The David Pakman Show - This is not how wealthy countries are supposed to behave

Episode Date: March 27, 2026

-- On the Show -- Fox News confronts Speaker Mike Johnson with Donald Trump publicly rejecting the shutdown deal and Johnson struggles to reconcile his defense of Trump -- Melania Trump appears at the White House, introducing a humanoid robot named Plato that she says will help teach children classical studies -- The Pentagon under Pete Hegseth removes journalists from inside the building after a federal judge rules previous restrictions illegal -- Travelers facing massive disruptions directly blame Donald Trump for the chaos, contradicting Republican messaging that attempts to shift responsibility onto Democrats -- Melania Trump calls herself a visionary, while advisers claim she is working on legislation and signing executive orders, even though only the president can legally issue executive orders -- Jesse Watters and Greg Gutfeld debate whether Kamala Harris is attractive on Fox News, while broader national issues like war tensions and rising prices dominate public concerns -- The Friday Feedback segment -- On the Bonus Show: Trump hosts a cabinet meeting, says it's okay he voted by mail because he's president, asks about getting a statue of himself in Venezuela, and much more... 🛍️ Shopify: Sign up for $1/month trial and start selling today at https://shopify.com/pakman 🤖 Sponsored by Venice: Use code PAKMAN for 20% off a Pro Account at https://venice.ai/pakman 🛏️ Eight Sleep: Get up to $350 OFF the Pod 5 at https://eightsleep.com/pakman 💻 Sponsored by Private Internet Access: 83% OFF + 4 months free at https://www.piavpn.com/DavidP 🛡️ 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 (01:25) Johnson pressed after Trump kills deal (08:26) Melania unveils White House robot (17:41) Pentagon removes journalists after ruling (23:24) Travelers blame Trump for disruptions (32:22) Melania calls herself a visionary (40:22) Fox hosts debate Kamala Harris’ looks (48:38) Friday Feedback segment Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When WestJet first took flight in 1996, the vibes were a bit different. People thought denim on denim was peak fashion, inline skates were everywhere, and two out of three women rocked, the Rachel. While those things stayed in the 90s, one thing that hasn't is that fuzzy feeling you get when WestJet welcomes you on board. Here's to WestJetting since 96. Travel back in time with us and actually travel with us at westjet.com slash 30 years. Today on the show, we have a wild mix of chaos, confusion, and some vision. genuinely concerning developments. We're going to start with the moment on Fox News where Mike Johnson

is confronted about Trump shutting down a deal and you can see that he has no answer and he's recognizing that they're screwed. We'll also look at one of the strangest White House moments I've ever seen involving Melania Trump and a robot, a physical humanoid robot, making us wonder what role is she playing? And then this story is not getting nearly enough attention. The Pentagon quietly pushing journalists out of the building after a judge said the restrictions they're placing on journalists are illegal. They said, all right, we'll just get rid of journalists altogether. We will also look at how the Iran war is landing on the ground with voters Trump needs and

some nasty, nasty comments that came into me. How could anyone write me something so nasty? We will look at audience feedback at the end of the show. Gas prices are up, but it's the final day of the Trump gas membership promo. Use the coupon code Trump gas to get a membership for the cost of a gallon of gas in Trump's America. One of the top Republicans in the country is realizing they may have no way out from the mess that Donald Trump has created. And I love it. When people do terrible things, there should be consequences.

And for Republicans, that consequence may be, you did something bad and you're going to get a consequence now. It would be getting crushed in November. Maga Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the House, seems to be realizing that that is a likely outcome. He did a press conference, we could loosely call it. And he was asked, why isn't Trump trying to end this DHS shutdown that's causing all of this chaos? And Mike Johnson goes, well, he is, except the problem for Mike Johnson is that Trump has now said multiple times, no deals with Democrats. He has said it publicly. And you can see Mike Johnson's face as he realizes this is not going well.

Mr. Speaker, it seems as the Republicans and Democrats are talking past one another right now. Is the only person who could solve this, the president of the United States, and why isn't he involved? Well, I think he is involved. I mean, I know he had a group of- He went down the plan yesterday. Well, that's what's been reported. Okay. He brought some-

He said that in the all the whole office that he- We have them on video. They love, they love that crap. Listen, just because fake news, CNN reported something. Well, we've got Trump on video. Well, maybe that was an AI deep fake. You ever think of that? He was not pleased with that plan.

Well, actually have his exact quote somewhere. I think he said that, to paraphrase him, I think he said he's a little skeptical or cynical that, that a deal is going to come together. What we're hearing, okay, on our chamber is that there's discussions going on and Democrats are demanding to break off parts of homeland and funded separately. Oh, yeah. Well, no, we're going to break stuff off and fund it separately.

Is the deal that we want to fix the chaos at the airports or not? And Donald Trump has made it really clear. These are sacrifices worth making. It's funny. The most common sort of decision Trump's making, funny and sad, the most common sort of decision Trump's making, funny and sad. The most common type of decision Trump's making over the last few months is deciding that other people will sacrifice. When Trump says we are going to go into Iran now, people will die. Some have died and more will die. You might remember Donald Trump saying that one with some

incredible bedside manner. He decided not his sacrifice, not his family sacrifice. It is other Americans who will be sacrificing lives for his toy war in Iran. Similarly with the economy, he said, I expected gas prices to go up even more than they have when I invaded Iran, but it's worth it. Translated, that means he, who is a multi-billionaire, has decided that it is worth it for Americans to sacrifice more affordability, prices of gas and everything delivered by the burning of fossil fuels, which is most everything, he decided other people are going to be sacrificing. And there's another form of sacrifice that he has taken on for other people right now, which is if you are a traveler missing your flight after waiting four hours at Houston or

Minneapolis or JFK or wherever, that sacrifice is worth it because he believes that he is going to be able to strong arm Democrats and, I guess, Republicans into passing the Save America Act. If only he says, we're not doing a deal on TSA funding until we get the Save America Act passed. I don't think it's going to happen. But he has decided that the sacrifice of others is worth it. But he makes no sacrifice. Now, if you sit him down, he has given us the sacrifice line before. Donald Trump has told us that he is sort of like a martyr for even wanting to or agreeing to be the the president of the United States. He does his whole, I could have had a nice life. I didn't have to be here with you people, but I decided that I would. I could be playing golf. I could be doing whatever.

He'd probably not. I mean, I guess theoretically, he wouldn't be estranged from Melania if he hadn't decided to go into political office. He wouldn't be a multi multi time convicted felon if he had. So Trump claims that he has sacrificed by agreeing to be the president of the United States. But he is regularly accepting sacrifice for others. Sacrifice is. Sacrifice is. is most Americans don't really think are worth it. Most Americans don't think that the chaos at TSA is worth it for Trump to get the Save America Act. Most Americans don't think it's worth paying more and more for gas for Trump to get his Iran war. I think you get the point. Mike Johnson also asked, you said pretty recently we're not at war with Iran. Are we at war now? And Maga Mike Johnson

finds a way to not answer the question. You said a few weeks ago that we are not at war with Iran. Is that still your position? We're wrapping up Operation Epic Fury. That's what I think. And I think it will be done in short order and that'll be right on schedule. Notice that that is not an answer to the question. And the reason they don't want to answer this, you know, this is one of those areas where if you, with a lot of political stories, you don't have to be a political junkie to understand

the crux of the story. There is so much here in their unwillingness to answer these questions fully that relates to the legality of what they're talking about. about. Are we at war with Iran or aren't we? Well, it'll be over soon. Operation Epic Fury will be over soon. He's doing two things there. He is not acknowledging that it is a war because he's again referring to it as Operation Epic Fury, which it's a special military operation not a war. That's because he, he knows that if this is or was a war, Trump did it without congressional authorization. And if he did it without congressional authorization, it would only be legal if there was

imminent danger to the United States. And we know that there wasn't. It's not that it's cool for Iran to have nukes. I don't want Iran to have nukes. It's not because I like the regime, the Ayatollah. I'm against extremist theocratic regimes. It's not because of any of that. It's simply the law.

If it wasn't imminent danger to the United States, Trump needed congressional approval. He didn't get congressional approval. And therefore, it's a really complicated legal question for a Maga Mike Johnson to go, yeah, Yeah, no, we were at war, but it's going to be over soon. And so that's why he retreats to, I believe it will be over very soon. Maga Mike Johnson knows that his party is in for it in November. And he is panicking and scrambling to see what he can do to save them. I'm quite literally rolling up my sleeves here.

But we, but figuratively, we need to do it as well. Now, our responsibility is we've got to roll up our sleeves and absolutely crush them in November. I don't even know how to introduce this one without sounding like I'm exaggerating because if you just described out loud what I'm about to show you, it would sound made up, but it is very real. Melania Trump, the first lady of the United States, walks out at the White House. By the way, walking really weirdly, which is a whole other thing that I'm not going to delve

into, she walks out at the White House with a humanoid robot. Now I don't mean a conceptual robot. I don't mean a metaphorical robot. She walks out alongside a robot. And the explanation is that this robot is named Plato and the robot. I don't want to misgender the robot. My instinct is to say he because of the name Plato. The robot is going to be teaching our children classical.

studies. The robot is Plato. Take a look at this. And if you're only listening right now, she's walking out to music next to the robot and it's pretty cringe. The robot's walking around now. Everybody's really awkward. Thank you, First Lady Melania Trump for inviting me to the White House. It is an honor to be at fostering the future together's global coalition inaugural meeting. I'm figure three, a humanoid bill from the United States of America. I am grateful to be part of this historic movement to empower children with technology and education. Welcome. I guess this isn't Plato.

I don't know because it's a woman's voice. Okay. You go so. Yeah, the new. Ben, bingdinos. Ahlenu's ha'latshung. Shagatam. Mugas on a bit.

Oh my God. Okay. So we're going to stop. Then Melania is sitting not next to the robot, actually. The robot is somewhere else. she says that the robot named Plato will be teaching the children. Imagine a humanoid educator named Plato. Access to the classical studies is now instantaneous.

Literature, science, art, philosophy, mathematics, and history. Humanity's entire corpus of information is available in the comfort of your home. Played up will provide a personalized experience. Yeah. Okay. You get it. It's all vomitous. If you're watching this thinking, what exactly is the goal here?

What problem is this solving? You are right to ask that question. I'm not against robots. I think robotics is cool and AI and all these technologies. I'm a technology guy. I have no problem with it. We're in the middle of serious issues right now, a war, economic uncertainty, gas, prices up 45%, policy decisions that affect millions of people. And the White House is rolling

out a robot philosophy teacher. And there's a bigger kind of backdrop that makes moments like this feel even more bizarre because Melania Trump is not playing anything close to it like a traditional first lady role. Later in the show, we're going to talk about her legislation and her executive orders. It'll blow your mind. A lot of the reporting over the last years has described that she is completely distant from Trump. They seem as strange. They largely live separately. They rarely appear together in any kind of sustained way. And so you have a really weird thing where the first lady seems separated from Trump. But at the same time is appearing in these very odd circumstances, sort of sporadic disconnected appearances. She does something weird, something hard to contextualize.

And then she's gone again. And there's like no through line or agenda to what's going on. There's no broader role or purpose in this administration. And so that's why I find this whole robot thing so bizarre. If it were part of an educational initiative based on technology with consistent messaging and staffing and follow through, I might be like, all right, well, listen, this is the thing that she's up to. These are these wacky one-off concepts.

She's in a documentary. She's got an executive order. She's walking with a robot. And it only raises further questions about the totality of how dysfunctional this administration is. And a lot of that applies to Donald Trump and the people around him. But there's also the Melania aspect of it as well. Is her presence symbolic?

Is she a branding figure for occasional events? Is her area going to be best? Is it bullying? Is it grammar errors? What is it? Now later we will get to the supposed legislation. And executive orders that she's working on, which quite frankly, likewise, make no sense whatsoever. Starting something new is exciting.

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you're already used to. The interface will feel really familiar. You'll also get 20% off a pro plan at venus.a.a. slash Pacman with the code Pacman. The link is in the description. The David Pacman show, of course, like it has been for a long time, is primarily made possible by you, our viewers and our listeners. There is no money tree in the backyard. There is no big conglomerate or corporation or multi-layered media entity that funds this show. It's just if you all want it to continue, it will continue. And if you don't, it won't. The beatings will continue until the morale improves or something like that. Anyway, the number one way to support the work we do is by getting a membership at join pacman.com. Today is the final day of our releasing Trump's gas promo.

where we have discounted memberships down to the cost of a gallon of gas in Trump's America, you can use the coupon code Trump gas to get that discount at join packman.com. And I'll say a quick thank you to our two newest members. They are Rosemary Rupp and Joseph Misi. Rosemary and Joseph, thank you for your support. I love it. Check it out at join packman.com. I have a major red alert story for you.

you today. Almost no one is talking about this. And the Pentagon, Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump, they do not want you talking about this. This story should be setting off alarm bells everywhere. And the scariest part is that it's not. The Pentagon has announced that it is removing media offices from inside the building. For decades, there has been something called correspondence corridor in the Pentagon. This is where the journalists were. This is how they built sources, ask questions, got information about what the country is doing, and could sometimes catch things and report on them before they became official narratives.

That is gone. Reporters are being pushed out to some undefined annex at some point in the future outside of the building. And in the meantime, everybody needs to be escorted. Access is controlled. Journalists are no longer embedded where the decisions are actually made. Now here is as if that weren't serious enough. Here is where it gets really serious.

A federal judge already ruled that the Pentagon's previous restrictions on journalists were illegal. The judge very clearly said the policy that the Pentagon is employing is. designed to remove, quote, disfavored journalists. In other words, people who reported on stuff based on what was newsworthy, not based on what Pete Hegseth wants. And they have replaced those journalists with people willing to do the bidding of Trump and Hegseth. The government is trying to choose its own coverage. A judge said, that's against the law. And instead of backing off, they doubled down and they said, fine, you know what? We'll just get rid of the press entirely.

If we have to allow in journalists who are actually going to do journalism, no, no, no, we'll just move them to some other part of the building. I'm sorry, to some other part of the city in a different building at some point. Now, this has very serious practical implications. I'm going to give you an example. Just a few days ago, Caroline Levitt was asked, what are the casualty numbers in the Iran war? And remember what Caroline Levitt said? It's the follow. Reuters has reported that about 150 U.S. service members have been injured so far. Can you confirm that number and elaborate on that? I can't confirm this the exact number.

I know it's within that ballpark, but I would defer you to the Pentagon for a specific number of wounded or injured thus far. Caroline said, I don't have the information as to how many casualties we have because of Trump's optional and likely illegal war. You've got to go and check with the Pentagon. Well, the Pentagon is getting rid of everybody. They are kicking out the press so that you're not going to get the answer from the Pentagon either. And this is exactly how it is designed.

They promised transparency and this is one of the biggest lacks of transparency I have ever seen in any administration. Now, the New York Times, which was the plaintiff in the lawsuit that eventually led to the judge saying this is not allowed. The New York Times said it's going back to court now that the Pentagon said we're getting rid of all the press offices instead of giving you your press credentials back. And the part that should really concern you is that most people will never hear about this change. Most people will not notice this change.

There are very few dramatic headlines. This has not received a lot of coverage. In fact, if I search right now for Pentagon eliminates press office, there's a CBS news article Um, and a Politico article. And okay, Axios has a report on press groups denouncing it, but the headline doesn't really get to the full scope of it. So the point here is there should be, there is one profession. There is one profession that is protected by the First Amendment.

Okay. It is journalism. It's the press. And the Pentagon got a court ruling they didn't like. And so they said, well, we'll get rid of everybody. This should be one of the biggest news stories there is. The Iran war is big. There's no doubt.

The affordability crisis in the United States is big. There's no doubt. But this is going right at the core of one of the key things that makes the United States the United States. And it is slicing it and just just pounding and be. and destroying it. And I can't think of a more important story. And another example of, listen, MAGA people, maybe you like Trump's tax plan.

I don't know why, but maybe you like it. Maybe you like Trump's Iran war. I don't know why, but maybe you like it. But can you put your foot down and say, hey, we've got to defend the Constitution and we can't allow them to get away with this? Or are you going to find? fall for it and go, no, those were fake news reporters and their right to do it. MAGA people, I'm asking you, are you on the side of the Constitution in the First

Amendment or do you think that this is no big deal? I would have a lot of respect. I would have more respect for these MAGAs if they said, this is too far. This is too much. They are desperate to save Melania Trump's reputation. And I don't think that it is going to work. Melania has achieved nothing. Melania's most well-known initiative is a grammar error.

Let me remind you of that during our first term. They came out very strongly with Melania Trump's big initiative as the first lady of the United States. And that initiative was be best. And a lot of us looked around and we said, seems to be a word missing there. Be best. Do you mean be the best?

Be best. And this is similar to what happens with Trump. When Trump goes, they're dumping them from insane asylums. And nobody wants to go up and say, sir, you mean they're seeking asylum. Nobody wanted to tell Melania, be best is not exactly correct. Be best is not really English in the way that we understand it. We could be saying be the best, be your best. But no, nobody had the willingness to put their foot down and go, this is a grammatical

atrocity. Be best doesn't mean anything. But that is her biggest achievement. The misnamed confusing initiative, be best. And now Melania Trump is out there describing herself as a visionary. I know. It's completely insane. Here is Melania saying that as a visionary, she knows what success is born of and that it's often

lonely at the top. Folks, what on earth is she talking about? Across the country today, women are finding unique ways to balance career ambition and family. We all know these incredible women. They dominate America's workforce. By the way, Trump's already bored. Now more than ever before.

As a visionary, I know success is not born overnight. As a visionary, I know success is not born over it. Melania, whose speech is this? It can't possibly one that's supposed to be read by you. But rather take shape after long and sometimes challenging process. Yeah. Often alone at the top, I follow my passion. Yeah. Melania is really lonely at the top. And to my instinct and always maintain a laser focus. In solitude, my creative mind dances,

feeling my imagination with originality. Oh my God. Attention to detail, demanding schedules, and multitasking. Anyway, the vague, self-important language that signals nothing is pretty nauseating, I have to tell you, totally devoid of substance and policy and there's no real point being made. But a visionary. And we were just supposed to accept this, that this, you know, Jill Biden did a lot of things relative to her areas of expertise. For example, education when she was the first lady of the United States. Michelle Obama did so much of, of of really national benefit, including the entire nutrition initiative that she had.

And she wasn't calling herself a visionary. Jill Biden wasn't calling herself a visionary, but they got a lot done. And they also seem kind of like genuinely nice people, a visionary. But then it gets even worse because we now have Melania Trump's senior advisor going out and talking to us about the legislation that Melania is working on. And talks about Melania signing an executive order. Oh, make it stop. Really focused on America and American children.

So you'll see her next month, I think, talking a little bit more about new legislation surrounding foster care and fostering the future. Remember, she had an, she signed with our president, an executive order not too long ago. And now she's focused on locking that in permanently through new legislation with Congress. She signed an executive order with Trump. Like what's not mentioned there is how is that her signature is meaningless on the thing. She signed the executive order with the president. Okay.

So Trump signed an executive order. Come on. It's okay to say that. It's okay if she just suggests and then Trump. No, she signed the executive order. Come on. Come on. Guys.

Now it's possible that people around Melania don't understand how the government works on even a basic level or they're hoping the audience. doesn't understand how government works. Now, as far as this foster care initiative and legislation, foster care is a very important issue, very important issue. Foster care is primarily run by the states. It's here's how foster care works in Connecticut. Here's how foster care works in Arkansas. Here's how foster care works in Missouri. Okay. The systems are run by the states. Now, there is a federal role for foster care. I'm not, aside from whether is doing anything.

I don't want to pretend that there's no federal role in foster care. The federal role is primarily about money and maybe setting some baseline standards. But states make the decision. States run the agency. States manage the day to day foster care systems. I don't even like, do they even know what they're talking about? And so all of a sudden, we're supposed to believe that visionary leader, Melania Trump, is working on sweeping foster care legislation and she may sign it in.

to law, like when she signed an executive order alongside Donald Trump? What sort of a sick world are we living in? So the theme here is actually one that comes from Trump. It comes from the top down. Absolutely delusional grand language about everything combined with confusing claims with very little underneath it as the scaffolding to actually back it up. representation and rhetoric replacing substance. A theme for the Trump administration.

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It relates to DHS, TSA, the airports, the Save America Act, and all of this stuff. Now as many of you know or have heard, it is absolute chaos at America's airports. It has been chaos now for a while. TSA agents aren't getting paid. There are now ice agents at the airports. Some airports have hours long delays to get through security. I'm planning to show up four hours early for my flight to Argentina next week. It's complete and utter chaos.

The gambit from the Trump administration was, well, we'll say it's the fault of Democrats because they won't play ball and voters will fall for it. The problem is that voters are not falling for it. We've got video of interviews with travelers and let's take a look at this first and then there's a lot to say here. What do you make of this ongoing chaos at the airports? Listen, I think it's terrible. I think it's, I don't want to get political too much here, but I think they should solve

this. And I what I'm hearing is that there are some proposals on the table to get TSA in New, funding for the TSA, just flew in here and saw a bunch of ice people down to the baggage claims. I'm not sure what they're doing at the baggage claims. I don't know if TSA, I don't know why they would be. None of us know, ma'am. People getting their baggage.

Who do you blame for all this? Trump. Yeah, I really do. I mean, I'm, I've seen what's going on in Minneapolis and I'm very opposed to some of the tactics of ICE. I do. I stand with the Democrats on this one. What about the fact that they're walking around without masks on? Does that help?

No, not at all. And I'm watching downstairs. We all came in. You saw people bracing themselves like, what the hell's going on here? And there were a lot of people who are taking pictures and sort of watching them. They were just milling around. They weren't even doing anything. I don't just sort of chatting. I don't know what their function was.

Yeah. We don't know either. I understand the confusion. We're not really sure what they're doing. They're not helping to screen passengers. It's not really clear what it is that they are doing. Very simple question from the reporter. Who do you blame?

Very simple answer from the traveler. I blame Donald Trump. She didn't seem confused. She didn't hesitate. This cuts directly against the narrative that is being pushed that Democrats are responsible for the chaos. This was not a prepared political pundit for a commentator. It wasn't an elected official.

It's just someone who's got to do some other job. And she's living through the consequences. She showed up. It's chaos at the departure airport. There's ice milling about by the baggage claim at the arrival airport. And her instinct was, I blame Donald Trump. This is not everybody. Of course, there are people who have become convinced that somehow this is the fault of Democrats.

But for the average person, we care about the average person. My analysis is someone who's steeped in this stuff every day. Even your analysis as someone who listens to political content online, you're also in the minority. We really need to think through how is the average person going to see this? And the narrative that seems to be prevailing for the average person is that they look around. They go, okay. TSA is a complete and total mess. They're not getting paid.

There's ICE agents at airports who deployed them. Well, obviously that was Trump. I see what's going on. The president is Donald Trump. He's in power. Republicans control the House. Republicans control the Senate. If they even know that, a lot of people, you ask them on the street who controls the house,

they go, I control my house or my wife does her. They don't even know what we're talking about. To the extent people are even making an assessment, the natural inclination is this is Donald Trump's fault. And when that is how it's landing on the ground, you've got to be very worried about what that's going to mean for how people are going to vote in November, assuming that the left gets attack together and we actually get out there and vote. Here's another set of interviews.

And these people are speaking in slightly more coded language, but it's still, still worth listening to me. Oh my god, this is insane. I mean, I've never, I've never experienced anything like this. It's crazy. It's insane. I mean, I've never seen an airport like this. Now, when we travel a lot for work, this is probably the worst that we've ever experienced in our 20 years of traveling. Actually, we thanked all the TSA agents for other services coming in today. Correct. Correct. All right, and then there's a couple other folks we'll hear from it.

It's really, you know, inconsiderate of, well, it's primarily based on our leadership here. I think that's the big issue is the leadership was right when we wouldn't have circumstances like this. This would be a minor in convenience. All right. So people are looking around. They have an experience. They go to the airport.

They have an experience. They are saying this experience. This experience happened because of decisions that have been made by leadership. And I certainly interpret leadership to mean the people who are in power, which right now is Republicans. So there's not this abstractness of man, something is happening and there's some explanation, but it's not really clear why. They're saying we're stuck in this situation.

Trump, leadership, Republicans, et cetera, are to blame. In a sense, it's refreshing to see. responsibility assigned correctly. People have a bad experience. They go, who's responsible? And well, maybe I'll vote on that basis in November. Now, I have to assume as it becomes increasingly clear that Trump is not going to get a Save America Act passed in exchange for reopening, refunding TSA, starting to pay TSA people. At some point, they're going to have to pull it because otherwise they will certainly be crushed in November. They will probably be crushed anyway, remains to be seen.

But it will be even more obvious. And simply repeating over and over again, it's the fault of Democrats, Democrats shut down TSA, Democrats shut down DHS. The people standing in the four-hour security lines and missing flights don't believe it. They are coming to their own conclusions. and their conclusions are different than the talking points that are being being put out there by the Trump administration. So what does this mean as far as the next week's month?

I don't see any path out of this other than ultimately Republicans and Trump relenting. And remember, is it even really Republicans? Because we heard earlier this week from Senator John Kennedy who said, hey, Ted Cruz and I had a deal to get TSA going, get most of get FEMA open, will separate out. the ice thing, Democrats would have voted and we could have fixed it. We could have been paying TSA agents by today. And Trump said no deals with Democrats. So I actually think increasingly the Republicans, especially those who are on the ballot in seven

months, they know this is very bad. They know we've got to get this open. They know voters are blaming them, not Democrats. Trump seems convinced for whatever reason that he can hold out and maybe get the Save America act passed in exchange. for holding TSA funding hostage. I believe that that's not going to happen. And I believe they're going to have to come to that acknowledgement relatively soon.

We are in the middle of war. American service members are dying. And we have Fox News focusing on the foremost issue of our time. Was Kamala Harris hot? Was she guys? No, no, no. I know gas prices are up almost 50%. I know, I know. But come on, was she hot or not? Jesse Waters doesn't really think so. He thinks that she was okay. When I tell you that I feel

kind of bad for the lone liberal on Fox News as the five Jessica Tarlov, this is the kind of crap I'm talking about. This is a real discussion on one of the three biggest 24 hour cable channels in the United States. My reaction. Ha. Ha. Ah. Exactly. Take a listen to this crap.

I have to disagree with Dana. I didn't think Kamala was hot. Oh, she was attractive. I said she was beautiful. I'd say hot. I don't know. I mean, she was okay. But I mean, we're talking hot.

It's, she's not hot. Well, I didn't say hot. Well, it's about hot people. Okay. AOC. I'm not going to go there. And Gretchen, what are being generous? The, um, AOC, he's not willing to get into.

There is a huge. How is this? How is this the United States? There's a big media literacy lesson here. They are not trying to convince you that the Iran war is good. They are not trying to convince you that gas prices haven't really spiked almost 50% in two months. They instead are talking about other. things. This is one of these 1984 versus Brave New World type of moments. And I know I've I've talked

about this before, but it bears repeating for those that are not familiar with this. If you've never read these two books, I can't recommend them to you more highly. George Orwell wrote a book 1984. And the premise in 1984 was that the government is straight up lying to you. They call a department that wages war in the book, the Ministry of Peace. They call the propaganda department the ministry of truth. They are actively trying to convince you things are different than they are. That's 1984. The counterpart to this is a book called Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. In that book, the approach from the government to deceive people is less about telling you that, you know, the hat I'm holding up is actually blue when it's red, right? It's not about

those direct confrontations. It's sort of about just flooding society with so much trivia and nonsense that nobody's even really paying attention anymore. The book also includes the widespread availability of a drug called Soma, which I don't even remember exactly what the drug does, but I think it just kind of makes people, you know, it's a euphoric of sorts of people are like, I don't really care what's going on. What we are seeing when when Fox News does a debate over whether Kamala's hot, right, it's not the 1984 approach of arguing the war is going great and it's cool and gas prices are fine and prices are down.

No, that'd be the 1984 approach. They're going with the brave new world approach. Let me distract you with this meaningless trivia. Our friend Jessica Tarlov was not thrilled with it. Take a listen. I have a contract that says I can do what I want. I think everyone is being way too generous for these people, including the dams. Like, Assoff looks like a stewie.

Stop it. Stop it. This is the same party that land asked people in the Trump administration for wearing hoops and long hair. And then they say everyone is hot. Like, you can't have both. We can. Senator my boo, you are great. Okay.

All right. That's what they call John. Okay. Up next. All right. So Jessica likes Senator John Ossoff finds him attractive. And then just one more clip here from this discussion. Because apparently there's someone that runs this.

like Thirstrap X account. And it's all about... Senator Mibu? Yes. Yes. But here's what she said. Sort of what you said, where she was like,

it's about the values, and that's what makes them hot. She pushed back against a rebuke of toxic masculinity, but at the same time, saying that Asoff was hot. So I feel like they're trying to thread the needle

where they're like, oh, no, guys, it's just about putting, you know, men and women's bathrooms and also, though, he has to be a 10 on the scale. It's not that complicated. They're talking like normal people,

which you guys have been begging us to do for quite some time. John Ossoff is really good at his job. He's also attractive. Georgia Senate race now Republicans have all the conceded that they're not going to be able to flip that seat back because he's that good. This is just being a normal human being. AOC is very hot.

Gretchen Whitmer is very hot. Kamala Harris is very, all right, whatever. Maybe not you don't want to go to date with Richard Wimmer. She will go on to date with you either. I'm just saying all of this is ridiculous. You want to be. So listen, there's two analyses here and they're both, they are parallel to each other. Number one, Jessica Tarlov is attempting and it's tough given the company that she's struggling

there with. Jessica Tarlov is attempting here to make the point that there is that these fan accounts that find us off attractive or whatever. They are doing what the right said is supposed to be a good thing. Talk like normal people. Hey, this guy's attractive, that one, whatever. That's number one. And she's trying to make the point that this is kind of what you guys wanted.

This is what you all suggested. Democrats aren't talking like normal people. Here they are talking like normal people. You say you don't like it. Okay. That's number one. It's an interesting point. But the really big takeaway is the way in which this is serving up Pablam to the masses to

distract them from what is taking place in this country. When there is a segment about this at all, they've got no more unicorns and ponies for their audience. They can't go look at these ginger snaps and strawberry flavored waterfalls anymore. because they don't exist. It's a fiasco out there. 40% of the country would have to borrow to meet an unexpected $400 expense. Gas is up almost 50%. I'm not going to give you the whole list. Beef is up. Bananas are up. My beautiful sumo oranges are up. I can't even get the golden Kiwis any. Okay. That's because of the season. That has nothing to do with Trump. But the point is

they have no way to convince their audience that everything's going well. And so instead, It's let's argue over whether it's good or bad, good strategy or bad strategy, embarrassing or endearing for fan accounts of certain Democratic elected officials to be saying we find some of these people physically attractive. That's where it is. They'd rather not explain or argue. So they'll talk to you about this other thing. We're not going to fall for it.

And we're going to vote in November that I can assure you. Identity theft and targeted scams often start long before the breach when bits of your personal life addresses emails, relatives, your work history are scattered around the internet on these data broker sites and that information is sold or reused. Our sponsor and Cogni will get that stuff removed for you. Not from just a single type of website. They will work to take down your personal information wherever it shows up online, shrinking the pool of info that bad actors rely on. Incogni automatically handles removals from hundreds

of known sites, but their unlimited plan goes even further with custom removals, where if you find your info anywhere, paste a link to Incogni, and they will get to work removing that for you. This matters because a single overlooked listing can be enough for a scammer to impersonate you or even open accounts in your name. Incogny's data removal process is independently verified by Deloitte, which adds a layer of trust, you can get 60% off when you go to incogny.com slash Pacman and use the code Pacman. The link is in the description. Sometimes I think about the people who write me hate mail and I get a little sad.

I has a sad because your life must really not be going well to take time out of your day to send me hateful messages. But listen, who am I to tell other people how to spend their time? We do Friday feedback where I review messages positive and negative from people in the audience who write in. And we start today with someone that posts under the name soccer and jetty. Soccer like the sport. Soccer and Jetty.

This is what I call an unsubscribe troll. I'll explain that term in a moment. I have two Spotify comments from soccer and jetty to read for you today. First, I'm among the thousands of listeners. who ended my paid subscription to the David Parkman show. I used to love Parkman and considered myself a megafan, but he's become blinded by his hatred for Trump. Otherwise, he'd support the war in Iran.

And then another message from soccer who says, I'm a David Parkman mega fan and paid subscriber and have been for years, but I'm canceling my subscription based upon opposition to this war. I'm so disappointed in Parkman for not supporting an obviously justified intervention. All right. Listen, we have something on the show called unsubscribe trolls. People who write in and they say things like, I was about to get a paid membership, but then you said X. And now I cannot in good conscience support you. Or I've been a member for so long, but now that you've said why, that was the last straw and I'm getting the hell out. My instinct is that any mega fan who has been a paid subscriber for years would know my last name's not Parkman, not in one, but in multiple

messages. So you know what, soccer? Take your paid membership that didn't. exist and take your mega fandom, which is a mere figment of your imagination and flush it down the toilet. All right. Instagram message from a user who goes by MAGA is a cult who says if my fellow Democratic Americans still believe there's going to be a presidential election, then you really haven't been paying attention at all. All right.

Listen. I'm leaving a lot of clicks and views on the table by not pretending that the election's going to be canceled. I know that if every day I came on here and I started saying they're going to cancel the election, that it would drive traffic. It would drive clicks and beeps and hits and toots and everything. But I'd be lying. I believe there is going to be an election in 2026 and in 2028.

Now, the degree to which the Magas and the Magadonians and the Magapitamians at the direction of Trump are able to make that election not quite fair and not quite free or the degree to which Trump will try anything not to lose the house in November. Yes, that I believe is undeniably going to happen because they've done it before and they're trying again. And so that's what I'm reporting. I know that there are some in the audience who think I'm not being hyperbolic enough on the issue of will there be another election.

I was, I dealt with this previously when there were people who said, oh, there's not going to be a 2024 election. And I said, yes, there is. And there was. But then it's, well, there was a 24 election because Trump knew he could win that one. There's not going to be a 28 election because what? Trump wants to stay in power. Trump's not going to serve three terms.

They're going to try to mess with the election systems, but we must stick with talking about the things they are really doing, purging voter rolls, deputizing county clerks to say, I don't accept these results. Not they're going to cancel the entire election. The election is 50 individual elections. States run their own elections. There will be an election. The question is, will people be intimidated out of voting?

Will the results reflect the will of the people? I am talking about and that we will continue to discuss. All right. Next is J.G via YouTube who says Trump wanted America out of NATO. Now he's asking for support from NATO. It's actually even worse than that, J.G. Trump has been previously asked if a NATO ally is attacked, will the U.S. meet its responsibility under Article 5 of coming to the shared defense of an attacked NATO ally.

And Trump hemmed and Hodd and was like, well, they got to pay their fair share and all this stuff. It's not clear Trump would come to the defense of a NATO ally. And it's not that Trump is now asking NATO allies to come to the defense of the United States after the United States was attacked. No, no, no, no. That would be required of them under Article 5. And I'm sure that they would do it. Trump started a war, screwed up the strait of Hormuz, and now wants NATO allies to come in and help get the strait of Hormuz reopened. It has nothing to do with Article 5 responsibility to come to the shared defense of NATO allies.

It's pathetic and it's a reminder that responsibility goes one way with Trump. Loyalty goes one way. Disgusting. Markumer 2464 wrote about the Iran war on. YouTube. Week one, they say we won. Week two, they say we're winning. And week three, they say send help. Essentially, it's actually even worse than that. Week one, they said we won and we're going to have to do way more bombing. Week two, they said, we definitely completed all of our objectives and we're doing record bombing.

Week three, Trump has shifted to, we're going to be able to start winding this thing down. And also, we're going to be going after energy facilities and doing more bombing than ever. It's actually even worse than Mark is pointing out. But he is getting the gist of it. That's for sure. Richard Harris commented on YouTube. It's a toss up as to whether he, Trump, is too stupid to understand tariffs or if he, He's lying to his base who were also too stupid to understand.

Yeah, it is really hard. You know, at this point, do we really believe that a nearly 80 year old man who's been in the political sphere for 10 years and has been president twice doesn't understand who pays the tariffs? Do we really? What's more likely that Trump is so dumb that he doesn't understand the tariffs or that he does understand them, but he's glad to lie to his base. about it because that's what's politically advantageous. I actually don't know. But I really struggle to believe Trump doesn't understand the tariffs. But I also struggle to believe that he does

and he's lying about it in this way. I'm not sure. But what's clear is he's confused a lot of other people about the tariffs. That's for sure. Yuri wrote on the subreddit. What if Trump out of frustration, spite or desperation decided to drop an A bomb on Iran. Is there anything to stop him? I'm seriously worried about the scenario, writes Yuri, between his dementia, the crazy evangelical surrounding him, and Whiskey Pete, who thinks God is involved. Is there anything that would block Trump from dropping an atomic bomb? I brought this up last week. And I haven't been talking about it a lot, because, because it's so, so whacked out. But could it get to the point we're in a fit of desperation?

Trump goes, let's nuke him. Let's just nuke. I mean, listen, Trump has previously wondered why, why wouldn't nuke in Europe be on the table? Remember that vignette from the first term? So that is absolutely a concern. I maybe naively, I'm acknowledging maybe this is naive. I naively think that if Trump thought, let's drop a nuke, that there would be people he respects in the military and around him who would successfully talk him out of it.

Am I naive for believing that? Maybe so. Okay. Potees, this is a beautiful message. writes on YouTube, I named my cat after David Packman. Love the show, have for years. And then comments. I'm pretty sure Trump has done the opposite of literally everything he campaigned on.

I can't think of one thing he accomplished that he said he would. The ultimate goal of this presidency is ultimately eliminate the middle class, eliminate elections, and ultimately make the constitution obsolete. You know, Trump did do one thing he promised to do. Actually, two things that he promised to do. He promised to start outrageous deportation campaigns and he did it. Now, he implemented it differently than he said. He said, we're going to go after criminals and they're just going to Home Depot and restaurants and

getting workers and deporting them. All right, but he did say we're going to do crazy deportation stuff. And he's doing crazy deportation stuff. He also said, I'm going to implement massive tariffs. And he did it. The problem is that the implementation of those tariffs have screwed up basically everything else you wanted to do, bringing prices down, et cetera. So he has done some of the things he promised.

He's also done a lot of things he promised. he promised not to do like starting wars with other countries. Dear God. All right, Robert writes on the subreddit, will the war on Iran cause the Democrats in the midterms? Robert means cost. Will the war on Iran cost the Democrats, the midterms? Now, Robert has one goal on our subreddit, which is to criticize Democrats. So that's the frame. But Robert writes, it's a sincere question of what maybe another case of Democrats pulling defeat out of the jaws of victory. If history is any guide, Democrats never not vote for a war. They always do and will always fund it.

That vote is what cost John Kerry, the presidential election, at least in part, and the Iraq war yet another disaster for Democrats who voted for it, including Hillary Clinton. We now have a president who I am sorry to say who should literally be in prison, given his past crimes and convictions, not starting wars. There are Democrats who feel this is an illegal war at the most and that they were lied to in regards to evidence leading up to it. The Congress will inevitably have to vote for this war or its funding. Does this have the potential of what was a simple layup and blue wave to that if a blue

trickle or even loss? No, absolutely not. This, you look at the polling and it is abundantly clear. Voters overwhelmingly understand that this is Trump's war. It's an optional war. It's a war they don't want to be in. Is it possible that there would be some who say, oh, well, Democrats haven't done enough to stop it or whatever?

Sure. But the polling is overwhelming. Democrats are set to win the House. The question really is our Democrats going to win the House by a little bit, by a lot, or by a historic overwhelming amount. Now, if something new happens in the next seven plus months, we would change our analysis. But on the Iran war, the Iran war is not going to lose Democrats the midterms. Absolutely not.

Send me your emails. Info at David Pakman.com. And remember that today is the final day, the final day of our Trump's gas membership drive. A gallon of gas is the same cost as a membership. you use the coupon code, Trump gas, at join packman.com. Get those memberships. I'll see you on the bonus show.