The David Pakman Show - Reality collapses and Americans are noticing

Episode Date: April 21, 2026

-- On the Show -- Donald Trump reportedly demanded nuclear launch codes for Iran, but the claim traces to an unverified source and lacks confirmation -- Donald Trump reacts to a Virginia redistricting vote by warning that fair elections will cause Republicans to lose power -- Donald Trump repeatedly contradicts himself and his administration, creating confusion that his subordinates have to quietly attempt to correct -- Donald Trump posts lengthy and aggressive messages on Truth Social about Iran and the media -- Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez argues that Trump is unfit for office while criticizing Kash Patel over concerns about his conduct -- Donald Trump makes contradictory statements during a CNBC interview about Iran, the economy, and oil markets -- Benny Johnson claims in an interview with Rep. Brandon Gill that Somalia’s average IQ is around 70, a widely disputed figure -- David receives strong audience backlash after criticizing tipping culture -- On the Bonus Show: Kash Patel sues the Atlantic over excessive drinking allegations, Trump's labor secretary resigns amid scandals, UK Parliament agrees to a cigarette ban for those born after 2008, and much more... 📱 Cape: Get 33% off for 6 months with code PAKMAN at https://cape.co/pakman 🍓 Strawberry.me: Get a $50 credit when you sign up for coaching at https://strawberry.me/pakman 📄 UPDF: Supercharge your PDF workflow! Get an extra $10 off at https://davidpakman.com/updf 🛡️ 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(01:54) Unverified report says Trump wanted to nuke Iran(08:17) Trump reacts to redistricting vote(19:43) Trump keeps contradicting himself(26:48) Trump posts to Truth Social about Iran(35:05) AOC questions Trump fitness(41:37) Trump addresses economy on CNBC(52:24) Republican representative repeats Somalia IQ claim(59:20) Audience reaction to tipping video   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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And it's correct to ask what many of you are asking. Is this real? We're going to break it down. I'll tell you what we know, what we don't know and what we can say what certitude is true as of this point in time. That is just the start. At the same time, we are seeing something else happen. in real time, which is that this administration is regularly contradicting itself not only about what

the point of the whole Iran war was. That's been a contradiction since day one, but contradicting itself about what is even taking place right now. So I've got examples and we're going to look at them. And then today, Virginia will vote as to whether to redistrict and Trump is panicking and Republicans are panicking because they have accurately assessed if this happens, it helps, it helps us. Democrats take the House in November. And if Democrats take the House in November, Trump's presidency is effectively over. We are going to look at that in detail and so much more. Make sure for deeper analysis on all of these topics, you're getting my daily substack, which

you can find at David Pakman.com slash substack. There's a new viral report that over this past weekend, Donald Trump demanded the nuclear codes, presumably to nuke Iran. This report is being attributed to retired CIA analyst Larry Johnson. The report is that Trump was stopped from obtaining the nuclear codes by one of his military generals. Now, many of you wrote in and asked, is this true? Did this really happen?

Is this verifiable? What do we know? And by the way, who is retired CIA analyst Larry Johnson? All good questions. According to the report, Donald Trump was stopped from obtaining and potentially attempting to use the nuclear codes by General Dan Kane. One report coming out of the meeting at the White House is Trump wanted to use the nuclear codes. And General Dan Kane stood up and said no and invoked his privilege as head of the military. And it was apparently a huge blowup.

That is the reporting that has taken place. This, of course, appears to relate directly to the more trustworthy report that Donald Trump was blocked from being in the situation room over the weekend, which we spoke about yesterday. And part of the confusion or the controversy around this is that these are two different reports. Trump blocked from the situation room appears to be quite well sourced. Trump tried to use the nuclear codes. well, we're going to try to figure it out. Now, the claim goes back to this Larry Johnson, often described as a retired CIA analyst. Now, that is true. It is technically true that that is

his current former position, but it's also misleading because Johnson hasn't been an active intelligence official for decades. And he doesn't really have a track record that would justify trusting claims of this magnitude that the president attempted to use the nuclear codes. And in recent years, this Johnson guy has been known for pushing a lot of different controversial and really unverified narratives, especially on foreign policy. So it is not the sort of person I would necessarily take their word for on breaking, unconfirmed national security stories. Now, I think that that really matters here.

And this is something the left should take seriously. If an American president had actually tried to launch nuclear weapons and was stopped in a confrontation with a general, I doubt that that would stay contained to the reporting of just one person. I think you would very quickly see confirmation of that from other media outlets, arguably more trustworthy media outlets. As of right now, there is none. And it's been more than 12 hours of this story being out. Now, is it possible that minutes after we publish this, there will be that corroboration

from Reuters or the Washington Post or someone? It's possible. And in that case, I will come back and I will revisit the story. Right now, the nuclear codes claim as it's being presented is not verified. And I am certainly not ready to treat it as fact. Now, there's a layer here where things are getting more complicated. And this is where some people are getting confused. There are credible reports, which we spoke about yesterday, that the way that national security

decisions are being handled is totally inappropriate. And there are credible reports that Donald Trump was excluded from the situation room during the rescue mission of the downed airmen in Iran. Those are reliable reports. And those involve journalists. They involve Bob Woodward and others. the description of what took place is that officials were alarmed enough to put some guardrails in place.

They slowed down some decisions and during certain key insensitive moments in the situation room, Donald Trump was in the West Wing, not in the situation room. So that's a different story. And it's really important not to get the two stories mixed up. That one is well sourced. The one about Trump attempting to use the nuclear codes as of this moment is not at all well sourced. Now, the other aspect to this that I think is important is that when you start to see a pattern of behavior, it can become easy for opportunists to put in less well-sourced information.

The real pattern that we see is that Trump's behavior is erratic. Officials are trying to manage that. Officials are trying to contain risky decisions and to kind of keep Trump under control. And then on top of that is layered this sensational claim that Trump tried to use the nuclear codes. And so there's this instinct of like, it feels kind of real because it doesn't go that much further from what is well sourced. But as of this point in time, we really don't have the information to suggest that that's going on. Now, there's one other layer to this. Some of the credible reporting suggests that Trump was at times limited in how he was engaging with high level national security processes, and that includes participation in discussions

above and beyond the situation room this past weekend. That does reflect a real concern around Donald Trump, which is that the people around him are worried that his presence and his involvement in decisions only makes the outcome potentially worse. That is very different than he tried to launch nukes and a general stopped him. So we are going to continue following the story. If there is additional reporting or sourcing on the nukes part, I will bring it to you. But I think even in this environment where completely insane things are happening just about every day, we do want to try to adhere to some basics about sourcing.

And they are benefiting right now, those spreading the Trump tried to use the new code's story. they're benefiting from the fact that it is very similar to another story that is well sourced and they are sort of being merged and the reporting is increasingly murky. Retired CIA analyst Larry Johnson, if that's the source right now, I would be quite skeptical. Let me know your thoughts. And of course, if we get additional sourcing on that, I will bring it to you and I will bring it to you very quickly. Donald Trump and Republicans are panicking about what is happening today in Virginia because he and

they are realizing that the Republican Party is barreling towards a humiliating and massive blue wave defeat in November in the midterms, which will effectively end the presidency of Donald Trump. Now I have clips of Trump kind of panicked, but accurately panicked in the sense of what might happen. He's reacting to a vote that on paper today in Virginia is about fairer redistricting. Listen to how Donald Trump talks about it because he's actually saying the quiet part out loud here. Trump is panicking as Virginians are voting today because he realizes this if it goes through

is going to help Democrats win seats in November. That's right, Donnie boy. That is exactly the point. What's going to happen if we lose these these elections, you know, the house and this case the house and just it's going to be a disaster. If they do this, they're guaranteed to pick up a lot of seats. That's exactly right. That is exactly right. For once, Trump's assessment is correct.

The whole idea here, which Republicans started in Texas, but they screwed it up and did it in a way that was struck down. And then we saw it in California with Gavin Newsom. Nasty Gavin Newscum, his prop 50. And we're seeing it in Virginia. And we're seeing it elsewhere. The concept here is not about arguing policy, not about constitutionality, not about governance. It's simply, hey, if the districts are drawn in a more fair way, we're going to get crushed in November. And I believe that Donald Trump is correct. It is not through convincing people that

their policies are working. It is not through winning the hearts and minds of voters that the best interests are what is most important to Republicans. It's trying to screw with the election systems that Republicans are trying to win. And Donald Trump realizes that Democrats are now fighting back because Republicans gave them the idea when they started this. fiasco with redistricting in Texas. Trump then doubles down and warns Virginians. If you vote, yes, today, I will lose power. Democrats will change things. Well, yeah, that's called winning elections, sir. This is what they're going to be doing with this referendum. If the Democrats, look, if they get additional house seats, at some point, if they get these additional seats,

They're going to be making changes at the federal level. That's right. That's right. Trump says it after flouting every norm and many laws and the Constitution for a decade, Trump goes, listen, if what happens today in Virginia, depending on the outcome, we don't know it yet, if what happens today in Virginia helps Republicans lose the House in November, helps Democrats take control of the House in November, they take control of the house, they're going to do stuff. That's right.

It's called winning elections. That is how democracy works. Now, in Trump's deranged mind, no matter what happens democratically, he should be in power and he should get to do whatever he wants. He lost the 2020 election and said, I should still be president. Why not? But that is not how democracy works. And what makes this so revealing is that Trump is fearmongering with like sky is falling.

type language on the basis of democracy might have consequences. Oh, head for the hills. They might win and then get to do stuff. But there's an aspect of this that makes it even more revealing. Republicans created this entire system. For decades, Republican lawmakers across the country have been aggressively pushing gerrymandering as a strategy, not let's come up with economic policy that raises people up and so people will want to vote for us. No, it's let's mess with the voting systems. Let's draw maps to lock in power

with these completely outrageous districts that make no sense whatsoever. We lose the popular vote and we still win. We've seen it in North Carolina. We've seen it in Texas. We've seen it in Wisconsin and Ohio over and over again. These overly engineered districts designed to maximize Republican seats, no matter what the will of the voters is. And then now Virginia and California and some other states, they're given a chance to put in place a more fair system. And suddenly it's a disaster. They're going to do stuff if they win.

And the reason that now it's a disaster, even though Republicans have been doing this for decades, is because it would be bad for them. That is, that's the broader story. When it's tilted towards Republicans, that's fine. They built it. They defended it. They used it. And then you remove that advantage.

You go towards competitive districts and outcomes that reflect voter preferences, something we call the democratic process. And then Donald Trump panics and he doesn't even hide it. So these are not really like messaging mistakes. The reality of the electoral strategy they're employing is being exposed. And zoom out for a second because there's a bigger pattern here. The same people who spent years defending gerrymandering and voting. and voter suppression laws and restrictive voting rules, they are now saying basic democratic

reform is an existential threat. And you know what? They're right about that. It's not that the reforms are extreme. And so they threaten Republicans. It's that these reforms make it harder to rig an election in either direction. And so what you're watching in Virginia today. And if you live in Virginia, I hope you're going to vote in favor of this redistricting.

I was part of a fundraiser last week in favor of the redistricting and there's a lot of energy behind it. That is going to allow elections to reflect the will of the voters of the state rather than allowing the engineering of congressional districts to determine the outcome. So we know which Trump, which version Trump prefers. He prefers the one where it's all slanted in favor of Republicans and he's panicking and he should be because if Democrats are able to win even a handful, but it might be 20, 40, 60 seats in November in the House. We don't know.

It is effectively the end of Trump's presidency. He's furious. He's panicking. And by the way, the administration is now overtly going after independent media. They are overtly coming after us. And again, we had a big team huddle yesterday on this. The only platform where if we get shut down, we can still reach our audience. is substack. We download our list every week and we have it. If we get shut down on YouTube

because of pressure from this administration, we have no way of reaching the nearly four million YouTube subscribers. If we get shut down on Facebook, we have no way of contacting the nearly one million followers. The only way we can be protected and stay in touch with you if it starts to hit us. And arguably it already did because Don Jr. and Caroline Levitt were directing Iyer. against us on their social media accounts is if you are following us, subscribe for free on my substack. So please check that out. Consider getting on that list, David Pakman.com slash substack. Everything you do on your phone paints a picture of your life going back years. Cell phone carriers track, sell, and sometimes leak that data. But our sponsor, Cape offers an alternative.

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There is a fascinating report from the Washington Postout, which we will link to and which I encourage you to read. And what is being noticed at this point is that something is very wrong with Donald Trump. And the people around him are scrambling to deal with it. Now, we are way be we are years beyond this being exaggeration or this being Trump's style. or this is the normal chaos we've come to expect around Trump over the years. This is different and this is happening in ways that are becoming harder and harder to ignore or to explain away as simple misstatements from Donald Trump.

The inconsistency about what is happening right now in Iran is making a number of different Washington Post sources say something seems wrong with the president of the United States. It's not just that Trump is regularly contradicting his own administration. He's sometimes contradicting himself in the same day. And he's sometimes contradicting himself within minutes during the same event. Basic, verifiable facts that a functioning president should be able to keep straight without being confused, without being disoriented. At the exact moment that administration officials said J.D. Vance will lead peace negotiations

with Iran in Pakistan, Trump was telling reporters the exact opposite. He said Vance isn't going. And this triggered this scramble inside the White House. Wait a second. Vance is on the way. Trump says he's not going. We've got to try to clean it up. They weren't able to clean it up because Trump just has no idea what's going on.

Remember that he insisted, sleepy Joe doesn't know what it is that is going on. Right. That's Trump grunting. Then it got even worse because Trump later claimed. Vance is on his way overseas. He's going to Pakistan. And at that exact time, J.D. Vance was at the White House. He was nowhere near a plane.

He was nowhere near where Donald Trump said that he was. So you could go, oh, well, their messaging is up. This is not messaging. This is not spin or strategy. There is a fundamental disconnect. Trump's brain is offline from the reality of what's happening. in Washington, D.C. in his own administration. This is not an isolated incident.

The pattern is showing up across multiple issues and acutely so as related to the Iran negotiations. Trump has said most of the terms have been agreed to. And later he says, there's really no pressure here. Nothing's finalized. And it doesn't even really matter at the end of the day. He says, we basically have a deal. But then on CNBC, he said, Oh, we're probably going to do more bombing tomorrow.

Wait, so is there a deal or is there not? He says that key conditions have been accepted by Iran. And then he says, I might have to destroy all of their energy infrastructure because they haven't agreed to the conditions. Wait, I thought you said that they did agree to the conditions. And at one point, he says that a deal will be signed that night. And then hours later, he says, there's no timeline. There's no expectation at all about if or when this thing is going to be signed.

So these are not minor inconsistencies. These are mutually exclusive claims under no interpretation could they possibly all be true at the same time. So if we are trying to look at this with a typical lens, we're under we're evaluating the negotiations. We're not going to get to the sort of a punchline of the entire thing, which is the explanation is confusion, disorientation. a complete inability to track basic facts over time. And Trump's staff knows it. And the reporting

from the Washington Post is that the staff is regularly panicking about having to step in to correct and reinterpret what Trump said and what Trump meant. Now, a lot of them are doing it anonymously, which also tells you this is very unstable because if their names were to become attached to anything publicly, they'd probably be fired. In a normal world, they would publicly defend what Trump is saying. They're not willing to do it. And that says a lot about what's going on right now. So they go back to the vague language. It's all fluid. And it's just incorrect. Trump's disoriented and confused. He doesn't know what's going on. Trump says J.D. Vance isn't going overseas, but he is. And then Trump hours later goes, yes, he's on a plane right now. But he's not. He just doesn't know what's

happening. Now, I think it's important to remind everybody that when Joe Biden was the president of the United States. The exact claims being made about Biden are what we are seeing today about Trump. And this is just a theme. It's been a theme for the last 10 years. If you vote for someone else, they'll start wars. It's Trump who's starting the wars. If you elect Joe Biden, you'll have someone who can't stay awake and won't even know what's going on in his administration. And it's Trump who's regularly falling asleep. And it's Trump who doesn't know. know what's going on. Now, for all of Joe Biden's faults, and there were many, and he never should have run for re-election, and they set up Kamala Harris with an unwinnable race, all the

criticisms. I'm with you. But Biden wasn't regularly asked about what's happening in his administration and gave incorrect and sometimes diametrically opposed assessments within minutes, never mind within hours. That didn't happen to Biden. Biden wasn't regularly being asked, do you know what happened with soldiers in Lithuania, as Trump was. And Biden goes, I have no idea. Haven't been briefed about it. Don't know what's going on. That happens all the time with Donald Trump. So we need to start calling this what it is. It's confusion, its contradiction. It's a gap between reality and the brain of the president. And the clearest signal. The signal from Trump is strong. But arguably, the even clearer signal is the people,

around Donald Trump who won't say it directly because they suspect they'll get screwed if they do, but their actions are making it obvious that something is very wrong in this administration. And as this was taking place and as we were trying to follow weight, Trump is saying A, but then he's saying B and the truth is C, but he goes back to A. As all of that was going on, Donald Trump crashed on truth social, unleashed a demented rant that should actually scare any American who's paying attention. Let's discuss. The word dementia is not a word that prior to Donald Trump held such a prominent role in American political discussion. And yet now we're hearing the word almost daily. Donald Trump unleashed what many

are calling a demented tirade on truth social once again. And there are a few reasons why Donald Trump is doing this and we're going to look at the posts. Reason number one, he knows that Republicans are going to get crushed in November. They're going to lose the house and Trump and his entire administration will be mired in the muck of investigations and oversight for the final two years of his presidency. Donald Trump is panicking because he screwed himself on Iran. And there are reports that he is in fear at the White House of what he has done to his own legacy. So anyway, Trump takes the truth social and he's losing his mind. He starts with quote, Israel never talked me into the war with Iran. The results of October 7th added to my lifelong opinion that Iran can never have a

nuclear weapon did. I watch and read the fake news, pundits and polls in total disbelief. 90% of what they say are lies and made up stories. And the polls are rigged, much as the 2020 presidential election was rigged, just like the results in Venezuela, which the media doesn't like talking about, the results in Iran will be amazing. And if Iran's new leaders, regime change are smart, Iran can have a great and prosperous future. World leaders and global citizens look at this, and they laugh and they cry. We are a laughing stock. We are a laughing. Another example of projection. Trump said under his watch, we will be respected again, much like we weren't under Joe Biden. Except, except it is under Donald Trump that we are a laughing stock.

It is under Donald Trump that other countries say it's not even worth inviting the United States anymore because they'll send some Trumpian tool. And then the posts get even more insane where Trump says, quote, the deal that we are making with Iran will be far better than the Iran nuclear deal penned by Barack Hussein Obama and sleepy Joe Biden. One of the worst deals ever made having to do with the security of our country. It was a guaranteed road to a nuclear weapon, which will not and cannot happen with the deal we're working on. They actually gave $1.7 billion in green cash loaded into a Boeing 757 and flown to Iran for Iranian leadership to spend. any way they saw fit. He emptied out all of the cash from banks in DC, Virginia, Maryland,

on and on and on. Let me tell you the truth of this. Donald Trump is now realizing the best he can hope to do is to put back in place something like the Obama-Iran nuclear deal. We wouldn't even be in this situation if Trump had kept us in that deal. We are in the situation we're in today. yes, because of Trump's belligerence, yes, because of Trump's decline, but in great part, because Trump got out of that deal in 2018. Trump is realizing he's going to have to get back into a similar deal, a deal that may not even be as strong. And so what he needs to do now is lay the groundwork to tell you this is nothing like that

other deal. Because if Trump acknowledges my deal that I'm trying to get is like Obama's deal, it blows up the entire premise of where we find ourselves today. Because every American, hopefully, we'll look around and go, I guess he should have just stayed in the Iran nuclear deal. That probably would have made more sense. Now, finally, and then it gets really crazy, Trump posts, quote, I'm winning a war by a lot. He's like up by 15 right now in the war. I'm winning a war by a lot. Things are going very well. Our military has been amazing. And if you read the fake news like the failing New York Times, the absolutely horrendous and disgusting Wall Street Journal, or the now

almost defunct, fortunately Washington Post, you would actually think we are losing the war. The enemy is confused because they get these same media reports and yet they realize their Navy has been completely wiped out. Their air force has gone onto darker runways. They have no anti-missile or anti-airplane equipment. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. The argument is the media is unpatriotic, Anyone who believes this stuff is unpatriotic, everything is going really well. Little question. If everything is going really well, why are we in week eight of a three to four week war? Is everything is, if everything is going really well, why have we still not achieved the objectives that supposedly were the reason for this war? And if everything is going really well,

Why doesn't Donald Trump even know who or where the negotiations are taking place and the parameters of those negotiations? And why are we still in this thing? So this is a panicked guy. He knows they're heading towards getting crushed. He knows the Iran war is likely going to screw his legacy. And his new approach is just telling other people, don't believe what you're seeing. Don't believe what the media says. Don't believe what the reporting indicates.

me, he wants to be the ultimate source of truth, common, by the way, among cult leaders. If you deal with PDFs, you know how quickly a simple task becomes a headache. Edit one thing, convert the file, reorganize a few pages, and then you're fighting clunky software that makes everything slower. That's why I love UPDF. Our sponsor, UPDF is a PDF editor that actually solves the common issues. people have with PDFs day to day. You can edit text, edit images directly, convert PDFs to Word, PowerPoint, or Excel without destroying the formatting and use OCR to turn scans into

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certain knowledge and maybe coming to less than completely correct conclusions on some issues. But she has really, I know that there are some on the left who say she's sold out. But I think that AOC now really has an understanding actually for how politics and power work. And she's also coming up with some insights that I have to tell you, I agree with completely. One of the areas that I've discussed before is about how Trump doesn't really work. very much. And I've said, you know, on the one hand, you want a president who's working, not a president who's just watching TV. On the other hand, the less Trump does, arguably the better off the country and the world are because any of the things Trump does are usually bad. So maybe it's better for

Trump to be golfing. And exactly on cue, AOC comes up with this exact analysis, which makes a lot of sense to it. One other quick question, Donald Trump, he's been playing a lot of golf while we're at war. Prices are going up. What do you make it Donald Trump's, I guess, work as if you were... You know, obviously it's awful that this guy's playing golf. But in a way, we're already seeing that some of the most important military decision makers in the country are trying to keep him out of consequential decisions. So in some ways, you kind of want this guy on a golf course more than you want him in the Oval Office.

But that also calls into question the 25th Amendment because if he is being, if the determination is that Donald Trump cannot be trusted in the situation room and in unfolding scenarios, then he's not fit to be present. This is exactly the correct analysis. And there's there's even, we could even go further, which is when people talk about we've got to get Trump to resign. Well, then J.D. Vance is the president. And I don't know that we're better off with that. Vance seems to at least have a little more work ethic than Donald Trump. We talk about impeachment,

which is politically impossible right now just because of the numbers in the House and Senate, but imagine that Trump was impeached and convicted and removed. And then J.D. Vance is president. There is an argument to be made that the best scenario for the next two and a half years or whatever whatever is left of Trump's presidency is a diminished Trump excluded from decisions. And maybe the golf course is the best place for Donald Trump to be. I don't know. Bonus clip. AOC in speaking with Pablo reports from our friends over at Midas touch is asked about cash Patel's drinking and the reporting we covered yesterday that cash Patel is regularly so drunk that he is difficult to wake up and that it was.

even considered whether a door needed to be beaten down in order to see if he was okay. AOC correctly indicates, correctly indicates that this is a serious national security threat. I love it so much. Congressman, real quick, is K.S. Patel's sobriety of national security threat at this point? Absolutely. Sobriety or lack there of? Absolutely. I mean, I think we saw, you know, after what was it, the Men's Olympics hockey championships the fact that this is a guy that is you know hurling bottles of beer in his face up in the air this is a person it's not just embarrassing it's a

person that is easily manipulated he is if he's conducting himself in this compromised away in public when you you know especially in a position like the FBI when you are acting crazy you are creating opportunities for blackmail and compromise on any maligned actor. And so I think it's absolutely a national security threat. And he should be, you know, he should be out of that seat. She's absolutely right. And once again, we go back to what did they tell us about what would happen under Biden or Harris or, you know, oh, the Democrats mishandle,

sensitive and classified information. You've got an FBI director who is regularly so drunk he can't be woken up. And you don't think that's a national security threat? There are decisions he's regularly needed for. And people can't rouse them. They can't wake them up. They can't get him to come to the door and open the door to the point where they said, do we need to beat the door down to get And so once again, it is another instance of projection. What they warned would happen with Democrats in power, they themselves are doing. And I'm really glad to see that AOC is speaking clearly and decisively on these topics. As far as the discussions around Cash Patel and whether he is going to survive this

politically, I'm increasingly of the mindset that he's not. I know that the president is always behind his people until he's not. And it seems as though the pressure really is building here. The Cash Patel experiment, as maybe we call it, is becoming a humiliating fiasco and also a national security threat. So I wouldn't be surprised if someone has already gone to Donald Trump. And you know, the other thing that is a nerve that can strike a nerve for Trump is the alcohol problems.

Because as many of you know, Donald Trump's brother. his late brother died from alcohol use disorder, alcoholism. And Donald Trump famously doesn't drink alcohol related to that. And I don't think Trump really. I think it's a pet peeve of Trump's. When people are embarrassing him, it's bad enough. But if it's becoming embarrassing because of alcohol, I think that that is a really specific trigger to Trump at a personal level.

And so I am increasingly of the mindset that Cash Patel was going to go. It's a matter of when, how, and what sort of off ramp they allow him to have. Donald Trump was interviewed this morning on CNBC and suffered a complete and total collapse. This is difficult to watch. This is difficult to listen to. And Trump actually admits he's afraid of falling down. What is fascinating about this, Trump says it in a sort of joky way. But one of the things that many doctors, when I go to my dermatologist, I'm asked when I check in,

Have you fallen recently or are you worried about falling down? And if you say, I am worried about falling down, that triggers a certain intervention because the fear of falling down is something that can be can serve as a proxy to health and physical stability. And Trump said on CNBC this morning, I got to be careful. Now, he makes it political. If I fall, it'll be a big story. But Trump is acknowledging here, which is fine.

He's an elderly guy, obese and very out of shape. It's fine. But the story we're told is there is no one more powerful and strong and youthful in this guy. He's acknowledging, I am afraid of falling down. Are the Saudis impatient now? Or do they want, are they on the other side where they, you know, finished? He's a great guy. You know, he gave me the famous line that I used a little bit.

He said, a year and a half ago, sir, you were a dead country. Now you're the hottest country anywhere in the world. He said that to me, and it's true. We were a dead country. We had a guy that wasn't respected. We had a country that was laughed at. He couldn't walk up a flight of stairs. Forget about down.

He couldn't walk up a flight. But he was falling all over the place. I have to be careful because if I do trip or fall, it's got to be the biggest. That's why when I get out of those planes, I walk nice and slowly. I'm not looking to set any speed records, but we had an embarrassing country. We had a country that was going to fail. If this country would have failed if I didn't win this. This isn't the first time Trump has brought this up.

Now, you might say, David, this isn't really a huge deal. Well, I just, we need to acknowledge the contrast between the healthiest president ever, on the one hand, and the accurate headline of oldest president ever regularly acknowledges he's afraid of falling down. That does not project the strength and alpha characteristics that many of his biggest supporters ascribe to him. Trump was asked about refunding proceeds from his illegal tariffs. And Trump said that we're giving the money to people who hate the country.

I'm so sorry to break it to you, Donnie boy. The money goes to American companies because American companies paid the tariffs. And we can't do that. And you'll see that. You know, we had a little setback with the Supreme Court. They said I can charge tariffs, but I have to do a different way. And because of what they did, we have to pay back $160 billion. All they had to do is add one sentence, just one sentence.

And that's, you don't have to pay anything taken in thus far back. But because they didn't add, and by the way, it was a close call, too. There were justices that were powerful that I was right on the tariffs. Right. But because we lost by just two votes. You know, just little vote, two votes. We have to pay back $165 billion. They could have with a little...

Two little tiny Supreme Court votes. One sentence. You don't have to pay back tariffs that have already been received. You start from this point and you do it a different way. So we're doing it a different way. We're going to end up with the same. Actually, we'll end up with bigger numbers, actually. But it's a little more unwieldy.

But it's the way it's been done. But it's so sad that the Supreme Court didn't want to save our country with one All right, guys. Who thinks that Trump is lying and who thinks he's actually confused? We are now years into Trump talking about tariffs and who pays the tariffs. China paid the tariffs. Trump is suggesting that the tariff refunds go to China. But why would the tariff refunds go to China or any other country that hates us when those countries did not pay the tariffs? You import something.

It gets to the port. The port authorities contact you and they go, hey, Your crap is here. Your stuff is here. Your steel is here. Whatever. If you want it released from the port, you've got to pay the tariffs to the U.S. Treasury. American company cuts a check, sends a wire to the U.S. Treasury.

Does not involve China? Does Trump know this at this point? And he's just lying to keep up the charade? Or is Trump still confused? Now, Andrew Ross Sorkin, interestingly, brings up that there are a lot of companies that have not, as of yet, requested the refunds on the tariffs. And Trump basically just goes full loyalty Mussolini. And he goes, I'm honored that they're not asking for the refunds.

A reminder of the status quo of politics of loyalty and cronyism. That topic, there's a whole number of very large companies, including Apple and Amazon and others that have not sought reimbursements yet for the tariffs, meaning they haven't tried to collect refunds. And from what I understand, part of the reason that they have waited is because there is a worry about, frankly, offending you. Would you find it offensive for them to try to collect a refund? I think it's brilliant if they don't do that.

I actually think if they don't do that, they got to know me very well. I'm very honored. He's sort of acknowledging, yes, I will be offended. And yes, I will try to hurt them. They know me very well. By what you just said, if they don't do that, I'll remember. them, I will tell you that, because I'm looking to make this country strong. Supreme Court could have helped us.

Now they have birthright citizenship. They'll probably rule against us. No country in the world has it. It's hard. And of course, many countries have birthright citizenship, but that is not really the subject of our discussion here. Trump is admitting his politics is a politics of loyalty and cronyism. He charged illegal tariffs, paid by companies.

And when someone suggests to him, even though they would be entitled to get their tariff back, their tariff payments back. They're worried about offending you and what you will do. And Trump goes, that's beautiful. That's absolutely right. And I will remember that. I will remember them. I think that that's a beautiful thing. Overt cronyism and loyalty tests. Donald Trump insists, we control the straight of Hormuz. Anything else is fake. Well, if we control it and Trump wants it open, why aren't ships going through it? Very successfully and the blockade has been a tremendous success. They said two days ago, we will open the straight.

I said, no, we're not going to open this straight until we have a final deal. No, no, we want to open the straight. It said, we're not opening. We totally control the straight just so you understand for all the fake news out there. And this president, we are. There you go. Well, Trump closed it in order to get it open. And so it should be open.

But we closed it. And ships go through it, but they don't. And we're in control, but we aren't. And Iran had better, except it's all up to me. Come on, guys. Come on. Inflation. Where was inflation? When Joe Biden left office. I will tell you in a moment, but I will also play for you, Donald Trump lying about this. I just want to return for for one second and make an analogy here. You saw what inflation did to the Biden legacy and administration. So 22% price increases. By the time he was, at the time he was leaving, it was down to about where it is now, about 3%.

But not a single. It was down to 5%. It wasn't down to. But not a single person. And the reason that was down was because I had won the election and it started falling after I won the election. Lie, lie, lie, lie. Trump makes two claims that when Biden,

left office inflation was 5% and that it was only down because Donald Trump had been elected but not yet sworn in. We have the data. It's up on the screen. As you can see, inflation peaked during the COVID phase. It peaked at 9.1%. And then it went down, down, down, down, down. And essentially hit its rough bottom in July of 2023.

Meaning, we had all of July 23 to July 24 plus August and September and October and a few days of November under Joe Biden. And as you can see, inflation was all equally low. It got even down as low as 2.4%. And then as Donald Trump was sworn in, it basically was in that same window between two and a half and three and a half percent. is lying that inflation was 5% when Biden left office. In fact, when Donald Trump took over in January of 2025, it was 3%. Trump is lying that it was his election in November that drove it down further. He is lying,

lying, lying, and they let him get away with it on CNBC. Finally, Trump is asked, a deal might be be signed today or tomorrow with Iran. If not, will you be bombing? And Trump goes, oh, I think we're going to be bombing. You're saying that you need at least a prospects for a signed deal today and tomorrow, or else you would resume bombing Iran? Well, I expect to be bombing because I think that's a better attitude to go in with. But we're ready to go. I mean, the military is raring to go. They are absolutely incredible.

And I built the military in my first term. I'm using it now. The military, when I took it over from Barack Hussein. Obama, they had just, it was so depleted, so sad. Anyway, he gets back to his lies about the cupboards were bare. I'm rare. The military is rare and ago. I expect to be bombing.

So we're not really at the end of this three to four week war now in week eight, are we? 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 joint. Local news is in decline across Canada, and this is bad news for all of us. With less local news, noise, rumors, and misinformation fill the void, and it gets harder to separate truth from fiction. That's why CBC News is putting more journalists in more places across Canada, reporting on the ground from where you live,

telling the stories that matter to all of us, because local news is big news. Choose news, not noise. CBC News. In Pacman.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. Well, we have entered a very mature phase of MAGA. It's the the people I disagree with are retarded phase. Now, I know you might be saying, David, this can't this can't possibly be.

But this is what they are saying on camera. Here is representative Brandon Gill interviewed by Benny Johnson, really an instance of the blind leading the blind. And as evidence that we should be against people from Somalia coming to the United States and whatever, Brandon Gill says the IQ in Somalia is 70. That's basically mentally handicapped. So we can't have them here. Now, even by by MAGA standards, this is just completely whacked out. So let's listen to what he has to say. There is, you know, IQ is such a fraught topic, but there are some things that we we can

say with certainty. So let's take a look at this. And culture and revere our history and adhere to the cultural norms in our civilization, which, by the way, is the whole reason why people immigrate into the United States, because our culture, I believe in many ways, is superior to other cultures across the globe. We've got to recognize that not all cultures are equal. They're not all equally compatible with America's governing framework. They're not all equally moral.

They don't all have equal dignity. And we ought to recognize that bringing in third world countries where some lunatic is grilling a cat in an American park where children are playing around with is a culture that is incompatible with our own. Speaking of incompatibility, sometimes it's important to, like, compare just broad numbers. The average IQ in Haiti is 68. The average IQ is 68 and 67, depending on with the numbers. I have Grok pulled up here. Between 67 and 68, average IQ in America is like 105.

How is that supposed to be compatible? Like, how is that supposed to work? Same thing with Somalia, by the way, like the average IQ in Somalia is, it hovers around 70. And I'm sorry, I might have introduced this as saying it as Brandon Gill who makes the IQ claims it's Benny Johnson. I believe I misspoke. That's the threshold for mentally handicapped according to most psychological thesis sees here in this country. Psychological theseses. Come on, dude. So like what, how, how are you supposed to square that conversation? Well, that, that's the problem. And perhaps,

there's a link between this and between the welfare usages that you see from from migrants in many countries. All right. So listen, the concept here that he's bringing up is people from Somalia have an IQ of 70. That's basically mentally handicapped. And that correlates with being more dependent on social welfare systems. Now, a lot of this crap falls apart very quickly. I'll kind of stipulate that.

there are ways in which not everybody might be suited for assimilation to a society. That's like a broad concept. There's nothing inherently offensive about that. The idea that Somalis average and IQ of 70 is not part of that discussion. It is crap. First of all, the people that repeat it, it comes from a couple of research. I hate to even call them studies. It comes from tiny samples with weak data and in many cases educated guesses.

There is no agreed upon IQ for Somalia people. That's number one. Second, 70 means intellectual disability. That's not really how IQ works, especially since IQ tests may not be properly representative of intelligence, depending on the community that you are using it to measure. What really matters is how do you function in daily life? And education, nutrition, language, the testing conditions, all of this stuff can influence the number that you come away with. But that really only points to a bigger issue, which is even if test scores were lower in a country, that doesn't mean that people are inherently

less capable of whatever you're trying to determine their capability at doing. These These are scores that are shaped by environment and poverty and schooling and what it even means to have a particular IQ or what even IQ means is very hotly debated. But I want to like step back. I'm less interested in debating IQ tests. We did a long form deep dive on IQ years ago when Jordan Peterson was saying a lot of things about IQ that we're deserving of being debunked. So I don't want to make this an adjudication of IQ.

For me, the most important part of all of this is even if the premise were true, if IQ really accurately told us whatever and we could really confidently say that the average IQ of Somalian people is 70, which we can't say, even if you could do all of that stuff, it still doesn't justify treating people like crap. Like you don't decide someone's worth or how they should be treated based on a statistic Now, forget that it's an extremely shaky one, but that's not science. That's just I'm trying to find a way to rationalize my prejudice and to treat people like crap. So at a factual level, this rests on really bad data, but then it jumps to conclusions

that don't follow. Now, what the argument I assume Benny Johnson would make is it's not that we should treat Somalian people poorly if the average IQ is 70. It's maybe we shouldn't let them into this country. But of course, that's not what immigration law says about how we determine who should or shouldn't come into the United States. There's a bunch of different ways you can come in. And IQ tests are not actually one of them.

And his argument would be because they're most likely to cost money because they'll be on social welfare. These are only proxies. These are only proxy assessments that don't really determine what immigration policy should be. So what's interesting about this is that it's really like a mask off argument where. it's just unvarnished racism based on bad science, if you can even call it that. And Brandon Gill the congressman just sort of nods along and goes, yeah, I mean, listen, this is something we absolutely

have to think about. Disgusting. But normal now. They've been disinhibited in Maga World, thanks to Donald Trump. Last week, I did a segment that has gotten me destroyed by some of the people in my audience. I did a segment on tipping and tipping culture. At the time that I did it, I was in Argentina. I was reminded of the fact that in many slash most countries outside of the United States, tipping 20% is not only not normal. It's not expected. I talked about this from a pro worker perspective, the unpredictability that the tipping expectations cause for workers isn't good. I explained how originally the point of tipping was for people earning a tipped wage of $2 and something cents an hour, not for people that are making an actual wage.

I said it shifted burdens onto the customer. And I laid this and I said, by the way, this isn't about me. I tip. I don't want to be seen as cheap. I tip. I just am against the practice as an economic thing. And I was mostly positive feedback, but the people that didn't. like my commentary on tipping were off the wall furious with me. I'll show you a couple of the things.

James said, this guy is a cheap skate. Again, this is not about me. This is about tipping. Whether or not you believe that I tip well, like even if you if you don't believe that, engage with the substance of the argument. Is it good or bad for workers? Is it good or bad for success? society to put such a high percentage of so many people's incomes on the whims of and understanding of the system of your customers. Ovei Thompson reacted by saying, so long, cheap skate, you were getting redundant anyway. Again, it's not about me. This is about the system of tipping.

Horizon said, dude, don't be cheap. tip the poor worker stop complaining. And of course, I am tipping because I don't want to be, listen, that social pressure is a real thing. I would argue that determining what a meal costs through social pressure is a bad idea. But social pressure works and I'm not going to be the, I'm not going to be the cheap person. Now, then I got this wacky wall of text. Take this video down or debate me. I'm very passionate about protecting tips for workers because the simple math doesn't add up in your argument. You have never been a server providing for a family. The employers will never raise the wage high enough. At $10 an hour plus an average night of tips,

I can easily make 150 in tips almost every time. 150 divided by six is 25 an hour plus my 10 an hour is 35 an hour. Only check portion of that is even reported for taxes. Do you honestly with a straight face want to tell me my cheap and rich owner is going to raise my wage to $35 an hour to allow to make at least what I was making now, only that I don't get to count the cash nightly. Now I have to wait two weeks at a time. Your method sucks. You're going to ruin lives. Delete the video. Well, why are they able to do it in so many other countries? I'm going to get back to that in a moment, but there's another aspect of that that I think is important to talk about. Wendy also is saying, delete this video. Your ignorance of the tax wage law and misinformation you spew will

deeply hurt hardworking Americans struggling to survive. You can, conveniently neglect to mention the federal law governing tipped workers to bolster your argument. The federal minimum wage for tipped food service workers is $2.13 an hour. When a cheap whiner like you stiffs the food worker, which I never do, by the way, that worker has to claim the 15% tip you didn't cough up and pay tax on the value of the tip. Guys, I point out in the video that tipping was designed for. for tipped food service workers. And part of the problem is that it has now gone way beyond that.

I'm agreeing with Wendy. It's not a system that is coherent with the way that tipping is now being carried out. Happy ladybug, your wrong your. Your rich, David, stop being so cheap. I'm tipping well. This isn't about this isn't about me. And then maybe most important, and there's a whole bunch of these, you know, don't get cheap now that you're getting paid, David. What a cheap skate. You just admitted you are so cheap,

David. I don't know what I said in it. That suggests that. And then this is the worst video you've ever made. This would ruin many people's lives. You will literally see servers not giving a crap about providing good service if there is no incentive to do so. Let's focus in on this because this I love. First of all, the worst service in restaurants that I've ever received is consistently in the United States. I've spent a lot of time in different countries. And the worst service regularly is the United States. Not at all restaurants. Many restaurants, the service is good. But all of the worst experiences have been in the United States. Now, let's do the counterpoint. If tipping, the idea here is Tipping will induce workers to work in a better way, to provide better service, because they know

I need to earn my tip. I better provide good service to earn my tip. Couple problems with that. Number one, many countries where there is no or little tipping have no problem with service. In Spain, you round up to the next euro. You're talking about tips of fractions of a euro. And the service is uniformly excellent. I was just in Argentina where tips are not expected at most places and at really nice restaurants.

You might tip up to 10% if the service is really good. Very little tipping in Argentina. The service is excellent. In Denmark, where I've spent time, there is no tipping. And the service is excellent. Japan, although I've never been universally. People tell me, tip, no, tipping is seen as rude. And the service is excellent.

That directly contradicts the idea that the possibility of a tip induces or encourages better service. What does provide better service is a wage that is a livable wage that doesn't depend on the whims of your customers. If you don't have to constantly be agitated and worried by will this person leave me a tip, do they know tips are expected? Do they have the money for a tip? If you simply have a wage and it is a wage that is satisfactory, that frees you from the anxiety of am I going to tip or am I going to get a tip or am I not going to get a tip? The other thing also is that we've had a lot of studies done that find that things like how

attractive is the server, for example. What is the expect, what is the habit of the person? There are a lot of people who go, I tip 18% no matter where I go, no matter what the service is. I tip 22% no matter what. The idea that customers are evaluating fairly only the service rather than the looks or identity of the server or they are just habitual tippers, that's another aspect to this, which really undercuts the idea that the specifics of the service are, we're what are going to determine the tip. So listen, if you want to be mad at me, be mad at me. The story isn't about me. It's about the system. And it's a system that I find completely broken. But until it changes, I'm going to keep tipping because I don't want to be the cheap guy.

We've got a great bonus show for you today. We will talk about Cash Patel's lawsuit. We will talk about a change to the labor secretary. And we will talk about a smoking ban in the UK for everybody born after 2008. All of that and more. On the bonus show, sign up at joinpacman.com.