The David Pakman Show - Power slips as allies spiral, Trump’s control collapsing

Episode Date: February 19, 2026

-- On the Show -- Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly Prince Andrew, is arrested by British police on suspicion of misconduct in public office related to his ties to Jeffrey Epstein -- Donald Trump reportedly moves toward possible military action against Iran as frustration with stalled nuclear negotiations grows and concerns mount over constitutional war powers and congressional oversight -- Donald Trump makes a series of erratic and insecure remarks during a meeting with international leaders, fueling concerns about his stability, judgment, and public conduct -- Donald Trump appears to fall asleep during a public meeting while his political movement remains silent despite years of attacking Joe Biden over age and stamina -- Donald Trump delivers rambling and confusing remarks at a Black History Month event and repeats election falsehoods while drawing chants about extending his time in office -- Donald Trump appears with heavy makeup covering visible bruising on his hand at a White House event, prompting renewed questions about transparency regarding his health -- Karoline Leavitt struggles to provide clear answers while asserting that Donald Trump’s Truth Social posts define official policy -- Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump face questions about alleged conflicts of interest, foreign business dealings, and cryptocurrency promotion while offering defensive responses without directly rebutting the core claims -- On the Bonus Show: More on the arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, Kansas passes a bounty transgender bathroom bill, some Democrats plan to boycott Trump's State of the Union address, and much more... 🏠 American Financing: Call 866-891-7848 to get started or visit https://americanfinancing.net/pakman 😁 Zippix Toothpicks: Code PAKMAN10 saves you 10% at https://zippixtoothpicks.com 🤖 Sponsored by Venice: Use code PAKMAN for 20% off a Pro Account at https://venice.ai/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(01:12) Andrew Mountbatten Windsor arrested(06:40) Trump eyes Iran strike(14:47) Erratic leader remarks(21:53) Trump appears asleep(29:19) Rambling Black History event(36:37) Bruising sparks health questions(42:33) Leavitt policy confusion(50:25) Trump sons deflect questions   American Financing: NMLS 182334, nmlsconsumeraccess.org – APR for rates in the 5s start at 6.196% for well qualified borrowers. Call 866-891-7848, for details about credit costs and terms, or https://americanfinancing.net/Pakman Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On the show today, total chaos, total meltdown and some shocking war developments. Trump's allies are falling apart in public. Trump's sons gave a total train wreck interview. Press secretary Caroline Levitt hit with real questions and completely unravels. And maybe most importantly, we may be rapidly heading to war with Iran. And the timing of the state of the union address on Tuesday may play a role in it. But all of this gets even bigger. Trump did a black history event.

That alone should scare you and it was very bad, but maybe most important. Republicans are now openly ignoring Donald Trump's demands, which is a sign that power may really be slipping. And we will also cover the Epstein investigation explodes with a high profile arrest of Prince Andrew in the UK. Trump's rotting hand is rotting even more. so much more on today's program. It's great to have you with me. Let's record this one and keep it. Why not? Andrew Mountbatten, Windsor. If you don't know him by that name, maybe you know him as the

former Prince Andrew. He has been arrested by British police over his ties to Jeffrey Epstein. See, you can arrest powerful people in other countries. Maybe we could do it too. This is genuinely stunning, not because of the allegations themselves, which have been discussed for years, but because we actually see a country moving forward with arresting a well-connected, powerful figure. This is the brother of the king. This is someone who lived at the absolute top of the British power structure and elites, and British authorities have arrested him anyway. The arrest is on suspicion of misconduct in public office related to his relationship with Epstein, specifically over whether he sent confidential trade information to Epstein while serving as Britain's special envoy

for international trade. This investigation follows, of course, releases that we've been tracking of millions of pages of documents tied to the U.S. Justice Department's case about Jeffrey Epstein, a former Prince Andrew, I guess I have to refer to him as Mount Batten, Windsor, now. Mount Batten Windsor remains in custody and the investigation is moving forward. Now, step back for a second. For years now, the Epstein story has really been synonymous with the idea that powerful people don't face consequences, that if you have wealth and connections and status, you can create a permanent shield.

And that accountability that we would want doesn't get to the people in these positions of power. But here we are, at least for now, we'll see where it goes. Here we are watching British authorities arrest a royal, not a fringe figure by any means. And this raises a very uncomfortable question for us in the United States. If the UK can arrest one of the most powerful people in its system directly tied to the monarchy, why can't we seem to hold powerful figures accountable in the United States? Where and maybe more importantly, why does accountability of the government? in the U.S. feel sort of conditional based on your status and who you are.

It feels delayed and negotiated and softened or even abandoned for the elites. We have seen mountains of reporting about Epstein's network. We've seen documents, civil settlements, names connected socially and financially and politically. Victims have come forward, evidence of extraordinary influence. But we have not consistently seen decisive accountability. for powerful people. And that is an incredibly sharp contrast with what we are starting to see in the UK. Now, could it have been, hey, listen, Andrew, we're going to arrest you, but then it's not going to really go anywhere. We have to make it appear as though maybe it is. And we're going to follow it.

But if you zoom out, the rule of law only works if it applies equally. It only works if power doesn't create immunity or if status doesn't determine outcomes. What Britain is signaling, at least right now, We have to see where it goes is that proximity to power will not automatically place you beyond the reach of law enforcement. Imagine that standard applied consistently in the United States. Imagine having a system here where political connections, wealth, and institutional power don't slow down an investigation or shape the outcome or a system where the public actually believes, hey, we have one set of rules and it applies to everybody.

We don't have that in the United States. People don't believe that we have that in the United States. And trust in institutions kind of depends on it. When people come to believe, especially if it's correct, that the system protects elites and punishes others, you have no confidence in that system. That will collapse it. Cynicism grows, conspiratorial thinking grows, and it gets very socially negative. And accountability doesn't just have to be about punishment.

just about legitimacy. Can we trust that wrongdoing will be treated the same no matter who's doing it? Now, we don't know what the outcome of the former Prince Andrew's case is going to be. Arrests aren't convictions. Due process matters. He's entitled to it. Evidence matters. We need a full investigation. But even the willingness to act like this, the willingness to investigate and arrest someone at the top of the hierarchy, it does feel different than in the United States. The real question for Americans watching this story is if they can do it, why can't we? And of course, unfortunately, one of the realities that we are dealing with in the United States is that while on paper we have one set of rules, while on paper we have a constitution and

a bill of rights, while on paper no one is above the law. In practice, we are seeing this administration not treat everybody the same under the law and not respect the First Amendment and not respect the Second Amendment or the Fourth Amendment. We are seeing something that is a departure from what the rules are on paper. So good for the UK. It's only step one. But we will see how much further it goes. Donald Trump ran as the peace president, the anti-war president, no new wars end the chaos, America first, peace and all of that stuff. That was the promise. But we have explosive new reporting that Trump is now dangerously close to launching a major war in the Middle East maybe as soon as this weekend because he is growing frustrated with the stalled nuclear

negotiations with Iran. Now, before we get into what allies are saying, what advisors are saying, I just want to bring up that Donald Trump is up against his State of the Union address on Tuesday. I will be covering it live. I hope you will join me on YouTube and other platforms. It doesn't seem particularly far-fetched to think that Trump is trying to figure out how can he deliver this speech under circumstances where he will look better. And it's conceivable that Trump likes the idea of showing up as the big boy, the big strong alpha war president. Democrats and Republicans both must respect the war president.

They must stand and clap and cheer for the war president. And by the way, wouldn't it be nice if that took attention away from the fact that Trump hasn't lowered prices. He hasn't solved immigration. He hasn't solved trade or any of it. Now, I am not suggesting that Trump's only interest in going to war with Iran is to have something to talk about next Tuesday at the state of the union. By no means.

I think this is something Trump has been considering and thinking about for a while now. But the specific timing of saying maybe what the perfect thing for Trump would be, let's do it Saturday. So it doesn't spook the stock market and send it into a tailspin instantly. And it gives me the framing that I can show up to the state of the union as the big strong war president. I don't know, just floating it. Now, let's go into the details of what is being suggested here. Sources are warning that this attack on Iran could be broad, prolonged, and would destabilize the entire region. Trump is already deploying massive. military force, including multiple warships and aircraft carrier, hundreds of fighter jets.

And this seems like more than just bluster. This is a real escalation and the contradiction from how Trump ran is staggering. This is a guy who said we will end foreign conflicts and now he may be pushing the United States into a massive Middle East war. Now here's a thought. It would really be nice if we had a Congress, Republicans and Democrats, that was truly fed up with Trump being dangerously close to unleashing war because that's actually their job. Congress exists to check executive power, especially when it comes to war powers.

The Constitution doesn't give one person unlimited authority to do whatever they want to drag the country into yet another conflict because he's frustrated about negotiations. If you believe in the Constitution, not as a slogan, not we are constitutional conservatives. If you actually believe in the substance of the Constitution, then you have to hold leadership to constitutional standards. Where is the oversight if Trump bombs Iran 48 hours from now? Where is even the urgency? I thought we were just told that Trump shut down all of Iran's nuclear capability and

bombed it and destroyed it just a few months ago. And all of a sudden, this is where we are. It doesn't really make a lot of sense. So we're seeing decision making driven by impulse frustration and personal ambition. That's what this is. We're seeing huge military action treated like leverage in a negotiation. Well, you don't want to negotiate. Maybe we'll unleash a new war. I thought you were the anti-war president. The constitution was designed to prevent this. And this is a much bigger problem than one person. Trump is a problem right now. And the lack of restraint and oversight onto Trump is a problem right now. But the theme is that if leaders repeatedly fail to exact or to maybe better said to

put in play to exercise is the word I'm looking for, oversight, if they don't check power when it really matters, which is now, then the system starts to break down. And at some point, voters are justified and asking whether the people in charge are actually qualified to hold the offices that they occupy. Trump isn't. But what about everybody else? That's just basic accountability. Now, if we look at history, leaders under pressure often will turn inward. Foreign conflict becomes a distraction. It becomes a projection of strength, a way to try to force unity at home. And history has shown us this pattern many times. That's why this is so dangerous. War in the Middle East is not abstract. It is concrete instability, death, destruction, global economic shock,

American lives at risk consequences that could last generations. Trump said, I'm the only person who can keep and grow peace. And we have institutions designed to stop reckless decisions. And it's not completely clear that they are ready to act. So we have question one, what will Trump do next? Question two, when will he do it? Question three. Why will he do it?

But maybe the most important question is, is the system that is meant to receive. strain power functioning. Is it going to do anything to restrict Trump? We'll have more on this on our podcast. If you're watching this on YouTube rather than listening to the podcast, make sure that you subscribe to free and rate the audio podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. It costs nothing. It helps us. And you get the full one hour show every single day in your podcast. app. Let's be honest, the math is not adding up lately between the grocery store, skyrocketing insurance premiums, even with a steady job, more families are being forced to rely on high interest credit cards to cover expenses. If you are a homeowner caught in that cycle, carrying

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Donald Trump convened a meeting of the Board of Peace completely bogus and an exercise in self-aggrandizement made to make Trump feel really good. It is stunning how Donald Trump is so insecure that even at a meeting of what we're world leaders assembled really to placate and suck up to Trump. Even there, Trump expresses his insecurities, including telling people, I'm really not gay. Trump wanting to convince the audience saying he doesn't like young handsome men. Trump likes women, not men, making sure the room knows Trump is not a gay guy, really high level stuff. But I was very proud of it.

President Penna of Paraguay is here, president. President, thank you very much, young, handsome guy. It's always nice to be young and handsome. Doesn't mean we have to like you. I don't like young, handsome men. Women, it's like men, men, I don't have any interest. Good. That's right. That's right, guys.

Lest anyone be confused, Trump is not attracted to men, only women. All right. Well, with that out of the way, then the insecurity really began. With Donald Trump sort of joking, this is important, Trump only sort of jokes. And in this video, you will hear Trump talk about how well Marco Rubio, his secretary of state did speaking at the Munich security conference. But he does say, you know, don't do too well, Marco, because if you do, you're out of here. And of course, we're joking. But remember, when Marco Rubio went and spoke in Munich just a few days ago, the audience and global global viewers were sort of like, oh, Marco Rubio can kind of speak sort of coherently and he can hold it together for more than a few minutes. Trump knows he can't do

that. And that's why his insecurity comes out. It's all fun in games, except Trump is actually serious. The back is Marco, Marco does it with a velvet love, but it's a kill. The result is the same. They do it very differently. And Marco, you really did yourself proud two days ago in Munich. In fact, so proud that I almost terminated his employee because they were saying, why can't Trump do this? I do, but I say it differently.

But Marco, don't do any better than you did, please. Because if you do, you're out of here. But no. We're all laughing. But you know Trump is very insecure. And he's aware that people were saying, why can't Trump speak this coherent? But I do. I just speak a little differently.

That is Trump's serious insecurity. All the money in the world and being the leader of the free world, arguably the most or one of the most powerful, probably five people in the world. And Trump is still extraordinarily insecure because he knows he can barely speak coherently. People don't respect him. Anyway, Trump seemingly recognizes that the FIFA Peace Prize that he was given is completely bogus and seems to know that it was invented completely for him. Yeah, I want to thank Johnny and FIFA for all of the wonderful things they did and are doing.

They gave me their first peace prize. They gave me a peace prize. I think they saw that I got screwed by Norway and they said, no, no, no, they saw that you needed to be sucked up to. And so they did. Let's give him a peace prize. I mean, very good. Thank you, Johnny. I appreciate it. Johnny's very smart. He's very, very smart. He's smart to realize Trump loves being sucked up to. Let's make up a prize. Trump spoke about J.D. Vance. And in speaking about J.D., he alludes to Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and sort of first and foremost for Trump, especially when talking about women, is are they attractive? And he does say that

AOC is attractive to him. Respect. I'll respect for your country. We'll also want to express by gratitude to Vice President J.D. Vance, who is a fantastic man. He's a fantastic talent. It was a great student. They went to one school. He graduated. You know, most people, if you watch some of the people that were at the event in Munich, they didn't graduate quickly from college. They had everything they could do. It was one young, attractive woman. She was unable to answer questions. He's referring to AOC. And she didn't do so well like J.D. did in college. J.D. graduated in a four and a half year college in two years. And then he went to Yale and he graduated at the top of his class, went to the military grade.

But when he went to Yale, there was one person that was marginally ahead of him. So he married her. Can you believe it? He married the person that was ahead. I don't know. I always like to say, J. Anyway, so AOC primarily is just a lens through which Trump can determine. Is she attractive?

Is she not attractive? And then Donald Trump still complaining about the fact that they turned off my teleprompter during his UN speech. I will remind you, Trump wants to rewrite history. I will remind you that Trump's own White House staff had control of the teleprompter when it glitched. They would be his own staff if they is the right term. The secretary general in a little while was a good man and I've had a good relationship other than in my last speech they did turn off my teleprompter. I got up there. My teleprompter

didn't work. I'm sitting in front of all of you people and more. I had no teleprompter. I knew I was trouble because I'm walking up, you know, the teleprompters are over. He had the most beautiful speech ready. And it was all set to knock him dead. First, I had an escalator that stopped. You know that it's going up. Boom. It's lucky Mike. We also learned that the elevator stopped because one of Trump's own staff triggered the emergency stop mechanism. Movie star first lady was in front of me because I. And I guess by movie star first lady, he's referring to the Melania documentary that is losing money. So listen, here's the key takeaway from this totally dilapidated Board of Peace meeting. I am not feeling extremely optimistic

about its goals of achieving peace based on this completely disastrous first meeting. And if you need any more proof of that, it's that even Trump couldn't be bothered to stay awake during it. Donald Trump has been caught again sleeping at an official public event. New video shows Donald Trump at the inaugural Board of Peace meeting, sitting with his eyes closed, head slumped, clearly struggling to stay awake during a meeting where supposedly it was the most exciting thing about how they were going to have peace and get peace and the entire thing. Trump couldn't even be bothered to stay awake. It wasn't late at night. It was like 10 a.m. It wasn't a private moment. Public event, cameras rolling. Trump simply can't stay awake.

If this feels familiar, it's because it's happening all the time. And the successful implementation of the second phase of the Gaza peace plan. This includes ensuring. Oh, and Trump almost actually falling. I'll play that last bit here. You see that Trump actually does a whoa and then catch a, then catches himself. We have seen this time and time and time again. Trump can't stay awake during meetings. He just can't do it. And what makes the story particularly striking is that he led the movement to attack Joe Biden for having no energy, calling him Sleepy Joe. That was the branding, the narrative, endless mockery and endless attacks about energy and stamina and alertness, cognitive

fitness. They built an entire messaging machine around Biden's too tired and weak and diminished. But now we have the oldest president in history, Trump, unable to stay awake, almost every week. And the right wing media is silent about it. He closes his eyes to rest them is all you will occasionally get. He's listening. No outrage, no wall-to-wall coverage from right-wing media, no viral concerns about fitness for office, no questions about stamina, no nightly monologues on Fox News about cognitive decline. Their standards disappear. And this gets to something way bigger than just Trump falling asleep again. His entire political identity has always been built on projecting strength, dominance, and endless energy. I'd only sleep four hours a night and all this stuff.

I never falter. But the reality is clashing with that alpha branding. And voters can see this guy doesn't have unstoppable energy. He's exhausted, disengaged, can often barely speak and falls asleep in public all the time. Now, aging is normal. Health challenges are human. That is not the issue. The issue is honesty and consistency. If staying awake at public events were treated as proof of fitness or lack thereof for office for Joe Biden, why is it suddenly irrelevant when it applies to a different president? Either this is the standard or it's not. Either alertness and stamina. are essential qualifications or they're not. You don't get to weaponize the issue for years and then pretend it's meaningless when your guy

can't stay awake. There's also a governance question here. The presidency is objectively, if you're doing it right, one of the most demanding jobs in the world. You're ideally having constant focus, rapid decision making abilities, and the ability to respond quickly to crises. If the public sees the president asleep all the time when out in place, you know, the public, public, they are going to ask questions. And those questions shouldn't be partisan. It's just basic

accountability. A couple other notes from this event, they also played Trump propaganda videos during the meeting. President Donald Trump unparalleled achievements in just few months. The United States, together with key regional and global partners, has signed the 20-point Gaza Peace Plan, a blueprint for security peace. You get the point. Very north. Korea vibes going on there. And then this is like almost beyond parody. The leader of Kazakhstan proposes a new award named after or for Donald Trump. It's kind of hard to say. To promote peace and security in the Middle East and to foster economic, humanitarian cooperation in the region and even beyond. Given the global nature of the board's agenda,

Kazakhstan is committed to providing practical support, including through hosting meetings at different levels and scales. I also would like to propose to establish a special President Trump's award of the Board of Peace to recognize his outstanding peace-building efforts and achievements. Right. I'm confident, Mr. President, that under your strong leadership, the Board of Peace will successfully deliver its great noble. So you get the point. Another award for Donald Trump from Kazakhstan and then the Prime Minister of Egypt repeatedly

referred to Trump as your excellence. Egypt. Your excellency President Donald Trump, distinguished participants, I thank President Trump for convening this meeting. His excellency is direct involvement and commitment to promote peace in the His excellency. Have you ever seen someone born into such power, privilege, and wealth as Trump, who has had everything handed to him for his 80 years on this planet? And he still needs people to suck up to him, people to tell him how great he is, and for people to make up awards for him and refer to him as

Your Excellency, maybe the most triggered rich guy that I have ever seen. But remember, if Trump proves anything, it's that money cannot buy class and boy can it not. If you're trying to get away from cigarettes or vaping, one of the first practical questions is what you replace them with, especially if you're not ready to eliminate nicotine immediately. Check out our sponsor Zipix nicotine toothpicks. Zipix uses quality plant-derived nicotine with a very short list of ingredients. It gives you another option for managing nicotine with no smoke or vapor. Zippix comes in six flavors. There's two or three milligram options, lets you control the

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be enough for you to say that was probably really, really wacky. And you would be right. Donald Trump spent most of his speech on during the White House's black history event, naming black people he knows, talking about how he's definitely. Definitely not a racist and also just bragging about non sequiturs. Trump starting his Black History Month event by ranting about his forthcoming ballroom. This is a nice full room. You know, we have a, we have a ballroom being built.

In about a year and a half, we'll be able to have about, I'd say, 10 times the number. We can invite some friends that couldn't make it today because frankly, this was a sold-out crowd has been ever since I've been president every year. You know, it's funny. This ballroom, it started as a $100 million project and then it became a $300 million project. And it started as this is going to take six to 12 months from when they started to it's going to take 18 more months from today. Trump totally incoherent and unintelligible, both on the timing and cost of the ballroom, but also

just going beyond that. dumping in. He can't resist. He just can't help himself talking about how they cheated on the election. We won by millions of votes. He's talking, I think, about 2020. He just can't control himself. Black History Month also, as you know, this year will also be celebrated the 250th anniversary of nation's founding. And the good thing when they cheated on the election, They made me wait four years, and because I waited four years, I get the 250th year. I get the Olympics, which I was the one that got it, and I get the World Cup. So I got the World Cup, and I said, you know, it's too bad.

Before all this nonsense takes place, took place. I said, it's too bad. I got the World Cup to come here. Johnny, another Johnny. We got the World Cup. It was fantastic. The head of it, one of the great people. And I said, the only bad part is I won't be in office because my four years will be

up. This would have been the more traditional route. And then they cheated on the election. And I said, now we won by so much. We won by millions of votes, but they cheated. It was during a COVID period. And they cheated. And we did it again. And we made it too big to rig. Too big. He just can't stop. He just can't stop. That election is now, um, uh, almost six years ago. And he just can't acknowledge. I just lost. I then came back in one. But I lost. Trump talking about individuals that he has sprung from prison, including those he believes unfairly convicted, but he can't help himself. He says they tried to get me with a fake phone call.

Two years. I said 22 years. And right, Alice? And come on up here, Alice. Come on. I said 22 years and she was on a phone call. This was over a phone call. I know about fake phone calls to Alice, you know, remember?

They tried to get me in a fake phone call. But Alice was in jail for like 22 years. I said, so anyway, Alice Johnson is a woman who was served after serving 21 years in prison. Trump granted her, was it a pardon or commutation? He granted her. I guess it was a commutation. Oh, and a pardon. He granted her both.

And now she is Trump's pardons are and recommends people for Trump. to pardon. Okay. The crowd starting to chant four more years for Donald Trump. We love, we love Leo. Thank you, Leah. That was very good. Yeah, four more years. And then Trump going into in order to prove how just not racist he is, the least racist person anyone could ever know. Trump going through a list of a number of people, we won't do all of them, but he says, Nikki Minaj is great. And her nails are great and her skin is really, really cool. Good stuff, right?

From jazz to the blues. That you know, that you do get recognition for. Jazz, the blues, from rock and roll to rap black artists like Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters. How about Nikki Minaj? Do we love Nikki? I love Nikki Minaj. She was here a couple of weeks ago. She's so beautiful.

His skin's so beautiful. I said, Nikki is so beautiful. Her nails. her nails are like that long. I said, I said, Nikki, are they real? She said, she didn't want to get into that. But she was so beautiful. It's so great. And she and she gets it, you know, more importantly. Nikki Minaj is a black person. Trump knows and likes. Herschel Walker is another one that Trump knows and likes, who of course ran a disastrously unsuccessful Senate campaign previously. And then ultimately Trump made him ambassador to the Bahamas. Mike Tyson goes that he's not a racist.

He's my friend. He's been there from the beginning. Good times and bad. But Mike Tyson's a great guy and he was so loyal, always been loyal. And Herschel Walker speaking about loyal, how good a football player was Herschel. Herschel Walker. Now he's ambassador to the Bahamas. I don't know, Bahamas Bermuda. Is he Bahamas? Whatever. It's a nice place. You'd like that, Bruce. wouldn't you. Anyway, he is ambassador to the Bahamas, not to Bermuda, not that it really makes any difference to Donald Trump. And then finally, Trump talking about Harmeet Diller, except her name is Harmeet Dillon. Not exactly a winning Black History Month event. You're a secretary of labor assistant attorney general, Harmeet Diller. How are you doing?

How are you doing with Harvard? How are you doing with Harvard? You know, Harvard's a secretary of labor assistant, attorney general, Harvard's extremely discriminatory, unfortunately, and it's working good. Our meet is on their trail, right? Good. Good. You keep suing them the hell with them. I like the historically black colleges and universities. Historically black colleges and universities.

Anyway, Trump naming black people, he knows whether he knows their names or not. Black History Month for Donald Trump. Not exactly awesome, but one thing that looked really ugly at this event was Donald Trump's rotting hand. Haven't talked about it for a while. Let's discuss. A new round of questions about Donald Trump's health. After fresh photos show him trying to, again, very obviously cover what seems to be increasingly

severe bruising on his hand, this time using an even heavier layer of makeup. These images are from the White House event for Black History Month, which we already looked at clips from. Trump had this thick beige layer of cosmetic cover up, I guess we would call it. I'm not an expert in makeup, but I guess we would call it cover up smeared across the back of his right hand. It didn't exactly work. The makeup looked heavy, uneven. You could see the veins underneath and the color of the makeup did not match Trump's skin.

This is happening all the time. has been repeatedly photographed with this visible bruising on his hands. It's getting worse. Sometimes there's bandages. Sometimes it's makeup. Sometimes he just keeps his hands hidden under the table or we'll sort of like position it in a way where you can't see the back of the hand. But it keeps happening.

And the explanations keep changing. Now, as you might remember, the official White House line is the bruising is from shaking so many hands. Trump takes a baby aspirin or actually, no, Trump takes more than a baby aspirin proudly, even though doctors are like, you only need to take the baby. Trump goes, no, give me more. me more. That makes him, he says bruise easily, and then he shakes so many hands that his hands get insanely bruised. Then he puts makeup on it. That is a very difficult claim to believe,

including because at one point, Trump also had the bruise on his left hand. And I've never seen Trump shake hands with his left hand. Both hands show the discoloration. Another time, Trump said he clipped his hand on a table, which, okay. But if this is the most alpha person there ever is healthiest ever, why is his entire hand turning into a black seemingly rotting mess from, quote, clipping his hand? Now, we zoom out and then we say, wait, so is it from handshakes? Is it from furniture? Is it from medication? Or are they just lying? And listen, presidents are human beings. They age. Trump happens to be the oldest president ever. He's obese. He eats a terrible diet. He doesn't exercise. Cognitively, he's not doing well. That in and of itself isn't the

The scandal is the transparency and the hypocrisy over Joe Biden's health. This is the same Trump that told us you're going to be receiving unprecedented openness from me about my health. And then he mocks political opponents about their health. And he builds a persona around how strong and dominant and vital he is. And then we see these signs of health problems, impossible to miss, legitimate public interest to honest information about the president's health and they deflect, they lie, they put makeup on. They spent two months talking to us about an MRI, which was actually a cat scan.

That tells us a lot about how dishonest they are. So put it all together. Trump fell asleep at another event yesterday. The hand bruising is getting worse. The slurring is getting worse. The verbal mixups are getting worse. The swelling ankles seem to be getting worse. It's all getting worse. None of it is about mocking health problems. It's do we as the public, have the truth about the physical condition of the most powerful person, arguably on the planet, certainly of the country. This is not a symbolic role. You know, in some countries, the prime minister is the doer and the president is more symbolic. But that's not the case in the United States. The president has to be making decisions, responding to stuff, huge cognitive and physical

demand. And what we're watching instead of clear information about his health is constant damage control done verbally with what they say, but also the makeup is a form of damage control. And there is something else that's politically important. When you build your brand on projecting strength and you ridicule your opponents as weak and you say you're the tough one, you're the dominant one, and that is central to your political appeal, there is a risk that some of his own followers start going, man, this guy's not as vital as I thought. Maybe he isn't really up to the task. So at the absolute minimum, we know that the White House cares about managing appearances, not so much about providing answers. No amount of makeup is going to change that. On another level, we know that Trump

is not nearly as healthy as he claims to be. And on a third level, there are real questions about if something were to happen to Donald Trump while in office. Would they be upfront about it? Or would it take days to figure out what is actually going on? I don't believe they would be upfront about it because they've never been upfront about it. One thing that keeps coming up as AI becomes more mainstream is how casually people are handing over sensitive information. Think about how many private questions and personal struggles and business ideas. People have typed into these AI tools, assuming the conversations are temporary. And we're now learning that many of those platforms are storing or reusing the data in ways that

users never really consented to. That's why the AI tool I use instead is Venice. Our sponsor, Venice takes a different approach. Your conversations are encrypted and stored only on your device, not on company servers, never used for training data. Venice runs open source AI models for text, code, images, and video directly in your browser or app. No surveillance or censorship, no content policing. And the pro plan adds features like PDF, uploads, higher usage limits, custom system prompts, and uncensored image generation while keeping control in your hands. If you want private AI, go to venice.a.i slash Pacman to get 20% off a pro plan. The link is in the description.

Caroline Levitt remains Donald Trump's White House Press Secretary. She performs for an audience of one, and that one is Donald Trump himself. But she doesn't like that. being asked real questions. She doesn't like being fact checked. She doesn't like it when reporters don't ask the stupid, leading, silly questions that she wants them to ask. Leavitt was asked about student protests against ICE. And the whole idea here is do you or do you not defend and support the Constitution of the United States? And there's a lot of ifs, ands and buts, here. She talks about rooting out, rooting out a lot of the opinions of the school systems, which are just constitutionally protected things that people say. Do you care about the constitution or

don't you? Let's take a listen. Go ahead. Charlie, there's been a series of walkouts from public school students that have been sort of provoked by a number of public school administrators. Uh, What are your thoughts on this? What's the administration's thoughts on this? Will it be taking any actions on these walkouts against ICE? Look, I think obviously the president and the administration support the First Amendment rights of all American citizens. And if they're peacefully protesting, then that's their constitutional obligation and right and responsibility to do so. Of course, the administration also wants to see American school children in school learning and educating. And I think it does speak to the left-wing.

bias that is unfortunately very present in our nation's public school system. And it's something that Secretary McMahon has been working very hard to root out of our public school system by ensuring that local governance and local control takes place over our nation's public schools and that parents and educators closest to students have a greater say over curriculum and academia in our country. Yeah. So there's a lot of we support the First Amendment and kind of. thing. And of course, there are defenders of Caroline who are saying she didn't say she wants

to root out the opinions of the students. She wants to root out the left wing bias of the teachers. But what you need to understand to really parse the way she's discussing this is that they see the fact that so many students are walking out over ICE protests as reflective of the left wing bias of the teachers when the truth is that number one, no matter where the students came up with their opposition to ICE, it's still a constitutionally protected activity to walk out for any reason that they want to walk out. And number two, it still is at the end of the day objectively unpopular what ICE is doing. And so it doesn't only have to be restricted to the left that is against it.

The polling tide has turned against the ice fiasco. a way that is crossing party line. So, you know, they support the Constitution sort of like if it's convenient, but maybe not. Hilariously, Caroline Levitt was asked, any update on those tariff rebate checks that the White House promised? You might be shocked to hear Caroline doesn't have an update. Sure. I'll go to both of you. Sure. Go ahead and then Jake, you can go.

Carolyn, can you tell me, is there an update regarding the tariff rebate checks that the White House has promised? I don't have an update for you on timeline, but I know that it's something that, you, you know, thing that the president and his economic team continue to very seriously discuss. Yeah. They're looking at it really strongly, but the reason there's no update is because there are no checks. It was never happening. It's a ridiculous idea. We're going to take money from you in tariffs and then recycle a little bit of it back running it through a government bureaucracy. Why not just not do the tariffs in the first place? It was ridiculous from the get go. It's not

going to happen. The answer should be there is no update because it was made up That's it. Caroline asked about cost of living and she peddles some very sketchy red states versus blue states utility costs are lower in red states. In a moment, I'm going to tell you why even if this is true, why it doesn't really mean much. Just have a quick statistic here on energy that I found fascinating and it's obviously true because I'm saying it up here.

Red states with Republican legislatures currently enjoy. lower average retail electricity prices than blue states with Democrat legislatures. Just have a quick statistic. This is one of those things where I don't know whether it's true as she describes it. I'll tell you the data in a moment. But even if it were, it wouldn't really tell us that much. Now, I did a little bit of research. There are conflicting studies.

There is one study that says energy costs are a little bit higher on average in blue states versus red states. States versus red states. There's another that says the difference is very, very small and another that says that they're actually slightly lower in blue states. Okay. Let's imagine it's true. On average, energy prices are higher in blue states than in red states. Incomes are significantly higher in blue states than in red states.

So what do you really prove given that people make a lot more money in blue states? Would you rather make an extra 10 grand, but pay a lot? an extra 500 bucks a year in utilities. Most people would. I'm just making those numbers up. So even this is one of those things where like even if true, I don't really know that it proves the point you're trying to prove. Finally, this is fascinating. Caroline Levitt says, uh, when Trump posts something to truth social, you know that it's really his opinion, which is funny because last week they told us that the racist Obama monkey video that showed up on Trump's truth social hadn't been posted by Trump. So which is it, Caroline? Thank you, Caroline. President Trump just said on true social

that it would be a big mistake for the UK to handover control of Chagos Islands to Mauritius. But the State Department earlier this week has said the U.S. does support that handover. So does this post now suggest that the U.S. does not or that President Trump had changed his mind on this. The post should be taken as the policy of the Trump administration. It's coming straight from the horse's mouth. When you see it on truth social, you know it's directly from President Trump. That's when you see it on truth social, you know it's directly from President Trump. Well, last week, she said Trump didn't post the racist Obama monkey video. So is it from Trump or isn't it from Trump? Okay, absolute last last one here. Finally, a serious question from the pro-Trump

new media seat. You can you can count on these to be really questions of substantive journalistic value. As this popularity rises around the world, and especially in regions where it's invested so much effort in promoting peace and ending awards, do you think we might be watching the emergence of a global megamomom? Is this something that the president has discussed at all? Well, I don't know, Jake, but I sure hope so. A pathetic excuse for a question, if I've ever seen one.

Caroline Levitt, I gotta tell you, by Trump's standards. She's doing all the right things. She may be close. I don't remember how long Kaylee McEnany served, but Caroline Leavitt may be getting close to a record tenure as press secretary for any Trump presidency because she's doing a proper performance for an audience of one. And that one is Donald Trump. The Trump brothers collapsed in a train wreck interview.

This interview was a really bad idea. And I don't know who thought that it would. go well. Trump, uh, Trump's two oldest sons, Don Jr. and Eric Trump appeared on CNBC and were interviewed by Sarah Eisen. This was surrounding their world liberty forum in Palm Beach, I guess. As many of you know, the Trump family has used cryptocurrency to self-enrich to a disgusting degree while Trump has been president and between presidential terms. And when asked about conflicts of interest, they just go, eh, there's always accusations of that. We don't, we don't really care about that. I'm going to ask you about, you know, the World Liberty Corporation, which has been in the

news. And there was this big Wall Street Journal report about the 49% state that was sold to an Maradi royal family member after your father was elected president, raising, raising questions about whether they were doing that so they could get access to AI chips. A, my father has nothing to do with. B, it has nothing to do with AI chips. And C, we met in the Middle East the first time. There's not a person in that room. There's not a banker. There's not a fund manager that doesn't go to the Middle East and to the, you know,

whether the sovereign wealth funds of the world. They're some of the biggest investors in every fund in America. To critique the one here and not talk about the others would be nonsense. It's literally what they do. And so they have done that. they invested in it and they've actually had already over a 4x return on their investment. It's a great investment and it has nothing to do with the other. We've been dealing with the conflict of interest stuff for years.

I mean, they tried all this nonsense the first time around. Frankly, it's gotten old. They were the ones that put us into this position by creating legislation to try to- They put us in a position of having to do horribly conflicted and borderline fraudulent things. If it weren't for the regulation, nobody would be saying we're doing anything wrong. Wow, what a strong argument. That's out of business.

We just fought back. We weren't willing to sit in the corner, curl up in a ball and die like they would love us to do. That's not how we function. That's not how we operate. And you can see that, whether it's my father or us, that's never going to happen. We're going to do what we need to do. Fight back. It's the greatest law of unintended consequences.

If you look at what they tried to do when they threw my father off of Twitter, and they did the same to Don and myself and pretty much everybody else in our family, they took us off Twitter. They took us on Facebook. They took us off of Instagram. They took us off of YouTube. They took us off of Google. They skewed all the searches.

They did everything they could dispress. So guess what we did? We went out and we formed truth, social. We went out and we did a bunch of scams. Notice they don't deny that there's a conflict of interest. They don't deny the facts of the question. They don't deny the premises of the question. It's just like, listen, they're fighting with us and now we're doing it.

We're doing what they forced us to do. Here's Don Jr. continuing to argue, they created this monster. Well, you know what the critics would say. They'd say that the credibility factor. is the Trump name and the Trump White House and that everyone, you know, is here to curry favor. I think again, look, the great honor here is they didn't give us much of a choice. When you had every, they created this monster. When you had every big bank in the world for doing nothing wrong, just based on the fact that we all wore a hat that said, make America great again,

my father happened to be running as a Republican, canceled us. I mean, I was getting these calls. 300 bank accounts, capital one in the middle of the night. These are commercial buildings, residential buildings, you know, golf courses, you know, are around the world. These aren't political. entities and they were pulling these accounts like us from us like we were we're absolutely dogs we couldn't pay our vendors we couldn't like we were dogs pay employees and so we said listen it has to be a better way there's there used to being able to do that to they shut down our bank accounts so we did a multi-billion dollar crypto grift wouldn't you the sit do the same thing sarah if they targeted you just for wearing a red hat um okay finally um eric trump says he has never been more bullish on bitcoin

in his life. I have thoughts about this. And let's listen to it first. Because guess what? There's a lot of countries from the world rampant corruption, bad governments, bad currencies, massive inflation. These people don't stand a chance. They get a paycheck. They don't stand a chance. They may as well go and throw in a fire and just burn it. Whereas now all of a sudden using a simple telephone, you know, using your iPhone, you know, all of a sudden you can buy US backed one-to-one is onset, you know, based on US Treasury's, you can buy stable coin and you can actually be part of the greatest financial system in the world, but that's a wonderful thing. But Gold War has been doing well, too. You know, and I know Stablecoin is different than Bitcoin,

but you, I mean, you've been big proponents and bullish on Bitcoin as well. We still are. I'm a huge proponent of Bitcoin. I do think it hits a million dollars. I think it's one of the greatest performing asset classes. I mean, go back two years. Bitcoin was at, what, 16,000? All right. So listen, let me, let me weigh in on this. You all know, I am not, abstractly speaking for or against Bitcoin. I don't find the argument that it's a store of value very strong, but I also don't find the argument that it's primarily used for crimes very strong. I'm neutral on it as a technology. I've had 3% of my assets in Bitcoin since 2017. When it goes up and it's got it's doubled and doubled and doubled many times, I sell back down

to 3% and take the profits. When it drops and. becomes under 3% of my assets. I buy up to 3%. And I've just been doing that. Okay. But that's a decision we make, not on, oh, I think it's going to hit a million dollars a coin or whatever. It's just what's my risk tolerance? If I only ever have 3% invested, I can never lose more than 3% of my assets. And has it been around long enough that I think, oh, it's going to be around and I'm going to put some predetermined percentage of my assets in it. I'm really bullish on Bitcoin, I think it goes to a million dollars. I don't know that I would be necessarily listening to Eric Trump about this stuff. Finally, the most privileged also say they are the most discriminated

against. Take a listen to this. I think we're trying modernized finance. We're the most canceled people in the world in 2020, 2021. And it's really great to almost have this retribution where all of a sudden we started pushing an agenda. Our agenda was to modernize finance, to allow that to never, ever, ever happen to anybody again. And to really lead the way. We're the most discriminated against people, the most canceled people in the world. Oh, yeah, my family's multi-generations wealthy and I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth. But we are so treated terribly and unfairly. All right. Speaking of people treated unfairly, we are going to have more on the start of Epstein-related arrests on today's bonus show. We will also, excuse me, we will also

discuss the override of a veto on an anti-trans. bathroom bounty bill in Kansas and the plan that some are getting going to boycott next week's Trump state of the union event. Who's doing it? What is the alternative programming? I'll give my thoughts and so much more. Don't miss today's bonus show. Really don't miss it.

You can find it by signing up at join packman.com.