The David Pakman Show - Lines have been crossed and there’s no going back

Episode Date: February 3, 2026

-- On the Show -- Accountability for figures like Joe Rogan and Andrew Schulz should confront their predictable failure without pushing them back into extremism -- Donald Trump uses the Justice Department to arrest Don Lemon, confirming long-standing warnings about authoritarian retaliation against journalists -- Donald Trump unleashes frantic Truth Social rants about Jeffrey Epstein while threatening lawsuits and contradicting his own public record -- Donald Trump calls for nationalizing elections as a workaround to state control after failing to overturn the 2020 results -- Multiple insiders and foreign leaders privately describe Donald Trump as cognitively unstable after extended personal interactions -- Donald Trump denies involvement in a Texas special election he aggressively endorsed after Democrats flipped the seat by double digits -- Donald Trump shows visible physical and verbal deterioration during public appearances while continuing to threaten democratic institutions -- David, as a naturalized US citizen, questions his own safety after the arrest of Don Lemon and the growing use of federal power to intimidate dissent -- On the Bonus Show: Takeaways from the latest batch of Epstein files, immigration officers in Minneapolis getting body cameras, ICE officers complain about not getting their $50,000 bonuses, and much more... 🥄 Use code PAKMAN for $5 off Magic Spoon at https://magicspoon.com/pakman 🛡️ Incogni lets you control your personal data! Get 60% off their annual plan: http://incogni.com/pakman -- Become a Member: https://davidpakman.com/membership -- Subscribe to our (FREE) Substack newsletter: https://davidpakman.substack.com -- Get David's Books: https://davidpakman.com/echo -- TDPS Subreddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/thedavidpakmanshow -- David on Bluesky: https://davidpakman.com/bluesky -- David on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/davidpakmanshow (00:00) Start (01:29) Rogan, Schulz, accountability (09:12) Trump arrests Don Lemon(18:04) Epstein rants and threats(24:09) Trump wants to nationalize elections(30:57) Insiders question Trump stability(36:24) Texas election denial(43:13) Trump’s visible deterioration(53:51) Fear under authoritarian power   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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please go to conicsontario.ca. Today we're going to be dealing with something uncomfortable but also unavoidable. What do you do when people finally admit they were wrong about the person they voted for? Do you welcome them back quietly or do you hold them accountable without pushing them straight back into MAGA? That's the question. We're going to talk about why both silence and shaming fail and what to do if the goal is to prevent this from ever happening again.

We then have the Trump administration crossing yet another line, the arrest of Don Lemon, journalists being targeted, protesters being targeted. This is the authoritarian turn that we have been warning about, and it is happening way faster than many people expected, although we warned about it. And then the Epstein dump, Trump spiraling and lashing out wildly while suggesting that the elections of this country must be nationalized. looking at a report from a foreign leader who says he was extraordinarily disturbed by what happened when he met with Trump and the deep red Texas district flips and MAGA pretends Trump had nothing

to do with it. Plus, will I be welcomed back into the United States when I return or am I going to have a problem? We will talk about that as well. We start today with the topic of I told you so, To shame or not to shame, that is the question. How should we treat truly horrible people, but also people who maybe were just confused and they're finally figuring out the truth. You probably kind of know what I'm alluding to, but I'm going to explain it.

We are seeing more and more voters and more influencers, including people from the Manosphere, say some version of, okay, Trump did turn out worse than I expected, and immediately there's a split reaction from those of us who expected this sort of, all along. One side says, look, growth, introspection, leave them alone, welcome them back or whatever. And others say, too late, you screwed up, screw you forever. And I believe that both of these

reactions really kind of missed the point. So let's look up, let's look at an example of comedian Andrew Schultz, who has done, at least on some issues, a 180 on Trumpism. Let's hear what had to say, and then I'm going to give you my take on this. But I will say that this was a breaking point for me and the way that the administration responded to it. Like, I didn't think what's happening right now with ICE could happen in America. I genuinely did not think that was possible.

I thought our institution, I thought the Constitution would hold up. When I see it and then immediately defend it, I start to go, we got to be very loud about this. Like, it all the sudden becomes not like a liberal, catastrophic thinking, it starts to become very reasonable, nuanced criticism of the administration. They have just done, they have just made the most far-left critiques of the Trump administration. Their reaction to this has just justified all of them.

In one moment, in one moment, all of their responses from Trump to Cash Patel, they have justified every single critic. And I know people will probably look at this about it. done a million other things to justify them. Sure, and that's fair. But this specific situation, I think, is a breaking point and it has justified all those criticism. I think people's antennas are way up and people's intent that were not up initially. This is like seeing the Epstein files. Wouldn't it be nice if we got those? It's like, damn, y'all really been lying to us. Like, damn, like, you really been lying to us. Let me ask you a question. So here's my argument.

Saying nothing about how predictable it was that they were going to be. wrong, I don't think is enough. But on the other hand, shaming these people so hard that they go, man, the left is just toxic and they run right back to Trump is also counterproductive. I think we need to think about our goal when we engage with these folks and with people who do a 180. If your goal is your own emotional satisfaction, all right, shame them, say screw you, whatever. My goal is never again repeating this disaster that has now been more than a decade of Trumpism. So take Joe Rogan, for example, not because Rogan's like unique or anything, but because he's very influential.

If someone like Rogan now starts saying, this ice stuff isn't what we signed up for, they're just going after workers and, you know, some elements of Trumpism aren't working out. The response can't just be cool, Joe, yeah, good. But it also can't be this sort of scorched earth hostility. that we are seeing from some because neither approach is psychologically going to achieve what we need to achieve. Let's start with the mistake people make

kind of in the name of being welcoming. When someone says, I guess Trump isn't really what I thought, and we respond with nothing. We don't respond with the clarity that many of us had all along and that some of them failed to see and no accountability and none of it.

We allow a dangerous lie to stand which is that no one could have predicted what's going on with Trump. But it was completely predictable. How do I know? Because many of us were predicting it. The authoritarianism and the corruption and the cruelty and the chaos

and the fact that the deportation policy was never going to be just serious, violent criminals. We predicted all of it in advance. And so if we pretend otherwise, no worry, man, nobody could have guessed that this is the way it would turn out. We lower the cost of future mistakes and that's a bad idea.

And it creates this perverse incentive. where people can support reckless stuff, watch it blow up, and then reenter polite discourse with zero reckoning. There's no learning there, so I don't think that that's a good approach. But here's where the other side really screws up. If your response to Rogan or Schultz or whoever going, man, this is not good. This isn't what I signed up for. If our response only goes as far as you stupid, irredeemable monster, you are going to trigger the exact same. You are going to trigger the exact psychology that keeps people stuck. Shame when it becomes identity-based makes people defensive. And defensive people rationalize and rationalization puts them back in

their same beliefs. We see this in cults. We see it in people who start to think about leaving a cult. And it is basic cult-exit psychology. People don't leave a bad belief system because you humiliate them into leaving it. They leave when they are allowed to admit, I'm made a mistake without losing their sense of self, but only if that's paired with some clarity about what went wrong. So I think the balance really matters here. So the right response to someone like a Schultz or a Rogan is, listen, you weren't just unlucky. You were wrong and it was predictable. A lot of people warned you and you dismissed them. But it's great that you are having this moment of self-reflection and you don't have to make this mistake again.

And we want you to come join us and let's not make the same mistake again. So it's accountability. It was predictable. We were telling you. But there's an off ramp. There's a reasonable off ramp. And the accountability should be something concrete. It should be, okay, voting for Trump was a mistake.

Going on your national podcast and saying Trump's the guy, that was a mistake. And then you can just say, I'm not going to make this mistake again. I've seen the light. I understand the mistake that I made. And we say that's awesome. It's great that you're able to do that. You don't have to be pure ideologically. You don't have to love the Democratic Party.

It doesn't mean that you bow down and, you know, say a seance for AOC or Gavin Newsom or whoever. It doesn't require any of that stuff. It's simply I made a mistake. I voted the wrong way. Kamala Harris wouldn't have done any of this stuff. I might have had disagreements with her, but she wouldn't have done any of this stuff. That's it. And then that breaks the moment.

mental loophole. It forces people to connect cause and effect. There is, there was a cause to what you now say is bad. And you were part of that cause. And crucially, the door is open to you not making that mistake again. We don't hate you forever. We did tell you so, but we're glad for you to join us and choose better next time. And so we don't need to fall into this black, white. Do we shame them or don't we, we can do much better than that. Let's invite them back in, but let's not pretend it was a completely unpredictable shock that this is what happened because people like me and many others, not patting myself on the back, millions of us knew that this is exactly where it was going to end up. The Trump administration has done the unimaginable, except many

of us did imagine it. For years, so many of us have been warning, a second Trump term would be way more dangerous than the first. It'll be messy, but it'll be worse than that. It'll be globally embarrassing, but it'll be worse than that. It's going to be dangerous in a concrete and specific way. The Justice Department will be used as a weapon. Journalists are going to be intimidated and maybe worse. Critics will be punished and power will be used merely to stoke Trump's ego and to push for revenge. And it's happening. The Trump D.O.J. arrest of Don LeMond, our friend Don Lemon, who's been a big supporter of this show,

and I have strongly supported his path into independent media. Well-known, Don Lemon arrested with coverage of a protest. Federal agents showing up despite his lawyer trying to coordinate a different approach. None of this is normal. It's not a misunderstanding. This is a message from the Trump administration. And it's a message to people like me, not me specifically, but to all of us in the independent media.

space. A lot of the defenders of Trump said this isn't going to happen. Our concerns are exaggerated about authoritarianism. Institutions will hold and it's all bluster from Donald Trump and they were wrong. This is what authoritarianism looks like in real life. It doesn't arrive all at once. It doesn't require tanks in the street. It's selective enforcement and intimidation and making examples out of people and teaching others to say, I'm going to stay quiet because of what happened. happened to Don Lemon. And there is a factor here that makes this moment even more dangerous. Authoritarian leaders become more dangerous when they start to decline cognitively. History has shown us this. When leaders feel weaker, they get more paranoid.

When they sense that they're losing control, they lash out in even more extreme ways. Everybody becomes an enemy to them and criticisms are existential to them and challenges or direct threats to their very survival. Trump is not the same person that he was years ago. The rambling, the repetition, the confusion, the fixation on grievances and punishing others, and the talk of revenge. This combined with cognitive decline is a very volatile combination. When someone like that is in the White House, controlling the Justice Department, federal law enforcement, there's no restraint. Restraint has faded.

And so the Don Lemon arrest, which is disgusting and terrifying and toxic, is part of a bigger pattern, which is the crackdowns on protests. Someone reportedly lost their global entry because they were at an ice protest. By the way, I'm out of the country right now. Will I be able to get back in without a problem? I'm going to address that a little bit later. Trump now is saying elections should be nationalized and states shouldn't be running elections. That is terrifying authoritarianism. If this isn't chilling, whether you are a person of the left, an independent in the middle, a right-winger, a social conservative, a constitutional conservative, whatever your politics are, if you care about the rule of law and the constitution, this should terrify you.

And the repression expands like a balloon that you blow up. Starts with the language of law and order. And then it's about security. And, well, we've got to protect the country from internal enemies. and the definition of wrongdoing grows and grows and grows. And if you're doing journalism, well, that's very suspicious. Protesting, that's very dangerous. You're against the president.

That's disloyalty. And maybe you should be punished for that. So people warned, and I was one of them, that if Trump returned to power, the guardrails would be weak if they even existed. And that Trump would surround himself with true loyalists, unlike the first term, where it was like pseudo-loyalists. and critics would be targeted, and the Justice Department would be used

to go after Trump's enemies. Elections would become optional if they were inconvenient. Every single one of those warnings is being confirmed right now. The danger isn't limited to what is in the rearview mirror. The danger is what comes next. What's going to happen to protesters?

Who's next after Don Lemon? What happens with the 2026 election? The thing about authoritarian systems is they don't stop on their own. They don't go, well, I think this is, we're good. We don't need to do anymore. And when the person at the center feels threatened, diminished, and desperate, which Trump does, they accelerate the repression and they say, I need to do more.

And an election becomes an obstacle that we need to get rid of. And the state will turn inward and target people domestically the way that they are already starting to do. So if you are of the mindset that this is, has gone as far as it's going to go. You're wrong. You're wrong. As I've said before, when people successfully do what they want to do and then they say, wow, we got away with it. Wow, we got away with it. They rarely say, let's hang it up. I'm happy to do nothing else. So at this point, if you are still denying the seriousness of this, I don't even know if naive is the right word. You are almost, I'm not even going to say almost. You are enabled. You are

enabling it and helping more of it to happen if you still say there isn't concern here. So later on, we'll see the spiral over the Epstein dumps. We are going to see what is happening with the 2026 election. And I will discuss whether I expect to lose my global entry or worse when I head back to the United States. All of that and more is coming up. And remember that if they take us down on any of our platforms, The only one where we own the data and I'll be able to remain in touch with you is Substack.

So if you were as terrified about what's going on as I am and you're worried, will the YouTube channels get shut down? What's going to happen with TikTok and TikTok? Then the place to be is on my newsletter, substack. com. If you grew up eating cereal, you probably remember the fun of the crunchy bright flavors on Saturday morning and the whole thing. The only problem is you become an adult.

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a number that would have been just a fantasy, really just as recently as a few years ago. The Epstein bombshells have Donald Trump spiraling. And one of the things that people do when they are desperate to distract is say, I don't know anything about it, and also I'm innocent, and also anyone accusing me as a terrible person. And how about these other two or three things? Why don't you talk about those?

Donald Trump taking to truth social after the dump of Epstein files showing that Trump and many others, quite frankly, a lot of people wrapped up in this Peter Attia and, I mean, just a long list of people. Trump saying, quote, not only wasn't I friendly with Jeffrey Epstein, but based on information that has just been released by the Department of Justice, Epstein and a sleazebag lying author named Michael Wolfe conspired in order to damage me and or my presidency.

So much for the radical left's hope against hope, some of whom I'll be suing. Additionally, unlike so many people that like to talk trash, I never went to the infested Epstein Island, but almost all of these crooked Democrats. and their donors did. Of course, this is like if somebody asks you, hey, did you slap this person

and you go, all of the claims that I kicked them are untrue. Right, but I didn't ask about kicking. I asked about slapping. And I want to point your attention to the fact that Donald Trump numerous times said he never flew on Jeffrey Epstein's plane. We now know that Donald Trump flew

on Jeffrey Epstein's plane at least eight times. So now every time that Epstein comes up, Trump goes, I never went to the island. But what about those eight flights, sir? Now, the truth is, in a sense, Trump is probably right that they weren't friends. What do I mean by that?

Trump doesn't really have what you and I might consider true friendships. But if we put that aside for a second, Epstein appears to have been as much of a friend of Trump's as anyone is. Now, you could go, Trump doesn't really have friends, everything's transactional, It's weird. Totally with you on that. But whatever Trump's relationships with people are that others might characterize as friendship or not or Trump might, Epstein absolutely fits the bill. And I'm going to have proof of that a little bit later when Trump actually goes, Jeffrey.

Jeffrey? That's how you call you refer to him as Jeffrey now, a guy you supposedly barely knew. Trump also wildly triggered by the Grammy Awards posting, quote, the Grammy Awards are the worst, virtually unwatchable. CBS is lucky not to have had this garbage litter their airwaves any longer. The host, Trevor Noah, whoever he may be, is almost as bad as Jimmy Kimmel at the Low Ratings Academy Awards. Noah said incorrectly about me that Donald Trump and Bill Clinton spent time on Epstein Island. Wrong.

I can't speak for Bill, but I have never been to Epstein Island nor anywhere close. And until tonight's false and defamatory statement have never been accused of being there, not even by the fake news media. Noah, a total loser, better get his facts straight and get him straight fast. It looks like I'll be sending my lawyers to sue this poor, pathetic, talentless dope of an MC

and suing him for plenty of money. Ask little George Slopadopoulos and others how that all worked out. Also ask CBS, get ready, Noah. I'm going to have some fun with you. Trump hates it when he is made fun of. If you go back, one of the most telling videos about everything that became of Trump's political career is if you go back to one of the White House correspondence dinners before Donald Trump was even involved as a presidential candidate, when Barack Obama, former president Barack Obama,

now former president, then president Barack Obama, kind of made fun of Donald Trump and made fun of Donald Trump with regard to, Obama and the birth certificate and made fun of Trump because of the lowbrown nature of the apprentice and whatever else. And Trump sits there motionless and he, you can tell, has no self-deprecating sense of humor about himself. It infuriates him. He wants to be liked, but above all else, he doesn't want to be the butt of the joke. And again, at the Grammys, Trump was the butt of the joke and it makes him absolutely furious. And he now finds himself in the situation of having to say, I'm going to sue this one and I'm going to sue that one because that's all

Donald Trump knows how to do. Finally, Trump would the distractathon in the midst of collapsing approval, disasters abroad, disasters domestically, prices that are going up when he said they would go down. The Epstein dump. Trump allegedly pooping his pants the other day. I'm so sorry that it's so low brow, but I'm just giving you the full gamut of the beliefs about what's happening with Trump. Trump posts, quote, the highest poll numbers I have ever received. Obviously, people like a strong and powerful country with the best economy ever. We have a very simple way to debunk the notion that this is the best economy anyone's ever seen. And it is Trump's demand that the Fed dump interest rates right away

where you would only see that kind of movement when the economic situation is terrible. So we all know that this is not the best economy in the world, and I think Trump knows it as well. He's trying to distract. He is desperate, and the one thing he believes is going to save the Republican Party,

and therefore his presidency is interfering in the November midterm election. And he has a new idea as to how to do exactly that. I submit to you today that Donald Trump made his most dark move, his most dangerous, serious suggestion just now on the Dan Bongino podcast. You might remember that Dan Bongino was the deputy director of the FBI. And he was almost in tears because he couldn't see his wife. and it was just not a good fit for him.

So he quit and with his tail between his legs, he went back to hosting his podcast. And he hosted Donald Trump yesterday. And Trump argued that elections should be nationalized, not secured, not reformed, take them over and says the Republican Party should take over the voting and nationalize the entire thing. This is the clearest signal

yet of where this is going. Here's the clip. And they vote illegally. And the, you know, amazing that the Republicans aren't tougher on it. The Republicans should say, we want to take over. We should take over the voting in at least many 15 places. The Republicans order to nationalize the voting. Donald Trump is not talking about canceling elections right now because he probably has been told he can't do it. The Constitution doesn't allow it. I've explained this before. Elections are run by states. There are essentially 50 different elections on midterm election day. Each state administers its own voting systems, its own rules, its own counting, its own schedule, et cetera. There isn't a federal switch. There's no kill switch federally for elections. If you can't cancel the election,

well, you try to take control of it. Trump knows the limits. This is. This is why it matters. He is not saying no election, he's saying federal takeover. He's saying the states are agents. Washington should step in and run the process. And this is the most authoritarian move that is available to Donald Trump as far as he is concerned. There's a reason he's pushing for it. This comes less than a week after the FBI raided in Atlanta elections office, seized ballots

and records from the 2020 election. Trump is tying two things together. He says interesting things are going to come out of Georgia. The implication is we're finally going to get that proof I promised that Joe Biden stole the 2020 election. News for you, we're not going to get that because Joe Biden won the 2020 election. That's number one. Number two, Trump continues to insist that there has been illegal voting.

And if people are voting illegally in states and states aren't able to get it under control, two assertions Trump makes without evidence, then it would be just, justified in Trump world for the feds to take over the elections. Now, Trump has spent a very long time laying the groundwork here. And his Justice Department has sued nearly two dozen states to try to get access to voter rolls. He's promised that there will be prosecutions over what happened in 2020, which, by the way, nothing happened in 2020 other than Trump lost. Courts have blocked a lot of these efforts, but it is still extraordinarily dangerous that Trump is going in this direction.

So it's not about election security. Dozens of court challenges failed. Audits failed to prove there was any wrongdoing. Recounts failed to change anything. Republicans in Georgia confirmed Trump lost. Biden won. This is about control. If you nationalize elections, you strip states of authority that they have held since the founding

of this country. It would mean the federal government comes in and decides how voting works, how ballot, are counted, who gets access, all of it. And because Trump is not stable, he's not stable ideologically, physically, or cognitively. He's visibly declining, his speeches, his repetition, the fixations, the health problems, the talking about revenge, all of it.

He treats the opposition as illegitimate by definition. They don't have to do anything to be illegitimate. They're illegitimate by virtue of being his opposition. This is exactly the kind of person who can't be trusted with Senate. centralized power. You want decentralized power. You want 50 states and 50 elections when you have someone like Trump. And this explains why Trump is doing it this way. He can't cancel the elections, even though he has sort of played coy with it and toyed with it. He can't suspend the Constitution.

There are 50 states in the way. So he's attacking the structure, undermining the authority of states, and saying that he is going to take it over. And if he did, he would put loyalists in charge and it would be the furthest thing from integrity that I can imagine. The goal has always been the same here. Once elections are nationalized, every vote is conditional. Every outcome is suspect. And if he loses anywhere, well, we've got to intervene. Clearly, it must have been the wrong thing.

When he says, I believe I won California, that is not, it is a delusion, but it is not merely a delusion. It's if I should have won all of these states, I've got to take it over. So I am begging at this point, those who continue to say, oh, it's Trump being Trump, it's bluster, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. He's doing all of it. He's trying to do all of it. It's not politics as usual. It is not tough talk.

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The link is in the description. There's a recurring pattern that is getting more and more difficult to ignore, which is that when people actually spend time with Donald Trump behind closed doors off camera without the sort of MAGA performance theatrics around him, they come away believing something is very wrong. And the latest example comes from Robert Fico. He's the prime minister of Slovakia, and notably he's a Trump ally. Now, according to multiple diplomats, Fico left a meeting on January. 17th with Trump at Mar-a-Lago deeply disturbed.

He later told fellow European Union leaders that Trump's psychological state was alarming and said that the president is dangerous. This was not like a cocktail hour offhanded comment. It reportedly came up during an emergency EU meeting that was convened after Trump's renewed threats to Greenland. Remember this was going on right around mid-January.

This was, of course, an idea is so detached from reality that it's sent shockwaves through the capitals of Europe. And the key point is that FICO is not a guy who's hostile to Trump. And he's going around trying to spread negativity or rumor about Donald Trump. He's an ally of Trump. He has praised Trump publicly. He's defended Trump on Ukraine. He's told conservative audiences that Trump was doing Europe a great service.

So this is a guy who wants Trump to be competent. And yet, after spending real time with him, he walks away, concerned enough to warn other leaders. Now, the White House, of course, denies it. Fico later denied it as well, where he said, quote, I strongly reject the lies of the hateful pro-Brussels liberal porter portal politico. It is a sad look at the liberal and progressive political and media world, the abuse of criminal law to destroy opponents,

the rejection of different opinions, boundless media lies, and attempt to assassinate political leaders in sluble. and the U.S. went on to give more denials of it. Who do you believe all the people in the room who corroborated it and said, yeah, Fico came in and said this? Or do you believe Fico, who stands to lose a lot by these comments being made public? Denials, of course, don't erase the pattern. We have so many people who meet with Trump and then they go, something's wrong with this guy. Or people who used to be around Trump and can observe the decline in public.

We just had this example of Trump's former press secretary, Stephanie Grisham, who worked with him directly. And she said he needs a mental evaluation after watching his rambling and incoherent public appearances. She said, this is bizarre behavior. People shouldn't dismiss what they're seeing. Trump's former lawyer, Ty Cobb, went further and said Trump's cognitive decline is palpable. It's not a hypothetical thing. It's palpable now. And the assessments really do line up with what the public.

season real time. Trump recently was talking about how he doesn't have Alzheimer's, and he forgot the word Alzheimer's, and he confused Greenland and Iceland many times, and he drifts off mid-sentence, up, up, and away to who knows when. And each of these incidents gets waved away. This one he was tired, and then that one he misspoke, and this one was out of context. But the tell is that there's a new excuse every day or every week, you are not explaining a one-off. You're explaining decline. What I believe makes this moment different is that the concern is no longer limited to critics, pundits, or comedians. It's coming from people who are sitting across the table from Trump in real substantive meetings, people who have worked for him or who defend him or who are in the

room making what could be important decisions. And after prolonged exposure, they go, I'm uneasy by Trump's mental, about Trump's mental state. The way that it's supposed to work, by the way, is that we don't necessarily judge presidents only by their rallies. We go, okay, you've got the rally Trump, but then there's like a behind the scenes Trump, how he is performing in rooms where decisions are made, where attention span and memory and impulse control and coherence matter,

and he's performing terribly in those situations. the foreign leaders care about stability. Trump isn't stable. They encounter him up close. They don't see strength. They see confusion and volatility and someone who's not anchored to reality. This story really matters,

and it's not because any one report is the definitive report. If Trump was generally stable and with it, and there's one report, oh, Fico privately said this, he denies it, but others say no, he said it. All right, I mean, listen, there's one report at the end of the day. The larger, unmistakable theme here is the closer people

get to Trump, the harder it becomes to pretend that everything is fine. We see the physical decline, we see the cognitive decline, and we see the corroboration of that decline from so many people who come into contact with Trump. When all of this fails and you start to lose elections, what do you do? A new tactic Trump is employing is what I would call. call playing dumb. And I want to give you an example of that. Donald Trump, as it all is burning down around him as we approach the 2026 midterms, decided to play stupid. And it didn't work. Now, let me tell you first what happened. And this is great news. Democrats flipped a Texas Senate seat in a district that Trump won by 17 points in 2024. Deep, deep, deep red district.

Texas District 9, Taylor Remit, a union president and air force veteran, defeated the Republican Lee Wamsgans, I hope I'm pronouncing that last name correctly, by 14 points. So we went from Republican plus 17 when Trump was running to Democrat plus 14. That is a 31 point swing. One of the strongest Democratic special election overperforming. anywhere in the country in the last since the 2024 election. And it happened in an area that is usually very safe for Republicans. Now, keep that in mind as we talk about Trump.

In the final days before the election, Trump posted multiple times to truth social endorsing the Republican, saying, go out and vote for Wamsgons. He called her a phenomenal candidate, a Maga warrior, said she's got his complete and total endorsement. The race is existential. He said, we've got to keep Texas red. So there's no subtlety. It's not like, yeah, there's, there's something going on down there in Texas, but I'm not really following it. Trump nationalized it by posting about it. And she got crushed. And Trump got crushed. She lost badly. So what does Trump do when he's asked about the result? He goes, I know nothing about it. It has nothing to do with me. I wasn't on the ballot. It doesn't matter.

Take a look at this. President, Texas, a Democrat won in a special election in an area that you had won by 17 points. What is your reaction to that? I don't know. I didn't hear about it. Somebody ran where? In Texas, a special election for legislative seat. The ninth state Senate. I'm not involved in that.

That's a local Texas race. You mean I won by 17 and this person lost? Things like that happen. Does it worry you about the church? Well, you don't know whether or not it's transferable. I'm not on the balance, so you don't know whether or not it sounds horrible. But you put the Democrats in, you'll end up with open borders again. You'll end up with crime all over the place.

We have no crime anymore. I mean, think of it. The country is the lowest crime it's had in 125 years. In recorded history, the year 1900. That's a long time ago. So it's very good. No, I don't know anything about it. I didn't know.

I mean, I know there's a race going there. And it's too bad. What can I say? I have nothing to do with it. Yeah. Turns out, not only did Trump hear about it, not only did Trump know about it, he posted about it,

and he tried to throw his weight around, proverbially, to impact the results. Trump put up the following Truth Social Post right before the election. Quote, today is the day. To all voters in Texas's ninth state Senate district, get out and vote for a phenomenal candidate, Lee Wamsgans.

She is a highly successful entrepreneur and an incredible supporter of our movement to make America great again. My very good friend, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, needs a strong conservative Republican in SD9 to keep Texas red. The radical left Democrats are spending a fortune to beat a true MAGA warrior, Lee Wamsgans. You can win this election for Lee,

who has my complete and total endorsement. Polls close at 7. Get out and vote for Lee. Lee Wams Gons, find your closest polling location. Lee will never let Texas or the USA down. When Trump backed candidates win, it is proof of Trump's dominance. When they lose, he's got nothing to do with it, one way or the other. Understand that this is not just a local race that reversed from the Trump win of 2024,

which would be enough. That would already be like, wow, 31 point reversal. That's a lot. This is a race that Trump endorsed in, and it ended up flipping 31 points from where it was. Trump is distancing himself because this is a radioactive result. Radioactive. A deep red district flipping by well into the double digits says what about 2026. It says they may get destroyed.

Dems have now flipped more than 20 state legislatures. seats over the last year in regular and special elections. In Georgia, they won a district Trump won by 12. So the common thread is places Trump won comfortably, Democrats are winning. Races Trump is endorsing a Republican in. The Republican is losing. So this is a very important race. Now, as I've said before, ignore it at their own peril.

These down-ballot elections are reality. Trump can post all he wants. Voters may still tolerate Trump at the top of the ticket. His brand, though, is connected to these local races. And a lot of voters are saying no at the local level. Trump knows it. He's pretending he was never there, had nothing to do with it. If this becomes reality for 2026,

Trump is going to be sent packing with regard to getting anything done in the final two years of his presidency. He will still be the president as long as he can remain alive. He's not going to be removed. He's not going to be impeached. I just don't have the numbers. But he will get nothing done and he knows this is a nightmare scenario. It would not be a dramatic collapse. It will have been an erosion that started with the first special elections of 2025 and has continued on and on and on. And Trump's fingerprints are all over it. So his new thing is has nothing to do with me. But, sir, didn't you just endorse in that race?

Doesn't want to talk about it. The David Packman Show is an audience-supported program. And the best, most direct way to support the show is by becoming a member at joinpackman.com. You'll get the daily bonus show, the daily commercial free show, and plenty of other great membership perks. Get the full experience by signing up at join packman.com. Donald Trump is accused, among other things, of pooping his pants during a live event and having everybody rushed out of the room.

Now, I want to be careful here. This is not really about bathroom humor. This is about decline, denial, and this kind of growing gap between the image that Trump is selling and what we are seeing in real time. Now, we're gonna get to the bowel evacuation a little bit later. I wanna start with a couple other moments from different Oval Office events

and a new, totally deranged idea from Donald Trump. Trump is asked about the Kennedy Center, which he tried to rename the Trump Kennedy Center. He was asked, do you plan on tearing it down? And what is this going to cost? And Trump says, we are going to be doing renovations. I'm not ripping it down. We're going to use the steel.

We're going to use the structure. We're going to use the marble. Take a look at this. renovations you announced you wanted to build a new and spectacular entertainment complex at the Kennedy Center. Right. Do you plan on tearing it down and how much will all of the renovations cost? Probably around $200 million. And, you know, it's funny in real estate and building, I've done so much of it, I've done so well with it. You want to sit with something for a little while before you decide on what you want to do. And, you know, we sat with it, we ran it. It's in very bad shape. It's run down. It's dilapidate.

It's sort of dangerous. Things fall out. Fall out of ceilings, you've seen it. And we had some big events there. We had a lot of great events here over the last year, but you can't do any work because people are coming in and out, and you have the workman. We have a marble man over there the other day. He said, you know, every time I put down a piece of marble,

people are stepping on the marble that don't even have time to dry. And you can't do the same quality job if you close it, and, you know, we're fully financed. And so we're going to close it, and we're going to make it unbelievable far better than it ever was, and we'll be able to do it properly. I was thinking maybe there's a way of doing it simultaneously, but there really isn't. And we're going to have something that when it opens, it's going to be brand new, beautiful. I'm not ripping it down, and I'll be using the steel.

So we're using the structure. We're using some of the marble, and some of the marble comes down. But when it's open, it'll be brand new and really beautiful. It'll be at the highest level. We can do a much better job, probably in a way, a faster job in terms of, you know, because when you do it piecemeal, for instance, they have a play tonight, and you can't do anything, you have to pull out everything, and you can't have stanchions all over the place, so people are walking in to see a play. So we'll be closing it sometime around July 4th. It's like we'll close it on July 4th in order to do something great for America, and then we're going to build it. We're going to build it, and we'll do it right. We're using the highest grade marbles, the highest grade everything. It'll be brand new.

If you have been following the absolute fiasco that has been the Trump White House ballroom, you probably will be suspicious about this project. And you probably won't believe that Donald Trump is going to be ripping it down. Donald Trump is not going to be ripping it down and is simply going to be carefully extracting steel and marble. and you will likely believe what we are increasingly convinced of, which is that in Donald Trump's desperation to make an irreversible mark, I would call it a stain, but he would call it a mark on the United States. He's renaming things in his name.

He's trying to acquire territory like Greenland and who knows what else. And he is also trying to change the physical scaffolding of this country, Changing the physical reality of the White House and of the Kennedy Center is a way that Donald Trump is desperately focused on legacy as his policy legacy is essentially non-existent other than terrible policy. I would be shocked if Trump does any of the things, any of the things that he says he is going to do, other than what he's not saying, which is I'm destroying so much shit you wouldn't believe. Another interesting moment. Donald Trump addresses Trevor Noah, who hosted the Grammys, talking about Trump and Epstein. And what you notice here is fascinating. It's less about the substance, but more about this.

Trump has an instinct to refer to Jeffrey's Island. Jeffrey's Island, not Epstein's Island, not Jeffrey Epstein's Island. Not Jeffrey's Island. This is how you talk about someone. you have some level of intimacy with, some personal relationship with, despite Trump arguing now for years, he barely knows the guy. Take a look at this. Numerous times.

And I don't think they want to see a shutdown either. Mr. President, are you going to sue Trevor Noah last night in a post? You alluded that something could be coming. Yeah, well, he said that I spent time on Jeffrey Epstein's Island. I didn't. I mean, he's a lightweight. This guy is a terrible. I think he's terrible.

I thought he did a terrible job at the ground. I thought the whole Grammys was terrible. I watched part of it. It's not watchable. So this might sound small. It's not small. People default to first names when there is a familiarity. It's instinctive.

It slips out when you're not fully in control of what you're saying. And Donald Trump's instinct was indicative of familiarity and intimacy, instinctively with Jeffrey Epstein. All right. Different Oval Office event. Here's the bowels thing.

Listen, I'm going to play a clip here from decoding Fox News who has isolated the key moment. I don't know the truth of this, okay? I don't know. There is widespread speculation that Donald Trump, I don't know, soiled himself, lost control of his bowels during a White House event. And I don't want to make this like a funny thing, you know. you are going to hear a noise. I'm trying not to lie. It's hard not to laugh.

You are going, this is not funny. Incontinence isn't funny. It's not. But what is funny is the contrast between the Trump that Trump says he is and what we see. There's a woman in green behind Trump, I'm sorry, who appears to sort of cover her nose right after it happens as if something went really wrong. And RFK Jr. also has what I would have. call a strained look on his face.

Here's the video. We'll evaluate. In a recent Oval Office press conference, people have speculated if President Trump lost control of his bowels. I'm not sure. I don't know. I will just offer this video for anyone who wants to check it out.

I've isolated sections. It sounds suspicious and cranked up the volume. And I've done nothing else besides that. Anybody else have anything to say? I can say that I am extremely late. But that's okay. Don't worry about me. Gay, don't worry, don't worry about me. Would anyone else have anything to say?

I'm addressing that because chemists are coming up with new opioids faster than the gun, the gun, the gun, the gun, and the gun, we're going proactive on these new chemicals. That's good. You know, you're fantastic things. Thank you all very much. We really appreciate it a lot. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. All very much. Appreciate it. Thank you, please. Thank you. Thank you. I got that video from the official. I did absolutely nothing to the video except for isolate those sections and up the volume.

feel free to check yourself. You can listen at those moments and make up your own mind. So listen, this is not supposed to be funny. The story here is the contrast to the supposed healthiest president ever, okay? Put all of it together, physically unstable, verbal slips, diminished vocabulary, confusion, rambling answers, obsession with random details, fixated on grievances, moments when the room reacts where you can tell something is wrong. It's not funny and edgy. it's the sitting president of the United States

visibly deteriorating in front of the cameras. Now, I don't know if it was a code brown, okay? But this is the same guy who spent years mocking others for their health. This is the guy whose allies insisted, and he insisted, he's the healthiest president anyone has ever seen. The same movement that treated basic questions

about age and fitness as a conspiracy theory. And reality is intruding. And that's why this really does matter. This isn't just about decline. He's tearing down institutions. He's threatening to take over elections. He's weaponizing the Justice Department. He went after my friend Don Lemon.

He's lashing out and demanding loyalty or facing punishment or demanding loyalty unless you want to face punishment. It's a very dangerous combination. And history has shown us that leaders who lose physical and cognitive control become more erratic, paranoid, and aggressive. They double down, they lash out, and they don't delegate, they don't listen, they just act on impulse. And so I don't know that at this point, we can separate Trump's personal problem. Some people, the, anyway, we can't separate what is arguably a personal problem from a political one anymore. And he, at minimum, couldn't stay

composed during the press conference and the press was rushed out of the room and people acted like they were smelling sulfur, okay? It's the myth of Trump collapsing in real time. He is not the strong man who is dominant and in control. He is struggling and surrounded by people who seem unable or unwilling to say no to him. I got through the segment you be the judge about what happened. Will I be able to get back into the United States when I return in just about a week and a half? This is the question many of you have been asking me.

If you've been following my Instagram, you know that I'm currently overseas and I am wondering myself. So here's what's going on. I'm currently in Europe and I am seriously worried as a naturalized American citizen born in Argentina, who has lived in the United States since I was five,

worked there, pay taxes there, have natural-born children, born in the United States? I now have people warning me, David, you've got to be careful when you come back. Now, even 18 months ago, I would have dismissed this as hyperbolic. Today, after the Trump DOJ arrested, my friend Don Lemon and after someone's global entry was taken away because they were spotted at an ice protest,

this feels kind of like a rational thing to worry about. Don Lemon was arrested not for, he was arrested by federal agents, mind you, for nothing other than doing journalism. And this is really changing the calculation for all of us. And simultaneously, we had the global entry revocation. When dissent becomes not only reason for suspicion, but reason for interactions with the state, including at border crossings, you know that we are in trouble. Now, as a naturalized citizen, I am legally equal under the Constitution, but history shows us that equality can be fragile when power and fear take over. I've already told five or six of the biggest progressive content creators. If I have a problem when I get back, I'm going to let you know right away. And they agreed,

oh, don't worry, David. We are going to get the word out. Now, hopefully nothing happens. But the fact that I am even planning for this is extraordinarily alarming. Authoritarian systems seek pressure points, immigration status, and whether you went to a protest, and whether you criticize the dear leader, seem to be pressure points right now. And what makes this really frightening is the leadership. Trump is declining. He's wandering through speeches, fixating on revenge and appearing detached from reality.

And history shows us that authoritarian leaders, as I said earlier, become increasingly dangerous. Don Lemon's arrest and expanding what counts as a threat. The target circle is widening. Let's put it that way. Protesters, journalists, critics, who's going to be next? And Trump is talking about taking over elections, overwriting normal processes.

so I'm not predicting a confrontation at passport control. But the fact that I'm even asking the questions is the story. This isn't normal. Citizens should not wonder if lawful protest will follow them across borders. Immigrants should not feel that their status makes them vulnerable, but that's where we are right now. You know, for years, people warned a second Trump term might look like this. And we were told you're exaggerating and everything's fine and it's all going to hold.

And look at what's happening right now. Protesters tracked, a journalist arrested, and people asking, is it safe to go home to the country? I'm a citizen of. So I will return, whether it's a triumphant return, or whether it is a beleaguered by the goons of Trump return. I don't know, but I can't tell you that I ever expected needing this amount of caution,

and that should really scare the hell out of everybody. We've got a phenomenal bonus show for you today. Make sure that you are subscribed on YouTube as we push to 3.5 million YouTube subscribers. And I will be back tomorrow. We will see you then.