The David Pakman Show - It’s backfiring but it might be profitable

Episode Date: March 13, 2026

-- On the Show -- Donald Trump's war with Iran drives up oil prices while his administration controls Venezuelan oil sales, raising questions about whether the conflict increases the value of oil revenue tied to the U.S. government -- Donald Trump attacks Gavin Newsom’s dyslexia on Truth Social in an attempt to portray him as unfit for office, even though medical experts say dyslexia has nothing to do with intelligence or leadership ability -- Senator Rick Scott publicly admits that prices will remain high after the Iran war drives up oil costs, undercutting Republican claims that their policies protect Americans from rising costs -- Democrat Shawn Harris finishes first in a special election in Marjorie Taylor Greene’s former Georgia district, ahead of Trump-backed Republican Clay Fuller, forcing a runoff in a deeply conservative seat -- Joe Rogan says supporters feel betrayed over Trump's war with Iran despite campaigning against endless wars, raising fears of a wider global conflict -- Donald Trump delivers a rambling speech filled with strange claims and contradictions while Republican leaders, including Mike Johnson and Steve Scalise, applaud him for nearly two minutes -- Rand Paul criticizes Donald Trump’s Iran war on television, warning that the conflict is expensive, poorly justified, and could lead to political disaster in the 2026 elections -- The Friday Feedback segment 🛍️ Shopify: Sign up for $1/month trial and start selling today at https://shopify.com/pakman 🧳 Ekster: Get up to 45% off + extra 20% off with code PAKMAN at https://davidpakman.com/ekster 👖 Fair Harbor: Get 20% off with code PAKMAN at https://fairharborclothing.com 🥄 Magic Spoon: Use code PAKMAN for $5 off at https://magicspoon.com/pakman 🛡️ Incogni lets you control your personal data! Get 60% off their annual plan: http://incogni.com/pakman -- On the Bonus Show: Pete Hegseth holds a press conference on the Iran war, Democrats are planning to investigate corporate ties to Trump if they win back Congress, and much more... -- 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) Start(01:16) Trump Iran war oil profits question(07:05) Trump attacks Newsom dyslexia(12:26) Rick Scott says prices stay high(19:12) Democrat leads Greene district race(24:34) Rogan says supporters feel betrayed(34:31) Trump delivers rambling speech(44:12) Rand Paul criticizes Iran war(50:52) Friday Feedback segment   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're going to start today with a question that only gets more interesting the deeper you look. Is it possible that Donald Trump's Iran war is creating a massive financial windfall for him and his family through oil markets and a strange Venezuelan oil arrangement that his administration controls? I'm going to break it all down and then we'll see where we land on it. We then have the targeting of Gavin Newsome exploding now over Newsom's dyslexia. And as soon as you examine the argument, it falls apart. We'll explain why it's a dishonest attack and why, why does Gavin Newsom trigger Trump so much anyway.

We also have a shocking special election result in Marjorie Taylor Green's old district in Georgia. A Democrat actually finished first, but it was a multi-way race. And Joe Rogan says Trump supporters are right to feel betrayed by the Iran war. And even Republican Senator Rand Paul is warning that the war, gas problem. prices and the economy could be disaster for Republicans in November. Well, let's hope so. All of that and more on today's show. Is Donald Trump making millions, hundreds of millions or billions of dollars from the Iran

war? When you look at the sequence, it's a pretty logical question. Let's go through it. Trump launches a war with Iran. prices spike, shipping is disrupted, the strait of Hormuz is thrown into crisis. And at the same time, remember that the Trump administration is controlling Venezuelan oil sales through a bizarre arrangement that reporting says Trump himself is overseeing. So that's the setup for the situation.

And it very quickly gets very dark. Trump didn't need to seize Iranian oil for there to be money in this. He needed a war that made oil more expensive and he created one. That's exactly what happened. Nicholas Maduro was captured. The Trump administration took control of Venezuelan oil exports and that creates a revenue stream. You've got it's you've got oil sales and money that are all real.

So when oil prices jump, the stream of income from the Venezuelan oil gets far more lucrative. This is the mechanism. This is not, you know, it's not Trump loading oil onto ships. It's that he has launched, you could launch or escalate, but he has launched a war and escalated a situation that drives oil prices higher while his own administration controls oil flow thanks to his decision to go and kidnap Nicholas Maduro. So the oil produces more money and the president who launched the war is reportedly controlling how the proceeds are released. So if this is starting to sound like a setup for corruption, it is. Add

in the rest of the information that we have. The public case for the Iran war has been very shaky from the beginning. You know, Trump talked about there's an immediate threat because of nuclear and the reporting doesn't support that. Marco Rubio's explanation sounded less like we have no choice and more like, well, Israel was going to strike and we wanted to get ahead of a fallout, which is also not a very good justification. And that really makes a difference because if the official rationale for why this is even happening doesn't hold water, you kind of have to ask, is there some hidden reason for this war? And the obvious answer would be Trump just took control of a bunch of Venezuelan oil. And now he's doing something to blow up the price of oil. And even Trump admits

he wants it to only be temporary. Now, where does that? the money go? Good question. Originally, the proceeds went through a Qatar-based arrangement, and then it has shifted into Treasury managed accounts, U.S. Treasury managed accounts. I don't want to overstate this part of it, but the underlying reality is that it's bad enough already without even going further into the speculative part where Trump lines his own pockets. We have an extraordinary oil money setup connected to American military action and very credible reporting that Trump is controlling the disbursements of that money. That should be a scandal.

Like even beyond is this money that's funneled being that's being funneled back to Trump. Now to be responsible, I should say, we do not have proof that Trump is personally profiting from that oil money. We don't have the proof. I'm laying out a circumstantial situation. I don't have a bank record to show you or proof of money going into Trump's bank account or something like that. But that doesn't make the question absurd.

It makes it sort of a necessary question. Even if Trump is not pocketing a dollar from the oil sales of the oil whose market value, he blew up with the Iran war, who is benefiting? Which firms are benefiting? Which traders? Which donors? Which insiders are positioned to make money from the spike? that Donald Trump himself caused. And a lot of times this is how corruption works. It's not like

one obvious payment. It's access, contracts, timing, and a very opaque, bigger picture. So maybe the cleanest way to put this to you is it's not, we know Trump is making millions or billions from the war, but it's did Trump launch a war that made the oil system that his administration control, a lot more valuable and someone is making a killing off of that. If not Trump, we've just got to figure out who. The answer is yes, the oil resources became significantly more valuable thanks to Trump's war. Trump clearly knew that that was going to happen. And so you have an environment for profiteering, corruption, insider benefiting on a massive,

massive scale, totally plausible. Now, we don't have real transparency. about where did the money go? Who controls it? Who's benefiting? We should keep asking these questions because very often Ryan Holiday recently recommended to me the book, War is a racket. And what his like a hundred year old book almost.

When bombs fall and money flows, follow the money isn't really a conspiracy theory. It's just like we've got to do it. and the Venezuela, Maduro, Trump oil stuff connected now to the context of this optional and totally hairbrained Iran war? It's raising a lot of questions. Let me know what you think. Leave me a comment or send me an email info at David Pakman.com. California governor Gavin Newsom recently talked about being dyslexic.

And Donald Trump is arguing that Gavin Newsom's dyslexia is proof that he cannot be president, But it is an argument that collapses like that the second you look at it. Let's take a look at Donald Trump's post to truth social. Quote, Gavin Newskum's interview weeks ago was perhaps the most self-destructive interview I've ever seen. In one fell swoop, he took himself out of even being considered as the presidential nominee of the crazy Democrats. He said in a speech, he was dumb, had low boards, can't read, has the president.

dyslexia and has a mental disorder, a cognitive mess. On top of that, black people are angry because he is obviously a racist. While we all want to be politically correct, having a mental disorder is not a positive campaign event. Also, this was a politically suicidal act. The only thing he didn't say is he is losing his look, but nobody wants to say that about one's self. He is no longer a viable presidential candidate.

Yeah, Gavin Newsom said he has dyslexia. That's true. He talked about it at his book events. He's talked about it for longer than that. And Gavin Newsom said he struggled in school. His SAT score wasn't particularly high. He struggles to read prepared speeches. He acknowledged that those are difficulties for him.

But dyslexia is not a sign of low intelligence. You could be dyslexic and smart or dumb. you could not be dyslexic and smart or dumb. Importantly, you could be dyslexic or not and be a good person or a terrible person. And that's where we sort of focus in on with Donald Trump. The Yale Center for Dislexia, by the way, makes clear that intelligence and dyslexia have nothing to do with each other. A lot of successful people are dyslexic.

So taking this seriously to begin with, Trump's premise is very wrong here. There's no reason you would be disqualified from being president for being dyslexic. any more than you would be if you needed glasses or if you had ADHD. I don't know. You know, Gavin Newsom was talking about how he learns and how he connects ideas in written form to speech. And that's all it really is. But what's fascinating about this is Trump's hypocrisy. Trump is attacking Newsom over dyslexia while Trump is regularly confused in public, contradicts things that he says all the time and doesn't seem to realize it. struggles to read and it's a long documented thing.

Just this week he said the Iran war is a war and the Iran war is an excursion. He couldn't pronounce Kentucky and multiple time. Kentucky, Kentucky at his dilapidated rally a couple of days ago. So the idea that Trump is now policing the cognitive abilities of others is pretty rich. There's also a really simple point that I think is important to make. Reading ability and presidential fitness are not the same thing. When we talk about Trump's limited reading ability, we're connecting it to the contrast between Trump's own claims about how he's the best at everything cognitive, reading, speaking,

thinking, all of that stuff. And there is another aspect, which is Trump is bored of the information that any president should be taking in no matter how it's presented. When he was given things to read, he couldn't or wouldn't. do it. So they would try to brief him, read the thing to him, the presidential daily briefing or whatever. And then in the background, there's a TV on the wall with Fox News and he's distracted by that. So the simpler point here is Trump is implying that because Gavin Newsome struggles to read prepared speeches, he can't do the job. But Trump struggles to read and isn't doing the job

well and avoids his briefings and rarely reads anything. I don't think Donald Trump read a book in the last 50 years. So by Trump's own standards, he would not be fit to be president. And of course, we know that he's not. Now, let me bottom line what this is really about for you. Trump is actually going after Gavin Newsom for a different reason. Newsom pushes all of Donald Trump's buttons. Gavin Newsom is younger than Donald Trump. Trump's upset about that. Gavin Newsom is taller than Donald Trump. Newsom is the height that Trump claims to be. Trump really doesn't like that. Gavin Newsom is more articulate than Trump.

Gavin Newsom is more comfortable on camera. Gavin Newsom knows how to handle confrontations. He's widely seen as a potential presidential candidate. Trump wouldn't be obsessing over someone that is irrelevant. Trump insists every few days, Newsom's done, new scum, just blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. He means nothing anymore. If that were true, Trump wouldn't be talking about him every two or three days. He obsesses over people that he sees as threats.

And this looks like Trump sees Gavin Newsom as a threat. If Newsom were finished politically, Trump wouldn't be writing pages a week on truth social about Gavin Newsome. What do you think this is really about? Let me know. Here is evidence of a political problem for Republicans. This is a big problem. Republican Senator Rick Scott is admitting prices are going to be up for a while.

This is a political disaster for Donald Trump. Take a listen to this. It's fascinating to me that Democrats now talk about gas prices under Obama and under Biden. They tried to destroy the US oil and gas industry. So we want prices to come down. I think unfortunately prices are going to be up for a while until this ends. But with Venezuela coming on, with American oil and gas coming on, with hopefully a positive resolution to this conflict, then prices will come down even further.

Yeah. Democrats should be running that video as a campaign out, quite frankly. This is brutal. Prices are not up because of a random act of nature or act of God. Prices are up because Trump launched a war with Iran. And we have now seen a greater than 30% increase in the price of gas. And it seems to be continuing up. Anyone who understands markets, which Republicans claim to do, would have predicted that if you do what Trump did, gas prices are going to go absolutely nuclear. But Trump has been arguing they're going to come down quickly. They're going to come down even faster to lower levels than they've ever been.

Rick Scott is acknowledging prices are going to stay high. And what he's really kind of doing here, I don't know that he means to do it. He probably doesn't is puncturing, punching a hole in the central lie that Republicans want to tell voters heading into November. They want a campaign as though inflation is this mysterious force that only exists under Democrats. Trump did everything he promised of lowering prices, but we just have a little bit of high gas and oil prices for no real reason we want to talk about except of course we've got to talk about the reason.

And now one of their senators is saying what the truth is, which is that the war is costing you money and it's going to continue costing you money for a while. Democrats have to be aggressive. This is, it's too important a moment for Democrats to flop on this one. This is bigger than gas. Higher oil prices end up in everything. Shipping, groceries, airline tickets, delivery costs, manufacturing, commuting to work before the war, families were stretched very tight. And now Trump's war adds another layer. And you've

got price pressure pushing up and Republicans want to say, oh, it's temporary. But Rick Scott is acknowledging this is going to go for a while. And the White House itself has started to say, this is only temporary but worth it. They've decided it's worth it. And in a sense, that validates the attack line. So Democrats need to cut this into an ad. Trump starts a war. Prices go up. And Rick Scott admits they're going to stay up. That's the full story. You don't need an elaborate theory. Democrats often get into their own problems, self-inflicted problems with, you know, 10, 15 minute explainers. You don't need one here. This is really, really simple. You just need the sequence. Trump starts the war. Prices go nuclear. He says it's worth it. And Rick Scott says

it's going to last a while. That's it. Your prices went up. And the deeper problem, I think, for Republicans is that this exposes the broad scam of their economic populism. They love talking about kitchen table issues when they can blame a Democrat and when their decisions cause a problem from Americans. All of a sudden, it's a sacrifice that we're making. It's geopolitically important. Freedom isn't free. Let's be patient. Stop complaining. Stop criticizing Donald Trump. The real scandal is not that prices are predictably rising after Trump starts a war. It's that they spent really a decade building a political identity around the claim that they are the number one protector of ordinary people and they will protect people from pain,

economic pain and other types of pain. And now you've got one of their senators acknowledging the pain is real. It's not ending anytime soon. It's happening on our watch and Trump caused it. And now they've got to deal with that politically. But Democrats have to make them account for it because if they don't, it'll just be another wasted opportunity. Starting something new is exciting. It can also be intimidating.

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money-back guarantee. Go to David Packman. com slash extir. The link is in the description. I come to you today with the delightful news that Marjorie Taylor Green's very red Georgia Senate Congress congressional seat. Sorry, Senate. That's a nightmare. Her congressional seat that she gave up could, could be taken by a Democrat. We've got to look at these numbers.

This is fascinating. So here's what happened earlier this week. Sean Harris is a Democrat. He finished first in the special election in Marjorie Taylor Green's old district. He got 37% of the vote and Trump backed Republican Clay Fuller got 35% of the vote. But the important thing to remember is that no one cleared 50 because this was a multi-way race. And so now that race is going to a runoff on April 7th just between the top two vote getters,

the Democratic candidate, Sean Harris and the Republican candidate Clay Fuller. There is no doubt that with this being one of the most conservative right wing districts in Georgia, Trump had 68% of the vote there in 2024. There's no doubt that this is an uphill battle for Democrats. When Marjorie Taylor Green last won in 2024, she got 65% of the vote. So I am not here to tell you a Democrat. That is going to take Marjorie Taylor Green's seat. But one of the really interesting things is that Donald Trump endorsed Fuller, a Republican,

and even appeared with him during early voting. And he couldn't even finish first. Put aside the didn't get to 50% thing yet. He couldn't even finish first with Harris, the Democrat, getting 37% of the vote to to Fuller's 35%. Now, of course, it is true that with multiple Republican candidates among the top vote getters, In total, Republicans got way more votes across the entire race. But that means that, number one, it is a fractured race.

37 in this dark red district in a special election, a Democrat gets 37%. That's important. And secondly, Donald Trump's endorsement wasn't even enough to get a Republican candidate over 50% in an extraordinarily right wing district. Now, I think that the details of the candidates are pretty interesting and important here. The Democrat, Sean Harris is a retired army general. He's a cattle farmer. These are, I mean, listen, this is a Democratic candidate with a profile that is both theoretically

more appealing to Republicans than many Democrats and also more serious than what the Republican candidates are offering. Now, on the other hand, not only did Fuller have Donald Trump's endorsement and support, had help from outside right wing groups, Harris turned the race into a national fundraising story raised over $4 million. And even if Republicans win the runoff, and I'm not naive, I understand that this is, this is stacked against Democrats significantly. Even if ultimately Harris, the Democrat doesn't win and Republicans do, this is a warning sign

for MAGA. Democrats are competing in deep red districts where they have no business. doing well. And so the bigger message is that if you can do this well in Marjorie Taylor Green's district in Georgia, Republicans are going to have a pretty serious political problem in November. And when you look at, again, Trump's 68% there in Marjorie Taylor Green, 65%. Republicans should win the seat and should win it easily. But seeing this narrow, narrow, narrow increasingly and a Democrat getting the plurality of the vote in that first go round is stunning. So as I like to say, the fact that this is a fight is really the story,

because Democrats aren't supposed to even be competitive in a district like this. Sean Harris is actually a really interesting and strong candidate. He's the sort of person that I think in moderate districts that sometimes vote Republican. People like Sean Harris should be running because they bring a lot to the table that should be appealing to moderate and centrist voters, but it would be another self-inflicted wound for MAGA because the chaos, the battle between Donald Trump and Marjorie Taylor Green, which clearly played a role in her decision to get out of Congress altogether, all of this. They could have lock, forget about locking up an easy win. They could have just had Marjorie Taylor Green in Congress if she and Trump hadn't gotten

into the battle to begin with. And so Republicans can still win the seat. If I were a betting man, I bet they do, but maybe not by as much as, as they expect. But they will still come out of this looking sloppy, weak, and vulnerable because of the internal dynamics of that race. And just forcing Republicans to spend time, money and attention defending Marjorie Taylor Green's seat is a victory in and of itself. None of this becomes anything in November unless we actually get out in vote. The special elections can be unique circumstances. Off your elections can be unique.

circumstances. All of the scaffolding points to the possibility of a massive blue wave in November, but it will not happen unless we actually get out there. I'm going to give you the pros and cons of what's going on with Joe Rogan right now. The pros are that Rogan seems to be recognizing Trump betrayed his voters of which Rogan is won with promises that now he has done a 180 on. Trump is not doing what he told us that he was going to do. That's the pro. Rogan's recognizing that and maybe telling that to the manosphere is going to be useful. On the other hand, on a lot of issues, including COVID, Rogan's off the rails.

And I will show you that in a moment. Here is Trump endorsing podcaster. Rogan endorsed Trump in 24 saying people feel betrayed by the Iran war. campaigned on ending this sort of thing. And now he's doing it. But just seems so insane based on what he ran on. I mean, this is why a lot of people feel betrayed, right? He ran on no more wars and these stupid senseless wars.

And then we have one that we can't even really clearly define why we did it. But just seems- So there's a few different aspects to this. Of course, Trump betrayed his supporters. But at the same time, if we figured out, that Trump was bamboozling them and making this stuff up. Why didn't they? Like, why did Rogan fall for it and fall for it so hard that he even said, I'm voting Trump? I'm endorsing Donald Trump. So it's good that Rogan is recognizing that this is a betrayal. It's good that Rogan is saying this isn't what we were

promised and this isn't what we voted for. But it wasn't shocking that Trump didn't do what he promised. He never does. And in fact, this was one of the most obvious lies that Donald Trump, was telling. Rogan going further, he says, we might be getting into World War III here. Yeah. I mean, it's just such a fuck. I mean, the whole, the whole situation internationally has been so tense already with what's going on in Gaza, with what's going on in Ukraine. It's like, and to add this to the pile, it's like, I mean, it genuinely feels like there's a real possibility that we might be entering World War III. How would that look like?

I don't know. I never expected Iran to start attacking. You know, they launched bombs into UAE, Dubai. I mean, where else? All right. So I think you get the point. Rogan is concerned about what he feels to be a 180, even though most of us really saw through the promises of Trump.

And then finally, this is also interesting. Rogan sort of pushes back on the idea that Trump isn't being blackmailed. Rogan seems to think it's possible Trump is being blackmail. Russians aren't behind him. I mean, Trump is, look what he's been through. I mean, he's, you know, he's got where he is. There's no way he's gonna, they don't have anything on him. That's why you know that.

I don't think they have anything on him. But how do you know that way? Well, he could, but I'm not, we don't see any evidence for it. Well, you wouldn't see any evidence until it broke out. Sure. Yeah. And, and we'll get, I'm sure we'll get into Epstein. But I mean, I just think when you don't have evidence of something, then you can't assume

that it's happening. I haven't seen any evidence. I've seen evidence that Trump is fully independent with it, particularly this case of Elon surprised me. I would have thought at a minimum, you'd give your largest campaign contributor the one thing you wants. I mean, Doge was something you wanted, too, but, and then I look at Iran and I kind of go, you know, Trump is always one. I mean, Trump has been criticism. He said he doesn't want Iran to have a nuclear weapon for a really long time. I don't know the exact date, but certainly. Well, no one wants you wrong to have. So Rogan isn't convinced that Trump isn't being blackmailed in some way. All right. So listen, Rogan's not pleased with what's going on. And he's expressed displeasure as the, at the, how the deportation campaign has been carried out.

He's expressing displeasure at the foreign policy. That's interesting. Rogan saying some interesting things. But let me show you this. Just a reminder of how off the rails Rogan is on so many issues. Here he is on COVID and vaccines, which I don't know, this topic has done something weird to Rogan. Rogan suggests that if you get vaccinated against COVID, you're more likely to get COVID. Hmm. Long COVID can cause altered smell or parisomia where things smell distorted, fow or different than they used to, even if the initial COVID-19 symptoms have passed. So did you get this after you got, like when did this start happening? Did you get COVID?

Yes, I got vaccinated six times. Of course you did. I just had a grace thing, actually. Yeah. The people who didn't get vaccinated got it once or twice. Really? Yeah. Look at the confidence with which he says that.

Shit. Yeah, they fucked you. They fucked everybody. They fucked everybody with that goddamn stupid thing. I got it hard. See, I'll talk to you about this. And then tomorrow, my liberal mom will be like, the vaccine is good. And I'll be like, yes, mommy, I agree.

It's a long conversation. It would take a long time. Yeah, listen, it's a long conversation, but it's not that complicated. And it sort of goes like this. There's no evidence that getting vaccinated makes you more likely to get COVID. And at the same time, unfortunately, I mean, listen, it's just, it's just the reality. The recent COVID vaccines don't seem effective at preventing you from getting COVID. They're quite effective at preventing death from COVID.

They're quite good at preventing hospitalization from COVID. But they're not really good at preventing you from getting COVID. The first one against the original COVID. strains seemed very good at that. And then subsequently, as the virus started to change and the vaccines tried to keep up, its prevention capacity is not that great. I wish it were better. I wish it were like measles. It's not. But the people that got vaccinated get COVID way more times. But if you don't get vaccinated, you still get COVID, but only once or twice. What? Now, of course, first of all, these are mere anecdotes. I can.

give you an anecdote, but it wouldn't mean very much. I was vaccinated against COVID. And I've only gotten COVID once in the six years or however long it's been. But what does that mean? I'm not naive enough to think that my personal story of vaccination and only once getting COVID means anything. It's just what does it prove if I do that? So, Rogan, I mean, listen, to the extent that he is deprogramming some of these magabots by saying Trump promised us a lot of stuff that's not happening. The deportation thing is a fiasco. The Iran war is a fiasco. That's good.

The idea that he now is clear-eyed and clear-minded, he's still getting sucked into a lot of wacky stuff. And unfortunately, if you look at his guest list now, in fact, let me pull it up, Joe Rogan guests. It is overwhelming, like even more than I think it has been for a really long time, right wingers. This was Michael Schellenberg. He had RFK Jr. on recently. Had Rachel Wilson, Jim Brewer, Michael Malice, Dr. Robert Malone, Cheryl Hein. You know, it's just, it's a lot, a lot of right wingers. I think the big picture of this is that it's still a very concerning picture, but to the extent that he's able to deprogram anybody on Trump,

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The link is in the description. Donald Trump delivered a borderline mentally ill speech to congressional Republicans and they clapped like trained seals for him. You really have to see this and it is a stunning and depressing example of the blind leading the blind of the clueless allowing themselves to be further bamboozled by the clueless. Look at this moment where you see Maga Mike Johnson, Steve Scalise, Tom Emmer, a whole bunch of Republican congressional leadership clapping like trained seals for Trump. And none of them wanted to be the first to stop.

Like in North Korea, you would better not be the first person who stops clapping for the dear leader because that will reflect in your review. Take a look at this. So Trump is. Trump is standing there looking around waving and they're just clapping and clapping and clapping and clapping. They can't stop. They don't want to be the first to stop.

And you saw Scalese stopped for a moment and goes, oh, damn, they're all still, they're all still clapping. I got to start clapping again. All right. So that went on for several minutes until they were allowed to stop without punishment. I think what actually happened is the music ended. And then it sort of was like a natural moment for them to stop clapping like, like trains. deals.

Trump then said maybe the truest thing that he has said in a really long time. Take a listen. But you know, they've said this about a lot of things. No other president could do some of this shit I'm doing. That is probably true. More specifically, no other president would think of doing some of the shit that Trump is doing. Now wildly as gas prices are surging as oil prices saw their fastest spike in over 40 years.

years, Trump goes, no one talks about affordability anymore because prices have come down. They don't say it anymore because we brought down prices so much. Right. So our message anymore, the truth of course is prices are up, not down. And everybody's talking about it. The entire country is plagued with what is going on with affordability. A really weird moment. Now, I'm going to play two things for you.

Trump said that a girl has to be evade. like above six years old. Okay. I'm going to play for you the short clip first and then people said, oh, it's missing context. Well, then I will give you the context and we'll see if it's less weird. So here's the original clip. Unlike voter ID, but you know, it can be given to you by your daughter. You know, your daughter, she has to be of age like above six years old. She's allowed to say you had to see some of this stuff is. Okay. So people said, oh, that's so unfair. If you look Look at the full context. It was not weird at all.

All right. Well, let's check out the full context. Again, and we just keep going with it. And I put that down as a top three. Look, no mail. Now, you have the exceptions for the military. And I would even say foreign-based military. But for the military, for disability, for illness.

And if you're traveling, you know, you have an excuse. And I was lenient on that. But those three things. Then I added two more. These are best of, you know, best of. These are called best of Trump. We should also add on to this bill. And so what I've asked Mike to do is to draw a new one with these few things added.

And let's go for the gold. Let's not just get one like voter ID, but, you know, it can be given to you by your daughter. You know, your daughter, she has to be of age, like above six years old. She's allowed to say you had to see some of this stuff is so bad. Yeah. It doesn't really make it any less weird. The whole idea here is you've got to get ID from people to make sure that they're of age for voting, I guess. And if you add the additional context, it's no less weird that Trump is going they've got to be of age like above six years old.

I guess what Trump means is it can't be a six year old's ID that you present. But why is he saying of age and six years old? This is the last thing that Donald Trump should be talking about. Then Trump goes full 1984, war is peace. The Ministry of Peace, which wages war. and he says, oh, inflation is plummeting. And listen, try to find anything true in this clip. In our country, inflation is plummeting.

Incomes are rising. The economy is surging. Our border is the most secure at any time in American history. And the murder rate is the lowest in 125 years. That's before my father was born. My father was born six years later than that. I don't know if he'd like me to say that. Never like to talk about his age.

He said, don't talk about that. But think about 125 years ago, 1900, the year 1900, the stock market is set 53 all-time record high since the election. And it's going to go a lot higher as soon as we get rid of this stuff that we're doing right now that we really. I'm so sorry, but nobody's falling for this crap. Americans know that inflation is steady to slightly up. Incomes are not rising.

The economy is not surging. of that stuff is true. And then a weird Freudian slip, Trump says we have to crush healthcare. Narrated that one of the first targets must be the crushing healthcare. We have to crush the and take over the healthcare situation, which we can do. We are gonna crush healthcare like no one has ever seen. Trump did start to glitch. It's the easiest thing we have.

I can't. And I've got a bunch of that stuff on my soundboard. Yeah. Right. Ha. Ha. Ah. Ah.

Ah. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. So weird, weird moment. And then a very strange glitch when talking about one of his favorite favorite topics, gender affirming care. One five things that are like close to 100%.

No transgender mutilization surgery for our children. Well, you know what? I have to admit it. Trump has really done something. There is absolutely no transgender mutilicious-shation surgery for our children happening right now. It has nothing to do with Trump, but he's right that whatever that describes certainly isn't happening. Trump wildly claims that every time he goes anywhere, people are just begging him to pass the Save America Act. They say, sir. If you get this, you're midterms and they know it.

For two reasons, number one, they won't be able to cheat. And number two, the people are demanding it. Every time I go out, save America, sir, save America. We want the Save America Act. That's all they talk about. They don't. I assure you, no one is going up to Trump and saying that. This was a funny moment on the topic of undocumented aliens, undocumented immigrants.

He calls them illegal aliens, driving. commercial vehicles. Listen to what he had to say. Criminals, they fight ice all the time. That was a problem up in Minnesota. They had a lot of criminals in there. They wouldn't give it to us. And to stop illegal aliens who cannot even speak English from driving 18 wheel tractor trailers. They have no idea what they're reading. I wouldn't be able to do it in their countries, just arrows and their speed limits. They have no idea what they're reading. You know what's funny. Numbers are the same in every language. And numerical.

55. All right. Well, is it kilometers or is it miles per hour? But 55 I can do. Arrows are arrows in any language. And hilariously, I've driven in countries that speak languages that to quote Donald Trump, no one's ever heard of. I'm of course completely kidding.

But Trump loves to say these are these people are speaking languages. No one's ever heard of. I guess Trump, who is not known for being a particularly good driver, would not be the one you want driving you around when you visit Cancun. That seems to be very clear. Finally, Trump going back to this entire mental institution thing, which if you haven't heard about what Trump means, what the confusion is, I'm going to tell you in a moment. They emptied their mental institutions.

They emptied their insane asylum. That's a step above a mental institution. They emptied them all right into our country. We've been wondering what this is about for a very long time. Why does Trump say that they are emptying their mental institutions or insane asylums into our country? I am convinced and Senator Ruben Gallego agrees with me on this. I'm convinced that Trump has heard about people seeking asylum, political asylum. And he is confused and thinks that this is people coming from a psychiatric hospital, sometimes

known colloquially as a mental asylum, insane asylum or mental institution. I can't think of any other explanation as to why Donald Trump continues to say that other the complete and total confusion. Republicans in the room were reportedly stunned. Remember, this was not a speech to a rally crowd, which would be bad enough. This was a speech to congressional Republicans and they were reportedly stunned by Donald Trump's incoherence. Rand Paul is occasionally right.

And I've got to tell you, when it comes to civil liberties, when it comes to due process, process when it comes to the Constitution, when it comes to war, Rand Paul is often much more right than your average MAGA Republican. Here is Rand Paul on Fox News, no less, stunning the interviewer into silence by saying, hey, this is our second war this month. I think we're a little bit over extended here. And so I don't want to weaken our country further. I think we've gotten overextended. This is our second war in a month. And these wars are very, very expensive. Not only the lives that are lost, but also in treasure. And so, no, I'm very, very concerned about the debt. It's been my number one focus for some time now. I know it has. And a half a trillion dollars to the military budget is fiscally irresponsible.

Fiscally irresponsible in the face of China on the march, China undermining the United States at every turn, Russia, continuing its assault on Ukraine, Iran, North Korea. So when you look at the world that we are faced with, in terms of the reality that we're in, you still won't budge on increasing money for the military in this changing backdrop. Well, to put it into perspective, we currently spend more on our military than the next 10 countries combined. So while there are threats we face around the world, and while we should combat and check China around the world, we spend, you know, four times more than they do. But we spend more than the next 10 countries combined. So our military budget is not inadequate. It is enormous. He's right. Rand Paul on this issue is correct. And you don't

have to agree with his broader libertarian right wing philosophy. You don't have to agree with that ridiculous statement he made years ago that if you have universal health care in a country, doctors become slaves. That was wacky. That didn't make any sense. But every once in a while, he's right. And Rand Paul explicitly explains on Fox News to an audience that desperately needs to hear it, that the reasons we have been given for this war, none of them are convincing. And by the way, none of them are even being achieved. As far as the reasons for the war, there have been many different reasons floated, but none of them, I think, have been very convincing.

One reason is that we want to free the Iranian people from oppression. I have a great deal of sympathy. I want people to be free around the world. But if our foreign policies to free oppress people, I'm not sure where war would end. I mean, there are many people that are said to be oppressed in China. Tibet, the Uyghurs, North Korea, Russia. Where would war end if our goal is to free oppress people? So I think that goal is too grandiose and would perpetually tie us up in war.

Another statement has been made, well, they're a week away from a nuclear weapon. You can take clips from the 90s all the way through the present of people arguing that they're a week away from nuclear weapons. Correct. Then there were arguments made where their ballistic missiles are almost able to reach the U.S. But then our intelligence countered that and said, really, they would be six months to a year if they made that attempt. We were also told their nuclear weapons were obliterated. And now we're told their nuclear weapons are just moments away from being a bomb. So I guess I don't think the arguments are valid.

And I think war should be the last resort, not the first resort. A war of choice is not my choice. This is, of course, all completely true. But I want to kind of zoom in on one specific issue here, which is. there are horrible things going on all around the world. And in fact, there were horrible things going on in Iran. And they still are, by the way. We haven't stopped the horrible things by what we did.

But can the United States be responsible for going to every country where those things are going on? And by the way, there are horrible things going on in the United States. There are people going bankrupt from healthcare bills. There are people going hungry in the United States. There are people dying on the street because they don't have housing and it's freezing out. And we aren't even dealing with all of the horrible. horrible things happening here. So the idea that simply out of our humanitarian hearts, we need to go to war with Iran because

of this, I despise that Iranian regime. And I despise what China's doing to the Uyghurs. And I am disgusted by what the North Korean regime is doing to North Koreans. But we can't just go to war everywhere. And Rand Paul is actually pointing this out. Finally, on the 2026 elections, Rand Paul seems to concede. Republicans are going to get crushed because of what's going on in this economy. about how worried are you that a split Republican Party will only mean losses in the midterm

elections? How are you expecting the midterms to play out? And if you do lose the majority, doesn't that put the GOP behind the eight ball in terms of getting anything done in terms of your priorities? I don't think split party is the problem. I think high oil prices will be a problem. I think the 2026 elections already, we are behind the aid fall as far as the electoral process. I think if you add in high gas prices, high oil prices, and if we are still bombing Iran with kinetic action, people don't want to call it war. If there's still kinetic action that causes all to be over $100, I think you're going to see a disastrous election.

Wow. I think he's right. Wow, says Maria Bartaroma, but I think Rand Paul is spot on, especially. in the context of this latest war, I think they're going to get absolutely crushed. But we've got to go out and vote to make sure that that happens. Most scammers rely on information that's already public. Your name, address, phone number, family connections. A lot of that is online and available to be scraped and abused.

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I can tell you I've personally been getting way fewer scam and spam calls and messages ever ever since I started using incogny, you can accomplish a lot quickly with incogny. Protect yourself before your data is used against you. Get 60% off when you go to incogny.com slash Pacman and use the code Pacman. The link is in the description. Many of you wrote to me this week, we will look at some praise, relatively limited, but a lot of criticism as well and different ideas about what's going on politically. You can always email, leave comments on Spotify, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, anywhere you want.

We will find it and we will react if necessary. We start today with Davo. Davo says, Pacman, you were losing credibility by telling the far left just what they want to hear. The shit Trump does needs no spinning or exaggeration. Be honest. Be fair. Well, listen, as usual, I would love specific examples. I'm telling the far left what they want to hear.

The far left mostly hates me in this show. So as is often the case, you know, I sometimes will get criticized at the same time for being a far left socialist and a centrist fiscal conservative or something along those lines. I just tell it the way I see it. I don't direct the show to the far left or the left or the center left or the middle of Republicans or anarchists or communists or socialists or white supremacists or anti-semis. I just do the show. That's it. If you don't like it, then evaluate what I'm saying and tell me what I'm getting wrong.

But in fact, one of the biggest rifts I've had with my own audience over the last year and a half was in September, October of 2024. I came to the audience and I said, listen, Trump's polling better in all seven swing states than he did in 2020 against Biden. And he's even polling better in the seven swing states than he did against Hillary Clinton back in 2016 when Trump won. And there were people in the audience that were angry with me and said, we need positivity right now.

We need enthusiasm. And I just tell it like it is. And if I see a problem in the polling, I mention it and I did and a lot of people didn't like it. So anyway, let's move on. Curious Olive said on the subreddit, Democrats should steal the election. If the midterms are really so important, then I think Democrats should allow pay dominion voting systems to write an algorithm that casts an extra vote for them in a certain pattern that is hard to decipher. If 2024 taught us anything, it is don't trust the consultants. So it's time to take

matters into our own hands and stuff the ballot box. Yeah, I'm against this. For me, you know, there's a difference between let's fight fire with fire. Let's not unilaterally disarm. And let's start committing crimes. It's sort of like, hey, you know, Someone else would have stolen this car if I hadn't. Therefore, it's fine for me to steal the car. I don't think so. And that is not the way I operate. And so there is a difference between saying, hey, we've got to be more ruthless.

We have to call things as they are. We need to be more proactive in how we communicate the urgency with people. and that's all totally fine. But you're suggesting committing crimes at the end of the day. And it's not it's a no for me, dog. I am not going to say that it's time to start committing crimes. However, we should be aware of all of the tactics and techniques that the right is going to and has tried to use to win elections.

And on that basis, we need people like Mark Elias from the Elias Law Group and others ready and resourced to put a stop to that. All right, plea for peace wrote on the subreddit. Would anyone be interested in girl dad content from David? I'm a girl dad, writes plea for peace with one around David's kids age and would be interested to hear his thoughts on fatherhood life changes since becoming a parent. I know he's pretty private, which I would be too if he was interested in sharing his thoughts on the subject and his audience responded.

Maybe he would. What about the bonus show? just polling the subreddit. Yeah, I think most of the audience does not want that. I, I don't. And from the responses to this post, I think that there would be a mutiny among the ranks. If there was too much or really any, I think, maybe I'm miss misunderstanding the audience. I think if there were any girl dad content on the show, it would be very, very bad for the show. I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm scared to do that. Nick Lewis says, Trump the deal maker couldn't make a deal even though Obama could.

Got it. Yeah, you know, this is of course in reference to the Iran deal and the idea that Barack Obama was able to achieve a diplomatic. I don't know if I would call it a solution, but certainly a temporary solution at least with the Iran nuclear deal. And for Donald Trump, it was a bomb them over the summer, obliterate their nuclear program, but then it's back. And now you've got to go right back in.

and Trump starts this war. What you have to understand about Trump is he just wants credit and he doesn't want other people like Barack Obama and Joe Biden being looked upon as successful. And so a great example is Trump talking about NAFTA's terrible. NAFTA this, NAFTA that back to 2015, Trump telling people we're going to solve NAFTA and get rid of it. He got rid of it and he put in USMCA. Yes, it has a different name.

Yes, there are some small differences with regard to. vehicle manufacturing between Canada, US, and Mexico. But USMCA, which is Trump's doing, is extraordinarily similar to NAFTA, which Trump said is terrible. What's the most important thing? Trump wants credit. Trump wants the prevailing trade deal to have his name on it. Similarly, and I apologize, I just hit my microphone. I don't do it on purpose.

I really don't. And I know for headphone users, it's bad. It's bad. Similarly with Iran, Donald Trump couldn't stand that Barack Obama had gotten the Iran nuclear deal signed and that Iran was adhering to it as far as we could tell. And so he started insisting Iran is not adhering to it, even absent any evidence to that end. And then he ripped it up to which Iran said, I guess we'll go back to doing the nuclear program because the deal is done, which then precipitated Trump's alleged need to go and bomb them.

in 2025 and now to start this war. It's how Trump operates. That's it. It doesn't make any sense, but it's what he does. Rune Warrior writes on Instagram. Doesn't matter what we want or how we feel. They will do whatever they want. This administration does not care who they hurt either abroad or here.

Well, you know, you don't have to take Rune Warriors opinion. You can just look at the facts. Donald Trump callously said, Americans are going to die. More Americans are going to die. But it's going to be worth it. Says who? Trump doesn't care. As gas prices have started to spike and oil prices have gone nuclear, Trump has said, well,

that's okay. It may go up for a little bit. But essentially, Trump has decided it's worth it. This is a sacrifice. you are going to make that Trump is okay with. And so it is quite literally the truth that the administration doesn't care who gets hurt. Do they care about the soldiers and service members getting killed and injured? Well, maybe in some general sense they care, but they believe that it's a worthwhile trade to do whatever the hell they're doing in Iran. Does Trump care that

people are seeing prices go up on everything and gas prices have spiked 20%. And now everything's going to get more expensive because transportation depends on petroleum-based fuels. Maybe in some nominal sense, he cares. But he's determined that it's okay. It's worth it to him for you to pay more. So yes, they don't care who they hurt. And forget about all the civilian deaths that are happening.

They do not care. A Nigel Cops from Spotify says, David, thank you for being realistic and pragmatic about Trump's potential influence in the 2026 midterms, fearmongering about a potential scenario where Trump cancels the elections and installs Republicans in Congress is unproductive. Those incremental tactics you highlight, including sending immigration enforcement to suppress turnout, consolidating polling locations and drop boxes, and restricting mail-in ballots are much more likely and require less maneuvering. Let's all stay vigilant. Yeah, you know, listen, I've talked with my audience about this before. There are ways to get clicks and we could employ

those methods. But at the end of the day, I just wouldn't feel good about it. And this show is just, what do I want to talk about? In what terms do I want to talk about it? And do I feel good about what we're saying. And there is a lot of mileage to be had from going, he's going to cancel the election. And I don't believe that he is. I've reported that Trump would love to cancel the election. I've reported that he will attempt mechanisms to effectively circumvent the will of the people. But I don't believe he's going to cancel the election. So I'm not going to tell you that he's going to. However, I do believe that he is going to employ a ton of the mechanisms that Nigel points out there to try to make the election reflect his will rather than the will of the people. And so

that's what we have to be prepared for. It's fewer clicks for me. I know, but it is the truth at the end of the day. Delicious wrote on Spotify. Every weekday, I thank my lucky stars. I have David Pacman to listen to. Thank your lucky stars every day. You're not Dave Packman. Exactly. My commute, my break anytime. Thank you, sir. Well, I appreciate that. And I can't I do need to do a special shout out. We are seeing such growth on the audio podcast, especially on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. People are connecting with the long form version of the show. And I love that.

I've long felt that someone who listens to the hour show is much more directly connected to what we're doing than someone who just does a drive. by hate comment after watching a minute on YouTube. So I love that the audio podcast is growing. Love the comments from Spotify. I basically do all my podcast consumption in the car and in the gym. And I love it. It's great.

Remember to leave us a rating on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Okay. Here we go. This is going to get a little edgy. Bitch and Kitchen rode in and said, you can keep your little video, you stupid bitch. Quit spreading misinformation and pretending to be a fucking doctor or I'll have your entire channel banned. Don't start no shit won't be no shit.

Um, listen, at least the grammar is more or less okay. Oh boy, this is what we're up against folks. This is what we're fighting. This is what we need to understand if we want to win. and get power again. There are people like this who will on the one hand go, free speech, free speech. And on the other hand, go, I'm going to get your entire channel banned. Well, sir or ma'am, probably sir. It's almost exclusively men that send these insane screeds. Sir, challenge accepted. Go again and get me banned. You'll take my channel out of the grip of My cold debt.

Okay, let's not go there. Send your emails in. Info at David Pakman.com. We have a phenomenal bonus show for you today. It's just a good show today. That's the important takeaway.