The David Pakman Show - Things get dangerous when authoritarians lose control

Episode Date: July 28, 2026

-- On the Show: -- Video emerges of NBC host Kristen Welker laughing and socializing at a Washington party with political operative Stephen Miller -- A federal appeals court blocks Donald Trump from using an executive order that attempted to restrict mail-in voting -- Donald Trump speaks to reporters aboard Air Force One, commenting on the war in Iran and defending Vladimir Putin -- Donald Trump confronted a heckler who called him a "p*dophile protector" and made a series of confused claims during a rally -- Donald Trump abruptly halts military strikes against Iran after military advisers warned that air munitions were dangerously depleted -- Mike Johnson claims that public prayer gatherings at the Capitol give him confidence that Republicans will maintain control of Congress -- A former Trump administration official warns that Trump lacks the emotional stability required to command the nation's nuclear arsenal -- Fox News hosts and pollsters reveal that nearly three-fifths of American voters report being worse off financially under Trump -- On the Bonus Show: Mitch McConnell's staff release another proof-of-life photo, more clips from the White House Correspondents' Dinner, and much more... 🛍️ Shopify: Sign up for $1/month trial and start selling today at https://shopify.com/pakman 🧽 Blueland: Get 15% OFF sustainable cleaning products at https://blueland.com/pakman 🛌 Helix Sleep mattresses: Get up to 27% OFF at https://helixsleep.com/pakman 🎙️ Plaud: Use code PAKMAN for 10% off at https://plaud.ai/pakman or shop at https://amzn.to/4fMahxp -- Become a Member: https://davidpakman.com/membership -- Subscribe to our (FREE) Substack newsletter: https://davidpakman.substack.com -- Get David's Book: https://bit.ly/m/attention -- TDPS Subreddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/thedavidpakmanshow -- David on Bluesky: https://davidpakman.com/bluesky -- David on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/davidpakmanshow (00:00) Start (01:18) Kristen Welker and Stephen Miller found socializing (09:08) Court stops Trump from restricting mail-in voting (17:06) Trump speaks to reporters on Air Force One (25:51) Trump set off by heckler at rally (37:24) Trump halts strikes after hearing there's little ammo (44:51) Mike Johnson believes prayer will save Republicans (50:50) Ex-Trump official warns about the nuclear button (57:16) Fox hosts reveal Americans are worse off under Trump Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dozens of you wrote to me about a disgusting video clip of a legacy media journalist laughing it up with Stephen Miller. And maybe this captures why establishment journalism keeps failing. We're going to talk about it. Also, Donald Trump's attempt to seize control of state elections grinds to a halt as a judge says, no, you're not going to do this. And Trump caught defending Vladimir Putin and claiming that he somehow just got into office. And if everything doesn't look quite right or if anything doesn't look quite right, it's Joe Biden's fault. We're also going to look at reports of the Iran war completely depleting critical American munitions that we might actually need in other scenarios.

And a completely unhinged speech by Donald Trump interrupted by a heck. calling him a pedophile protector. He didn't like it. And we will talk about what happens when you have both an unstable leader and access to nuclear weapons. Terrifying stuff, but it is the United States we live in after all. If you ever find yourself sort of wondering, why does independent media matter? Why is it so important that we have independent media? I want you to take a look at this clip because it's difficult to hold powerful extremists accountable when the people assigned to cover them are laughing it up and socializing with them at Washington parties. I'm going to show you video here of NBC's Kristen Welker, moderator of Meet the Press, regularly interviewing

top administration officials, including up to Donald Trump. Hanging out in this video with Stephen Miller at the White House correspondent's dinner this weekend. A number of people wrote in and said, Davey, you've got a comment on this is this as bad as I think it is. Let's take a look at the video and then we will discuss. So there they are. You know, they're smiling. They're laughing. They're having a wonderful time.

Now, a single short clip, that was 17 seconds. That doesn't tell us everything. We don't know what Stephen Miller said. We don't know the broader context laughing at one comment, which is what Kristen Welker does. It doesn't prove or suggest that Kristen Welker endorses the views. of Stephen Miller or considers him a friend. And I've talked before about how I've met plenty of people with absolutely repulsive political views who were perfectly pleasant to me personally.

And it would be easy to go with them and get a beer or whatever. And in fact, I've also said two of the nastiest people I've ever met were both ostensibly on the left. One is the late Ed Schultz. Maybe many in our audience don't even remember him, what met him twice. These were not like going up to him on the street, no, excuse me yet. It was like introductions from people we both knew. Just nasty to me.

The other person I haven't publicly named because they're still alive. But the two people who have been the nastiest to me that I'm at were people nominally on the left. It's not rare that you meet one of these right wing bomb throwers. And on a personal level, they are nice. And ideology and individual interpersonal pleasantness don't always line up. Stephen Miller might be a charming cocktail party companion. He might ask about your family. He might compliment you.

He might tell you a funny story. That does not change who he is or what he has done as the architect of some of the most disgusting policies of this administration. Now, there's an important distinction between me and Kristen Welker. I am not a journalist, nor do I present myself as one. I'm a political commentator. I'm an opinion host. I am open about my values.

We have candidates on the show and I don't attempt to hide whether it's a candidate whose policy and ideology I mostly agree with or mostly disagree with. I'm sort of transparent about that. This is a different sort of show. I support candidates. I oppose candidates. I tell you what I believe. I explain why.

Kristen Welker represents an institution that presents itself as objective journalism. She interviews administration officials. She's supposedly responsible for scrutinizing them. on behalf of the public. And that responsibility is tougher when the people you cover become people you socialize with and laugh with. And we're sort of extrapolating from that one little video. But this is the central problem with establishment political media.

Stephen Miller becomes a guy from work. You interview him on Sunday. You see him at a reception the following Saturday. You share appetizers, pigs in a blanket or whatever they're handing out. And you are sort of both absorbed into the same social class of Washington people. And then the next weekend comes around and on meet the press, you're expected to confront him aggressively and seriously about family separation or mass deportation or attacks on birthright citizenship and a political project built around being cruel to immigrants.

That is more complicated when the guy across the table from you is the guy from last week's party. Now, there is a line here. Journalists don't need to scream at government officials whenever they encounter them, including at a place like the White House correspondence dinner. I don't think that's reasonable. They don't need to throw their drink at them or start fistfights. Politeness is fine. Basic professionalism is to be expected. But there's a difference between civility and appearing socially delighted to fraternize with one of the most dangerous ideologues in American politics. familiarity does affect journalism and it influences what questions get asked, how aggressively lies or challenged, whether extremists are described honestly or painted as just partisan

operatives. And this is one reason of many that independent media is so essential. I'm not worried about losing my invitation to the White House Correspondents dinner. I'm not trying to preserve access to Stephen Miller. My ability to do this show doesn't depend on being welcomed into the social circles of the people I cover. My ability to do this depends on you. And that is a very different situation from what we see in corporate media. Independent media can clearly say Stephen Miller is an extremist because we don't need Stephen Miller to like us. And we can identify authoritarianism without wondering, is it going to make the next cocktail party a little bit awkward? And we can challenge people without worrying that they will, you know, stop returning my calls or

whatever. Of course, independent media has its own problems. And in my forthcoming book, pay attention. I talk about the false notion of being independent and what that does mean and what it doesn't mean. We also have people who are dishonest. We have people who are reckless. We have people who will tell their audiences whatever generates the most clicks.

independent doesn't automatically mean credible is the point I'm making. But genuine independent media does provide something that establishment media increasingly can't, which is freedom from the social and professional ecosystem that surrounds political power. I don't know whether Kristen Welker considers Stephen Miller a friend. This one 17 second clip I played can't establish that. But it does communicate that no matter how extreme these people become, they're still welcomed into the club. They can threaten millions of families in the afternoon and then they can get together with the country's most influential journalists in the evening.

And then we end up wondering, why are those journalists struggling to describe clearly what is happening in front of them? So if you value media that is not dependent on access to these people, support the independent channels that you value. Hopefully it's. this one, but maybe it's not. Maybe it's others. Share the work. Become a supporter if you can. Make sure you're subscribed on YouTube. Establishment media is not going to rescue us from authoritarianism while we see its most prominent figures busy socializing with the authoritarian's. That's the takeaway. How furious do you need to be with NBC specifically or Kristen Walker specifically? Well, I'll leave that up to you. But hopefully I've given you a sense of the sort of

structural situation that underlies all of this. Donald Trump in the administration, speaking of authoritarianism, tried to seize control of state elections through executive orders. 23 states sued Trump and a federal appeals court has thankfully told him no. This is a devastating defeat for Donald Trump. He's not really talking about it. It's not really getting the media attention that it deserves, but it proves something extraordinarily important. is dangerous, but he isn't all powerful. He can't invent presidential powers because frightened people imagine that he has those powers. Trump's executive order from March, March, this is why it's important to follow up on this stuff, attempted to create a federal list of Americans supposedly

eligible to vote. The Postal Service would deliver mail ballots only to voters on the approved state lists that were coordinated with the federal system. That's what Trump wanted. That's what the executive order said. And his administration could create an incomplete list and they could prevent legal voters from receiving ballots. They could threaten election officials with prosecution if they said, we're not going to follow that. And the absurd hypocrisy is that Donald Trump cast a mail in ballot himself in Florida this year while saying mail in voting is cheating and that mail in ballots are inherently, that's his word, inherently corrupt. Mail in voting is acceptable when Trump wants convenience, but when millions of other Americans want to use it, it threatens democracy. Now, the

Constitution simply doesn't allow the president to control elections. This is why it's so important to understand what Trump declaring an emergency would or wouldn't be able to do. As we spoke with Mark Elias last week or the week before, you can declare an emergency, but states still run their elections. States decide are things suitable, are conditions suitable to have this election. District judge Indira Talwani blocked Trump's order in June. Trump's Justice Department then asked the First Circuit to let it proceed during appeal. The court has rejected that request two to one. The order remains blocked in the 23 states in D.C. that sued. Now, the administration came in and said, the lawsuit was premature because agencies hadn't even finished implementing the demands.

If you want to sue over this, first implement what Trump wants, then go to a court and argue that there's a problem. Fortunately, the court recognized that doesn't work. The midterms are very close. States can't wait for chaos before suing to defend their elections. I read a comment on Reddit, which was interesting, which is taxpayers are funding Trump's unlawful scheme and then they're funding the legal effort required to stop Trump's unlawful scheme. As usual, the taxpayers are the ones who get screwed. Now, this is a fight that's not over

because even though it's great that we have this injunction, the injunction only applies to the 23 states that sued. The underlying appeal still has to continue. Trump may go all the way to the Supreme Court and ask them to intervene. And meanwhile, you might say, well, but is this the Save America Act? Trump has this executive order for March, which was stopped in June, and now we have an injunction, and separately he has the Save America Act, which he's upset that Senate Republicans simply don't have the votes to pass. He's doing both of these things. But look at the trajectory. Trump issues an unconstitutional order. States say we're not going to do that and they sue. A federal judge blocks Trump and an appeals court preserves the block. This is a form of resistance

that is working. And I know it's become so cliche and stayed to use that. term resistance. I understand why people are scared. I see what's going on and I get it. Fatalism, the idea of we just we can't do anything about it. We just can't. That helps Trump by convincing people voting is pointless because Trump will simply declare himself the dictator. And that is false. Spreading that idea can depress turnout. This is a victory. Can Trump create chaos? Of course he can. Can Trump try to intimidate officials and prepare excuses for losing? Yes, he can. But he can't snap his fingers and magically control the elections of all 50 states and courts

within those states and ballot boxes within those states. Here is a very good example. Trump tried to seize power. He didn't have. States have fought back. Trump has lost. The states aren't going to do it. These 23.

Now we need to let the underlying appeal continue to see if we can get a ruling that applies to all states. A lot of people haven't even heard that this is going on. Why? Because I, as I've talked about a lot and write about in my forthcoming book pay attention, the algorithmic content distribution we all are subjected to on digital platforms doesn't show everybody the same stuff. And it creates totally parallel, but non-intersecting media environments in which we all exist. This is a victory. We recognize it. We say, hey, this is a sign that we don't just lay down and give up. And now we continue fighting as we rapidly approach the midterms. If you've been thinking about starting a business, our sponsor, Shopify, makes it so much easier. Everything you need to start selling is there from day one. We use it for our merch store. And that means I can spend less time worrying about the tech side. and more time building something people actually want. We power our merch store on our website

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through dishonest answers, incoherent answers, and some that were genuinely alarming. He claims Iran begged him to stop the bombing. He seems to think he only just became the president. And he also announced that if Vladimir Putin is helping Iran target American troops, he will simply ask Putin whether he did it. Because as we know, Vladimir Putin always tells Trump the truth and never manipulates him for his personal gain. Take a look at some of these clips. Donald Trump saying Iran took a beating over the last two weeks. And they asked us very nicely, Please stop. Take a look.

You don't want to see him replaced his leader? I haven't even thought of it. You're with Prime Minister Nanyahu tomorrow. Why did you ask for that meeting? And are you guys on the same page on Iran? Are you on the same page on Iran? You and Prime Minister of Nanjahou? Yeah, pretty close.

We have a little difference, but pretty close, yeah. Well, Iran took a beating over the last 14 days. And they asked us very nicely, please stop. That's me and that's what we are right now. See what happens. If we don't make a deal, we go back to the same thing. That's Trump's translation of what happened. The more honest translation, and we're going to get to this later, this is a big story,

the United States was rapidly burning through expensive munitions and the military was running out of obvious targets. American personnel were being put in greater danger. We now have 18 or more deaths and Trump needed some way to pause the bombing while declaring total victory, which of course we have not achieved, even though Trump has declared it 40 or 50 times. So naturally, Donald Trump invents this imaginary scene out of thin air where Iranian officials are just crawling over to him and saying, sir, please no more. We can't take how strongly you're winning.

Now, Iran denies that any talks are happening. Trump says, they begged me to stop. One of those stories has to be a lie. And Trump has spent his entire political career announcing imaginary victories. I don't have a high assessment of the honesty level of Iranian officials. But I know Trump lies all the time. Trump was asked, how much patience do you have left with this entire thing? I mean, listen, it was going to be a two to three week war.

We're in week 22. And Trump goes, oh, I have plenty of time. I'll give you the translation in a moment. The only reason they want to meet is because we've been hitting them very hard. Yeah. How much patience do you have left with the concert? I have plenty of time. Plenty of time.

Their whole sure lines wiped out. The straight isn't very good shit. And we're talking right now. You know, they wanted to talk. Their people said, please don't drop, don't shoot last night, the night before two nights. Don't do it. You know, we're having good talks. So we'll see what happens.

I think there's a good chance of something that happened. And if it does good, if it doesn't, we go back to doing what we were doing two days ago. Trump's answer means what we've already realized and continue to learn. It's going to be a very long war. What does their whole, their shorelines wiped out even mean? Iran has roughly a thousand miles of Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman coastline. The Strait of Hormuz is not in very good shape. Commercial traffic has been devastated.

Energy markets are disrupted. American forces are in danger. And Trump goes, I have plenty of time and we have really no urgency here. Really disturbing because not only have American soldiers died, not only are their families lives now in turmoil, but just about every American is paying more for gas prices and more for stuff as a result of this. Everybody is absorbing the consequences, but Trump is not in a rush. Interesting because it was going to be a two to three week war. Donald Trump then says, listen,

I haven't even really been president very long and I inherited the worst inflation in history from Joe Biden. Remember, Trump's now been president this second time over 550 days. Costs are going down rapidly. Don't forget, I inherited these. I haven't been here very long. I inherited the worst inflation in history from Biden, but costs are going down rapidly. And as soon as the war is over, you're going to have, you're going to see a Are you worried that the Fed's going to hike rates to counter inflation? I have a board. And Kevin's fantastic, but he's got a board.

And the board members are very political, I would say. So, you know, we fight our way through the rates because we're doing so well. But no, he's got a board. Donald Trump has been president. I believe it's 555 or 556 days. At what point does he become responsible for anything? Is it after two years? after two years? Is it after three years? Is it never? And Biden did not leave Trump the worst

inflation in history. Inflation was 2.9% when Joe Biden left office. And it later got all the way up to 3.8% as of last month, now down to 3.5%. That's higher than it was when Donald Trump was sworn back in. And that's higher than what is considered good for the economy. The promise was lower prices immediately. But instead, we got tariffs in a fresh war. And it's all. all pushing inflation up and it's making energy costs more. It's making everything costs more for Americans. But Trump goes, listen, I give me a break. I haven't been in power very long. Donald Trump confronted with the claim from Vladimir Zelensky that Russia is giving Iran satellite imagery of U.S. basis. And Trump has asked, what can you do about it? And Trump goes,

well, I'm going to ask Putin about that. Let me ask my boss and the most trustworthy person in the world, Vladimir Putin. Zelensky, President Zelensky says that Russia is giving Iran satellite imagery of U.S. bases in the Gulf to help them target. What can you do about that? Well, we'll find out of this. I'll ask Putin about it. We'll find out. Hasn't had much impact because we've knocked the hell out of it.

If that's the case, look, you know, they gave Venezuela a lot of equipment. Venezuela had all Russian equipment. How did that work out? not too good. So they may be giving, but if they are, it hasn't worked out because they have no army, they have no airports. They have no Navy. They have no nothing. So it hasn't worked out. Well, I don't think, I don't think they've been doing it certainly not at a high level. And if they have it, has been very unimpactful. Is that treason? Treeson is a tough one? But I got a bunch of emails and saw a few comments about is it, is it treasonous? Let's go and

defer to the most trustworthy investigator in the world about his own war and the one we're waging Vladimir Putin. Zelensky says Russia's been monitoring American bases and providing satellite imagery, including facilities which could then be targeted. And they are being targeted. And Trump goes, oh, no, he's not outraged by the way. He doesn't warn Putin. He just minimizes it and goes, I'll check with Vlad. I'll see what he tells me because he's always so honest with me. Remember, in Helsinki during Trump's first term, uh, did you talk with Putin about Russia hacking the DNC? Yeah, he denied it. And you know, I believe him. Meanwhile, Putin keeps brutalizing Ukraine and Russia may now be helping Iran target American bases. And Trump's instinct is,

I'll talk to Vlad. Meanwhile, American service members are being killed. Iran remains dangerous and Trump is back insisting that everything is going beautifully. But this wasn't even Trump's worst moment of the day. Trump then gave a speech in Michigan. You've got to see this. Donald Trump attempted to give a speech yesterday in Michigan. A heckler pounded Trump calling him a pedophile protector. At certain points, Trump's brain short-circuited so badly that the crowd was silenced. cognitive tests, my ass. There are about a dozen or so things that took place at this speech where if it were Biden or Obama, who did one of them, it would be a week of coverage on Fox News and right wing media going crazy. Here is a heckler, pedophile protector yelling at Trump.

And Trump goes, he's a communist. Take a look. Annually, that means outside countries and companies were coming in and just robbing us blind. and it was causing tremendous problems for your jobs. But now all of that is changing because I've placed historic tariffs on foreign producers and manufacturers, including a 25% tariff on foreign automobile, something that no other president had the courage to ever do.

He's a communist. He's a communist. Thank you. He's a communist. We're running against communist. Now, this is great. What's going on? We're going to win very big.

No, I didn't even hear the guy. I think. You know, a lot of things are communism. Communism is a thing. Communism exists. Opposing pedophiles is now communist. Things have gotten really crazy. Trump glitching badly at a lot of different points, including talking about Barack Hussein,

Obama. Who's that? Well, you know who. that is. Actually, Obama would say, remember Barack, Hussein, Obama, Obama. Donald Trump also saying Democrats want to take your houses and they want to take your money. No, I didn't even hear the guy. I think you see what they want to do?

You see what they want to do? They want to take your houses. They want to do things that nobody's ever even thought of before. They want to take your money. They want to raise your tax up to 80%. I gave you the biggest tax cut in the history of our country. So we'll keep it there. This reminds me of under Biden, there won't be heating or cooling or windows or energy or

groceries or gasoline. Turns out none of that stuff happened. And then this moment really silencing the crowd. And you know why. Trump says this is the best year the country has ever happened. had a little bit of an overstatement. Take a look. Years, bad years. We're having the single greatest year we've ever had as a country. We're not going to let these people destroy it. So let's review. Gas prices are up.

Mortgage rates are up. Residential energy prices are up. Gas prices are up. We're at war in Iran, optional. Inflation's higher than when Biden left. And the national debt is up, which Trump promised would be completely eliminated. And this has been the best year. Now, maybe it's been the best year for Trump and his friends. Trump did make 1.2 to 1.4 million from crypto in 2025. But the best year for the average American, I don't think so. If you believe that we have just time warped back to July of 2020, we haven't. But Donald Trump is still making the same promises about health care. We will pass the great health care plan. That's what it's called the great health care plan to stop. all payments to big insurance companies and give the money directly to you the people so that

they can buy their own health care, which will be much less expensive and be a much better health care. That video was not from 2020. That video was not from 2017. That video was from 2026. I don't I'm not holding my breath for that health care plan. I hope you aren't either. want to hear maybe the cultiest thing that Donald Trump has ever said. Trump goes, I've done more for you than your parents. I'd have Mary, I hate to say, you wouldn't have an auto industry right now if they got elected. You wouldn't have an auto industry. But I don't know what happened to the guy.

Somebody said he got fired, but I can tell you, the people that count, those people love Trump. Because I've done more for you than your parents, okay? your parents are good. I'm not going to knock your parents, but I have been better to you than your parents. That I can tell you. And they would agree with me. Wherever they may be, they would agree. Today I'm proud. There is a lot of cult psychology in there. One of the things cult leaders do try to do is separate the cult members from everybody else in their lives and their families. Your old friends, they're not going to understand your allegiance to me. Your family may say they're worried about you. Ignore all of that. Trust me. And that is a version of what Donald Trump is saying there.

A dementia moment as it is being described, Trump talking about the reflecting pond. And he says the reflecting pond is in the hospital now. What? Take a look. It's all over the city and monuments and waterfalls and everything, the beautiful reflecting pond where we get, I mean, we did some job. Somebody comes along and starts cutting it with a knife. They're sick. They're sick. But it's in the hospital now, but it's going to get better very soon.

It's almost ready to open. Just another misfire. These are the neurons don't seem to be connecting properly. And although we might look at some of this stuff and kind of laugh, a lot of it is very very serious. For example, Trump, we know, is trying to suppress people's ability to vote in the midterm so that they don't get crushed. And then he goes, oh, mail and ballots are a disaster. And Trump plays a game where he says when he voted, he was asked for ID. But Trump voted by mail. Take a look. And hopefully there will be no mail in ballots. Mail and ballots are inherently

corrupt except for illness, disability, military deployment or travel. If you're You're in the military, you're far away, absolutely. If you have to go someplace, absolutely. But mail-in ballots have proven to be a disaster. We're the only country in the world that in this form does them. There's no other country in the world because they're crooked. They pass through too many hands. When you go to a voter booth, even me, I went to vote.

Sir, may I please see your identification? Sir, I'm so embarrassed, I know you're Trump. Please, do you have some identification? I don't want to lose my job. I whipped out. I was lucky. I had some kind of a card on me head. And I didn't even know, but I gave it.

You know, thank you, sir. I'm so embarrassed. She kept to apologize. I said, don't apologize. You're doing your job. That's what you're supposed to be doing. It was so beautiful. Some kind of card.

Now, if Trump sounds confused to you, it's because Trump made this up. Trump's voted by mail for a very long time. The words being made up continue. not only mutilization, but Trump coining the word mutilize, still making upwards. No men in women's sports and no transgender surgery and the mutilization of your children. They mutilize your children. I thought they were against postmodernism where anything can be whatever you want it to be. And I'm not that they understand what postmodernism is, but they have this idea that the

The left says anything can be anything. Utilize. That's now what you're saying. And then finally, Trump's saying they can, they always try to blame me for high gas prices. I have nothing to do with it. You can tell Trump really cares, can't you? I always try and blame me for high prices. I have my first news conference.

I win. I have a news conference like a day later. And I say any questions, why are prices so high? You have to understand. I just got there. They said, eggs. I remember eggs. Eggs were like four or five times higher

than they were a few years ago. You couldn't get eggs. They wanted me to use plastic eggs for the Easter egg hunt because they were unable to get eggs. And I said, we'll take care of it. We've got to taken care of quickly. Now eggs are much lower than they were

when we first started. And that's true with everything else. And you'll see how true it's going to be after we get rid of the nuclear threat of Iran, which will be. be very quickly. But I had nothing to do with it. His commentary on gas prices really needs to be made into a super cut for a campaign ad. Oh, I don't think at all about the financial situations of Americans when I go into Iran. Give me a break. They're complaining to me about prices. Give me a break.

Affordability. Democrats made that up. I have nothing to do with that. I want nothing to do that. That is such a compelling message to go out in November and vote for anybody but these clowns. Shopping for a mattress is one of those things that most people put off. Once you finally decide, we're going to do it, you just start guessing, which is why our sponsor Helix sleep is such a great way to go. I've been sleeping on a Helix mattress for years at this point. You go to the Helix website. You take a short little sleep, uh, sleep quiz, answer a few questions about your body. How do you sleep? What kind of feel do you like?

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It's thin enough to slide into a wallet. It attaches magnetically to the back of my phone. And I can use it for meetings, calls, interviews, brainstorming if I want to talk through an idea without stopping to type notes as I go. I just hit record. I have my conversation. Plaud will transcribe the audio. It'll separate the speakers.

Give me a summary of the points that were most important. And even turn that into action items of what do I have to do. I can also search everything later with the Ask Plod feature. And Plot is also built around enterprise level privacy and security standards. Check it out. Go to plod.a.ai slash Pacman and use the code Pacman for 10% off all products. The link is in the description. Remember when Donald Trump came into office in 2017 and insisted that under the communist,

Marxist, anarchist, Obama regime, the military. cupboards were bare and had no weapons and Donald Trump had to go through and restock all of the weapons because the cupboards were bare. Well, that wasn't true. But Donald Trump now has started a war with Iran without knowing how it would end, said it would be two to three weeks. We're in week 22. Now they're talking about, are you sure it'll be over by the end of the year? They won't even say yes. We don't know what victory would look like. We don't know apparently how many missiles the United States can afford to lose because after 13, 14, 14 consecutive days of bomb. as I told you earlier in the show, Trump has abruptly paused the strikes and he gave one reason,

but the truth seems to be different. Trump said, they came to me, they begged. They said, sir, please stop the bombing. What appears to be the real reason that the bombing has stopped is the United States does now have bare cupboards. We are critically low on munitions. The United States has not literally exhausted every missile in its arsenal, but Trump was reportedly warned, we're starting to run low. We are depleting a lot of these inventories while the military was running out by the way of suitable targets without starting to go into war crime territory of deliberately targeting civilian infrastructure of no military value. So Trump launches an open-ended conflict, burns through weapons that can take years to replace, and then discover discovers,

damn, maybe I should have planned a little bit better for this. Now, the administration is furious about having to answer questions on this. And when you ask them questions, their explanations are I it's not like we never really find this stuff funny because lives are at stake, but it's sort of comically contradictory. Here is Trump's UN ambassador Mike Waltz. He was asked, has the Pentagon started to ration certain weapons? And Waltz goes, it's Joe Biden's fault and our stockpiles aren't depleted. Wait a second. So is it Biden's fault that they are depleted? or are they not depleted? And by the way, he also throws in the authoritarian nightmare of saying anyone talking about

this should be thrown in prison. But they support the First Amendment. Take a look. World's economies hostage. You raise assets. I want to ask you about the assets. NBC news is reporting the Pentagon is actually rationing some defense weaponry amid diminishing supplies.

Is America backing away from a larger military attack because it's military stockpile? has been depleted? Well, look, we have to take a step back here in that a lot of stockpiles were depleted not only from what we gave Ukraine over the last, however many years, four or five years, and the administration inherited, the secretary, Secretary Heggseth inherited a depleted situation from not only Ukraine, but also the ongoing fight with the Houthis under the Biden administration and a depleted military under the Biden administration. So they, they, They have decided one, they're going to new types of munitions, cheaper munitions, new technologies, but also with these new defense budgets rebuilding our great military.

However, I want to be clear. Do you acknowledge they're depleted though at this moment? I want to be crystal clear. The U.S. military, and I've verified this every which way, has everything that it needs to conduct this campaign as effectively as it needs to be. I have to tell you the people that are leaking this nonsense deserve to be in jail. Well, so which is it? Is it Biden depleted our munitions? So now they are depleted, or is it they are not depleted? The report is fabricated nonsense, but it's also classified information

that shouldn't have been released. Which is it? Now, Mike Walt specifically blames weapons sent to Ukraine and weapons used in previous operations against the Houthis for why this is going on. Now, Democratic Congressman Ted Liu astutely pointed out the obvious problem with this entire thing. The severely depleted interceptors were never sent to Ukraine. So if we aren't using those in Ukraine or sending them to Ukraine, how could that be the reason that they are depleted? And the United States has used more patriot missiles during five months of Trump's Iran war than it ever provided to Ukraine. So the math doesn't make sense. And Trump owns this. Trump, I mean, listen, go through the list. Trump inherited 2.9% inflation, low unemployment and a military that was not

involved in a full scale war. He chose conflict. He chose tariffs. He's escalated all of this stuff. He's gotten American service members killed and he's burning through this critical defensive weapon stockpile. And now Trump is. is saying, oh, the reason I stopped bombing is Iran took such a beating that they begged me so nicely to stop. Iran denies it. Does Iran sometimes lie? I'm sure. Trump lies all the time as well. Reporters are describing a very different scenario, which is we're just running out of targets and we're running out of munitions. And there is a growing, this is maybe the most important part. There's growing resistance within the administration about the direction this is going

and how this will destroy, destroy Republicans in November. Now, this is where we have to address the cognitive questions. On some level, Trump appears unable to understand the difference between I'm blowing stuff up, therefore I must be winning. And here is the strategy. And blowing stuff up is a carefully calculated tactic within that strategy. When military leaders go to Trump and say, we can't continue this indefinitely, and we're not really making progress on whatever the objectives are, which by the way, we don't know what they are. Trump instead of going, oh, man, we should like wind this down, he invents a fantasy in which the Iranians are just begging, begging Trump to stop.

And he also threatened to restart military action if diplomacy fails. But with which weapons and against which targets and to accomplish what? every patriot or Tad interceptor that was used in Iran is one that now cannot protect American forces or allies elsewhere. These weapons can't instantly be replaced. If you are sick already of the military industrial complex, which I am, it should be even more sickening that this hairbrained war is going to feed the military industrial complex by needing to replace these wasted munitions. The promise was peace. He started a catastrophic war, drove gas prices again up four bucks a gallon, and he's depleting

the stockpiles for which you and I, our tax dollars, are going to go to replace this stuff. We may be close to out of missiles, but Trump's out of ideas. He's claimed that we've won the war 50 times and yet it simply continues. are now so terrified that they are going to get destroyed in the midterms that they are not doing polling anymore. They're not doing campaign strategy. They're not doing door knocking. They're not doing public policy.

They want divine intervention. They are praying. House Speaker Mike Johnson was asked, why are you so confident about your chances in the fall? And he says, well, you know why? Because we are praying. It's not because we solved the. the affordability crisis. It's not because Americans have realized how much we've improved their day-to-day lives. It's because people are praying. And that's what's going to drive us

to victory. Let's take a look. And I have a lot to say about this. The American people can trust House Republicans, the Republican Party, to run this government and we keep delivering. We're going to do that, run all the way through the tape towards the end of the year, to the end of the year. And I believe for this reason, we're going to win the midterms. I'm very bullish about the outcome. And we talk about it all the time. with each passing day, I'm more confident, Tony. As you repeatedly say, you exceed the expectations of the pundits. They still don't understand the power of prayer.

That's right. And look, I've been openly saying this. I told a big gaggle of Hill Press reporters yesterday in an event, I said, listen, this is a God thing. It really is. And we have intercessor prayers who are on the ground at the Capitol, praying each of these things through. My colleagues know that. They know I believe that. And we're watching it happen. And more and more people are understanding there must be something to this because this is an impossible agenda. But look, this is not a radical thing.

It's what the framers of our Constitution did, the founders generation. They all believed in the power of prayer, the divine hand of providences. Washington himself, the father of our country often talked about. And we do well. We're one nation under God. We should remember and govern like that. I always try to be careful with this sort of thing because people go, oh, David, you're mocking religion and you're mocking.

prayer. I'm really not. You know, if if prayer is useful to people in various contexts, if prayer can offer comfort or community or perspective and a way of processing events that are beyond our control or ability to predict, that's completely fine. I mean, listen, if that's something you want to do, go ahead and do it. This is the Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson. He was asked, why do you believe your party is going to win the election? And his evidence is people are. praying. People are asking God to make it happen. It's not because we've improved people's lives or made affordability more relevant again or any of that stuff. It's just people are praying. And at what point can we call this a form of mental illness? If I told you, I was increasingly,

imagine that tomorrow I said, hey, guys, we're going back and forth. Can Democrats win the House? Can Democrats win the Senate? I'm increasingly confident Democrats are going to win the entire thing because I just saw a group of people doing a rain dance. I think everybody would understand that I'm not providing any substantive or real analysis here. And I'm not doing anything to, if I go, the rain dances are what are going to help us win. Most people would also realize that's not going to help us win. Now, Johnson puts a Christian label on the same basic idea and we have to pretend that that's serious.

Now, there's also an obvious logical problem. There are Democrats who also pray. There are Christians who vote for Democrats. There are Jews, Muslims, and members of other religious groups that are praying for completely different outcomes. And presumably, God is not waiting to see which party assembles the greatest prayer team before deciding who's going to control the House and who's going to control the Senate. And what makes the clip so revealing is that his confidence is going up with each passing day. As the evidence actually gets worse, Trump's approval is down into the 30s. In some polls, Trump's approval on the economy is.

in the high 20s. Democrats are leading generic ballots by record numbers and Republicans are in a position where they either have to defend Donald Trump's war or risk angering Trump about the fact that they're not defending his war. And Trump has screwed these people so badly that they've resorted to prayer to be saved and they cannot meaningly separate themselves from Trump. If Republican members of Congress after spending years turning Trump into a quix, quasi religious figure told their voters he was chosen by God and protected by God and God saved him when he was shot. God had Trump turn his head so that the bullet killed some random innocent guy. Wow, incredible what God did. Now they're trapped. And if Trump is destroying their

chances, they can't say Trump's crushing us. They have to go with, well, we're praying. We're praying and we're confident that our prayer is going to do this. Maybe they will retain the house, probably not. Maybe they will retain the Senate, probably. You know, there's uncertainty to elections. Districts are gerrymandered and Democrats regularly make mistakes. But if Mike Johnson has actual evidence that Republicans are recovering and on a path to holding the House, he should present it. This is a God thing is what you say when you have catastrophic numbers and prayer is all you've

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

subscribe. Every bit helps. I would love to have you as a subscriber there. We know that Donald Trump is obsessed with nuclear weapons. Donald Trump has spent years fantasizing about the most destructive weapons that humans have ever created. And now with this growing situation in Iran, weakened international safeguards, the U.S. running out of munitions in Iran, and virtually unchecked presidential authority. One former Trump administration official is warning that Donald Trump may be a single mood swing away from launching nuclear weapons if he gets away with it. Miles Taylor served as senior Homeland Security official during Donald Trump's first term.

You might remember him. And he says that Donald Trump then would openly fantasize with advisors about blowing stuff up. Often enough that the defense secretary, James Mattis, would instruct officials. This is Trump's first term, prepare contingency plans for the possibility of a nuclear strike on American soil. Now, that does not mean Trump is preparing to launch a nuclear weapon tomorrow. There is no reporting at this time establishing that. The underlying danger is very real because the American system gives the president huge unilateral

authority over nuclear weapons. There is no required congressional vote. There is no Supreme Court review. military officials must refuse illegal orders, but they can't simply veto a lawful nuclear strike because they think the president is reckless or because they believe the president is acting impulsively. And Trump is once again boasting that he came close to ordering what he called a massive attack on Iran.

This follows the deranged proclamation from earlier in the Iran war that a whole civilization will die tonight, which are not the words of someone who's a careful strategist who really understands nuclear rhetoric has to be handled with massive discipline. And you know, they sound like a man intoxicated by the spectacle of destroying stuff and by the idea that he has so much power that he could order it and make it so himself. And Trump has even repeatedly called nuclear weapons the N word, sort of like you don't say the N word, which is the derogatory term about black people. And you're just as careful when we talk about nuclear.

It's so volatile. We just call it the N word. By the way, think about how bizarre that is. He takes a weapon capable of ending human civilization and turns it into this basically a verbal prop, a forbidden word he gets to tease people with, oh, the N word. He talks about nuclear war with the sort of vocabulary and mentality of a reality TV host, which of course he is building suspense for the next segment. And Miles Taylor's theory is Trump is always looking for what's the most powerful thing I can do. I want the biggest executive order, the largest military parade, the most dramatic attack, the most terrifying threat.

And nuclear weapons are the ultimate version of that fantasy. Trump is not emotionally stable. He has a very limited attention span. He doesn't read. He doesn't respect human life. All things that should accompany the authority and the ability and the power to launch nuclear weapons. And we have watched him threaten countries on social media and confused.

and confuse diplomacy with, I'm going to dominate you and treat war like a TV show. And now add the administration's new nuclear energy agreement with Saudi Arabia, which according to Taylor, the deal omits the typical safeguards that you would have, which allow, you know, international inspectors to have access to nuclear sites and all of this different stuff. So Trump is escalating the nuclear rhetoric. He's weakening safeguards. He's more disinhibited than he ever has been cognitively and encouraging proliferation. Most presidents talk about undoing the proliferation, denuclearizing.

And Trump is like, let's throw more weapons in the direction of one of the most unstable regions on this planet. Now, if Trump ever issued an illegal nuclear order, I hope patriotic military officers would make the decision to refuse it. Am I being naive? If officials believed that the president had become mentally incapable of safely exercising his authority, every lawful mechanism, including the 25th Amendment, should be activated with no delay to terminate Trump's command authority.

Because once a nuclear weapon is launched, there is no correction or apology. And one of the things about a lot of the way the nuclear triad is sort of set up, I recently read book only about nuclear nuclear and nuclear. It was both actually. Um, is that we have a lot of these weapons that when launched, they cannot be recalled. And when we launch weapons that cannot be recalled, if you realize you made a mistake or you change your mind, other countries are incentivized also to do exactly what they're doing, which is to keep their weapons pointed at the United States without the ability to be recalled. It gets very ugly is the point I'm trying to make. These are civilization altering weapons capable of killing hundreds of thousands of people almost instantly, poisoning

generations and triggering the sort of retaliation that could end modern society. I don't know that there has ever been a stronger argument for requiring more authorization before one person can initiate a nuclear war. And right now, that one guy is Donald Trump with very weak guardrails. And remember, Trump over the last decade that he's been a political figure has said to AIDS and staffers everything from why can't we bomb Europe? What about bombing Mexico? What about it?

It is a guy who does not have the capacity nor the knowledge nor the temperament for what it should take to be president of the United States. We did fail a national IQ test and we have tens of millions of people who voted for him three times. I wish it were different, but it's what it is. And so I hope that if that moment comes, we have a military who's ready to say, hey, this is not something that we can do right now. Even Trump stooges are realizing that this administration has really screwed up the economy. And Fox News now is even going, hey, you know, we have to acknowledge the obvious. Things do cost more under Donald Trump. And voters know who to

to blame for that. Let me play this highly compelling clip right up front. Here is a Fox News host. Things cost more. Is that going to impact the midterms? As a new survey finds three in five overestimate how much gas prices have actually gone up. So how will this translate to the midterms? Is it too early to ask? Host of making money on Fox business, Charles Payne? No, it's never too early. Not for us, right? Not for us. Things do cost more. But is that going to impact? impact the elections? It's absolutely could, but it's, you know, typically that decision isn't cemented in voters' minds until about a month until they go to the polls.

So there's a lot of time with respect for the White House and the administration. Oh, will it? You know, Fox News has spent months finding every conceivable way to avoid saying that sentence. Prices are not really higher. The numbers are misleading. Biden caused it, but also prices are lower. It's Biden's fault and it's not happening. and the tariffs are working and everything is going to be really good two weeks from now.

And eventually the propaganda just comes crashing into people's lives. They go to the gas pump and they see, by the way, when I was just in California for Gavin Newscom's nasty podcast, I had a rental car and the car used an internal combustion engine which took gasoline and burned it in order to generate locomotion. Anyway, you guys know how gas. I filled up for 569. Now I know that that's California. They then to have more expensive gasoline. But people are seeing the prices at the pump and they're going to the grocery store.

They're like, what did I just get for 90 bucks? And they're getting higher insurance premium renewals and higher utility bills and housing is expensive. And the beautiful health care plan never came. So you can tell people the economy is awesome and it's the best one in history. And people don't believe it if they don't feel it. Biden tried doing it and it didn't work well. Harris took over and tried doing it and she lost. And even the Fox hosts now are at things do cost more. This is what we call progress. And the political

implications are devastating. Now here is Harry Enton from CNN outlining some of the political repercussions and the polling around this. Take a look. Picture right. Say the U.S. economy is getting worse. Look at this. Okay, back when Trump was reelected November of 2024. Look at that. 42% of Americans, less than 50, said that in fact the economy was getting worse. Look at that now. Again, very similar numbers, very similar numbers. 59%. 59% say the U.S. economy is getting worse. That getting better number is down close to 20%. I don't know how this works for Republicans come to midterm elections when the economy is the number one issue with inflation and three and five say it's getting worse off and just about

one in five saying that it's getting better, that's an equation that does not work out to success. And I'll just tell you, if he's going to go to Michigan today and say the economy's doing great, 60% about say it's not. Correct. And so that is a message that sometimes does not land well at all with voters. How does he rank historically? Yeah, just look at this. I mean, according to CBS poll, worst economic net approvals at this point in term two, who takes the cake?

John Trump, 30 points underwater, even worse than George W. Bush, heading into those midterms back in 2006. We've spoken about it before. That comparison simply put, does not work for Republicans. So there is no mystery here. The promise was we're going to end inflation. Inflation was 2.9 when Biden left. It got all the way up to 3.8 and is now at 3.5. It's higher than when Donald Trump took office. Trump imposed tariffs that raise the cost of everything that's imported. And then he launched a war with Iran. And that drove prices higher. And Republican, Republicans cut programs used by working families while protecting tax breaks for the very wealthy and that overwhelmingly benefit the wealthy in corporations.

And now you ask people and 59% of them say, oh, the economy is going in the wrong direction, not the right direction. That's a disaster for voting. So Republicans can put together any chart they want. They can say the economy is technically growing or, you know, point to a category where prices at some point briefly declined. Elections are ultimately decided by how people feel about their own lives. If three-fifths of voters, roughly 59%, three-fifths of voters think conditions are deteriorating,

you look at, well, who controls the presidency, who controls the House, who controls the Senate? It's all Republicans. That's who has a problem. One more number to look at, Harry Enton explaining that only 13% believe Trump is making them better off. And it heads to mission where he's Michigan, I should say, where he is scheduled to talk about the economy. I say scheduled because sometimes he's supposed to give a speech on the economy and he doesn't quite do it. This is one of the reasons why some suggests that his numbers on the economy

aren't quite as high. With us now, CNN chief data analyst Harry Enton. If he does tout the economy, how do voters feel about his performance on that subject? Yeah, promises made promises broken in the minds of the American public. Because just take a look here. The reason he won back in 2020, was because the plurality of voters thought that Trump would make them financially better off. 44%, 38% said they make them worse off back in October of 2024.

Look at these numbers now. Oh, my goodness. John's shaking his head off on the side. Now, 58%, nearly 3 and 5 voters say that Trump is making them financially worse off. That's up like a rocket, the better off down through the floor in a Lake Michigan. Look at that from 44% to just 13%. 13% now saying better off. The rest say about the same. These are absolutely devastating numbers. The issue that got Trump reelected, now the voters absolutely turn against.

They're saying they're, he's making them worse off. Correct. That is an astonishing ratio. For every voter who says Trump improved my financial situation, be roughly four or five say, actually Trump hurt my financial situation. And remember, Trump's supposed superpower was, listen, I might not be the foreign policy guy. I might not be the environment guy. I might not be the fertilization guy, although he claimed he was nauseatingly. But I'm the economy guy. And universally, people believe the economy is going in the wrong direction. The mythology is completely collapsing. Trump did not inherit the worst inflation in history. He inherited 2.9%. He inherited low unemployment and solid.

economic growth. Progress needed to be made. A lot of people were still struggling, affordability, but that's what he inherited. And he chose tariffs and a war. And the result is 13% believe the economy is getting better. And a lot of that 13% is probably just confused about whether things are even getting better for them. They now have to walk into the midterms and say to vote. They have to go with their hat in their hand and say, voters vote for us. Why? Well, because the other side is communists, Or they have to say Trump screwed up, I'm going to do better at which point Trump abandons them and tries to get them to lose the race. Fox News can help them with a lot. Fox can't make groceries cheaper for Donald Trump. We have a phenomenal bonus show for you today. Today's bonus show

might win an award, quite frankly. We will talk about the new Mitch McConnell proof of life picture and whether it's convincing anybody. We will talk about more horrors from the White House correspondence, dinner, and much more. You can get instant access to the bonus show by signing up at join packman.com. And remember that my forthcoming book, pay attention is available for preorder. Even in preorder status, it hit the rank 5,000 on Amazon today. There are millions of books. This book isn't even out and it just popped to 5,000 on Amazon. You can get signed copies for a limited time. David Pakman.com slash attention. And I will soon have updated pre-order numbers. Thank you so much to everybody who's already pre-ordered the book.