The David Pakman Show - 9/9/25: Trump’s Epstein drawing released as Dem Governor shuts him down

Episode Date: September 9, 2025

-- On the Show: -- Congress obtains Donald Trump’s infamous Epstein birthday letter that he swore never existed -- Trump allies like Eric Trump and Charlie Kirk insist the Epstein birthday letter is fake despite matching signatures from the same era -- Karoline Leavitt calls the Epstein birthday letter a hoax and vows lawsuits while denying overwhelming proof of its authenticity -- Maryland Governor Wes Moore refuses Trump’s push for federal occupation and declares he will bow down to nobody -- Fox News hosts struggle to spin disastrous jobs data as Trump’s economic talking points collapse on air -- Vice President JD Vance dismisses concerns about war crimes by tweeting he doesn't care about being challenged over military abuses -- A federal appeals court rejects Trump’s immunity claim and upholds E Jean Carroll’s $83 million defamation verdict -- Trump lashes out at reporters with rambling answers about war, sanctions, and cartels while demanding silence -- Trump smirks as religious leaders pray over him and rants about crime, Biden, and his fading memory at a Bible museum event -- Trump shows worsening health signs from bruised hands and confusion to unintelligible stories and balance problems -- On the Bonus Show: Scott Bessent nearly fights another Trump official, students' test scores are worsening, Trump slaps his name on Biden's infrastructure projects, and much more... 🔬 Freedom From Religion Foundation: Text DAVID to 511511 or visit https://ffrf.us/school 🥐 Wildgrain: Use code PAKMAN for $30 off & free baked goods at https://wildgrain.com/pakman 🩳 SHEATH Underwear: Code PAKMAN for 20% OFF at https://sheathunderwear.com/pakman -- 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 (00:00) – Congress gets Trump’s Epstein letter (05:30) – Trump Allies claim letter is fake (11:54) – Leavitt calls letter a hoax, threatens lawsuits (21:10) – Gov. Moore rejects Trump’s federal push (27:09) – Fox struggles to spin bad jobs report (37:09) – JD Vance dismisses war crimes concerns (42:51) – Appeals court upholds Carroll $83M verdict (46:44) – Trump rants at reporters about war and sanctions (51:50) – Trump rants at Bible museum event (58:36) – Trump shows worsening health signs    

Ladies and gentlemen, we have the love letter that Donald Trump said didn't exist from him to Jeffrey Epstein. Donald Trump told us he doesn't do drawings. He never did a picture. And he even said he was going to sue Rupert Murdoch over the Wall Street Journal's claim that he wrote this letter to Jeffrey Epstein that included. the drawing of a sort of stylized woman's body. But now we've got it. Here is the image handed over by lawyers for Jeffrey Epstein's estate.

This is from a professionally bound birthday book from Jeffrey Epstein's birthday in 2003. And right there inside of it is a letter with Donald Trump's signature. The same letter that he said is fake. the same letter he claims to be suing the Wall Street Journal over. Trump looked you in the eye and he lied to you. Remember when he said the following? For the election. Yeah.

Do you think that drawing that was something in the drawing that was associated to the Wall Street Journal report? I don't do drawings. I'm not a drawing person. I don't do drawings. Sometimes he was here, would you do a building and I'll draw a four-law? I drew a building. Lines and a little roof, you know, for a charity stuff.

But, but I'm not a drawing person. I don't do drawings of women that I can tell you. They say there's a drawing of a woman and I don't do drawings of women. And indeed there was a drawing of a woman. Dramatic voiceover comes in. Now we are going to see, remember when a COVID started and all of a sudden everybody on Twitter was an epidemiology expert. And then when Trump was indicted of 34 counts of falsifying business.

records. All of a sudden, the amateur epidemiologists became amateur legal experts on the falsification of business records and prosecutorial guidelines. I think all of those people are now going to become amateur handwriting experts, and they already are trying it. It was an auto pen. It's not really Trump signature. It's blah-la-la-la-la-la-l-l-l-l-lap. Insert blank, right, fill in the blank. But it's abundantly clear that this is real. And we have to analyze this. We have to think about this in the context of the growing opposition from Donald Trump to the full release of the Epstein files.

He hasn't released them. He said that it's a hoax. He said my name isn't in there and also my name is in there, but only because James Comey put my name in there or something like that. We now have been told by the Justice Department of Trump, no new files will be. released. We released 33,000 files. That's a red herring.

Those files had already been released. What's at issue is the remaining files. We just heard from Epstein's victims last week. Finally, by the way, it's all been about Epstein and Trump, which is legitimate because we're trying to figure out how implicated is Trump. But there are real victims here, people who suffered. And we finally heard from the victims. And they said, Jeffrey Epstein talked about Trump all the time.

And by the way, we can make a list. We know who a lot of the perpetrators are. So this is if as big as this story got, it is only getting bigger now that we have seen the hand drawn image from Donald Trump. And the question in this secondary kind of stage is who, if anybody from the Republican party is going to abandon Trump because and demand the release of the files because as you have recently, if you've been paying attention in the last 24 hours, we've seen Eric Trump go, it's all fake, we've seen Charlie Kirk say that's not his handwriting. We've seen a Caroline Levitt

come out in what might be her final and peak humiliation and say it's fabricated and it's fake and it's not real. But we already saw at least Republican Congressman Thomas Massey was willing to say we've got to release these files and he did a press conference with some of the victims and now Maga's targeting him. So you are going to see over the next 24 to 48 hours, you may see over the next 24 to 48 hours, Republicans are going to have a decision to make. Are they going to go the direction of Thomas Massey and say, we just need the files? There might be Democrats implicated. There might be Republicans implicated, but we need the files. It's what Trump promised initially until he thought to himself, wait a second, that's not a good idea.

Or are they going to go the direction of silence, complicity, or even defending Donald Trump? The train is starting to leave. You've either got to hop on or you're going to miss it. And this is going to be a calculation for many of these Republicans as to what is best for their political future. What is best for their access to power and remaining in the good graces of whoever is in charge. So the letter is here. It's abundantly obvious now why Donald Trump is so terrified about the full release of the files,

but what are some of his allies saying, let's get to that next. Many allies of Donald Trump are melting down over what could be the final nail in the coffin of I don't know anything about Epstein. We have now the drawing that Donald Trump made and sent to Jeffrey Epstein. The drawing which Trump claimed didn't exist. The drawing which Trump claimed he didn't do. But there are people defending Donald Trump. One example is Congressman Burchett who said, maybe an auto pen was used.

Trump's not really an artist. Might be a forgery. That's what some of them are going with. Take a listen to this. I mean, anybody can do a signature. We've seen the auto pin's been used quite a bit. the Biden administration so I've never known Trump to be much of a of an artist either so I I kind of draw that into question there's a history of him drawing thing is it's it's been there for

four years and now it's just come out I just don't buy it really someone might have just forged this somehow it's like this is yeah somehow it's so easy to do I just I just don't buy any of it right now because it's we have a administrative prior administration that's had a history of dishonesty and they bring something like this out now to me why wouldn't they bring it out during the We now have a new hypothesis from Burchett, which is the signature on the drawing from Trump to Epstein might have been forged. It might have been done with an auto pen in 2003 to set up Donald Trump when Trump was still a Democrat 22 years ago before he ever considered running for president.

as a Republican, just in case they forged a letter from Trump to Epstein so they could have it, what, in case exactly this scenario came to light? Eric Trump didn't even come up with something as creative as that. Eric Trump just said, Daddy doesn't do sketches. He doesn't do dweings. That's what Eric Trump is going with. Yeah, well, you know, it's something also beyond all this stuff, the new story today is that this stupid drawing that your dad allegedly gave to Epstein. And you and I actually

were sitting around joking about this a while back when it first came. We were like, this is the most absurd stuff in the world. But Mike Johnson is like walking back. He, you know, last week he said, oh, you know, he was an FBI asset in the whole prosecution of this. Then he tried to walk it back. So this is like the dumbest thing in the world. I can tell you my father does not sketch out cartoon drawings. I mean, it's insane. Not to mention Epstein's a lawyer. said he asked specifically about Donald Trump and Donald Trump never once came up and there was no correlation. And as ironic, given that my father was the very guy that threw him out of the club because

he thought he was a scumbag. My father's intuition was actually incredibly right. You know, there are so many lies in there that it's hard to keep up with them. First of all, I mean, let's be honest, calling this a drawing is a little bit of an exaggeration. I mean, it's, it's just a couple of lines. not even really a drawing. It's sort of like the outline of a woman's body and then the outline of breasts and then Trump signed the thing. Like Trump may not be a guy who draws, but this barely even qualifies as a drawing. Eric Trump is also doing revisionist history because

he's panicking and they have nothing else. It's all coming off the walls. The other lie that Eric Trump is telling is Trump found out Epstein was a scumbag and he kicked them out of the club. We know that that timeline is totally fake and fabricated. reality is that Epstein remained a member of Trump's club for a full year after the allegations came out about him. And Trump most recently said, actually, they had a falling out because Epstein stole an underage employee from Trump's spa to go and work for him. So even the circumstances of the separation are something Eric Trump is lying about and

seem more incriminating than they do exculpatory. Now, some of the other usual suspects are also jumping in on this to defend Donald Trump. One of them is Charlie Kirk. Charlie Kirk put out an excretion on X, really nasty one, where he said, does the below from the Wall Street Journal look like this actual signature from the president? I don't think so at all. Fake. And the reality, of course, is that it is indeed Donald Trump's signature.

Aaron Blake posted to Twitter, Donald Trump's signature from the alleged letter to Jeffrey Epstein, the drawing, and then has a number of other letters that show that at that point in time, yes, it is a different signature than Trump uses today. But at that point in time, in the 90s and at other points in time, that was exactly Donald Trump's signature. And then finally, George Conway, a friend of the show who's been on the show a bunch of of times. He even published a letter he received from Trump in 2006. It's a dear George letter because his name is George Conway. And it says sincerely. And it's that exact same signature where

Trump adds, P.S. You have a truly great voice. Certainly not a bad asset for a top trial lawyer. Trump likes or at least he did during the 1990s. Trump liking. I'm sorry, not not the 90s in 2006. like the George Conway's voice. So whatever the amateur handwriting analysts now come up with, it is indeed Donald Trump's signature. Why would someone fabricate that with an auto pen? 22 years ago, it doesn't make any sense. They have gotten caught. But the next question became Caroline Levitt's not going to say it's fake, right? Okay, Charlie Kirk puts out an excretion on X saying it's, it's fake. A congressman. Okay. But the. official spokeswoman for the president, she's not going to say it's fake, is it? Say it ain't so.

That's exactly what she did. White House press secretary Caroline Levitt has reached the defending the indefensible stage of her career, putting out a disgusting excretion on X. These used to be tweets. It used to be Twitter and we call them tweets. Now it's X. These are excretions. She put out an excretion saying that the letter now revealed that was sent by Donald Trump to Jeffrey Epstein with a sort of esoteric drawing of a woman's body is fake. The Wall Street Journal has published the photographic proof of the infamous Epstein birthday letter. Trump previously said it didn't exist in Russia's Caroline Levitt to declare it is fake news. She posted, quote, Quote, the latest piece published by the Wall Street Journal proves this entire birthday card

story is false. As I have said all along, it's very clear President Trump did not draw this picture and he did not sign it. President Trump's legal team will continue to aggressively pursue litigation. Furthermore, the quote, reporter Joe Palazzolo, Palazzolo, who wrote this catch-it job reached out for comment at the exact same minute he published his story, giving us no time to respond. This is fake news to perpetuate the Democrat, Epstein hoax. The only, there is a little problem with this, as Donald Trump likes to say. It is so obviously real that even a seven-year-old would

be able to realize that. The letter has typewritten text inside the outline of a naked woman. It ends with happy birthday, uh, bears a signature that actual handwriting experts and journalists have said this was Trump's signature at that point in time. The verdict at this point is that this is authentic. It is something Donald Trump has been caught lying about. So why would Caroline Levitt deny something that on its own isn't even criminal? And that's a critical point. They could be saying, so what, so what that Trump sent Epstein a letter. This was before Trump knew Epstein was a creep. It was part of a 50th birthday book that was written.

It is not evidence of any crime. Are you going to accuse Trump of having committed a crime because he sent this letter? Well, then you might as well accuse everyone in the picture book and the letter book of having committed a crime. They could go with that. They could say he wrote a letter. He later found out Epstein was a creep. They wet their separate ways.

Trump kicked them out of Mar-a-Lago. There's nothing criminal here. But they aren't going with that because they must know what isn't yet public. If they acknowledge, of course, after lying that the letter is real, we would naturally start saying what did Trump and Epstein do behind closed doors? whatever the full truth is must be so bad that they are lying even about the authenticity of the letter and that degree of desperation is the tell it's grotesque now on the Friday show during our Friday feedback segment I'm going to address a question that came in from

someone in the audience which is do I think that Caroline Levitt who is in her 20s now is going to regret this when she's older is she going to look back and say those were my youthful indiscretions a little more than that, right? That sort of is an understatement of it. Because she is reaching a new low, defending a man credibly tied to a sex traffickers in her circle, pretending the evidence has been forged, spinning conspiracy theories about the media. This is what Caroline Levitt's political career has become, not explaining Trump's perspective on foreign policy and economic theory. No, because Trump barely has any ideas about that. Did she imagine growing up that she was going to go to war, not literal war, but metaphorical

war for the reputation of a guy now linked to a sex trafficking ring? Is her legacy going to be that, burying allegations against Donald Trump? And so this is a denial that makes them look. I mean, it's it's more than dishonest. It makes them look guilty. And I've been saying time and time again, I am not going to speculate. as to what is in the files. It might be that what's in the files are allegations or incriminating evidence about Trump's friends and either because Trump is trying to be a good friend or because

he has personal reasons to try to save his friends. He doesn't want those coming out. That might be it. Or it could be that Trump's name is in the Epstein files as someone much friendlier with Epstein than he has admitted and it would just make him look bad. There's nothing criminal in the files. doesn't say Trump is a perpetrator. Maybe that's all it is. Or maybe there is incriminating stuff about Trump as a perpetrator in there. I don't know. Until we see it, it doesn't make sense to guess. After Trump said, I didn't do the drawing and the drawing came out and Caroline Levitt is denying that it's real and saying it's a forgery, it pushes me in the direction of what's in there must be on the end of it's worse than it's not so bad. And for years, the irony, by the way, that for years,

Trump's movement has pushed the conspiracy theory that Hillary Clinton and Biden were running a child sex trafficking ring. Remember it was pizza gait and Q and on and all of that. They built a culture of outrage around the idea that Democrats were covering up for predators. And now they're falling over themselves to defend a man who spent years partying with Jeffrey Epstein and even lied about sending him a birthday card. The same people who said when Trump's in office, we're going to expose the. The truth, child exploitation under Democrats is finally going to end.

And now we have evidence of Trump's friendship with Epstein. And he says and Caroline Levitt says and Charlie Kirk says and Eric Trump says, the media should stop talking about it because it's a hoax. It's the perfect example of every allegation is a confession. It's a form of projection so thick you could cut it with a meat cleaver. And they accuse their enemies of the worst possible crimes, not because they have evidence, because they need a smoke screen for what they are actually doing. The irony is almost too much to process.

A movement based on Trump will save the children is now spending all of the political capital that they have to save Trump from accountability over his ties to a convicted sex trafficker. That's where we are and it's disgusting and they've been caught. There was a time when public education meant learning math, science, history. but now we are seeing Bible verses in biology class. We're seeing 10 commandments on the wall, religious chaplains taking the place of trained counselors, and it's all funded by taxpayer money through voucher programs that are sending public dollars to private religious schools. This is part of a broader effort to inject religion into public

education. I'm against that. And it often is coming at the expense of real academic standards and the the well-being of the students. Now, our sponsor, the Freedom from Religion Foundation, is fighting back. FFRF defends constitutional principles, takes legal action when schools cross the line, and protects students from religious coercion in public classrooms. If you believe in facts in protecting education and keeping religion out of public schools, I can tell you this is an organization very much worth supporting. To get involved, go go to ffrf.org slash school or text David to 511.511 message and data rates may apply. The link is in the description. The David Packman Show is an audience supported program and I invite

you to become a member at join packman.com. We do an extra show every single day called the bonus show for our members. Oh, the bonus show where you want to make money. Everybody else it makes money to fund themselves as bad. That's really Alex Jones. Every time I play that, people say what that who's the, that's really Alex Jones, who hates the fact that there's a bonus show. You can sign up at join packman.com. You'll also get commercial free audio and video fees of the show and so much more. And you can get a 50% discount off of the cost of a membership, whether it be monthly, uh, yearly or a lifetime membership. Get 50% off with the coupon code. It will end soon. We've got three years.

and three and a half months to go or something like that, uh, join packman.com. A Democratic governor is shutting down Trump's wet dream of going into his state and specifically into Baltimore. Governor Westmore, a Democrat, says we are not going to bow down. We are simply not going to allow it. And we could be heading like a runaway train towards a comment. confrontation, that is not just a legal confrontation in the sense of a constitutional crisis. If Trump says, send in the troops and the governor says, don't do it.

And the mayor says, don't do it. What would happen legally? We may be heading towards a physical confrontation. Let's listen to what Wes Moore said. And then we will discuss. We do not need an occupation. And we do not need people putting in. performative and theatrical resources because they do not care about the actual results

that they're trying to hope for if you want to learn what works come down come spend time come learn come learn come learn and come learn that we're what we need that we are the change we've been waiting for and that progress is not impossible progress can happen but it only happens when we choose to work together and that's what today represents we're always going to stand for for Baltimore always and like i said we will work with anybody but we will bow down to nobody built that way, y'all. We're going to fight for our people. We're going to. So one of the comments that I saw frequently in response to this is, you know, if Baltimore is so safe, why does

Westmore have a security detail with him? Which is quite frankly a very stupid thing to say. I don't know that there's any governor that doesn't have security with them. When I saw Westmore speak a few months ago at a at a venue where there was obviously. no security issue. He still had, I think very often with governors at state police, he still had two guys from, I presume it's Maryland state police with him. That's not really proof of anything. And if you want to go with that, I mean, apply it to Trump. If D.C. is so safe, why does Trump have a hundred people in different concentric circles doing security? It's a very stupid argument. What isn't the stupid argument is the legal argument that the forced militarization of cities against the desires

and wishes of both the mayors and the governors is against the law and that it's not constitutional. Now, J.B. Pritzker is also not laying down and taking it. J.D. Pritzker says, listen, we are going to follow the law. If we don't request federal militarization of Chicago or of other parts of Illinois, they can come here, but they're only allowed to do what the law allows them to do. And J.B. Pritzker correctly identified that without the welcome of mayors and governors, Trump can send federal law enforcement to Illinois to guard federal buildings. That's what they would be allowed to do. And there are some other nominal tasks that they can do. But they can't do more than that. But we've learned that saying you're not allowed to do something doesn't really mean anything,

unless there's a mechanism of enforcement. And that's where this could potentially get ugly. And I hope that it doesn't. And where it could get ugly is that if indeed Donald Trump decides to go forward, Baltimore, Chicago, whatever the case may be, and the states and cities say, we are going to physically resist the presence of this federal law enforcement, how ugly does that get? And what ultimately happens in terms of does that create more chaos or does it solve it? And that's what loops me all the way back to one of the kind of hallmarks and typical characteristics

of the way these authoritarian like to work. We can look back at 150 years of world history and find this idea. You know, in fact, I'm reading a very interesting book right now. Let me make sure I get the name of the book right. The book is called Tunnel 29. It's by Helena Merriman. And it's about the time in Berlin leading up to when the Berlin wall went up and the sort of political circumstances surrounding it and the sort of idea of authoritarian and autocrats doing things

that are already a problem, but they're meant to generate a reaction. and then the reaction is used to justify even more action. That's often the way that it goes. And so we have a real possibility here. And this is why there's been so much of this don't take the bait stuff from J.B. Pritzker and from others. And we saw totally peaceful protesting in Chicago over the weekend. Part of what authoritarian's want is to generate or to bait an extreme reaction so that then

they can go, it's gotten really chaotic in Chicago. Now we need to send in the Marines. Well, did it get chaotic for no reason or did it get chaotic because of something that you did? And so Wes Moore seems to recognize that. J.B. Pritzker seems to recognize that. What will happen if the confrontation becomes physical? I ask it, I hope it's a rhetorical question. I don't really want to find out.

I don't think it would be good for the country. That's for sure. Fox news hosts are starting to realize Trump crashed it on live television over the last few days since this disastrous jobs report. We have seen Fox News host after host, after anchor, after analyst, after host, acknowledge things are not going particularly well. Now, some of them are minimizing, some of them are blaming Biden, but they mostly all are recognizing these numbers aren't very good. And you can see the recognition on their faces. We will start with the announcement that the 22,000 jobs that were added in August, a fraction, a pathetic fraction of the expected number,

not to mention a downward revision as well, take a listen. Go through a more. I sure do 22,000 jobs added in the month of August. That was much less than the expectation of 75,000 guys. The July number was revised. I will get to revisions in a moment. Unemployment rate coming in as expected 4.3%. So that would be higher than July's 4.2% again.

So this is like step one. The numbers aren't good, jobs numbers down, unemployment up. 22,000 jobs added in August. Let me get you the revisions because this is what everybody is focused on. For June and July together combined 21,000 jobs lower than previously reported. I'll categorize that now. So you see for June, it was revised down by 27,000, getting you to negative 13,000. And the change for July up by 6,000 getting you to 79,000.

So they've gone from denial to acceptance. They are now acknowledging the numbers aren't good. Even a British accent couldn't make these jobs numbers sound good. Here is Stuart Varney, acknowledging that this is disappointing data. Disappointing jobs data, only 54,000 private sector jobs added and look at this. yield on the 10 year treasury below 4.2%. The two year down around 3.61%. All right. So listen, they're accepting. And they're saying this isn't good. This is disappointing. This is a real problem. They then brought on the guy from the pawn stars show who's a big Republican, big supporter of Donald Trump.

His name's Rick Harrison. And Bill Hammer asks him what's going on. And Harrison goes, no, you know what? Tourism is down. A lot of my customers at the pawn shop are tourists. Business is down. What about inflation? What about the economy? What about tariffs? What about jobs? Do you see any of that playing a factor here? I'm a little bit. I mean, international tourism is definitely down. Over 50% over 50% of the people like it in my store are international people. And I see that see that is down. Oh, that's not so good. Now, why you would bring on Rick Harrison for a segment about economics. That's a that's a different question altogether, but a question for a different day. Then they go into the

equivocations. And this is where it starts to get a little messy and a lot more pathetic. Donald Trump's own former press secretary, Kaylee McEnany, says, you know, part of the reason that the jobs numbers are down is we've reported reported. We've deported so many undocumented immigrants. There's a little problem with that, which is that deported people aren't counted as unemployed because they are not filing for unemployment. I think people stand on that side. They do.

And jobs are down because the elite. are gone. Sorry. And it's Kaylee Maginani is throwing it over to Jesse Waters. It's not Kaylee saying this. It's Jesse Waters who makes this very dumb argument. They do. And jobs are down because the illegals are gone.

When you leave, two million illegals leave the country, you're not going to have as many people working and the people that are working are Americans, Jessica. And that number will be revised. I wonder if they'll be talking about the revised number in a few months. When he gets the right person in the job? Maybe. Well, last time the numbers were revised down, not up. Of course, this is a far.

So there's two stories similar to this that they are talking about to make these numbers not seem so bad. One is, listen, a lot of the job losses are government jobs, stupid jobs, unnecessary jobs, jobs that Trump promised to get rid of. And so it's doge doing its work. But the problem with that is if you look at other sectors like manufacturing, jobs numbers are down. Why would manufacturing jobs be down if it's pointless paper pushing federal government jobs

that are being eliminated? And then the other one is, we've deported so many people. That's why the unemployment rate is going up. Well, the deported people aren't filing for unemployment. For years, they told us, oh, unemployment only measures people who have filed for unemployment. That's the U3. You've also got the U6, but these are technical details. They don't care.

For years, they said, we can't trust the unemployment rate because only people are unemployment are counted. And now they're going, oh, the deported people are what are bringing up the unemployment rate. No, they're not. Those people haven't filed for unemployment. So it is bad idea after bad idea. And then ultimately we get to questions directly for Kevin Hassett. Why was the jobs report from August no good? Here's what Kevin Hassett had to say. Go ahead and get your hot take. It's not the number you wanted. It was not the number that was expected. Right. Well, one of the things we know is that they've been really at BLS struggling with bad

response rates and Goldman Sachs put out a study yesterday that said that they've been messing up the August seasonal so much that over the last 10 to 15 years, they've tended to have to revise up the number by. Right. The seasonality is confusing to them and it's all, it's all so confusing all of a sudden. Around almost 70,000 jobs when they get the new final. surveys. So it's their fault?

And so, well, I'm saying that this number, we expect this number will be revised up. That's spent the pattern over and over. And if that happens, that'll be consistent with all the other indicators. We're seeing industrial production is an all-time high. Capital spending is up 8% over the first half of the year after it being mostly flat under Joe Biden. And also within the jobs report we got today, there are a lot of really interesting and positive patterns.

Thing one is that all the job creation is private sector job creation, gun, government workers who actually their employment declined by 100,000. There it is. Job creation is made of foreign workers, whereas about half of the job creation under Biden was foreign-born workers. And so there are a lot of real positive things to see. And the final thing is that the wage numbers are fantastic. The wage growth is almost at 4%, which means that the typical wage earner in America right

now has gotten a $500 raise already because of Donald Trump's policies. Okay, so the revisions for June and July collectively were the lower. We're lower. Oh, that's genius. He goes, it's all going to be revised and fixed. And Bill Hammer goes, we just had two months in a row revised down. And the revisions for next month will come back.

We'll see whether or not that's the case. Yeah. And there's another big revision next week. But, but the point is that these numbers, the reason why they're getting revised so much is that these numbers are based on surveys and people are kind of not filling out the surveys until the last minute and so that the share of surveys that have actually been filled out at the beginning a month is way lower than it used to be. Think about what Hacid is arguing. He's saying the August jobs report isn't really that bad

because it's going to be revised up, meaning you'll be able to trust the upward revision. But at the same time, they're arguing that the June and July downward revisions aren't reliable, But so how is it that the August revision, if favorable to you, will be reliable, but we have to discount the June and July revisions as unreliable, either because the BLS chief that Trump fired was not trustworthy or because people are waiting to file to fill out their surveys. How can they have it both ways? Because they are no longer held accountable for inconsistency. Fox is realizing we have no damn way to spin it.

The numbers are just starting to get bad. Fall is here, the nights are getting cooler, it's cozier, hot baked goods feel like a great treat. And our sponsor, Wildgrain, is the first bake from frozen subscription box for artisanal breads, pastries, and pastas. Everything bakes in 25 minutes or less, no prep, no cleanup, customizable boxes. They can do gluten-free. They can do plant-based, and right now they've got some limited time fall items. Apple cider donuts. I grew up with these in New England. Pumpkin cinnamon biscuits. Love them. The donuts just come out perfectly like a nice little crisp edge, warm, spiced center.

Biscuits are flaky and sweet. Made the whole kitchen smell like a bakery. Wild grain uses slow fermentation, which means their breads are richer in nutrients than that which you get at the store. You can really taste the difference and the fermentation process can even be helpful for digestion. For a limited time, get $30 off your first box, plus free croissants in every box when you start your subscription at wildgrain.com slash Pacman. The link is in the description. J.D. Vance has finally gone over the edge, proverbially couch surfing all over the place. The vice president J.D. Vance tweeted, I don't give a shit to one of the Krasenstein brothers. when it was pointed out to him that using the military to go after cartels without due process

is considered a war crime. Now, there is some legal debate about that. It's not an open and shut case and it warrants a little more evaluation. But J.D. Vance just flat out said in very vice presidential language, I don't give a shit when it was pointed out that it could be a war crime. And so this was not like a throwaway off the cuff thing. It was really a window into how these guys treat laws and norms supposedly meant to keep the world's most powerful military in check.

And we have to consider that they don't really care about the law at the end of the day. This is really far more about the degree to which they want to further their own agenda, no matter what the law says. J.D. Vance tweeted killing cartel members who poison our fellow citizens is the highest and best use of our military. To which Brian Krasenstein responded, killing the citizens of another nation who are civilians without any due process is called a war crime. And J.D. van says, I don't give a shit what you call it. Um, what we, what we do know is that the American military can't just be used for whatever the president wants that we know. And we know that at home, there's this thing, the posse comitatis act that's been on the book since 1878 to make sure

that the armed forces aren't used as the president's personal police. Now, there are exceptions. You've got the insurrection act. They're rare. They're supposed to really be used for actual breakdowns of civil authority, not for political disagreements, not for protests. So that's the domestic part of it. This other thing about going into other countries, going after cartels, accidentally killing fishermen and civilians and the entire thing, it's illegally, you know, under the Geneva Conventions and international law, war crimes happen during armed conflicts, and they do involve things like deliberately targeting civilians. That's true. Using the military inside the U.S. is not

automatically a war crime. Using the military outside the U.S. and a civilian accidentally dies. It's not necessarily a war crime. It's legally complicated. There's this argument over, well, does it matter if it's a legally declared war or not? A lot of people believe that that's what matters was was war declared. And the law is more complicated. than that as well. But what I found really interesting here was actually Senator Rand Paul's response. It's one of those a terrible person happened to say something that is correct. He tweeted, quote, J.D. I don't give a shit Vance says killing people he accuses of a crime is the highest and best use of the military. Did he ever read to kill a mockingbird? Did he ever wonder what might happen if the

accused were immediately executed without trial or representation. What a despicable and thoughtless sentiment it is to glorify killing someone without a trial. Now, there's two sides to this. Number one, obviously Rand Paul is correct. These laws exist for a reason and due process is to call it important as such an understatement. At the same time, Rand Paul has a history of excusing a lot of vile and despicable behavior. Rand Paul could have voted to convict Donald Trump after he incited the January 6 riots. He didn't vote that way. That's just one example in the Senate.

And so this is one of those things where, you know, if you've been following the online reaction, there have been some Republicans who have been saying, I don't agree with this element of what's being done domestically or I don't agree with that element of using the military to go after cartels and the way that Donald Trump is threatening to do. But Rand Paul, as are most of these Republicans, he is a complete and total hypocrite. Now, critics of J.D. Vance say this is why Vance might be more dangerous than Trump. And so when we think about this, if Trump were to die, if Trump were to be impeached and removed, if Trump, whatever, 25th Amendment, if by any scenario, Donald Trump's presidency,

Donald Trump's reign ends short of this presidential term and someone else takes over, there is a reasonable fear that it may not be a particularly good thing for the country because Vance is more the type of guy who will quietly follow orders from the donors and from the party bosses and just make horrible stuff happen with a lot less bluster and he might end up having an easier time crossing lines than Donald Trump has because he would do it quietly. The bottom line, the bigger picture is Vance is saying, out loud, he doesn't, to use his term, give a shit. He doesn't give a shit about legal guardrails.

That's terrifying and that's dangerous. And when we talk about authoritarianism, that's what we're talking about, not caring about the legal guardrails. Donald Trump has just lost his last opportunity to overturn the massive $83 million verdict in the E. Jean Carroll defamation case. This is devastating legal news for the traffic. cone orange president. This is not a ruling about the size of the penalty. This is a court flat out rejecting the entire defense that Donald Trump put together. The judges said Trump's conduct

towards E. Gene Carroll was remarkably high in reprehensibility. It may be unprecedentedly high. It wasn't one comment. The court noted that Trump's attacks on Carroll got worse during and then after the verdict was determined. Trump has already been hit with a separate $5 million verdict in another E Gene Carroll case. That one was upheld in June. This is the $83 million judgment that includes $18 million for emotional and reputational harm, 65 million in punitive damages, which the court said is reasonable given the facts of the case. The immunity claim that Trump attempted to use here was really like a that last-ditch effort and it hinges on the idea that because Trump made his 2019 comments as president, he should be protected. The court wasn't buying it. These were not comments

Trump made in his role as president. Just being president at the time doesn't mean that what you're doing is related to your role as president. The court also upheld the lower trial judge's decision to block parts of Donald Trump's testimony. Like when he said I was just defending the presidency, that was blocked. And the court. has upheld that because it just it's not valid testimony and a jury had already decided as to the verdict of that case. So we've now had delays and appeals and Trump treating the courts like another campaign stop. This is it.

The Supreme Court could step in seems extraordinarily unlikely. I haven't seen a serious legal commentator say that the Supreme Court is likely to step in on this, which makes this the last stop on the bus. And it's worth remembering that this is just one of Donald Trump's legal battles. He's still appealing the criminal conviction for the falsifying of business records. He's fighting civil cases with E. Gene Carroll, we're getting to the end of the road here. And for Trump, it apparently is going to turn into a really expensive reminder that a courtroom is a very different venue from a rally stage.

the things you can say in a rally stage, you can't necessarily say in a courtroom. So devastating, devastating legal news for Donald Trump. And there's a sort of zoom out here, which is if Trump lives to the end of his term, a bunch of legal stuff for Trump has been suspended, but not ended while he is president of the United States. When Donald Trump leaves office in 2029, he will be, I guess, 82 and a half. And he has quite a list of legal issues that are at least potentially going to be taken up then. Now, between now and then, we don't know is someone going to try to step in to mitigate that?

Could a Republican president who replaces Trump pardon Trump for everything and put an end to this stuff that would only apply to criminal federal law? wouldn't apply to civil lawsuits, wouldn't apply to state law. So it's a complicated thing, but is there going to be an appetite politically? Is there going to be an appetite legally? And our judge is going to say, I'm going to carry forward with this once Donald Trump is the 82 year old former president. I don't know the answer to that. Donald Trump lost it on a reporter called her darling and said be quiet also correcting her that it is no longer the Department of Defense. It is now the Department of War. When you say that, darling, that's fake news.

When you say that, darling, that's fake news. Oh, God. Department of Defense. Listen. Be quiet. Listen. You don't listen. Never listen.

That's why you're second rate. We're not going to war. We're going to clean up our city. We're going to clean them up so they don't kill five people every weekend. That's not war. That's common sense. Look at Trump leaning over her with just reeking of condescension. This mocking gesture mean truly just vile, vile stuff.

The whole by I want to talk about the whole Department of War thing. Authoritarians love to control the language. And it's been said before and it's true to a degree that you can control society by controlling. language. I mean, just calling it the Gulf of America rather than Gulf of Mexico implies a sort of ownership of sorts that makes people tolerate different things and see it differently. The idea being the language we use has a significant effect. And when you say to people, the Department of War, and if they're not doing war, on some level, you look at it and you go, we've got this perfectly nice Department of War here, they

should really do some war. That's what would make sense for them to do. That's what their primary duty is. And so this Department of War thing is not, is not nothing. Trump was asked, are you ready to move on the second phase of sanctions against Russia? Trump says yes. Question one is what was the first face? And question two is, let me guess. We're just two weeks away, aren't we? Are you ready to move to the second phase of sanctions against Russia or punishing food? How is your Yeah, I am. I don't think Trump could tell us what the first phase of sanctions against Russia actually was.

But I guess we're probably just a couple of weeks away from it. We're also getting dangerously close to Bobby Kennedy, Jr. telling us the answers for autism. Part of what was the question that we're going to, we're about to get the answers. I'd love to know what the question was. Take a listen. Well, he's a different kind of a guy. He's got a lot of good ideas, but he's got a lot of ideas.

normally they don't have any ideas and that's why we have problems with autism and so many other things because we're coming up with the answers for autism you watch we're coming up with the answers for other things that normal people regular people easy to get along with people wouldn't be able to do he's got a lot of ideas and so do i we're going to do i'm going to preview for you apparently they're going to blame autism on Tylenol they there's been a leaked report that they will be blaming autism on Tylenol during pregnancy, something which, by the way, has already been looked at. It doesn't seem super strong.

And then finally, Trump asked, are you going to attack cartels inside of Venezuela? And Trump, very cagey. Are you considering attacking the cartels inside of Venezuela? You attack? What are you going to find out? You're going to find out real Nobel Peace Prize sort of stuff here. You know, for all of the claims that this is the peace president, there's a lot of really hawkish war mongering, threats to use the military, use of the military.

I'm kind of starting to think that this may not really have been the peace president, the way Tulsi Gabbard told us that he would be. Many of us know all too well about the sticking, rubbing, and chafing that you can get with traditional underwear. Our sponsor, Sheath underwear, have created unique boxer, briefs with multiple ergonomic compartments in the front, which prevents skin on skin, and that means everything stays separate, comfortable, dry, and cool. You will have a boost of confidence when you're out and about. I've known so many people who were skeptical about those

compartments, friends who say, I heard that ad for Sheath. What about those compartments? And then they try it. And then they're amazed at the comfort and breathability when they finally try it. You will thank yourself. Plus, Sheath has brand, new materials like bamboo and mesh for even more cooling comfort, they will be the most comfortable pair of boxer briefs you ever put on. No more sweatiness and chafing and readjusting, especially at the gym. It's a lifesaver. Give sheath underwear a shot.

I've had a great experience. I think you will too. Head over to sheathunderware.com slash Pacman and get 20% off with code Pacman. The link is in the description. An extremely haggard looking Donald Trump addressed the White House Religious Liberty Commission at the Museum of the Bible. Now I could stop the story there and it would already be crazy. But the content was actually what was really completely whacked out.

They prayed over Trump and Trump kind of smirked. Trump loves being seen as a pseudo deity. Who sees him as Godlike that he likes very much. Will you all stand with me as we rededicate America to what nation under God? Father, we thank you for this time that we have together. Lord God, we thank you that we can gather together as faithful people. people as faithful leaders, as the nomination leaders, as religious leaders. Father, we thank you for our president, Donald J. Trump. Father God, who you have anointed and appointed for this time,

for such a time as this. Lord, thank you that the president prioritizes prayer. Father, God, that he sees the power, the importance, the priority of praying together as a people, as a country, as a nation. Father, we in this place today in this great museum of the Bible, Father, God, we lift up our president. Lord God, we lift up his family. We left up God, our vice president, our cabinet and everyone God who serves in this administration through all branches of government. Father, help us. You know, if, uh, if God chose Trump to be president of the United States, not once but twice, God's got a six sense of humor. That we can tell you for sure. Now, then Trump actually got to a speech looking extremely haggard and low energy. And in a disgusting

moment, Trump, in bragging about how great things are going in Washington, D.C., thanks to his militarization, he sort of minimized the idea that when something happens at home between a man and wife, they call it a crime. It sure sounds like the guy found liable for sexually assaulting E. Gene Carroll is sort of minimizing or dismissing domestic violence. Now, it's more than 87% virtually nothing and, uh, and much lesser things, things that take place in the home they call crime. You know, they'll do anything they can to find something.

If a man has a little fight with the wife, they say this was a crime, see? So now I can't claim 100%, but just a little fight, just the man smacking around his wife after she burnt the chicken fingers and all of a sudden police are involved and they're saying, There's crime in D.C. Can you believe that? Listen to this guy. The guy who was accused of sexual assault by his first wife in her book is saying, why are the police getting involved with these domestic violence? We are, we are a safe city. You can walk to a restaurant. You can walk to the White House. If you work there, you can walk to the Capitol. And even the Democrats, I can't believe it, but they don't want to admit it, but I can't believe it. We could do the same thing in Chicago.

New York, Los Angeles. We did it. We saved. Is that a threat or a promise? By the way, last time I was in D.C. a few weeks ago before the militarization, I walked to the White House. I walked to the Capitol. It was at night.

I walked back from dinner around 10 p.m. in exactly the areas Trump is describing. And it was fine. That doesn't mean there aren't high crime areas of D.C. doesn't mean cities have, it doesn't mean cities don't have crime. All of that is true. But give me a break, guys. Give me a break. Covering up the Epstein files, liable for sexually assaulting.

eugene carroll accused of sexual assault by his first wife in her book accused by dozens of women of sexual assault and he's going oh it's just like they're calling this domestic violence stuff a crime how can that be uh trump putting on his humble hat and saying that no one has ever made as much progress in eight months as president as what donald trump has done over the last state months. A humble statement. That's what we're doing. We're in a golden age. We're at the very beginning of a golden age. So much progress has been made in the last eight months. A self-declared golden age of Trump. Progress like nobody's ever seen before. They're writing about it. They're actually saying it. They've never seen anything like what's happened in the last eight months.

You know, just because a two-year-old scribbles something with a crayon doesn't really mean they're writing about it. I don't know if Donald Trump understands. that Trump then entering slow snowflake mode going from total self-centered egomaniac. They're writing about the most successful late months of presidency ever into snowflake mode where he goes, you know, Biden was really mean. He was a mean guy. There was stone called me. But Joe Biden and the Biden, they were mean people.

What they did to people, what they did to J6, what they did to so many people. They were mean people. They were so mean to the rioters. These were really radical, horrible people. And he wasn't that way 20 years ago. He was never the brightest bulb in the ceiling. But he was a man who wasn't overly mean that I saw. But boy, he became really mean and there was stone.

Just absolutely ghoulish, ghoulish shadows on Donald Trump. And then finally his memory completely going. And we'll get to that in a moment. Trump says he just left the Middle East. It's been four months since he was there. Leaders from all over the world that talk to me to say your country's in trouble. And I just left the Middle East king of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, a lot of the big countries. Then I was with the heads of NATO, the NATO nations, all of them.

Everyone said essentially the same thing that a year ago, your country was. is dead and now you have the hottest country anywhere in the world. It's true. It's hot. It's hot. Folks, that was four months ago and Trump says he just left the Middle East. What's more disturbing that Trump can't remember a damn thing that Trump is criminally self-centered and egomaniacal or that they prayed over him and said that it is God that gave them Donald Trump. You tell me which is the scariest. Many of you have written to me saying, David, isn't it obvious that Donald Trump's condition, whatever it is, is getting much worse. And I have to admit, it's hard to deny. It is very difficult to deny. We know, of course, about Donald Trump's hands,

which seem to be rotting. They are both now bruised, occasionally covered up with makeup. The explanation that it's from handshaking doesn't make sense. That would make sense if it was only the right hand, but it is not. It is the right hand and it is the left hand. Trump's rants have become increasingly focused on irrelevant minutia. You know, it used to be Trump talking about toilets and power flushing and shower pressure. Uh, but now it's about grass. He continues to be sort of in this tunnel vision about irrelevant little things in DC. One of the things we're going to be redoing is your parks. I'm very good at grass because I have a lot of golf courses all over to place. I know more about grass than any human being, I think, anywhere in the world. And we're going

to be regrassing all your parks, all brand new sprinkler systems, the best that you can buy, just like Augusta. It'll look like Augusta. It'll look like more importantly, Trump National Golf Club. That's even better. But we're going to look, we're going to have all brand new, beautiful grass. So the rants are increasingly about completely irrelevant, menial things. And then also Donald Trump is increasingly confused or unable to hear questions. Here was, I mean, this is weird. It's almost like his nurse helping him. Here's what they asked you, Donnie boy.

Melania helping Trump understand the question that he was asked. Thank you, Mr. President. I have two questions for you. First, with after your phone call with Ukrainian president Zelensky today, do you plan to speak with Russia's president Putin in the near future? What is? What? If you were speaking with president.

I will be. I will be. Yeah, I will be. We're having a very good dialogue. I settled seven wars. And there it is, going from what is the question to I settled seven wars. Trump's also telling increasingly unintelligible stories and recounting irrelevant and confused anecdotes like the new, he broke my ass quote. So getting back to why you got invited. So I'd get a call for from the speaker, and it's a, sir, we have 16 hard nose. It's 4 o'clock in the morning. And we have one of many bills, because this happened many times. And it tended to be the same 16, 18, 19 people

all the time, 4 o'clock, 5 o'clock in the morning, I call them. I said, Jim, how are you doing, Jim? Everything okay? Yes, sir. It's 5 o'clock in the morning. How are you voting for us? Well, what do you think, sir? Tell me, what should I do, sir? And he broke my ass. And they had about 16 others. That doesn't mean we don't like him. Sir, he broke my ass. And then finally, although we could do this all day, sadly, Donald Trump, unable to walk in a straight line. In addition to walking in a really strange way, we now have numerous examples of where he just kind of wanders side to side, seemingly intending to walk in a straight line. So is Trump's condition getting worse? I mean, it's certainly not getting

any better. Do we know exactly what the condition is? We don't. And I'm the first to acknowledge that mostly because of the complete lack of medical transparency, propagandistic medical reports that read more like promotional materials than medical documents. And because of Caroline Levitt, who when impressed beyond belief will make some small admission about Trump's health that is obviously nowhere near the full story. That's what I know. What do you think is going on? Let me know.

Scott Besson reportedly threatened to punch an administration rival in the face. We're going to talk about it on the bonus show. We also have a new report card for the nation, which shows that science scores are down. Math scores are down. reading scores are down. This is not a Trump story. This is a much bigger story than Trump. It's really about education and culture and a lot of other things. And finally, a lot of Joe Biden's infrastructure projects are finally coming to reality. But Trump is trying to slap his name on them. What a surprise. All of that and more on today's bonus show. Sign up at join packman.com.

Also, leave a comment on my substack, substack. Substack. David Packman.com. What do you want to be covered on tomorrow's bonus show? Let me know on substack.