The David Pakman Show - Trump embarrassed during Xi visit, LASHES OUT

Episode Date: September 25, 2026

-- On the Show: -- Pat Ford, producer for the David Pakman Show, fills in for David -- Donald Trump greets Xi Jinping and gives him a personal tour of the White House showcasing new granite walkways and a helipad -- Donald Trump hosts a White House state dinner for Xi Jinping and guests are offered to tour the ballroom construction site -- Donald Trump bans CNN from the White House and then falsely accuses the network of boycotting his event with Xi Jinping -- Tucker Carlson speaks to NPR's Steve Inskeep, calls Trump's Iran war foolish, and suggests removing him via the 25th Amendment -- A new Emerson College polling survey shows Democrats opening an 11-point generic congressional ballot lead over Republicans -- The Friday Feedback segment -- On the Bonus Show: Right-wing commentator says "man the F up" on higher gas prices, the Education Department got much less efficient after budget cuts, and much more... 👕 Cozy Earth: Code PAKMAN for up to 20% off at https://cozyearth.com/pakman ✉️ ProtonMail: Sign up today for FREE at https://proton.me/pakman 📖 Bullies, Parasites & Slaves: Text PAKMAN to 511511 or go to https://bps.online 💡 Outskill: Grab your free seat to the 2-Day AI Mastermind at https://link.outskill.com/PAKMANDEC1 🐶 Sundays for Dogs: Get 30% OFF with code PAKMAN at https://sundaysfordogs.com/pakman 💪 Get a FREE AG1 Pro Yeti Shaker in your Welcome Kit at https://drinkag1.com/pakman 🧠 Try Brain.fm totally free for a month at https://brain.fm/pakman -- 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 -- Send David a text: [phone] -- 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) Trump gives Xi a White House tour(08:07) Trump hosts state dinner for Xi Jinping(21:08) Judge orders Trump to restore press access(27:09) Tucker Carlson criticizes Trump's war(41:02) New poll shows Democrats leading(49:03) Friday Feedback segment Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Donald Trump embarrassed himself and embarrassed the United States with his handling of Xi Jinping's visit to the White House this week, bending over backwards to accommodate the Chinese leader, doing everything that he could to impress him and win him over. While at the same time, our relationships with places like Canada and Europe have never been worse. Trump is meeting Xi Jinping over at the airbase when he arrives from China rather than waiting at the White House, which is the normal presidential protocol. but Trump wants to look subservient. He wants to impress Xi Jinping, and that was made very clear at the White House this week with the state dinner

and the events leading up to it. Xi Jinping, of course, did not display the exact same level of hospitality when Trump decided to visit Beijing back in May. Trump's gesture suggests that he is going to be very conciliatory when negotiating on things like the trade war and crypto regulation, which they were supposed to be discussing this week. It's unclear if they actually got. to that stuff here it was all pomp and circumstance but it seems like it was mostly just pomp and circumstance.

So to start out, we have Donald Trump going out to greet Jijimpang at the White House and notice in the video that I'm going to play for you. Donald Trump is incapable of walking in a straight line. He just cannot do it. The red carpet is rolled out for him. So one would think it's pretty easy to walk in a straight line along the carpet, but Donald Trump veers off and he knocks Melania off course in so doing. How come he can not walk in a straight line? And of course, Trump wasted no time bragging about the granite walkway that he decided to install outside of the White House. I think that the asphalt walkway and driveway was totally fine before, but Donald Trump decided to spend taxpayer dollars on this walkway as another one of his vanity project ideas. He brags about how the walkway can withstand 35,000 pounds of pressure. Yes, that's going to impress Xi Jinping so much.

Here he is talking to reporters about how Xi Jinping loves the walkway. He is great interest from Granite. He likes Granite. He's an expert on stone, aside from many other things. And he loves good granite. Thank you very much. Yes, of course, Jijimpin, an expert on granite. You know, they really should have went to New Hampshire as part of this state visit.

The Granite State, because then Jijim Ping would feel right at home about it. He knows so much about granite. Then we have Trump showing off the presidential walk of fame that he decided to install last year. Outside of the Oval Office, he has this gallery of portraits that show all of the former presidents. And instead of Joe Biden's photo, he has a black and white photo of an auto pen, the idea that, oh, Joe Biden wasn't actually president. He just governed by autopen for four years. And Trump is there acting like this is so funny. Xi Jinping apparently feels like he has to go along and laugh along with his.

too. So here is Trump and G. Jinping laughing at the auto pen picture. And keep in mind, Joe Biden right now is dealing with stage four cancer. So this is as disrespectful as it gets. It's the same routine every time, right? This thing has been installed for like a year now. So whenever he does an interview on Fox News or whatever, he's showing off the auto pen picture. And he thinks it's laugh out loud funny every single time. I gotta say it's an old joke at this point and obviously completely disrespectful given everything that Joe Biden is dealing with right now. It would be disrespectful regardless, but the fact that you're making fun of someone who has staged for cancer right now and by all accounts is not doing well, it just tells you what kind of person Donald Trump is. And then we have Donald Trump showing off the helipad because, yes, this is another thing that Ji Jinping is going to be tremendously impressed by Donald Trump's new helipad that he decided to install on the White House grounds for the new generation of.

Marine One helicopters. This is supposed to really impress Xi Jinping. You talk about Taiwan. We had a great big. You know, Xi Jinping is the leader of a country of 1.5 billion people. It's one of the most advanced countries in the world, of course. Two-thirds of the world's high-speed rail. They have the best EV battery and 5G networks. They have some of the best technology and infrastructure in the world.

And Donald Trump thinks that Xi Jinping is going to be oh so impressed by his helipad and his granite walkway. Yeah, he doesn't care about this stuff. You know what this really reminds me of? When I was in high school, our high school had a sister school with a school in China, and every year they would alternate either sending the Chinese students to the U.S. or the U.S. students to China. And I know that when the U.S. students went to China, they got to see like the best sites and had this life-changing, memorable experience. There was one year where the Chinese group came to the U.S. and it just so happened to occur during a government shutdown. So they weren't, able to coordinate all the trips and visits they were supposed to do. So rather than doing this visit of the entire East Coast and going to Boston and New York and Washington, D.C., they basically just showed up, went to our school, went to the mall, and then had to go back home to China. And I feel like this is a very similar situation where China has so much to boast about, and we have Donald Trump showing off his helipad and the Granite Walkway. And as if this wasn't enough,

Donald Trump went on truth social to brag about the meeting even more and praise Jesus. Ping after it was all said and done. He said, quote, I met President G at the plane airport yesterday and he looks strong, vibrant and fit. Better than ever. Madam G. Of course, beautiful President DJT. Yes, Donald Trump just absolutely taken aback by Xi Jinping and how fit and vibrant he looks, how strong and masculine he looks. To be honest, I didn't notice a difference in Xi Jinping's appearance. I think he looks the same as he's always looked basically, but Donald Trump apparently wanting to use this as an opportunity to suck up to him even more. If you're someone like Emmanuel Macron or Mark Carney or another foreign leader of a democratic country where you were elected a leader,

then he doesn't care about you. But if you're someone like Xi Jinping, well, he's going to gush over how good you look. And then he also posted this troth essential post as well. A big day with President Xi of China. Super Intelligence, SI, will be a big topic of conversation. But I want to leave it exactly where it is. That is China's position also. Our guardrail is the DOJ, President DJT. So Trump is desperately trying to make SI a thing, even though it's probably not going to catch on. We know why they want to do it. It's because AI's reputation has been damaged by people who don't like it over how it's, you know, affecting the job market and these other negative things. So they say, well, what if we rebrand it? We won't call it artificial intelligence. We'll call it super intelligence.

Then people will be forced into liking it. But I don't think that's going to be all that effective. And certainly it's not going to change too many people's opinions when it comes to this. Also, I got to point out that post is completely ambiguous what he's trying to say there because when Donald Trump says we should leave AI where it is, to me, that makes me think, oh, we should put a pause on it. We should not develop it any further. We should maybe reassess in a few years. We'll leave it where it is right now. But of course, Donald Trump, I guess, means that we should leave it unregulated and just allow it to continue developing. So if you thought that this was a wacky appearance from Donald Trump hosting Xi Jinping at the White House, just wait. till you see what happened later that night at the state dinner. Xi Jinping wrapped up his three-day visit to Washington, D.C. this week with the state dinner that Donald Trump put on for him. Of course, we saw Donald Trump acquiesce to Xi Jinping all week, meeting him at the airport rather than waiting for him at the White House and showing off the granite and the helipad and the presidential walk of fame. He was just so excited to have

Xi Jinping, his buddy, at the White House, and he decided to cap it off with this state dinner that we saw yesterday featuring a who's who of who runs the world, basically, because you had the leader of the United States, you had the leader of China, and then you also had all the tech bros, the leader of the largest corporations in the world, everyone from Elon Musk to Mark Zuckerberg, to Jeff Bezos. They were all there to rub shoulders. And this was the exact swamp-like image, the elite that Donald Trump said that he would work against. But here you have all of them celebrating together at the White House. Before the toasts got going, before the speeches began.

Here is Donald Trump waiting outside of the White House to accept Xi Jinping as Xi Jinping arrives. And you'll hear protesters in this clip. Donald Trump is fuming mad, you can tell, taking a look at his reactions. Because in nearby Lafayette Park, you have people protesting for Free Tibet causes to support the Uyghur population, to support pro-democracy

causes in general. So you can hear those protesters from neighboring Lafayette park and Donald Trump is so upset over this that he's being embarrassed as he's trying to welcome Xi Jinping back to the White House. We can tell that Donald Trump is fuming mad. He is embarrassed because there are protesters who are ruining his moment. And we've heard Donald Trump so many times before brag about how in other countries, these authoritarian dictators, they can just do whatever they want to protesters.

They may not even have protesters because they can just bulldoze them out of the way if they want to. And Donald Trump knows that Xi Jinping can do that over in China, but he can't do that here because we have a democracy here in this country. We have freedom of speech. So people are allowed to protest. That's something that Donald Trump does not like. And he's hugely embarrassed by this.

He views this as a personal failing or a personal embarrassment, if you can believe that. And then we have at the dinner itself, Pete Hegseth opening things up by delivering a prayer. Now, I'm surprised that he didn't burst into flames because Pete Hegseth is the so-called secretary of war. And he spends his days blowing up civilians overseas. So the fact that he's going to lead people in prayer, I think is pretty ridiculous, but he did that. And then during the actual toast itself that Donald Trump gave, he called G and his wife truly outstanding, amazing people and said that two countries have never gotten along better, which is quite remarkable given the fact that we're in a trade war right now.

And China was hoping to accomplish from this meeting a two-year truce that would essentially end the trade war for the remainder of Donald Trump's presidency. see, they still only have a two-month truce. So in the midst of all of that and what's going on with the farmers here in this country, the trade war continuing, Donald Trump's saying that the two countries' relationship has never been better. This was described by Republican Senator Tom Tillis as a WTF moment, and that absolutely is right. How come on the one hand, we have all this pomp and circumstance and celebration about how great the U.S.-China relationship is. And on the other hand, we know that Donald Trump loves to go.

on truth social and say that he's going to implement a 50% tariff on China, 100% tariff on China, and he'll probably go back to doing that in just a couple of days. Next up, we have Donald Trump saying that he's going off script, which anytime he goes off script and we have someone interpreting what he says, I feel really bad for the interpreter because it's one of those things where Donald Trump is just going to spew out some word salad that the poor interpreter has to try to translate into their own language. And it's probably not going to translate all that well.

And people are maybe going to question the intelligence of the interpreter. But it's actually Donald Trump who is saying the nonsense. So always feel bad for the interpreters in those situations. But Donald Trump goes off scripts to say that he has a special treat for those in attendance. A special treat for Xi Jinping and a special treat with the other people in the room. They're going to get a very special sneak peek at the $400 million white house ballroom. The construction site that will become the White House ballroom. They're going to get a dusty sneak peek view of the ballroom.

Can you imagine what a great honor? Can you think of anything that would be more honorable than being allowed to be among the first to see Donald Trump's new White House ballroom? And if I could go off script just for a second, I just want to say, I had to do it. I had to do it. I should take talk a few. But as a special treat in honor of President Xi and and Madam Pung, I'd like to invite everyone in the room to visit through that beautiful curtain in the back.

The door, it's all lit up and looks beautiful. It's one year away from completion, the new ballroom that you've heard about, and you will see something that I think you will really love. Presidents have been trying to get this built for 150 years, and I can tell you that tonight, if we had it, we would have had way more than a thousand people with standing room only and this room has about 145 that's about it so

they've been looking for this for over 150 years all presidents and they will shortly have it so in honor of you you'll be the first people to step foot on that or we'll do that maybe after we're finished with the entertainment tonight anybody wants to walk into a construction site that's nice and clean and sparkling it's our honor to have you do so but this is in honor of president And she, Madam Pung. I really just love the idea that you have the most powerful people in the entire world in that room. You have world leaders, you have the CEOs of some of the biggest multinational corporations on the planet, all the money in the world to do whatever they want.

They can go into space. They can buy a mansion that costs hundreds of millions of dollars. They can have any experience whatsoever. But this is the cream of the crop for them, the ability to see the White House ballroom construction site before. officially opens. Yes, what an honor. And I really think that with all the ballroom talk and the Granite Walkway talk and the helipad talk, Xi Jinping could come away from this visit thinking that the most important responsibilities that the American president has. The most important things that the U.S. president does is making sure that the White House looks good and that there are always

vanity projects happening. It's not being a steward of the $33 trillion economy or overseeing the largest military in the world. No, it's putting up gaudy gold decor in the Oval Office from Home Depot. That's what you have to do as a primary responsibility. Next, we have Donald Trump presenting Xi Jinping and his wife with a custom bald eagle statue designed. He says, in personal collaboration with himself and Melania. He says, an artist put it together, but it was in collaboration with me and Melania. Yeah, okay, that's totally believable. Donald Trump just has to make up the most unbelievable lies, doesn't he? Like, are we really going to believe that he was personally involved in the artistic setup of this thing? And this was his vision that some artist carried out. Give me a break.

In that spirit of friendship, it's my honor to present President Xi with a gift made by an extraordinary American artist, one of the greatest in the world, and designed in personal collaboration with Melani and myself. And the bald eagle is a national symbol of the United States and an embodiment of the free and soaring spirit of American. We hope it'll find a nice place, a wonderful place in Beijing. It's your honor. Bing Chen to a fun you're aing to see chief. So this visit had a lot of pomp, had a lot of circumstance, but did it actually yield any favorable results? Did we make any progress on crypto or the trade war or Taiwan or any of these things? No, it was just an opportunity for Donald Trump

to hang out with his buddy, Gigi, Jim Ping and show off the new vanity projects he has going on at the White House. Real quick, David's book Pay Attention is available this week. We are right on the edge of making the New York Times bestseller list. So we're trying to make a final push to boost sales this week. One thing that you can do, which will help us out tremendously and is totally free, if you have a Spotify premium account. Take two seconds right now.

Go to the app and search for David's audiobook, pay attention. And all you've got to do is tap the plus sign. going to help our metrics. It's going to add it to your library. And it's going to help us make the final push that we're trying to do this week to make sure that we do everything we can possible to make this book a success. So if you have Spotify premium, that's something that you can do that'll take two seconds, totally free. Just add the audiobook to your library that will help boost the metrics. I'm Pat Ford filling in for David Pakman today. We have so much more of the David Pakman show coming up right after this. Summer is a good time to upgrade.

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Donald Trump exploded on truth social yesterday, calling out CNN and MS now because he was just so upset that the networks were allowed to get access to the White House once again after he tried to ban them. So, of course, to catch you up on this story in case you haven't been following it that closely. last Saturday, Donald Trump abruptly ordered CNN, MS Now, and Politico banned from the White House because Donald Trump said that they were fake news and the Secret Service members confiscated their press badges. Everyone thought this is not going to hold up because, of course, this clearly violates free speech and freedom of the press. And sure enough, it did not hold up. But when the ban was in place, other networks that weren't banned, including ABC, CBS, NBC and even Fox News decided to stand in solidarity. with the other networks that were banned. So, for example, they decided to not share the pool duty with CNN voluntarily refusing to fill in for them in solidarity.

Because of that boycott, Xi landed at Joint Base Andrews on Wednesday, and there was no pool camera to cover the Chinese president's arrival. None of the major networks carried footage of the events, and this is something that Donald Trump was really upset about because there was this boycott, and it embarrassed him. personally, the fact that this was going on. But of course, this is something that Donald Trump created in the first place by deciding to ban those outlets. So this was completely foreseeable. And an embarrassment he wouldn't have had to deal with if he didn't decide to go down this road. And unsurprisingly, eventually, a federal judge, Timothy Kelly, who, by the way, Donald Trump appointed back in 2017, this is a Trump appointed judge. He ruled in the favor of the networks ordering the White House to immediately restore their access. The judge's order came down

overnight and by Thursday morning, the judge ordered the White House to restore CNN, MS now, and Politico's access. But when journalists actually showed up on Thursday morning to cover Xi Jinping's arrival at the White House, they got turned away with CNN's reporter directly denied entry until around noon well after the ceremony had taken place. But despite this course of events, Donald Trump had his own version of events that he made up in his head about what took place and why CNN wasn't covering certain aspects of the welcome ceremony. He posted on truth social, quote, CNN and MSDNC's ratings have dropped considerably.

The primary reason is no credibility. They only write badly about a man who won the election and a giant landslide, winning all seven swing states, the popular vote, and 86% of the counties, et cetera, and whose popularity has grown because of the unprecedented success our country is having on both the world stage and at home. CNN and MSDNC to show you how fake they are, today refused to cover one of the biggest and most beautiful events to take place in many years,

the arrival at the White House of the highly respected president of China, Xi Jinping, and his beautiful wife, Madam Peng. The event was magnificent, actually made for television, but because they're fake news and because they knew how good it would be, they didn't want credit to be given to Trump. They refused to be there. That's why they have such poor ratings. tonight's state dinner at the White House for President Xi will be spectacular.

The media will be in attendance, President Donald J. Trump. So I won't even get into the claim that Donald Trump makes about how he's more popular today than back on election day, or I won't get into the gushing of Xi Jinping because we already covered that in the first segments. But Donald Trump here is clearly getting confused. I think he's confusing what happened yesterday with the earlier network boycotts because CNN did not refuse to cover the event. CNN was denied access to the event. So this was not the network's choice. This was the government blocking a court-ordered right of entry.

Trump managed to be an authoritarian maniac by banning CNN in the first place and making it impossible for them to do their reporting. And then later on, he acts like the aggrieved victim complaining about how the media is not covering him favorably. And they're ignoring this very important visit with Xi Jinping. By the way, later that evening, even with grounds access, supposedly restored. CNN was denied access again, specifically to cover the state dinners guest arrivals. They offered reduced technical access, a photo, an audio technician, but not standard reporting credentials. Here is CNN host Aaron Burnett last night reporting on that. But his lack of coverage is getting to Trump. Just a short time ago, he fired off this message attacking CNN and

MS now, saying that the two television networks, quote, refused to cover one of the biggest and most beautiful events to take place in many years, the arrival at the White House of the highly respected President of China, Xi Jinping, and his beautiful wife, Madame Peng. The event was magnificent, actually made for television. But because they're fake news and because they knew how good it would be, they didn't want credit to be given to Trump. They refused to be there. Well, when the president of the United States posts something like about us, it's important to be clear on what really happened because CNN did not refuse to cover the event. We, like MS Now and Politico, were denied access to the White House grounds.

So this is basically a version of uninviting someone to your birthday party. And then when the party happens, locking the front door and crying about how they didn't show up to the birthday party, well, you uninvited them and then you locked them out. So of course, they weren't able to show up to the birthday party. You can't now act like, oh, you're so offended that they didn't show. Well, yeah, you prevented them from doing so. So it's unclear whether Donald Trump was lying in this moment or confused because maybe he was confusing the boycotts that happened earlier with this being denied access thing. But it's all very confusing. And apparently Donald Trump can't keep his authoritarian action straight. He's spiraling out of control. And this is the exact type of thing

that we need to make him and Republicans pay for in November. Tucker Carlson is on a rehabilitation tour after he had a falling out with Donald Trump over the Iran war issue. Tucker spent years on Fox News bashing Democrats and arguing that Donald Trump would be a great populist president. And instead, what we got is Trump entering this war in Iran, violating all the promises he made about how he was supposed to be an anti-war president. Tucker Carlson fell for all those promises. And now is acting so surprised that Donald Trump went back on his word and entered this conflict in Iran, even though all the warning signs were there. But he sat down for this interview with NPR's Steve Inski because Tucker, of course, wants to continue

being relevant in the Republican Party. He's trying to develop some sort of anti-Trump future for MAGA and be like the third way for anti-Trump Republicans going into the next election cycles. We'll see how authentic this is all coming across. First, we have Tucker saying that Trump's decision to attack Iran was the single most foolish thing that a president has ever done. And I got to say, it sounds hyperbolic, maybe a little bit. But when you really think about it, I think this actually could end up being an accurate statement. especially with how things are going and no telling how long they will go. So here is Tucker Carlson criticizing Donald Trump over his decision to enter this conflict.

You have said that the president in deciding to go to war with Iran was more a hostage than a decision maker, a slave to foreign interests, and it was the single most foolish thing a president has ever done. Given that, should President Trump be impeached for going to war with Iran? Well, let me just say, you know, it's always a painful experience to hear your own quotes read back to you because often they don't hold up. Many of mine haven't. Many of mine haven't. Those have. All three of those observations are true, and I think they've been proved true since I said them.

He was pushed by a foreign country to do this. It is the most profoundly destructive thing. Any single decision a president has made in our history. I feel sorry for him. I'm not angry at him personally. I don't think that he had the latitude to make this decision on his own. So, you know, I have pity. That's just so wonderfully patronizing, isn't it?

Tucker Carlson saying that Donald Trump didn't have the latitude to make this decision. He feels pity for him because he was so stupid apparently and got duped into this. I got to say, though, it's one of the ways that Tucker Carlson can work to remove his own personal guilt and responsibility. from the situation because if Donald Trump tricked you, if you were the person who fell for it, Tucker, well, then you may have to do a lot more soul searching. You may have to look in the mirror a little bit more. But if Tucker is able to convince himself that no, Trump was the one who was tricked by other people, well, then that makes it so he feels less culpable, right?

Tucker did everything that he could to make sure that this war in Iran didn't happen. But really, what you could have done is just not supported Donald Trump in the first place. That's how you would have less responsibility when it comes to all of them. this. Tucker says that he doesn't necessarily support Donald Trump being impeached over this, but he would be open to the 25th Amendment. He would be open to Donald Trump being removed via the 25th Amendment because of the comments that Trump has made threatening nuclear warfare. Should he be removed from office if you believe, as you've said, that he effectively betrayed the country? He should be removed. He should have been removed from office immediately when he

threatened nuclear war, threatening the offensive use of nuclear weapons, which is to say threatening the destruction of humanity. Okay, what about the war in Iran then? It's enough for me to say he should be removed from office. He should have been removed from office by his own cabinet secretaries the moment he threatened a nuclear attack. You're talking now about the 25th Amendment where a majority of the cabinet.

That's correct. He should have been bundled up and taken out. That's a crime. There's no greater crime than that. You think of all the people you know who go to jail for violating Farah or cheating on their taxes. Here you have a guy threatening to eliminate the human race, and that's not considered a crime. It tells you how deranged our moral scale has

become. So he should be removed from office for threatening first-use nuclear strike. So this sounds great in all, the idea that Donald Trump's threats against a human civilization are impeachment or 25th Amendment worthy. So he supports removing him from office over that reason. But this isn't really new for Trump. This is the type of thing that he said plenty of times over the years, including when he threatened North Korea with fire and fury. The difference is that Donald Trump is a lot more unpopular now. And Tucker Carlson sees a future in trying to distinguish himself as different from Trump, but still a conservative. That's why he's now calling for removal. That's why he's calling for change to happen. It's not because he crossed the line Donald Trump did that

Tucker Carlson cannot overlook because he's overlooked that crossing of the red line before. And it's also a lot easier for Tucker Carlson to say that he would support Trump's removal over this issue because this is something that happened a while ago at this point, right? This is months old. So there's just no world at this point where Donald Trump's own cabinet members decide to turn on him over this thing that happened a while ago. It's just not going to come up. But impeachment, that's actually something that could happen. Maybe impeachment over the Iran war, maybe impeachment over something else. But that's something that's more forward-looking because Democrats are going to hopefully take back the House, maybe even the Senate, and then we'll have the control

to at least impeach him, certainly not convict him as well, but at least impeach him. So this is a conversation that could come up. We want to get Tucker Carlson's opinion on it. And he's not willing to weigh in on that. He's just willing to weigh in on this thing that is never going to happen in any world. Next up, we have Tucker Carlson trying to do the both sides thing. He says that, yeah, Donald Trump has been bad on Iran. But you know who else wasn't great on Iran either?

Barack Obama and Joe Biden. But Stevenske, the interviewer, completely shuts him down on this. The last two administrations, Democratic administrations, Biden and Obama, were committed to an anti-Iran policy, which was expressed through sanctions. Very aggressive sanctions, which didn't work in any sense. Except to get to the nuclear deal ultimately, but go on. Yeah, I guess. But did it, I mean, like, what did they achieve in the end, kind of? Like, I guess the point is the, of course.

But the orientation itself is what got us to this war. So I'm not sure where Tucker Carlson's mind was going when he decided to start making this point. But it's clear that he wasn't going to be able to get away with it because you can't say that, oh, yeah, Democratic presidents, they've been bad on Iran too. When under Obama, we had the Iran nuclear deal that prevented Iran from getting a nuclear weapon and also kept us out of a conflict with them. So it's obviously a much better position than we have under Trump, no matter how you slice and dice it. And then we have perhaps the most stunning part from the entire interview. Tucker Carlson goes off the rails, you could say. Now, he claims that he personally warned Donald Trump about the risks of this war to his face. And Donald Trump apparently shrugged it off.

Trump didn't care at all about the future of the human species, didn't even care about what happens to his kids and grandkids after he's no longer with us. So here is Tucker Carlson, just basically admitting that Donald Trump is a complete sociopath. And so the idea that Trump didn't know the risks, and once again, I'm in an unusual position because I talked to Trump. But you've quoted him as waving off the risk by saying it'll all be fine, which could almost... You all know what he said? I'll tell you exactly what he said. And I haven't said this, but I'm just going to tell you. Sure.

And this is a fact. And I could look at my calendar, but it was in... I had flown back from Tel Aviv from Ben-Gurian airport after seeing the ambassador, and two days later it was in the Oval with Trump alone. And he was annoyed that I had given Huck could be a hard time with this whole conversation. conversation about Huckabee, and I said, here, you're U.S. as the son of an ambassador, I know what the job entails. And your ambassador, your representative to this nation just called for rearranging the Middle East and allowing Israel to take parts of Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Syria. Like, this is a diplomatic incident. And so we had this whole conversation about this. But then I said, this war is not about Iran's nuclear program, which you told me in the world that you eliminated back in last summer in June. Yeah. this war is being pushed by Israel with three aims. One, its own regional hegemony, take Iran off the map.

They don't have freedom of movement as long as Iran is a regional power. Two, diminishing the power of the GCC, the six Gulf states, which are a rival to Israel and are becoming this kind of Switzerland in the Middle East, and that's bad for Israeli interests. And three, getting the U.S. out of the Middle East, because we constrain their ambitions. Getting our bases out, destroying our bases. Israel wants our bases out of the Middle East. I said this to Trump, to his face in the Oval Office, days before the war began. And he looked at me and said, yes, you're right. But in the end, we all die anyway. So it doesn't matter. That's exactly what he said. In the end, we all die anyway. And I said to him, shocked, but what about our kids and our grandkids and

like our country. And he goes, I gotta say, this actually does sound like Donald Trump to me. I think that this may have been the course of events and they probably went about how Tucker Carlson described them because Trump does not strike me as someone who cares about the future of humanity,

the future of the country, even the future of his own kids and grandkids. He just doesn't seem to be the type of person that cares all that much once he's no longer on this planet. He probably figures, I'm 80 years old and once I'm gone, it doesn't matter anymore. And that's really concerning given the fact that he has the nuclear codes and he's this narcissist.

So could he conceivably want to take the rest of society down with him? Who knows? Who knows? I certainly do not want to find out. Bottom line, Tucker Carlson is being optimistic. Of course, he's trying to establish his own third way in American politics and be the post-Trump MAGA leader. But is it really going to work for him? I don't know. I think you're dealing with a small sliver of people to begin with. And he's doing a bit of the Miaculpa thing, but not really because it just doesn't seem all that believable as a Miaculpa, right? Like consistently over time, Tucker Carlson has supported the person who has been the more pro-war option, right? He went with George Bush, who got us involved in the Iraq War, a war that Tucker Carlson supported and cheerleaded, by the way, before eventually turning against it to his credit.

He eventually said that that was a big regret in his career. But he had all this time to learn from that mistake. And what did he do? He decided to oppose Barack Obama, who actually ended the war in Iraq and got us the Iran nuclear deal. He also opposed Joe Biden, who ended the war in Afghanistan. But what did he do? He supported Donald Trump, who got us involved in this regime change, Forever War, in Iran, yet another Middle Eastern conflict. So this track record does not look like one that is anti-war.

Tucker Carlson supporting all of these war-mongering Republican people. presidents. And so surprise, surprise, not everyone's going to believe you when you say that you're the anti-war populist. All right, where you have more of the David Packman show coming up with you right after this. AI tools are everywhere now, but most people aren't even aware how much AI can help their business and their daily workflow. Our sponsor, Outskill, is hosting a free two-day AI mastermind training this Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Eastern. You don't need any coding or technical background and over those two days you're going to learn practical skills how to use

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election day, but we're really in a good position right now. If you take a look at the new Emerson College poll released 40 days before the midterms, Democrats lead the generic congressional ballot 53% to 42%. That is an 11 point lead double digits and it matches the largest lead Emerson has had poor Democrats measured all cycles. So this of course does not mean you can stay home. You still actually have to go out and vote. The polling alone is not going to tip the balance of the House or Senate. Neither other prediction markets actually casting a ballot will do that. But this is absolutely a good sign. So what is the generic congressional ballot? It's basically just asking people whether they're going to vote Republican or Democrat in their own house race for

their personal districts. Now, it's not doing the math for who's likely as a party to win a majority of seats in the House. It's not taking a look at the dynamics of all 435 House seats. It's also skewed by the gerrymandering that goes on in population distribution. But the idea with the generic congressional ballot is to get a snapshot of what the country is thinking and feeling like. And Democrats right now are winning by double digits, an 11 point lead. Let's take a look at the chart over time. So we had the 2026 generic congressional ballot. And as you can see last year in the summer, this was a wash. It wasn't clear that Democrats would have any chance of picking up the House or Senate, anything like that. And this was completely tied even going into the beginning of

this year. And then what happened at the very beginning of this year, we of course had the ice killings of American citizens. Ice and immigration were big topics that were working against the Trump administration at that point. So we started to see that gap. And then, of course, in February, we had Donald Trump entering the war with Iran, and that made it so things would not return back to the baseline for Republicans. The gap between Democrats and Republicans continue to widen, and now we have this 11-point lead that has opened up. And, you know, the trajectory could change, of course. Things could get back to being a much closer race, but we're only about a month out at this point is the reality of it. So Republicans do not have a lot of time left.

In addition, independents are breaking four Democrats 60 to 31 percent. And Hispanic voters who actually shifted toward Trump in 2024 are now breaking for Democrats 64 to 31. So it's no wonder why this is happening. It's no wonder why so many members of Congress who are Republicans in vulnerable seats or trying to become members of Congress but are in vulnerable seats, why they are taking Trump's image off of their campaign websites, why they're not bragging about Trump's endorsement anymore because the guy is just completely toxic. And so now all these Republican campaigns are trying to act as if their candidate is an independent thinker who isn't just going to do whatever Trump wants them to do. So the question is whether this 11 point lead for Democrats ahead of the midterm races is actually going to translate to a whole bunch of seats or just a few seats that we pick up. So comparing it to previous election cycles in 2010, Republicans held a generic ballot lead of about. seven percentage points. And that turned into a 63 seat swing. So that was a huge year for them. Then in 2018, Democrats had our big year. We had the 8% lead in the generic ballot. And then we ended

up flipping 40 seats for that blue wave that gave us control of the House of Representatives again. 2022, we had the break from the typical pattern. Republicans did not have a great midterm year, even though Joe Biden was the president. Republicans led narrowly, something like one or two percentage points in the generic ballot and they ended up only getting about nine seats. So based on how things tend to play out and the historical trends, but also factoring in gerrymandering and the specifics of the races right now, it looks like with this 11 point lead in the generic ballot, we could pick up something like 25 to 30 seats. That seems reasonable to me looking at all the numbers. And I think that would count as a blue wave in my book, especially if we're able to take the Senate

along with it. So let's do everything that we can to make that happen in November. Remember everyone, David's new book, pay attention is available now. Wherever books are sold, you can go to Davidpackman.com slash attention to get links to a bunch of places where you can purchase the book. We're doing everything we can to get the book on the New York Times best sellers list. Also, I will say, again, if you have Spotify premium, something that you can do that will take just a few seconds and cost you no money at all, is just search for the audiobook. Pay attention by David Packman. Tap that plus sign to add the audiobook to your library. It doesn't cost you a thing, but it will help us out a bunch in the

metrics and help boost the algorithm in our favor so we can get more book sales in this final push that we have this week. Thank you, everybody, for watching today's episode of the David Pacman show. We actually have David coming back to host the final segment of today's show. If you can believe that, he's going to host the Friday feedback where he responds to some of your emails and comments. That's it for me today, though. Thanks everybody for watching. Pat Ford tuning out. Stick around though. David will be back with us right after the break. I like when a health routine is simple enough that I'll actually do it, not a complicated stack, not five steps, just one thing that covers a lot. And this is the idea behind AG1 Pro, which is one of today's

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Visit drinkag1.com slash Pacman to get a free AG1 pro Yeti shaker in your AG1 pro welcome kit. The link is in the description. someone who can't work with music on. Check this out. Most music asks for your attention. Lyrics, familiar melodies, dramatic changes, songs you want to go and skip. Music by Brain FM is built around the opposite idea. It is sound that supports what you're doing. Our sponsor, Brain FM creates functional music using patented audio technology designed to influence brain activity associated with attention so that you can better focus. Brain FM is the only music. app funded by the National Science Foundation. They have peer reviewed research, which has found

Brain FM can increase activity in attentional networks and also improve performance on attention-based tasks. You can choose modes for deep work, learning, creativity, motivation. They have an ADHD mode for people who benefit from additional stimulation. So even if you've always thought I work better without music, Brain FM is worth testing against silence. Try it yourself. Anyone in my audience can try Brain FM totally free for a whole month at Brain.fm slash Pacman. The link is in the description. Sometimes when people in the audience write to me, it's a beautiful thing. David, I love the show. What a great take on this. What a great take on that. Sometimes it's constructive criticism. And sometimes it's straight up nasty trolling, the likes of which is so antisocial that I wonder

how do some of these people even get through the day? But I'm kind of like getting off course and getting ahead of myself. Let's just look at some feedback from the audience here and see what we make of it. Brent Clifford wrote in and said, why will the Iran war be over after midterms? What is that what has that got to do with it? Well, it's a great question. Donald Trump has been saying this. The war is going to end very quickly right after the midterms. Let me tell you what the bottom line is on this. It's all horseshit. Trump has been saying the war is almost over for seven almost into the eighth month. He said in February when it started, it would take two to three weeks, then it would be four to six.

It'll definitely be over within three months. It's not going to go six months. And here we are. The war started at the end of winter and we're starting to go slowly. I know fall just started, but we're slowly getting into winter, especially in the northeast. So it's always about some milestone that's just there. It's the same damn pattern as with the Russia-Ukraine war. Remember, if I were president, it never would have happened.

Okay, but it did. And you're not president. If I get elected within a day of winning the election, before I even take office, that war will be over. And it didn't. So then it was within a day of being sworn in. And then it was within a month. Then it was within 100 days.

Then it was, you know, we might be kind of walking away from this because it's not clear that we're going to be able to end it. There is no reason why you would need to wait for the election to end a war. If the war is ready to end, then you end it. And if it's not, you continue. Obviously, this is an optional war. But Brent is right. There is no reason whatsoever that we need to get beyond the midterms for Trump to be able to end the war.

Larbear baby posted to the subreddit. Is Pacman still doing multiple segments per week on Trump's bruised hands and cancels? I love these. I was a website member for close to a decade, but I lost interest when David began to focus a not insignificant portion of his show to segments on Trump's health. I get it. The health of the president is important. And info from the administration should be transparent.

But multiple segments per week going over photos and videos of Trump's hands and ankles Zapruder style is not my jam, particularly after four years of David lampooning, conservative media for doing similar coverage of Biden. I'm curious if this is still part of the show. It's been a year since I watched it. I have an honest question. I'm going to answer this, okay? But this is a real bona fide question to lar bear baby or whoever might have some insight.

If what you're seeking is information as to whether this show has multiple segments per week about Trump's cancels and bruised hands, why would you go to the subreddit of a show you haven't watched for a year? ask and then have to wait around for other people to answer who may answer you honestly or not when you could just go to the YouTube channel and check in 15 seconds. Why? Is it because it's not really information you're after, but you're just looking for a way to attack the show?

And if that's how you get your rocks off, have at it. I'm happy for the subreddit to be the punching bag. But you could have gotten the information you were seeking yourself. Now, of course, there are very few segments about Trump's health. he does fall asleep so often that in covering press conferences, announcements, et cetera, there's often an interlude of, and then Trump fell asleep, and then he woke up and we went to the next part of the thing. But no, there are not multiple segments per week on Trump's bruised hands and cancels. And quite frankly, I don't know that there ever were multiple segments a week

on that. But I guess we both agree, presidential health is important. They made it the rubric about Biden. We should apply those standards to Trump. We should apply him to Mitch McConnell or whoever else. Okay, light side of the moon commented on YouTube. Trump's response to AI was the same response he had when asked about his favorite verse of the Bible. It's transparent. He knows nothing about either of them. Absolutely. When Trump is asked about something he doesn't really know anything about, he reacts exactly the same way. Well, what is your favorite Bible verse? Oh, I don't want to get into specific versus that's very personal. Oh, okay. But what about just like one? No, when it would be very easy to mention one. Well, what do you use AI for? Oh, I don't I don't want to disclose that. Okay, but what's like one thing you use AI? Now, I'm not going to list any things. Trump has tells and one of them is how he talks when he has no clue, just no clue what is being asked about. All right, six string showgun, on Apple podcast reviews. They're using your platform. I assume I assume this person meant they

apostrophe r. They're using your platform. Love this show. Hey, David, I just heard a Republican Senate ad before the show started better nip that ASAP. Yeah. So here's the deal. I've been getting a lot of emails from people saying, David, there are ads on your show attacking Democrats or promoting Republicans. I just want to remind everybody, those ads aren't on the show. Your location, like where you are in the world, we have a world, where you are in the world, and your algorithmic history determine what ads you see. Now, if I'm reading the ad, if I'm going, ever wake up tired in the morning, you know, if it's like, if it's me reading the ad, then it is part of the show. But when you're on YouTube,

and there's like an ad. Somebody told me there was an ad attacking Sherrod Brown or on Spotify, etc. That's algorithmically delivered. It has nothing to do with us. Just so everybody knows, we do not have any Republicans deliberately advertising on this show. And we don't have any Democrats that are being paid to be attacked or anything like that. Also from the Apple podcast reviews, Burdock Boy wrote a parody of a Maga hate mail. And it is still a five-star review. It says, the Dan Parkman show will be your new favorite podcast podcast, podcast wrap, randomly capitalized. He's on some kind of government watch list so you know he's striking a nerve.

Start listening today. You're wrong. You're not going to regret it. I have to tell you. I love this. It's five stars, which we love. It's positive about the show. But it includes many of the hallmark.

of MAGA emails that I get, nicely done. Alfarious wrote on Spotify, I need that Obamna shirt. Yeah, the bright blue Obamana shirt that I was wearing last week. That's our, it's a David Packman show shirt. You can, you can buy it on our store, store. David Pakman.com. And boy, do people like that one. Big Racks Russ on Spotify wrote in and said,

this needs to make it on Friday feedback. Well, it did. Why did David never address why his hair was sticky that day? This is a major controversy. Yeah, you know, the other day my hair was sticky. I couldn't really tell you why. Sometimes it's just as though electricity runs through me. And let's see if I can do it. And it just sort of spikes it up. And then, you know, it can be sort of difficult, as you can see to get to get back under control. There's no real answer to why my hair ever is doing any particular thing. On Spotify also, Stephanie Hodges Baker says the reason that Trump is concerning himself with renovations and remodels around D.C.

is because he sees all of it as his personal property that he's remodeling in his image. That and he also wants to copy the tacky and ostentatious style of Arabian and foreign dictators and strongmen. I think there's a lot to this. number it these this is a perfect message i have to say stephanie first of all trump sees it all as his it's the people's white house that we pay for with our tax money trump sees it as his it's the reflecting pool that we all pay for with our tax no no no no no trump sees it as his thing to do with what he pleases and number two the inspiration for even wanting to mess with a lot of that stuff

is that donald trump is enamored with dictators Trump sees how dictators, when they see press they don't like, they go, you're done. And that's what Trump is trying to do here, banning CNN and MS now and Politico and putting me on a White House offenders list and all of this stuff. And Trump sees how in North Korea, in Russia, et cetera, these authoritarian dictatorial guys create monuments with their names and their likenesses. And Trump just wants to do the same stuff. He wants his name on Kennedy Center and he wants his name on this and that and the other thing. It is a perfect analysis by Stephanie. And I so appreciate that she wrote in.

Ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to report that the book promotion week is over. This is the end. And while I still have my event with Jessica Tarlov, October 3rd, 6 p.m., I think, in Springfield, Massachusetts, the bulk of the book tour is winding down. promoting the book is winding down except, let me just mention one thing. All books ordered up to tomorrow count for the first week of sales for New York Times bestseller. Okay. So we're done with this stuff. We're moving on.

No more book stuff. But, but if you haven't ordered the book, this is a great time to do it. David Pakman.com slash attention. If there are signed books still available, you will see a link there for a sign. Thank you.