, Marxism, socialism, all this stuff. But by every single measure, jobs, inflation, GDP, Biden had pulled the U.S. economy out of COVID's tailspin and into a recovery. And now Donald Trump is in with policies that are making the recovery unravel. And as it almost always is the case in countries with the sort of inequality and wealth and income distribution that we have, Trump's not paying the price.

His billionaire cabinet picks and friends, they might not like some of these policies, but it doesn't affect their financial viability and that of their household. It's the middle class folks. It's the working poor that end up getting screwed with the higher prices and weaker job security. And all of this is a result. of Trump's instability caused by the ego-driven trade war and all of the other economic fiasco so far. So the bottom line here is that Trump really could have coasted. You all know that I just look at the data. And for several months before any of the things Donald Trump did, the data were fine. The economic indicators were like everything is basically fine.

But now we're seeing the cracks and now we're seeing the degradation. So Trump should have done it takes, you know, you've got to suppress your ego to do it. Trump could have said, I'm not going to blow everything up. I'm just going to coast. And then I'll say it's my great economy. He could have gone golfing without being criticized as much as he is. But instead, he manufactured an economic crisis that did not need to exist. It is a 100% self-inflicted crisis.

And what I'm curious to see is whether voters hold him accountable for it in November of next year, the midterms now just 14 and a half months away. What do you think? Do you believe MAGA voters are going to hold Trump and Republicans accountable if the economy continues to crack? Or are they going to blame Democrats or just ignore it and keep checking the box for people with ours next to their names? Let me know what you think. Want to see what it looks like when a right wing extremist almost gets it. Almost. This is video of Fox business correspondent Lydia who she almost stumbles into the truth about gerrymandering now she's talking here about Gavin newsome's gerrymandering plan in california she thinks she's got him in a hypocritical

double standard and she almost gets it but she doesn't but she doesn't take a listen i just don't think it resonate there are a lot more things that rise to the top and i think what a lot of people will realize when they start drilling down and following what governor gavan newsman is trying to do he would actually have to change the process every districting in california to get this done And taking it away from an independent commission, giving it back to the legislature, which is really ironic because that's exactly what he's complaining about when he talks about what Texas is doing wrong. So people are smart and they're going to realize, wait a second.

Governor Newsom is saying what Texas is doing is wrong. So we're going to do that too. The hypocrisy there just doesn't make any sense. She thinks she's got him dead to rights. Lydia Who believes that she has caught Gavin Newsom in hypocrisy, but she's describing the Republican playbook. What's missing from her analysis, if you can call it that, is that Republicans in Texas and in other states are already using extreme gerrymandering to lock in power.

Newsom's making the point. If it's fair for them to do it, why isn't it fair for us to do it? If you're a Republican who has no issue with what Republicans have done in Texas and other states, why would you take issue with Gavin Newsom doing it? He's simply using the same tool, the same weapon that you approve of your side of using for his own side. And so Lydia Hu here sort of accidentally admits that the Republican tactics don't make sense and calls them hypocritical, but she's saying it's only Gavin Newsom that's the one they're doing it. They are just as hypocritical by criticizing Newsom for doing that which they have already done.

The difference is Newsom and me and others, we would ban all gerrymandering right now if it was up to us. We would ban all partisan redistricting today, take it off the table. The difference is they've already done it. So now we're trying to find a way not to unilaterally disarm. The difference for Republicans is they apparently have no issue with it because they did it without Democrats doing it. And now as far as they're concerned, the problem is that Democrats are trying to do the

the same thing. So it's an interesting moment where the Fox host, host almost says the quiet part out loud. Like she nearly gets to the point of acknowledging, wait a second, what Republicans are doing is indefensible. If what Newsom is doing is indefensible, then what Republicans are doing is indefensible. Great. So then let's ban all gerrymandering, except Democrats vote to ban gerrymandering and Republicans don't. So you can't have it both ways. She almost gets it. And And my takeaway here is that hypocrisy essentially doesn't matter to the modern American political right. The only that, you know, we, we point out Trump claims to be a Christian, but here's a hundred

things that he did that are not Christian or they claim to be against business intervention, but then they want to force Twitter to publish this and they want to force Facebook doesn't actually matter. They don't really care about small government when it's inconvenient. But the reality here is that these. These are things that Republicans have already done and Republicans only have a problem when it's Democrats looking at doing the same thing. So Lydia Who, good job.

She proves the point without realizing it. The Republicans can't justify their own power grabs when they immediately criticize Democrats when they do the same thing. Let me know what you think. How close was Lydia Who to getting it? And we'll have more about this sort of double standard around the gerrymandering. on my substack newsletter, which you can find for free at substack. david packman.com. If you were shopping for a new mattress, I would recommend you start by looking at Helix

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sleep.com slash Pacman and you'll get 20% off sitewide. The link is in the description. All right. Let's get into Friday feedback for the week. You can email info at David Pakman.com, but we will also highlight comments from YouTube, Spotify, TikTok, substack, Instagram, Facebook, you know, all those different things. All right. Alex Avery commented on YouTube. The way Levit gazes adoringly at Trump. She's clearly a true cultist. Maybe she has some daddy issues. It's creepy.

I don't like making this show about, like, personal psychology. It's hard not to when you're dealing with cults and subservience and loyalty tests. Like, there's a lot going on on a personal psychological level. And it's not, Caroline Levitt is with a much older man. And I'm not judging that in any way, but the her husband is so much older and she seems so enamored and subservient to Trump that I don't want to call it daddy issues that feels sort of dismissive and maybe less serious than it should be, but she seems to be someone struggling.

Combine that with a whole bunch of very early plastic surgery, like I mean at a very young age. There's a lot going on there. And so I don't want to make the entire the fact that she's willing to lie so brazenly for Trump. And by the way, still claim to be, you know, a Christian of some kind. That is really the focus and the personal psychology of it. We can kind of speculate and guess. But I agree with Alex. Something seems a little wrong with Caroline Leavitt. That's for sure. All right. Sometimes Wright wrote on. Reddit. Dan Coe is awesome. No offense to other guest hosts, but Dan Coe is amazing. Love this guy. Thanks for bringing him on. So to a couple different things. We got great feedback about Dan Co. I know

offense to anyone. But I think the two guest hosts we've gotten the most positive feedback about have been Brittany Page and Dan Co recently. Not that people don't like Jesse Dolomor or Luke Beasley or Farron Cousins or other people. But the most positive feedback has been about Britney Page and Dan Co. But here's the other thing. And this is just, I think, the nature of the beast. This is like a little bit of a peek behind the curtain. The degree to which guest host content performs terribly compared to my content is shocking.

And I talk to our YouTube rep about it and other people. And what's been explained to me is, listen, think about it. To sign up and follow someone on YouTube or on any platform. It is sort of a big deal in the sense of think about all the stuff I watch and I don't subscribe to or follow most of it. So people who have said I'm going to subscribe, there is a sort of connection to me. And so all of a sudden, they click a video and they see someone else on there. They immediately click away. And that's what the data.

We were looking at retention charts on YouTube when Dan was in. And some of them were like within two seconds, 40% of the audience. audience was gone. So I think Dan was phenomenal as a guest host and also even the most liked guest hosts we have learned make close to half of the audience listen to zero of the show, which I think is just the nature of the beast. All right. Waffle Nebula wrote on Reddit.

The podcast on August 6th, the best Pacman ever put out. there's one super illuminating segment in an entire episode, but David nails it on three things. The new take on the Republican Party's transformation, seven deadly sins embodied in Trump, dissecting MAGA's brand of masculinity. So this person thought that the best show ever was the August 6th show. I'm going to give you another little peek behind the curtain. That show was recorded two weeks earlier. When we started developing the plan for the birth of our second kid, I wanted to, in addition to pre-recording some stuff like right when it was happening right before going to the hospital, I wanted an extra show just so we could have time to get Danco settled and just to give us a little more buffer. So two weeks ago, I recorded that episode and a lot of people loved it. It didn't have anything timely.

It didn't have anything about what Christy Nome said yesterday or the latest thing that Tulsi said. The show was essentially a stale show or you could say it another way. It was more of an evergreen show. They were stories that are broader analyses. And a lot of people loved it. Two weeks early, I recorded that show. Make of that what you will. All right.

Back on YouTube, Alice Dare says, I would love to hear a reporter ask Trump, since, Since you clearly can deploy troops in D.C., why did you say that Nancy Pelosi was the only one that could do that on January 6th? This is another great exposition of the double standards and hypocrisies of these people. On the January 6th riot day, Trump said Nancy Pelosi refused to put out the troops. She's the only one that can do it. But clearly that's not true because Donald Trump was able to do it. It's sort of like the Epstein files don't exist and my name is in them because Comey put my name

in them. Wait a second. So they don't exist or they do, but they're fake. Which of these things is the truth? Classic Trump and very nicely pointed out astutely pointed out by Alistair. Now I am now going to get to something that's a little uglier and this is this is tough stuff. Okay. I know that this is what we're up against.

On Instagram, Brats of War wrote about Trump's massive oppression authoritarian campaign. I hope he arrests David Packman. Now I know that this is just an offhanded ranting from, you know, what I call the drive by posters. Just come on by and leave some crap in my comments. I get that. But this is a sort of more real and present danger. just for me, but for the entire progressive independent ecosystem than ever before. If you work at NBC

and Trump wants to have you arrested or I guess they're calling it now MS now, which by the way, I think is just such a disastrous name. If you work at MS now and Trump wants to come after you legally, MS now, formerly MSNBC, is going to put a lot of legal resources behind defending you. If they come after one of us, whether it's me or Brian Tyler Cohn, or Tyler Brian Cohen or if they go after Tyler Cohen or even Brian Tyler, all of those people who, which is one person or the Midas touch guys or Aaron Parnas or whoever. We're on our own in terms of legal defense. And so there is a belief that we need to be prepared.

We don't know which one of us is going to be, but that we have to be prepared that it may happen. They may legally go after one of us. Ronan came in on Twitter and said, hmm, you still around, Pacman, thought you would have noticed your complete and utter irrelevance by now. How many followers do you still have? 10, 20, you're a loser and the dumbest among us that once listened to you even know it. Well, you know, Not for nothing, but for what it's worth. I have more followers today than at any time in the history of the show. I have nearly 7 million followers today.

Some people have more. I get that. I know in the comments, people will go, well, you'll never have a hundred million like Mr. Beeched. Yeah, probably not. But how many followers do you have, sir? No, I know that this comes as a big disappointment. a lot of people, but we do have the largest ecosystem we've ever had today.

Grand Marquesi, Marquise, Marquise, says, Pacman, you are a fucking worm. You have the most poonchable face on the planet. I think that's more of like a presented without comment sort of one. But yeah, there's a lot of people who want physical violence as a proxy. to political disagreement. And then we have Daniel Philip who says this Pacman once said, Sleepy Joe is the best president in the last 50 years, shows his credibility. Well, of course, Daniel, as I've said before, criticize me for things I've said.

Tell me you don't like my shirt, but going after me for things I haven't said, not so good. Now what I'll tell you what I did say, which is that by accomplishments, I believe. that Joe Biden's one-term presidency was arguably the most accomplished single presidential term in terms of getting things done in decades. That doesn't, as I've said before, that doesn't mean all the things he did are things you have to like or I have to like. But the idea that he was just relegated to, you know, some basement and wasn't doing anything and the number of major legislative accomplishments.

intangible accomplishments and foreign policy accomplishments of Biden is huge. Now, you could argue that you think some of the things he did were wrong. But as far as sitting around, that's not what Joe Biden did. Many things we can criticize about Biden never should have ran again, no doubt, but certainly one of the most accomplished and productive presidential terms of any that I can remember, just compare it to Trump's first term. The 2017 tax cuts and jobs act and then failing on COVID and on every other promise he made what and we're supposed to believe that he got more done than biden give me a break guys you can email me info at david packman.com look forward to hearing from you and remember that you can always get my daily newsletter for free at substack dot david packman.com we're really

trying to build a movement here and i want you to be part of it however that is most of the ways to be part of it costs nothing i'll see you on the bonus show