The David Pakman Show - Dysfunction and instability are here to stay

Episode Date: August 28, 2026

-- On the Show: -- Donald Trump is framing the midterms around himself, helping Democratic turnout and worrying Republicans who wanted local focus -- White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt is leaving without a designated replacement, rotating officials through briefings instead -- The Trump administration threatens to demolish the Kennedy Center after a court blocked adding Trump’s name to the building -- Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins blamed high beef prices on a Biden war on cattle while withholding import country details -- White House aide Natalie Harp gained top-level access to Donald Trump while operating over a year without a security clearance -- Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent appeared breathless on TV, comparing Iran sanctions to D-Day and asking Iranian troops to disarm -- The Friday Feedback segment -- On the Bonus Show: Twenty-four hours of madness on Donald Trump's Truth Social page, and much more... ⚠️ Ground News: Get 40% OFF their unlimited access Vantage plan at https://ground.news/pakman 🥐 Wildgrain: Use code PAKMAN for $30 off & free croissants FOR LIFE at https://wildgrain.com/pakman 🛡️ Incogni lets you control your personal data! Get 60% off their annual plan: http://incogni.com/pakman -- Become a Member: https://davidpakman.com/membership -- Subscribe to our (FREE) Substack newsletter: https://davidpakman.substack.com -- Get David's Book: https://bit.ly/m/attention -- 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) Start (01:01) Trump wants the midterms to be about him (07:36) Karoline Leavitt is leaving with no replacement (16:39) Trump threatens to demolish Kennedy Center (23:33) Trump official blames high beef prices on Biden (31:26) Natalie Harp easily got into Trump's inner circle (38:39) Scott Bessent compares Iran sanctions to D-Day (46:13) Friday Feedback segment Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Coming up today, Republicans have a midterm problem and Donald Trump may have just come up with a truly incredible way to make it even worse, if you can imagine. Meanwhile, something very odd is happening at the White House as Caroline Levitt prepares to leave. And Trump has nobody lined up to replace her. Trump loses a fight over putting his name on the Kennedy Center. The response is basically, well, then maybe I'll tear down the entire thing. And we have the administration blaming Joe Biden for a supposed war on cattle, which doesn't exist while they are struggling to explain what is your plan to lower beef prices?

And then we must talk about the genuinely disturbing national security questions raised by Donald Trump's inner circle as a frantic Scott Besson appears in video you must see. Here we are. Here we go. Let's do it. I genuinely don't know if Donald Trump could come up with a better strategy for helping Democrats in the midterms if he tried because Republicans have a really obvious problem right now. That problem is that Trump is really unpopular. People are unhappy with the economy. They're

unhappy with the Iran war. They don't believe their lives are better than when Joe Biden left office in January of 25. And Republicans desperately need this election to be about anything other than Donald Trump. So what has Donald Trump decided to do? Make the entire election about Donald Trump. Listen to this from a forthcoming interview with Sean Hannity, which was recorded this week and apparently is going to air on Sunday night. There's a theory that I get the vote. You know, I see it all the time that when Trump's on the ballot, they win. When he's out of the ballot, the people don't go to vote. And I'm asking the people through your brilliant show, number one show.

I'm asking the people to get out and vote, pretend them on the ballot. If they go out and vote, we're going to win. And if we don't, our country's going to be in sad shape because. We're going to go through a lot of things. There is Trump. Pretend I am on the ballot and go out and vote. That's Trump talking about the midterms. And the funny thing is I sort of do understand what he's trying to do.

Trump has a turnout problem. There are people who love Trump and will crawl over broken glass to vote for Trump. But when Trump's not running, some of those people don't show up. That's absolutely true. Trump has acknowledged it multiple times. He recently said to supporters in South Carolina, Republicans have a problem because Trump voters don't necessarily come out and vote for senators. Trump voters don't necessarily come out and vote for members of Congress when he's not on the ballot. So his solution is pretend I am on the ballot.

Now, here's the problem. There are other people who can also pretend Trump is on the ballot. The Democrats, the independents, and the Republicans who voted for Trump but regret it. the people who voted for Trump but are furious about prices, people who don't like the Iran war, people who don't like what he's doing with tariffs, people who don't like what's happening with health care and the subsidies that they got rid of. So everybody gets to pretend Trump is on the ballot. And this gets us back to that absolutely bizarre Republican midterm convention that they're holding in Dallas on September 9th and 10th. I've been saying since they announced that thing,

I don't understand why Republicans would want to do it. And maybe they don't. Maybe it's only Trump who wants to do it so he can give himself a show and make himself the center of another event. Midterm elections are already usually a referendum on the president. And when the president is unpopular, the president's party should want individual candidates to be able to go home and say, forget about what's happening in Washington, forget the national circus, forget the president. I'm your guy, I'm your gal. I care about this district. I care about this state. I understand what my constituents need. Here are the three things I'm going to do for you. localize the election as much as you can tell voters to forget about the orange guy in D.C.

That's the approach that a lot of Republicans would say that's what we need to be doing. And instead, they're having this gigantic national convention whose entire purpose seems to be make the, make every race, make every congressional race, make every Senate race about Trump. And it's not like Trump is going to make a quick appearance and leave. He's appearing both nights. J.D. Vance is headlining one night. Trump's headlining the other. The RNC says it's going to be a showcase for President Trump's

success. What success? They're basically building a flashing sign that says this election is about Trump, which Democrats should be thrilled about. And clearly some Republicans understand that that's a problem for them because there are now reports of Republicans privately worrying, man, this convention could really backfire. It's going to. take candidates away from districts and away from campaigning. And it all could become way more about Trump than the people on the ballot. And of course it will. It's Trump. Now imagine being, I don't feel sorry for them, but imagine being a vulnerable Republican running for Congress. You are desperately trying to convince swing voters. You're your own person. And then your party

says, great news. Come to Dallas. We're going to put Trump on TV for two nights. And we're going to remind everybody you're part of his party. And to some degree, a vote for you is a vote for Trump. And remember, if you're an incumbent Republican, a vote for you kind of is a vote for Trump because you've been rubber stamping close to 100% of what Donald Trump has wanted Republicans in Congress and in the Senate to do. So now Trump is explicitly saying, hey, pretend I am on the ballot. If I'm a Democrat, I'm saying absolutely, I'm going to go out and vote as if Trump were on the ballot. People who might not otherwise be as motivated to go out and vote because they don't feel that their vote is going to do anything to Trump might say, well, if Trump wants

me to act as if he's on the ballot, I will go and vote. And if you hate what Trump's doing, you can tell yourself you're voting against Trump. And that's kind of the most incredible hairbrained thing about all of this. Trump's strategy for resolving Republican turnout problems could be phenomenal for activating Democrats to go out and vote. So I say, go ahead and do it. Pretend Donald Trump is on the ballot. I'm not convinced Republicans are going to like what happens when everybody does. Now, there was a period of maybe four weeks ago or something like that where I was starting to think they're really not talking about this stupid midterm convention. Maybe somebody is talking sense into Trump. And they're saying, sir, listen, we don't think it would be the best thing.

And maybe they're going to cancel it. Maybe they're going to realize that this is a very bad idea. Doesn't seem like it. Seems like they are going full speed ahead towards making Trump the center of this thing. And if only for spite, listen, spite is a valid reason to do things. I believe it is in a lot of situations. And if you were sort of like, yeah, I don't like Trump, but I'm not super motivated to get out and vote in a midterm or whatever, spiting Trump coming in and saying pretend I'm on the ballot is a perfectly reasonable and legitimate reason to vote. It is. And if that is your only motivation, I say all power to you. Let's go and do this thing. Let's take everything away from them because they there really couldn't be worse people to see it happen to. Something really weird is happening

at the White House right now. And I think that this might be a bigger story than a lot of people realize. Caroline Levitt is leaving as White House press secretary. That's not news. I think her last day is basically today because we're up against the weekend. Monday is technically the last day of the month. She's basically done. Okay. And Donald Trump has no replacement yet. They have not announced a replacement for Caroline Leavitt. And according to CBS News, Donald Trump has not selected a replacement for Caroline Leavitt. And the plan for now is to rotate different administration officials through the briefing

room. So I think we have to at least consider the possibility that Trump has no plan to replace Caroline Levitt at all. And he's just going to leave that role empty. And maybe the traditional White House press secretary will disappear. altogether. Now, we've gotten a preview of this because when Caroline Levitt was on maternity leave briefly, the White House didn't name an acting press secretary. One day it was J.D. Vance. Another day it was I think Marco Rubio did one or Scott Bessent or, you know, they would come out and talk to reporters.

They also started doing briefings far less frequently. Caroline Levitt comes back, but announces, I'm leaving permanently. And the plan seems to be we may never fill that job again. Maybe Marco Rubio comes out one day. And then it's Scott Bessent and J.D. Vance and whoever makes sense that day. Anna Kelly, the deputy press secretary. Now, here's why I think this is so critically important. I have obviously had many criticisms of Caroline Levitt, including that she's a disgusting liar. And the briefings were filled with propaganda.

She would attack journalists. She would repeat Trump's lies. Nobody watching this show would mistake me for a fan of Caroline Levitt. But there is a difference between having a terrible press secretary. and not having a press secretary at all. The press secretary is at least one person whose job is ostensibly to stand there and answer questions on the behalf of the president to reporters and to the media. And interestingly, reporters have said that behind the scenes, Leavitt actually could be kind

of helpful. For example, Caitlin Collins from CNN said that even though publicly they were fighting all the time, Leavitt advocated for her to be allowed into the press rooms on multiple occasions, including during overseas trips where Caitlin Collins was not going to be allowed in. Other reporters have said, you know, there is this weird split where Caroline Leavitt is combative in public, but privately she responds to questions. She gets us information and she's really useful. Now, this is not praise for Leavitt. This is us theorizing what happens if Trump never fills the position. Marco Rubio is not going to be useful to reporters behind the scenes. Scott Bessent doesn't have to

come out and answer questions about uncomfortable topics. J.D. Vance doesn't doesn't have to do it. If the White House wants to talk about Iran, they send Rubio. If anything else is asked, Rubio goes, I'm just the secretary of state. If they want to talk about the economy, they send out Besson. And if anything else is asked, Besson goes, I'm just the Treasury secretary. I don't know anything about that. So if there are stories that the administration really doesn't want to talk about related

to Trump, they send out someone who can't speak to them or maybe nobody comes out at all. And that's really the concern. This is an administration that has had increasingly infrequent space. based out more and more press briefings, that attacks the press all the time, that restricts access, that brings in propaganda journalists, for lack of a better term, who get all sorts of privileges. And we now may be moving towards something less transparent. There's also something strange about how it all went down, because when Donald Trump announced

other departures recently, Tulsi Gabbard, Christy Nome, Pam Bondi, there was immediately are almost immediately a successor. Caroline Levitt announced she was leaving more than two weeks ago. Her last day is today, Monday, and we don't know of anybody. Now, there were rumors it could be Alina Haba, it could be Anna Kelly, maybe Scott Jennings. But there is the implication here that maybe this blindsided Donald Trump. And there was no grand plan. And Trump hasn't found anybody he wants.

And maybe they can't find anyone sufficiently loyal who's also willing to stay. there every day for the salary that that job pays and defend every stupid thing that Trump said six minutes earlier. So maybe Trump does announce a replacement today, tomorrow Monday, the question goes away. That's not the plan right now. The plan appears to be no permanent press secretary and this rotating cast a who's who of officials instead. And if that sticks, I, Caroline Levitt leaving is interesting.

But the more interesting part will become, Trump no longer believes he needs. needs a press secretary. And that would be extraordinary, most importantly, because the press secretary is arguably the number one element that allows some insight into Trump's thought processes behind the decisions he makes. It's part of transparency. It's part of explaining to the American people in the media what you're doing and why you're doing it.

And a really easy way to reduce transparency is remove the conduit all together so that nobody has any clue and reporters certainly aren't able to ask about it. So I don't know what's going to happen. There was a point in time recently where polling and betting markets seem convinced that it will be Alina Haba that replaces Caroline Levitt. And then that kind of died out. And then there was some reporting that the most natural choice for stability is Anna Kelly, who has been the deputy to Caroline Levitt for a while.

But that sort of has faded. And then there was the idea that Scott Jennings, the right wing radio host and I don't know, right wing debater was the natural choice because he's combative and blah. But it's not really clear that he would want to give up the lucrative gig he has to go and stand in front of reporters. I was going to say five days a week, but they don't really have to do it five days a week. However many days a week, they decide to do it. But then talk of that also kind of died down. So I don't know what the plan is now. But when I can assure you is that if this administration valued transparency and valued communicating with the American people and telling us,

about why Trump is doing the things he's doing, we would have seen progress on this by now. So let me know what you think. Is one of the three people I mentioned likely to get the job? Is no one likely to get the job? Is it somebody else altogether? Are we going to see Trump come back sort of like during the COVID era where he was doing briefings? I don't know.

I want to hear from you. Leave a comment or send me an email info at David Pakman.com. Every political story has two parts. happened and what different media outlets want you to think happened. And you can see the framing difference pretty clearly in this story about Donald Trump signing a $70 billion immigration bill after this long fight over ICE funding. On the left, the focus is what will the money fund? Billions for the next three years of Trump's mass deportation campaign.

On the right, the emphasis is Trump taking future ice shutdowns off the table by signing the bill. One side is asking, what does this mean for immigration enforcement, for mass deportations? The other is framing it as Trump ending the threat of ice shutdowns. This is why our sponsor Ground News is so useful because it lets you compare coverage from the left, right, and center in one place, along with factuality ratings and info about who owns the outlets. I've been using Ground News for years. It can really help you see through the political spin that blinds a lot of news consumers.

And right now you can get 40% off the same vantage plan I use. Go to ground.news slash Pacman. The link is in the description. Summer is better when good food doesn't require planning. And that is why our sponsor, Wild Grain, delivers sourdough breads, seasonal pastries, and French butter from small independent bakeries straight to your door. everything bakes from frozen in 25 minutes or less. I love wild grains, slow churned French butter on sourdough. Rich, lightly salty. It is a great snack. Easy upgrade for breakfasts or casual

summer dinners with friends. Wild grain is using simple, recognizable ingredients. They've got a slow fermentation process. You can customize your box with classic gluten-free, vegan, and protein options. So if you're looking for an easy way to enjoy bakery quality bread at home, give wild grain a try over 40,000 five star reviews named USA Today's best food subscription box three years in a row and their croissants are still winning awards. Go to wildgrain.com slash Pacman to get $30 off your first box plus free croissants for life. The link is in the description. If I can't play in the sandbox myself, I'm going to poop in it so nobody else can play there either. This is now the level on which Donald Trump is operating. If he can't put his name on something, he may just knock the entire thing down and I wish I were kidding, but I'm not.

The Trump administration is raising the prospect of demolishing the Kennedy Center if Donald Trump doesn't get his way. This is one of the most bizarre and pathetic presidential vanity process. I have ever seen. Now, the history of the Kennedy Center is interesting. It was established by Congress in 1964 as a memorial to the memory of President John F. Kennedy after his assassination. Trump took office, took control of the Kennedy Center, replaced its leadership, installed allies on the board, and became chairman himself and pretended to be surprised when the people he put on the board said, what about making Trump the chairman? And the biggest decision he made in his infinite wisdom is that we need to put another name on the Kennedy Center, Donald Trump's

name. The building was renamed. The Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the performing arts. There's a problem. A federal judge ruled the board didn't have the authority to rename it. Congress has the authority to rename it. So Trump's name, with much fanfare and attempting to cover it up, Trump's name was removed from the facade. And now things have gotten completely insane. The Trump-controlled board has a new plan. The building would officially remain named for John F. Kennedy, but it would prominently say restored and renovated by President Donald J. Trump. He would get a plaque. And the grounds would be called the President Donald J. Trump Plaza. And there could be potentially another Trump reference if a fundraising effort reaches $100 million. Now, Democratic Congressman

Joyce Beattie, who also happens to be a trustee of the Kennedy Center, is back in court trying to stop all of this. And the Trump administration has now responded to what is, I guess we're calling it a warning. Justice Department lawyers are arguing all of a sudden, you know what? This is a very dangerous building. The Kennedy Center, it's structurally unsound. It's fundamentally unsafe. It's embarrassing to the nation's capital. And they say Trump must be allowed to close it for two years and rebuild it. Well, what if that doesn't happen? You know what?

It could get so dangerous. This is so pathetic. The building could get so dangerous. We will have to take it down and then figure out what we're going to build instead. In other words, if you don't let Trump plaster his name all over it and renovated in the way he wants, he might demolish the entire thing. Oh, because it's so unsafe all of a sudden. Now, the filings read like delusional documents that you would say, whoever wrote this maybe should have a psych evaluation done. The filings say Trump is uniquely qualified to rebuild the center because he has unrivaled

expertise and experience in real estate and construction. It's a Justice Department court filing and it sounds like a Trump Tower brochure or something. And it gets even more embarrassing because the administration is arguing if Trump doesn't receive prominent recognition for the project, donors may say, oh, we don't want to contribute. We will only contribute if Trump's name is on it. This is delusional. The memorial to an assassinated American president, we are told, can only survive if a different president gets enough credit for renovating it. Now, the irony here is remarkable. The Washington Post reportedly got confidential budget documents.

And we talked about this on the bonus show a couple days ago. Ticket sales and fundraising collapsed after Trump's takeover. Fiscal revenue for 2026 is estimated to be $124 million. The target was $220 million. They are going to end up with half the money they were looking for. for because people are disgusted by what Donald Trump is doing there. And they're describing it as a fiscal cliff. Trump's name went up and then fundraising and revenue just went off a cliff.

Now, the Kennedy Center is disputing everything. They're saying, no. Previous management gave us financial problems, aka it's Biden's fault. If you zoom out, think for a second about what we're watching, Trump takes over the Kennedy Center, his allies put his name on it. A judge says you can't do that. They figure out another way to put his name everywhere. And while that fight continues, the Justice Department goes, very nice Kennedy Center you got there. Sure would be a shame if something were to happen to it. In Donald Trump's Washington, D.C.,

even a memorial to John F. Kennedy has to be a monument to Donald Trump. And there's one other funny little aspect of this. The name they gave it, you know, the Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial, whatever. Memorial means the person is dead. And Trump doesn't give a damn about this. And obviously, we know that Trump is alive at this point in time. It's just funny that he is so desperate for recognition. He's fine tacking his name up on stuff usually reserved for dead people.

And this happened with the currency as well where they were going to put Trump's face on a coin or on a bill. They had ideas for all these. We really only do that with people who have passed away in the United States. And in fact, that's the long. law, but they just don't care. They, they will get around that by making it commemorative or find some loophole or some way to get around it. Trump doesn't care because his desperation to establish a legacy he thinks won't be humiliating overrides any sense of decorum or class.

And by the way, I think at the heart of this is that Donald Trump does recognize his legacy is in the toilet. Not only are classified documents in the toilet when Trump gets access to them, His legacy is likely to be an embarrassingly terrible one. And this is where his motivation comes from to try to grow the territory of the United States with Greenlander, Venezuela, or to put his name on stuff, to put his face on stuff. It's all because he realizes he's going to be remembered terribly. And the next president, especially if it's a Democrat, is going to instantly undo a whole bunch of the stuff Trump did.

What's harder to undo if I build a new ballroom. if I renovate and put my name on the Kennedy Center, if I acquire territory. And that is why he is obsessed with doing that stuff right now. Apparently, Joe Biden did start a war after all. According to Donald Trump's Agriculture Secretary, Brooke Rollins, Joe Biden launched the war on cattle. You might not have heard of that before. And unfortunately, this bovine conflict is leaving the Trump administration completely

unable to explain its own plan for lowering beef prices. Last week, Secretary Rollins was asked, a really straightforward question. Why is beef so expensive? And her answer is basically because of Joe Biden. I want to start by asking you what the Department of Agriculture is doing to bring beef prices down for Americans. Well, first of all, Jackie, is so great to be on with you again. Thank you so much for having me. Listen, what we are facing in America today is the direct result of a war on cattle by the previous administration, frankly, a war on agriculture, and a war on farming in general. When you've got a prior administration that is basically blaming cattle for their crazy

climate agenda, then you have a real problem. Now this goes back to a false claim that was made about Biden and Democrats in general, which is if Joe Biden gets his way, if AOC gets her way, if they do the Green New Deal, No one will be able to have a burger again. We will never again see a burger in this country. It's all based on nonsense. But when she was asked last week, why are, why are beef prices so high? She goes basically it's because of Joe Biden.

Okay. So we then get to, by the way, I missed the war on cattle under the Biden administration. Was Biden, you know, sneaking onto ranches and intimidating the cows or was there an anti-cattle division? The actual situation is terrible for the administration. beef prices are up a lot since Trump came back to office, up from about 545 a pound to 685 a pound. So about 20% increase, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And now Trump has a new plan.

The plan is he is going to temporarily allow 300,000 metric tons of imported beef into the United States with no tariffs and no quotas for 90 days. The idea is flood the market with beef. it'll lower the prices of the beef. There's one little problem. Two days ago, Brooke Rawlins, the agriculture secretary was asked, where is the beef coming from? And this is an important issue because there are countries the beef might be coming from where

we are comfortable with the standards and countries where we might not be. Now, I'm going to be very upfront about that. I'm biased in this. I'm from Argentina. Argentinian beef. I would love to have Argentinian beef come into the United States. I think it's phenomenal. The standards are great. But there are other places from which we wouldn't be quite as keen on getting beef from. So which countries is the beef coming from? Brooke Rollins says,

can't talk about that. What? Finish with you. About the beef in force. What specific countries have been in talking to the U.S. about stepping up those besides from Mexico? I am not privy to talk about that. I think the conversations are still going on. And that's ambassador Greer who's finalizing what exactly that looks like. And I think the president's-

By the way, the use of privy is completely wrong. I'm not privy to talk about that. You could say I'm not privy to that information or that's not something I can speak to today. I'm not, but this is not primarily a grammar show, but what what is wrong with every single one of these people? So listen to the story they're building up. Joe Biden conducted a war on cattle that none of us knew about. Trump negotiated a mysterious international beef deal, but they can't tell us.

which countries the beef is going to come from. Now, presumably what she means is she's not at liberty to discuss the negotiations. And the negotiations are ongoing and U.S. trade representative James and Greer is involved. But it gets even more ridiculous because when the American ranchers and even some Republicans were told about this plan, they said, why the hell would he do that? Montana Republican Senator Tim Sheehe is a Trump ally. And he says, this is a very bad idea. If we flood the market with foreign beef, we're going to crush our own ranchers. A lot of our ranchers are MAGA Republicans. A lot of our ranchers have already been getting crushed by the tariffs like the farmers.

But Trump doesn't care. The American Farm Bureau Federation is saying the exact same thing. Agricultural economists don't even think the price lowering effect will be that significant. There's a little like, yeah, it'll be, you know, briefly and temporarily and modestly lower. but it's not really going to make a difference about affordability. Now, part of the real explanation for expensive beef, you know, Biden's secret war on cattle is titillating, but the real explanation is very boring. American cattle herd have been historically small in terms of herd sizes after a bunch of

droughts and high input costs. And it's basic supply and demand. You've got less supply and level demand for beef. And so the price goes up. And meanwhile, the administration has reopened an Arizona border crossing to Mexican cattle because New World's screw worm concerns have declined a little bit, and we're expecting to get more of that cattle. And remember the political context. The promise was lower grocery prices. Beef's gone up. So the administration goes, we need to prove we're doing something about it. So we'll bring foreign beef even while we launch trade wars around the world. It's completely incoherent. Now, could this plan work?

Might beef prices eventually decline? I guess. But if your explanation for why hamburger is nearly seven bucks a pound is Joe Biden had a war with cattle, that is a very stupid place to start the explanations. The truth is the administration doesn't have the answers. And they at one point were saying, well, beef is really the thing. We're going to win on the beef and bring the prices down. And the beef prices are up.

And every hairbrained idea they have for how to fix it seems to hurt someone, whether it's the ranchers or the consumers or whoever else it might be. This is a backwards administration. These people need to be punished. They need to be taken out of power. We are worse as a country because these incompetent fools are in power. We're weeks away from an opportunity to at least take some of them out of power. I say we try to do it.

Scams do not feel random. Scammers may know your name, your city, a relative where you work. And suddenly the message that you get sounds a lot more believable. And a lot of that information is found online and it's just sitting there waiting for bad actors to use it against you. This is why our sponsor Incogni works to remove all of that information from hundreds of websites and databases that have it so that scammers have nothing to work with. Incogny automatically sends removal request to hundreds of sites that have your personal info. They will follow up again and again until it's gone. My favorite feature is custom removals with the unlimited plan. You find your info anywhere. Strange directory obscure website, not on their master list of databases. You submit it,

a link in a screenshot, and they will work to get it removed for you. Scammers and spammers can't bother you if they can't find you. And I am getting no spammer. calls anymore and I've always been using incogny. I would recommend it to anybody. Go to incogny.com slash Pacman. Use the code Pacman for 60% off the annual plan. The link is in the description. The Natalie Harp story has just become way more than weird gossip kind of stuff. We are now dealing with a genuinely terrifying national security vulnerability surrounding Donald Trump. Now, I'll say up front, I want to be clear. I don't want to be misquoted.

I am not claiming today that Natalie Harp is a spy, an agent, or an asset to a foreign government. I have seen no evidence that Natalie Harp is working for a foreign government at this point in time. The question I want to propose to you today is if someone were attempting to manipulate the president, what would they need to do differently from what Natalie Harp is doing today? Natalie Harp's path into Trump's inner circle, which apparently started with a bizarre 96-second video that she recorded back in or around 2017.

And in that video, Natalie Harp says she had been accidentally infused with sterile water, which sent her into hemorrhagic shock. And she said she survived because of a rare blood condition, but was left with cancer, chronic pain and enormous medical bills. And the production then cuts to Trump promising that America's forgotten men and women would be forgotten no longer. And Harp's conclusion is that Donald Trump saved her. This was like a personalized emotional appeal engineered for the most important audience

of one that there is in Maga World, Donald Trump. And it worked because Harp eventually appeared on Fox News and said Trump's right to try law saved my life. Now, medical professionals are not convinced by this story. Let's put it that way. I don't want to make this all about the medical claims, but medical professionals are not convinced by this story. But it didn't matter because after she said, Trump saved my life with this right to try law, Trump noticed her. And she joined his campaign and spoke at the Republican National Convention and eventually became arguably the closest person to the president of the United States. And where we stand today, almost September of 26, is that Natalie Harp, report.

reportedly controls access to Trump, handles his social media communications, prints the information placed in front of Trump, and is serving as a conduit for people to Donald Trump, including foreign leaders who are trying to reach him. She accompanies Trump into high-level meetings. She's on Air Force One. When Trump fled Air Force One in Turkey because of an apparent Iranian threat onto another plane, Natalie Harp was among that tiny group that was taken with Trump when senior officials were left behind. And the unbelievable part is that according to reporting, HARP operated inside Trump's White House for more than a year without completing the routine security clearance process. And she reportedly declined multiple requests to submit the paperwork

for the security clearance. This made security officials concerned. This made secret service concerned. Trump intervened. And only then did she complete the process and eventually get that security clearance. So again, imagine that she were a spy for a moment. Imagine that a foreign intelligence service identified Trump is emotionally vulnerable because he's estranged from Melania and they plan and send someone in whose whole job is flatter Trump, reinforces grievances, make him feel personally adored. That's someone who could create a story about Trump saving her life.

because we know Trump loves that stuff. And she could appear on TV praising Trump because Trump loves that. And she could remain fanatically loyal when others walk away and she gradually becomes indispensable. And where she could end up is exactly where she did end up, which is controlling what information reaches Trump, filtering the messages that come from the outside, shaping what Trump's posts, what Trump posts and remaining physically right there when Trump is having sensitive conversations. And again, if she were a spy, when asked to undergo normal security vetting, she could refuse for more than a year, but she gets to keep her insanely extraordinary

access to Trump. What additional steps would an actual intelligence operative be taking that Natalie Harp hasn't taken so far? So, you know, there's the story like, are Trump and Natalie Harp having an affair? I don't know. This is not really about that. This is not. This is not. about mocking a working professional woman, as Newt Gingrich said. This is not about mocking someone who is emotionally intense. This is about a president who has this desperate need for praise, and it makes them really easy to manipulate. Putin has figured it out. Putin has figured out how to manipulate Trump based on his need for praise. Kim Jong-un has figured it out. All of these authoritarian leaders of it, she has figured it out. And then we learn, oh, Natalie Harp wrote

letters to Trump saying, you're all that matters to me. You're my God. You're my God. guardian and protector in this life. I beg for your forgiveness when she thought she had embarrassed Trump by running after his golf cart. And the authenticity of those newly published letters seems to verify that these are extraordinary declarations of devotion from Natalie Harp. Now, Trump apparently interprets all of this behavior as she's really trustworthy. She's just she's so loyal to me, she must be trustworthy as well. But a competent security operation would go, man, this is a vulnerability. So the scary part is not, I suspect Natalie Harp is a spy. We don't know that she is. The scary part is Trump has demonstrated exactly how easily someone could bypass the

normal systems that are set up to protect the president by telling him the one thing he is most desperate to hear, which is you're perfect. You saved me. You're all that matters. You are the most important thing. Now, are we ultimately going to get specific and fulsome answers about why didn't she want to do the security clearance for a year? I don't really expect that we're going to get those answers, but it would be great if we did. Are we ever going to find out what is really happening behind the scenes romantically. I don't know. Maybe we will. Maybe we won't. I'm not sure. But if we want to separate out all of these little details and just say, are we confident that Natalie Harper around Trump isn't some kind of a security risk? I can't say that. I'm not confident

at all. And even if she's not a foreign asset, there is no doubt that by sort of accelerating Trump's worst instincts and never hitting the brake pedal on his worst instincts. She is at minimum some kind of a security risk and is certainly endangering a lot of American alliances around the world. That's bad enough. Scott Bessent went on TV out of breath and slurring, sounding like he sprinted in from the parking lot. And he told the country that sanctioning Iran is basically D-Day. And then he said to Iranian soldiers, throw down your weapons and overthrow your government. How do you overthrow them without your weapons? This guy is in way over his head.

This video is what the Treasury Secretary of the United States looks like when he is frantic and flailing and gasping. And it is terrifying that these are the people in charge of stuff. Today, at President Trump's direction, the United States Treasury, has begun. gun operation economic outcast, an unprecedented campaign against the Islamic Republic of Iran and its enablers. In the Second World War, D-Day marked the historic beginning of a campaign with our allies to target and drive the enemy from its positions, including those in third countries.

Okay. Today, in that same spirit, we are launching an economic onslaught. against Iran's financial connections around the globe. Around the globe. Our objective is to sever every economic lifeline that sustains this tyrannical regime until Tehran stands alone. Iran's fanatics devote themselves to death to America

and seek nuclear weapons to do just that. These are so deeply delusional people. He's comparing economic pressure on Iran to when allied soldiers stormed the beaches of Normandy under machine gun fire in their effort to defeat Hitler. Okay. One of those things is young men dying by the thousands to defeat fascism. And the other is a guy in a suit adjusting spreadsheet formulas from a TV studio.

Now, sanctions might be real policy. They aren't D-Day. And when you have to reach for the most sacred military sacrifice in American history to describe what's effectively an economic memo, you know the policy is not selling itself on its merits. And it gets even more unhinged from here. Listen to this one. Here is Bessent calling on Iranian soldiers to lay down their weapons and overthrow the regime. How are they going to do that without their weapons?

It doesn't really make any sense. to the ordinary soldiers supporting this regime as more and more of your paychecks stop or supposedly just delayed, ask whether your commanders are leading your country to triumph or to ruin and recall that the Berlin Wall fell when ordinary soldiers decided not to shoot at their own people. Yeah. How exactly will Iranian soldiers lay down their arms and then overthrow the regime? Overthrow the government without your your guns. Walk me through the mechanics of that, Scott. You want soldiers whose entire job description is we have weapons. Like what is what really distinguishes a lot of the soldiers from non-soldiers?

It's, well, they have weapons. He wants them to stage the overthrow of an armed government while laying down the one thing that might make the overthrow possible. It's not really strategy, is it? It's more like, uh, I don't know, the, the slip of paper, you get in a fortune cookie or something like that. And then almost as an afterthought, he is asked by a reporter something which should be a really quick no. Hey, does the U.S. and President Trump still want Canada to become a state? Now, he should just go like, no, no, no, no. Instead, he attacks the Canadian prime minister. Does the United States and President Trump still want Canada to become a state? He did say that

they're getting all the benefits of being a state without, um, being one. I think he would like Canada to come to the table and negotiate in good faith. They were offered quite a good deal last week. They chose to reject it. Unfortunately, Prime Minister Carney rose to power on an anti-American anti-Trump platform. I believe he was more than 20 points behind. And he seems to have gone back to his old playbook. And I think one has to ask himself, is he trying to benefit himself, the Liberal Party, or the Canadian people, because they were offered a very good job. What they mean by negotiate in good faith means submit to all of the crazy whims of Trump and his negotiators. That's what the, if you are actually standing up for your

country the way anybody would be expected to do in negotiations, you are not negotiating in good faith according to this administration. Now, as far as Mark Carney being anti-Trump, Maybe that's because Trump's own posture towards Canada has been, let's float annexing Canada and let's threaten to use economic force to make them our 51st state. You don't get to threaten a country's sovereignty and they go, oh, I'm so wounded. They're not rolling out the red carpet to welcome us. That's not bad faith. That's Canada looking around and noticing what's happening and responding like any self-respecting

country would. Now, Besson didn't storm any beaches, but he did show how far. out of his depth, he really is. And he is one of the more sort of miserable actors in this administration. I know I've told a story before, but I had a run in with Besson last year when I was in D.C. Got to a restaurant for a beautiful dinner with a friend. And we sit at a table and I look to my right and Scott Besson is sitting there at an eight person table. And he looked, miserable. He was with a bunch of guys. There was no obvious security presence around. Maybe they were somewhere in the room. I don't know, but there was no obvious security presence.

Best since sitting at his table miserably just eating his food, saying nothing. Everybody else around him is sort of chatting and having a good time. And he just looks like a miserable guy. Now, he may be miserable by his nature or he may have been miserable because he's working for Donald Trump and some stupid thing humiliated him that day. I then focused on the dinner I was having. And before I knew it, Bessent was gone, probably whisked away and a big SUV over to his next whatever. But seems like a miserable guy out of his depth in over his head and very evident as he was struggling to be coherent during this appearance.

Hey, if you're hearing this, that means you're listening to our podcast on one of the many podcast networks that we stream to. And first, I just want to say, thank you for being a listener of this show. It really means a lot that you're tuning in here. I would love to ask you for a quick favor. We are so close to reaching 4 million subscribers on YouTube. YouTube is where we post everything you get through the audio podcast and a lot more stuff. It would mean a lot to me if you took a quick second to pop over to YouTube, search up the

David Packman Show and hit subscribe. Every bit helps. I would love to have you as a subscriber there. apparently doesn't understand how opinion shows work. I'm talking about Greg Black, who commented on Facebook, pretty sure the, I guess he means voters, pretty sure the voters in South Carolina can figure out who they want for senator in South Carolina. Do you live in South Carolina, David? No, this is a show where I give my opinion. And my opinion is that Darlene Graham is there only because she's Lindsey Graham's sister and she's clueless and she's an embarrassing humiliation. Of course,

the voters in South Carolina can figure out who they want to vote for. I am not a South Carolina voter, so I won't be voting. But this is a show about politics. And so I give my opinion. It's so funny when these critiques come in where it's like, how dare you eat? Really what you're saying is how dare I have a show. And you know what, Greg? If you don't like hearing from me or you don't value my opinions, you don't have to watch the show. But I've, you know, will continue giving my opinion about races if I feel I have something to say, whether or not I vote in those races. Give me a break. A lot of people writing in about this. Delcrest Bay said, thanks for reading my previous comment on air. So I just knew you were going to play the Alex

Jones bonus show rant and then nothing. And Anthony said it's criminal. He didn't you see the show out with Alex Jones, oh, the bonus show after he got an email talking about it. Well, here's the thing. I only have my soundboard when I'm in the studio. And I was traveling in L.A. doing a lot of those book interviews when I read a message saying the Alex Jones rant, is that real? Whatever. So I didn't have it, but I have it now. The bonus show where you want to make money, everybody else that makes money to fund themselves is bad. And then we've got the other elements of it. Thank you're lucky stars. Every day. You're not Dave Packman. That is a freaking predator right there. Exactly. All right. So I apologize. I was not in studio, but now that I am,

I was able to play the Alex Jones ramp. Kevin says, as an independent, I urge you to ditch the phrase woke, period. We know right from wrong, even if MAGA doesn't. It invites unnecessary talking points for the right to use this distraction. I agree completely. I don't use, I use the term sarcastically. Now, last week, we did this segment about AOC saying woke 1.0 was crazy and all of this sort of stuff. And so I gave my opinion as to what I see as woke 1.0 versus woke 2.0. But as a general concept, I want to talk about policy. I want to talk about social democracy and how government and individuals should relate to each other and how government should serve the people and all of these things. For me, the whole, even using woke as a pejorative or as something real does not help me clearly advance my ideas and therefore I don't use it. Now, Kevin does make a good point, which is that some people when they say woke, they are using it to signal opposition to an entire ideology and just sort of say, these people are crazy. They are woke. And maybe that does turn off some voters.

I don't know. But my goal is to be understood as cleanly and specifically as possible with regard to the policies I'm pushing for. And using the word woke either as something I'm in favor of or against doesn't really help. Now, if you want to say, hey, are there structural inequalities that exist in society that we want to resolve? I would go, of course there are. And I would talk about those and explain those and think about how to resolve them.

While others would go, well, that's woke as something that's bad or that's what we talk about when we say we are woke fine use the term if it's useful for you in expressing yourself. It's not particularly useful for me. So I don't really use the term. Richard Rose commented on my interview with Brian Tyler Cohen a two for one chorus special. You know, this is so funny. I haven't been part of chorus since 2025. There's so many people that continue to. comment on YouTube. Chorus this, chorus that. Chorus cohorts are a few months. And I have not been part of chorus since 2025. And I don't know what people imagine or hope to achieve with those sorts of comments. But Richard, maybe next time try a substantive response to what Brian and I spoke about. I would appreciate that. Karen wrote in and kept this is really her name. I'm not saying this is a Karen.

Okay. It's Karen. Karen said, why are you people so concerned? Okay, the grammar is insane. So I'm going to try to clean it up. Why are you people so concerned about people being vaccinated or not vaccinated? Get better diets, live healthier lifestyles and be more concerned about people. about the toxic crap in our food and products. Well, Karen, these things are completely separate

issues. Should people eat on average a healthier diet? Yes, the American diet is filled with ultra-processed food. That's not good. Should people live a healthier lifestyle in the sense of make sure you're getting 10,000 steps a day, make sure you're getting enough water, you're getting enough sleep, you're spending time socializing. Of course. But that has nothing to do with measles, Karen. When we're talking about measles and you see who is catching it and being hospitalized in this anti-vax outbreak, which is what it is, you see that over 90% are unvaccinated people.

And we have this concept called herd immunity. There are people out there who can't get vaccinated because of medical conditions that they have. There are people out there who can get vaccinated, but they're immunocompromise. So even with the vaccine, their body is less able statistically to fight off a virus. And so that's why we say it's important to have hurt immunity and for kids to get the MMR vaccine, which of course does not cause autism. And that has been widely debunked. It has nothing to do with toxic crap in our food.

Now, this is where sometimes like the Maha stuff can be confusing or disorienting to people, where they go, well, part of the. of Maha is that if you get food dies out of Skittles, you don't need to go and get vaccinated because it'd be so much healthier. And of course, these are unrelated things. Is it better than not to reduce the amount of ultra processed food and food dyes that you're consuming? Sure. Even if you eat an entire package of Skittles, do you think you're getting that much food die? No, you're not. And it's not going to do a thing to help you fight off measles. So these are sort of like unrelated issues that even at the start of the pandemic, we heard people saying, no,

listen, you don't need the vaccine. You just need to exercise and eat right. And if you do get sick, you know, you take hydroxychloroquine or I've even forgotten out what some of the other. It was a hydroxychloroquine. Oh, I forgot. I'm going to feel so stupid. Hydroxychloroquine. Ivermectin was the other one. It's like, yeah. Yeah, it's great to eat healthier. It's great to exercise. But that has nothing to do with what these vaccines are there for. But appreciate the comment, Karen.

Garth wrote in and Garth says, Trump thinks the data centers are beautiful buildings, but he thinks the wind farms are ugly. He constantly distills complex issues down a third grade understanding. He's as shallow as the reflecting pool. Knee deep, no wonder an uneducated, non-critical thinking populace is so, enamored with his messages. It's simple communication delivered with confidence. Yeah, it is an incredibly jarring thing to hear on the one hand. Wind farms delivering clean energy, which are half an

inch at, at the from the perspective of the eye off on on the horizon. Those are eye source, but a data center that is creating noise pollution, screwing up our water and with. which we are paying for the infrastructure and then paying higher utility rates for. That's cool. But a wind farm off in the ocean on the horizon is too much of an eyesore. These people are truly pathetic, truly pathetic. A lot of people weighing in on what on earth was in Donald Trump's pants. And Henry says, I think the butt protrusion is his buttocks and particularly unfortunate

tailoring, allowing his jacket flap to be fully extended from seam to seam. That type of man butt is literally like a beer can shelf. There's one opinion. I don't know. Is it possible that that's what it was? It's not really clear, but maybe it is. And then Ben says no one wants your book, you propagandist pussy. Well, you know what?

There are a lot of people like Ben out there who want my new book to fail. It's true. Ben won't be buying the book. That is absolutely. I mean, I assume. But that doesn't mean I didn't work insanely hard on this book and I believe that it has important ideas in it and that I'm going to do everything I can to make sure that the book does as well as possible. I will be with Jessica Tarlov on October 3rd. talk, I will be sort of interviewing her about her book and we'll be talking about both of our books at the Springfield Book Forum in my ancestral home, not of Argentina, but of Western Massachusetts. I'm going to be heading back up to Western Massachusetts on October 3rd, Springfield Book Forum. I will be there alongside Jessica Tarlov.

I think that there will be signed books available. But if you can't get there, get a signed copy of the book. David Pakman.com slash attention. You can get the Kindle version. You can get the audio book version, whatever you want at David Pakman.com slash attention. And it is an exciting time to be writing a book. That's for sure. I'll see you on the bonus show.