The David Pakman Show - Trump loses mind on friends as war backfires badly

Episode Date: April 10, 2026

-- On the Show -- Josh Gay from Ring of Fire fills in for David. Check out his work at https://www.youtube.com/@TheRingofFire -- Donald Trump attacks Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, Candace Owens, and Alex Jones after they criticize his Iran war, fracturing his base -- Melania Trump delivers an unannounced speech about Jeffrey Epstein that brings renewed attention to her past connections -- Traders place highly-timed bets on the Iran ceasefire announcement, raising concerns about insider information tied to Trump allies -- Donald Trump claims victory in the Iran war, while evidence shows Iran gaining leverage and the United States faces economic setbacks -- Retired Brigadier General Steve Anderson suggests trials for officials who followed potentially illegal orders during the Iran war -- U.S. troops and reports contradict Pentagon claims of success, describing poor preparation and leadership issues -- Lawmakers from both parties call for Donald Trump to be removed through impeachment or the 25th Amendment, but both remain unlikely -- Democrats begin to divide over messaging strategy, fundraising, and potential candidates as they prepare for upcoming elections -- The NAACP calls for Donald Trump to be removed while also pursuing legal action to challenge voting restrictions and protect voter access. -- Doctor Oz makes incorrect claims about Medicaid fraud in New York based on a basic math error, undermining the investigation -- The Trump administration enters a public conflict with the Pope as reports emerge of tensions between US officials and the Vatican -- On the Bonus Show: Debate over the 25th Amendment continues, JD Vance campaigns for a dictator, Trump is resorting to shock content, and much more... 👂 MDHearing: Use code PAKMAN to get a pair for just $247 at https://shopmdhearing.com/ 🛡️ Incogni lets you control your personal data! Get 60% off their annual plan: http://incogni.com/pakman 🩳 SHEATH Underwear: Code PAKMAN for 20% OFF at https://sheathunderwear.com/pakman 🔊 Blinkist: Read a nonfiction book in just 15 minutes! Try it FREE at https://blinkist.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) Trump criticizes conservative media figures over Iran (08:17) Melania Trump remarks renew focus on Epstein case (13:55) Betting activity raises questions before ceasefire announcement (22:06) The United States is losing the war with Iran (29:25) Growing calls for investigations into the Iran war (34:47) Concerns emerge over decisions by US defense leadership (41:13) Lawmakers discuss removing Trump from office (47:37) Democrats are dividing going into '26 and '28 (56:22) NAACP calls for Trump removal (1:05:41) Doctor Oz faces criticism over incorrect fraud claims (1:14:48) Pentagon denies threatening the Vatican Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am not sure which timeline of the multiverse we're in. But Donald Trump, whichever one we're in right now, Donald Trump has gone completely bonkers. I'm Josh Gay from The Ring of Fire, filling in for David Packman, and you can catch me at YouTube.com slash the Ring of Fire. And look, if you would have told me two years ago that Tucker Carlson, Megan Kelly, Candice Owens, Alex Jones, would be some of the loudest voices calling for the 25th Amendment to remove Donald Trump from office.

I would have asked if you'd been drinking what Hegsteth was drinking. Then I would probably ask for some more there, but here we are. And Trump posts a 482 word rant on Truth Social, calling all four of these ardent supporters of his, stupid, and with low IQs running third-rate podcasts. He called Tucker Carlson a broken man who needs a good psychiatrist. He went to one of his old go-toes insulting Candace Owens on her looks, which is what he does for any woman who dares disagree with him. He reminded everyone that Alex Jones is absolutely broke

because he was lying about Sandy Hook. And for Megan Kelly, he brought up the debate question from 2016 like it was yesterday. I mean, he's off his meds. And you have to see that. this post. It's insane. He starts off saying, I know why Tucker Carlson, Megan Kelly, Candice Owens, and Alex Jones have all been fighting me for years, especially by the fact that they think it's wonderful for Iran, the number one state sponsor of terror, to have a nuclear weapon. And you got to stop for a second and realize that's the capability that we've destroyed over a year

ago. Iran had no capability of having a nuclear weapon. Trump goes on to say Tucker, Megan, Candace and Alex are stupid people. They know it, their families know it, and everyone else knows it too. And they might be. But this is Donald Trump calling them out, calling them nut jobs and troublemakers that will say anything necessary for some free and cheap publicity. You know, again, he talked about Candace Owens saying that she was uglier. than the First Lady of France. He said that Alex Jones says some of the dumbest things

and lost his entire fortune, as he should have, for his horrendous attack on the families of Sandy Hook shooting victims. He called them losers and said that they always will be. And of course, he had no problem going after the mainstream media either, saying, now the fake news, CNN, the failing New York Times, and all of the other radical left news organizations are hailing them and giving them positive press for the first time in their lives.

It's insane. It is insane that he is attacking the very people who helped get him elected. He says, as president, he could get them on his side any time he wanted to, but when they call, I don't return their calls because I'm too busy on world and country affairs. Really?

Running that successful Iranian war? What about the Epstein files? And then he says after a few times of him ignoring them, they go nasty like Marjorie Trader Brown. But this is the best part. He goes on this long rant covering all of this. I mean, he's obviously upset about it. And then he says, I no longer care about this stuff. I only care about doing right for our country.

Maga is about winning in strength in not allowing Iran to have nuclear weapons. MAGA is about making America great again. Iran, America, whatever. And these people have no idea to do that. But I do because the United States is now the hottest country anywhere in the world, signing it like a little kid, President Donald J. Trump. And again, you got to remember, these are the people, the very people, that built the MAGA media machine.

I mean, Tucker Carlson had Trump on his show more than anyone can ever count. Alex Jones had been screaming about stolen elections and colonies on Mars before it was trendy. He had Candace Owens. She's got a massive, massive audience. They might be a little weird, but she has a huge audience. Megan Kelly, they had that little feud in 2016, but she has spent the years since then absolutely going to bat for the president, no matter what he did. And what did they do to earn his wrath? All they did was tell the truth about.

this illegal war. Tucker Carlson calling Trump's Easter threats against Iran vile on every level, and he correctly said that you might see this as a war crime. Megan Kelly, she was on Pierce Morgan, saying that the war was folly from the start and said that the ceasefire sounded like surrender, because it was. We lost that war. She said the coalition that got Trump elected is completely fractured and in smithereens. Gee, I wonder why. I mean, her exact quote was the question is not who has Trump lost. The question is who remains. And if you look at the polls, they are still cratering.

I still can't believe that he's in the 30s still. That means 30% of Americans actually approve of what this insane man is doing. But those numbers are continuing to shrink. And these people aren't backing down. This isn't just a temporary blip. Candice Owens, she posted a screenshot of his rant on X and said, it may be time to put grandpa up in a home. Alex Jones, the craziest one of the bunch I might add,

said on his show that Trump is mad that he's wrong. Once a man, twice a child, this is dementia. Alex Jones, this is a guy who would have taken a bullet for Trump two years ago. And he's openly questioning whether or not the president. president has dementia. And you guys, David's audience, David's probably the best voice out there covering the decline of Trump's health. And when you have David Pacman being the pioneer in that area and how you go to Alex Jones essentially agreeing, I have no idea what is going on in this world. But I do know, I mean, Trump is toast now because these are not people that can be

replaced. Fox News, despite trying, they're not coming to save him the same way they used to. The right-wing podcast ecosystem, that's the conservative media that got him elected, and he declared open war on the four biggest names there. I mean, who's watching Tucker Carlson's podcast? It's the same people who voted for Trump. And you know who's not watching people like Sean Hannity anymore? It's those same people. They've just migrated audiences. And the most laughable part to me about all of this is Trump ending his post saying he doesn't return their calls because he's too busy on world and country affairs. This is a man posting on Truth Social at 3 a.m. about Rosie O'Donnell questions from 2016. That man's not busy. He's not running the country. He's scared. He's confused. He's unwell. And it's obvious that he's not the one running the country.

He's just a guy who has no more power. His health is in an obvious decline. And all he knows how to do when he's afraid is attack. He's never been a leader. He's never been the guy to rally people together, never been the one to compromise. All he knows how to do is escalate. And this time, I don't think there's anywhere for him to go with it. It's not going to end well for it.

This was absolutely bizarre. Melania Trump walking out in the grand foyer of the White House and she did something no one expected. She gave a speech, unprompted, unannounced, about Jeffrey Epstein. And if she had some goal in mind, it's obvious that the opposite effect was the outcome. I mean, think about it. You have this stupid, illegal war with Iran. It was dominating all the news cycles.

The Epstein conversation, it started to fade. And look, there are still a lot of people talking about it. But the general public was more concerned about their gas prices and their grocery prices and will we break out into World War III than the Epstein files. The DOJ, they were doing a good job in Trump's favor of successfully slow walking out the documents. Bondi, she was a great lightning rod for Trump. She was taking all the heat. And so from the Trump administration's perspective, the Epstein story was dying down. So naturally, the First Lady of the United States decided that this was the perfect moment

to give a national address about the Epstein files. A six-minute speech where she denies ever having a relationship with Epstein or Gleine Maxwell. I mean, she did acknowledge writing a friendly email to Maxwell and called it a casual correspondence and a trivial note. By the way, that email, she signs it love. Melania. Maxwell responding calling Melania sweet pea. Doesn't sound like a trivial relationship. And Melania says she never met Epstein until 2000, at an event she was with Donald at. She said she was never on the plane, never on the island, never appeared in any of the court documents. So if all that's true, then in her mind, the best way to get people to ignore the few emails that are out there,

And the pictures is to hold a presser about the emails and the pictures? And then it gets truly bizarre. She asks Congress to hold public hearings for the Epstein survivors. And that's a good thing on its face, and I'll get to why it's not coming from her mouth. But she said, and I'm paraphrasing, that she wants to give every victim their day to tell their story under oath and enter it in the congressional record. It sounds great. Who could argue with giving the Epstein survivors a voice? But I want you to think about the timing and the context.

Her husband's administration has been actively suppressing the Epstein documents. Pam Bondi ducked a subpoena. Blanche says that the DOJ is done with the Epstein files. They're still sitting on hundreds of thousands of unreleased files and overly redacted files. And the first lady's solution is let the victims testify more? And the worst part is the survivors, they've already come forward. They've already filed their reports. They've given testimony.

They have done their part, and Donald Trump's goons didn't listen. And then they had to sit there with Pam Bondi ranting about the Dow Jones instead of holding people in power accountable. And this group of survivors, they put out a statement nailing it. They said that Melania is shifting the burden onto them, onto the survivors under politicized conditions that protect those in power, saying that it diverts attention from Pam Bondi, who has to answer for these withheld files. And if it wasn't weird enough that Melania went out there, gave this speech, drew way more attention to the few emails and pictures she's in, there are reports now that say that the

White House didn't know it was happening. Donald Trump himself told a reporter that he didn't know anything about the speech before it happened. His staff was blindsided. And sources close to Melania say that she had been frustrated by online chatter linking her to Epstein. But there were multiple officials inside the White House that have said they actually advised against making the statement precisely because the story had died down. They knew that making this speech right now would only bring it back into the limelight, which is exactly what happened. There were bipartisan calls for hearings are now louder than ever.

You have Nancy Mace and Robert Garcia asking for the survivors to have public hearings within hours of this speech. Even Marjorie Taylor Green praised Melania for it. So the congratulations to the Trump White House for successfully reviving the one story they wanted to go away, the one that they started a war to go. away. And if fewer people were talking about Epstein because of the war and your Donald Trump, Melania's husband was having the DOJ run interference, and if her goal was to calm the conversation, it's the absolute worst thing you could have done. Unless, just speculating, I'm just going to put this out in the ether, unless, of course, calming the conversation,

may not have been her goal. And when we talk about the Iranian war, there's a lot of losers here. The United States clearly has lost what happened in Iran. But there are a handful of winners, and it seems to be like the same people every time. I mean, frankly, it would be really nice to know when exactly to hold them and when to fold them. And it seems that the people that are closest to Donald Trump know a whole lot about the perfect time to make transactions. 50. Brand new accounts appeared on Polly Market, in one of the prediction market platforms, the unregulated ones. And these accounts happened hours and minutes before Trump announced the Iran ceasefire.

Really specific bets placed on the exact time. of the announcement. These are the only bets that these accounts ever made. They were open specifically to bet on the timing of the ceasefire announcement. And they walked away with over $600,000 combined. 12 minutes. One account placed a winning bet 12 minutes before Donald Trump posted the ceasefire announcement on truth. Congressman Richie Torres, he put it best when he said, There are two answers. God or an insider trader. And something tells me God is not placing bets around Donald Trump's posts on Trans Social. And we know this isn't the first time. I mean, back in January, an anonymous person on Polly Market pocketed $400,000 by betting that Venezuelan leader Maduro would be out of office. And it was just hours before he was captured.

Before the Iran War even started, another account made roughly half a million. betting that the U.S. would attack. Harvard has researchers that have worked on this, and they have estimated that $143 million in total profits have been made on polymarket by people who likely had insider information. And of course, that aggregates everything from Taylor Swift's engagement all the way to the winners of the Nobel Peace Prize, but a lot of it is centered around Donald Trump's policies.

And here is where that part gets really fun. I want you to remember who has connections to these platforms. Don Jr. has been publicly associated with two competing prediction market companies. The Trump administration has openly thrown its support against both polymarket or behind, both Polymarket and Kalshi. They've sued states that have tried to regulate them and they've cleared the way for Polymarket to reenter the U.S. market when it was banned under Biden. This administration, the Trump regime, is actively protecting these platforms. And it's presumably because people that they're close to are profiting off of the White House's policy decisions. And even the White House knows that there's a problem because you can see this happen in real time.

After the ceasefire, the White House Management Office sent a staff-wide email warning employees not to use their positions for these well-time bets. This wasn't an email sent out as a hypothetical. They know people are doing it from inside the White House. Over $760 million in oil futures changed hands in less than two minutes, 15 minutes before Trump's announcement. Senator Blumenthal, he sent a letter to Polly Market saying that it was an illicit market to sell and exploit national security secrets. And it was a honeypot for foreign intelligence services.

I mean, why wouldn't it be? If I were an enemy of the United States, I would take full advantage of this. You even have Republicans like Blake Moore saying that we don't want to imagine a war where America's adversaries use the prediction markets to anticipate our next move. It's not partisan. Both parties have bills pending to ban these kind of bets. And that's where it's really important to make a distinction here. Donald Trump is not a Republican. We've seen his support, Wayne from the Republican Party. Donald Trump is a Trump. He just needed the Republican Party and the Republican Party needed him so that they could both stay in power.

But now, with the cracks showing, we are living in a country where the people in or near Trump's White House can start an illegal war, set an arbitrary deadline, announce a ceasefire, and someone with advanced knowledge of each step can make a fortune on a gambling platform that's a can make a fortune on a gambling platform that the administration is helping legalize while both parties try to shut them down. This is insider trading with a patriotic paint job with Donald Trump's signature all over it. It is absolutely disgusting. We have got so many other great stories for you guys. I'm going to cover the 25th Amendment. I'm going to cover all of the disaster of Iran. And I am having a blast filling in for David Packman. Please, please do me a favor. Go check me out on YouTube.com slash the Ring of Fire.

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Incogni's removal process is independently verified by Deloitte. And you can get 60% off when you go to incogni.com slash Pacman and use the code Pacman. Who exactly won the Iranian war? Because I'm not really sure about it. And I don't think Donald Trump is either. He posted on Truth Social this cryptic all-caps message, World's Most Powerful Reset, President DJT, just hours before talks with Iran were supposed to resume. You know, the talks that Donald Trump said were done in the same war

where Pete Higgseth stood at the podium at the Pentagon this week and declared Operation Epstein, I mean, Epic Fury, a overwhelming victory, capital V victory, he said. I mean, Trump has said publicly that this was a total and complete victory. 100% no question about it. But let's look at what total victory for us looks like. Sure, Iranians are dead, over 250 of those are kids. We've lost 13 American service members. The U.S. struck 13,000 targets over 40 days. We did cripple their naval fleet. We crippled a lot of their weapons factories, wiped out a lot but not all of their air defense. We took out Iran's Supreme Leader. So on paper, you could say it looks like we won. But wars aren't won on paper,

because Iran now controls the Strait of Hormuz, where, you know, 20% of the world's oil and gas flows through that strait. And now Iran is going to be charging a $2 million per ship transit fee. Before the war, just a little reminder, the strait was open, open to international shipping. And now Iran gets to play gatekeeper collecting tolls. They have significant leverage over the entire world's oil market. We bombed Iran straight into a stronger negotiation position. It's crazy. They're enriched uranium, still under their control because no one knows where all of it is.

And sure, we took out their supreme leader, but his son is now in charge. charge. And their military infrastructure, it's going to take years to rebuild. But it's still the same people in charge. And now Iran has shown the world that they can close the most important shipping lane on the planet whenever they want. Yet we are undoubtedly in a much weaker position than we were before the war. By any measure I look at, we lost the war. Iran, they can replace leaders, they can rebuild their factories, they can produce new equipment. Any success we may have had is temporary. It is reversible. And Iran, they look stronger. They showed the world that they can survive and even capitalize on an attack from a superpower like the United States.

Meanwhile, our allies can't even trust us. NATO wouldn't come help us. Starmer says that Trump and Putin are virtually the same in his eyes. And here, you, me, Americans can't afford gas. Our economy, it's in the crapper. So who exactly is winning here? It's not us. Maybe it's the people who bet on the polymarket stuff. And this is what happens when you have no clear objectives to start a war. None other than distracting from the Epstein files. You know, Trump's reasoning was everything from preventing nuclear weapons. Then it was about the straight. Then it was about regime change, but it wasn't.

Then it was just simply he wanted to take their oil. And then he said it was an unconditional surrender. He agreed to this two-week ceasefire brokered by Pakistan based on this 10-point proposal that Donald Trump said was a workable basis for negotiations. That 10-point proposal was Iran's proposal that had things like lifting all sanctions, which they were sanctioned before the war, keeping their enrichment program, and maintaining control of the Strait of Hormuz. And I see all the maga types out there, I see you out on social media saying,

but Iran's evil. Okay, great, why did you leave them stronger now than they were before the war? They are in a better position. You cannot argue that this is Biden's fault. Not only didn't you enable Iran to grow, you helped them grow. And Trump, your dear leader, looks like an absolute idiot. His ceasefire fell apart within hours because Israel said it didn't cover their attacks on Lebanon and Hamas. So after the ceasefire, Israel launches.

their largest attack of the war hours after the ceasefire was announced. Taking out 254 people in one day, Israel doesn't respect us. By the way, that's a lesson for anybody who was a single issue voter. Israel doesn't respect us. Iran responded to all this by doing the thing that they've had the power to do now, closing the Strait of Hormuz. Ships, not moving, oil prices, they're not going to go back. down to pre-war levels. You talk to any economists, they say it never will. Energy prices, they're still scared, they're still elevated because there's still risk. And that risk is now permanently higher because Iran can control the strait of Hormuz. And remember the reason we got into all of this. It was started, at least in part, to distract from the Epstein Files.

Melania went out and gave a speech about the Epstein Files, so that's erased. gas prices are through the roof. Maga has turned on Trump so he decided, hey, I got to declare victory. The problem is Iran called his bluff on it. And so now we're the ones left with the bill, the 13 service members dead. Higher gas prices. Iran is emboldened. And now our president, supposed to be the most powerful man in the world, thinks that you can declare victory just by

saying so, when it is extremely clear that we lost this war pure and simple. And there's got to be accountability for it. Retired Brigadier General Steve Anderson, he's got an idea about what accountability over the atrocities of the Iran War might look like. I'm Josh Gaye from the Ring of Fire filling in for David Pakman. You can catch me at YouTube.com slash the Ring of seven days a week. And this brigadier general went on CNN this week and said something that people like me and people like David have been screaming for weeks now. He said, we're going to need Nuremberg-style trials for the people who have followed Trump's illegal orders during this war. He said that he was old enough to remember the original Nuremberg trials and how we held

the Germans accountable after the atrocities they committed during World War II. And he says he would hate to think five or ten years from now, we might be doing the same thing with American soldiers and leaders that made decisions directed by the President of the United States that are illegal. And this guy's got an impressive resume, three decades of service. And he is comparing potential American war crimes to the atrocities of World War II. I mean, he called Donald Trump what he is. He said he was an absolute terrible commander-in-chief who stuck his fist in the middle of a hornet's nest and doesn't know how to get it out.

That is powerful imagery and it's accurate. It is what has happened in Iran. And this brigadier general said that Trump has not set clear, definable objectives that the military can truly execute. Why? Because the war was a distraction. This general said that this was the greatest geopolitical blunder of the United States that they've ever committed in history. And he says that he wants to have trials for the people who followed illegal orders. And remember, there's video of Pete Hegesith back before he was Defense Secretary back in 2016 when he was on a panel.

Where he says that exact thing, that military officers, should refuse to follow illegal orders, that it's the duty of a soldier to follow the Constitution, not the commander-in-chief. Illegal orders, they've got to be disobeyed. That was Hegst's own standard. I mean, and I want you to see this clip. And I do think there have to be consequences for abject war crimes. If you're doing something that is just completely unlawful and ruthless, then there is a consequence.

for that. That's why the military said it won't follow unlawful orders from their commander-in-chief. There's a standard. There's an ethos. There's a belief that we are above what so many things that our enemies or others would do. That's the same Pete Hegseth who went after Mark Kelly for saying the same thing. The same Hegseth who just fired the Army Chief of Staff General Randy George, along with two other senior officers. The same Pete Hegsith who declared a capital V victory in a war where the president publicly threatened to wipe out a civilization. This is the same hegesith. When anybody speaks out publicly, he has them censured, threatened with demotion,

and tries to have them charged with a crime just for speaking the truth. And if you ask legal experts, if you ask military leaders, if you ask people within Trump's own party now, they have said that many of the president's threats, during this war, they look a lot like war crimes. Threatening to destroy civilian infrastructure, their bridges, their power plants, threatening to annihilate an entire civilization. Under international law, under the Geneva Conventions,

and under the principles that were established through things like Nuremberg, those are war crimes. Hegsteth's saying, to not grant the enemy's no quarter, just saying that is a war crime. And I want you to remember something about Nuremberg. Nuremberg wasn't just about punishment. We could have just handled the Germans for what they did. I'm trying to be careful with some of my language so that YouTube doesn't censor me.

Nuremberg wasn't about punishment. It was about documenting atrocities and getting them in the public eye. Why? so that no one would allow them to happen again. And yet here we are. Our president and our Secretary of Defense threatening and probably committing war crimes in public on Truth Social on Fox News.

And the military has a duty to refuse those illegal orders. Hegson said that himself. And the fact that he is now punishing the people who take that duty seriously, tells you everything you need to know about the type of person Pete Hegseth is. And that brings me to Pete Hegseth at that podium, declaring total victory. Because think about this. The soldiers who actually fought this war have told a very different story. CBS News, yes, CBS News, controlled by Barry Weiss, a Trump. mouthpiece spoke with survivors of a Kuwait drone attack. And what they described isn't the same

story that's being told by the Pentagon. It's not a story of triumph. It's the story of an army that was sent into the war zone without preparation, without force protection, without honest leadership, and without clear goals. Think about that. Our soldiers on the ground, our soldiers on the are directly contradicting the Pentagon's account of what happened. They're calling BS on Hegst's version of the events. Their official line is that the American forces were prepared and their response was swift and decisive. Warrior ethos.

But the troops who were actually there, they say that's not what happened. They described chaos, defenses that were inadequate, a command structure that was more, interested in how their troops looked than about being honest about the attack and what went wrong. Hegsith, he fired his army chief of staff. He fired the head of the army's transformation training command. He fired the army's chief chaplain. And none of those had anything to do with what they did on the battlefield. He fired people because they weren't loyal.

This man is not running a military. I mean, think about this. Pete Hegesith has blocked dozens of promotions of qualified people simply because his war on woke. I mean, think about that. When Hegseth fired the Army Chief of Staff General Randy George, it wasn't about Iran at all. It was about a culture war. on the day before the biggest U.S. war in decades began, remember what Hexed had on his mind.

He was talking about Boy Scouts and their diversity initiatives. Talking about who can do pull-ups in an airport. His priorities have always been political, not military. And look, we're trying to hold him accountable. We see Democrats filing articles of impeachment against Hegson's, Hegsseth himself. It's the second time. And yet 13 Americans have died in this war because of the Secretary of Defense. And those Americans' families, they deserve a Secretary of Defense who cares about the troops' safety. And if they're prepared, more than a war on Woke, more than about the

Boy Scouts and a diversity merit badge. Instead, they've got a sloshed Fox News host who's never commanded a unit larger than a platoon who likes to play dress-up while actual bullets are flying. We deserve better leadership. And I'm going to talk a lot about leadership in the show coming up. And we've got a great bonus show as well for our members. If you're not a member, you might want to consider joining now. You get exclusive content. And I would love if you came and followed me on my show over at YouTube.com.

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This is one I hear all the time, whether it's from the comments section, it's our leaders, whatever it is. It sounds like a great idea removing Donald Trump from office, either from impeachment and removal or using the 25th Amendment. And I want to talk about that just for a little bit because things are taking shape. But we may, may want to be very careful about what we wish for. I'm Josh Gay filling in for David Packman. You can catch me at the Ring of Fire at YouTube.com slash the Ring of Fire new content seven days a week. Meanwhile, 85 House Democrats, and this number keeps climbing, they have called for Donald Trump to be impeached or removed from office via the 25th Amendment.

And that number keeps climbing, even after the Iran ceasefire was announced and broken and announced again, whatever. It's all because nothing is normal with what's going on with Donald Trump. This is not business as usual. We are seeing a sustained impeachment push, a deserved one, that we haven't seen before. And the latest round came with the formal filing of articles of impeachment. Representative John Larson from Connecticut, he's the one that filed it. And these articles of impeachment go well beyond just the Iranian War. It lists violations like threatening members of Congress, attacking the independence of the judiciary,

abusing presidential power, breaking the First Amendment. It's a comprehensive document. And it's not just Trump. Representative Yasimian Ansari of Arizona, she had her family. They fled Iran during the revolution. She separately announced plans to file articles of impeachment against Pete Hegsa. And the quotes are wonderful.

I mean, AOC, she's been on the record saying whether by his cabinet or Congress, the president must be removed from office. We're playing with the brink. Ro Kana explicitly calling for the 25th Amendment. Nancy Pelosi endorsing removal. So it's not just the progressive wing anymore. This is spreading. And where it gets truly unprecedented is that it's not just Democrats.

We've seen crazy woman, Congresswoman, former Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green, resigned because of her falling out with Trump. She's calling for the 25th Amendment. Alex Jones openly on air asking, how do we 25th Amendment his ass? Candice Owens saying that the 25th Amendment needs to be invoked because he's a genocidal lunatic. Trump's former lawyer Ty Cobb has discussed it publicly. Scaramucci has publicly discussed it. The calls are coming from inside the house.

But we have to be clear about reality. here. How does the 25th Amendment get invoked? It would require a coup from Vice President J.D. Vance. And then a majority of Trump's loyalty cabinet would have to declare Trump unfit. And if Trump disputes it, which you know he will, you would need two-thirds of both chambers of Congress to sustain removal. With this cabinet, with this Senate, Even if we take both houses of Congress in November, the numbers aren't there. And impeachment works the same way essentially with numbers, because it would require the House to pass articles and then two-thirds of the Senate to convict. It's not happening with a majority of Republicans or even a slim Democrat majority.

And then I want you to think about what would happen if, if by some miracle, we pulled this off. Do you really want the same project 2025 agenda? But with J.D. Vance delivering the message, he's better educated, he's more well-spoken, he actually reads, unlike our president, he's young in political terms, he'd do well in the Midwest, and he would enter 2028 as the incumbent. And that's not the whole point here, though. The point and the reason why the articles of impeachment are being filed is the record. The point is that when this chapter of American history is written, there has to be a documented bipartisan consensus.

The President of the United States was unfit for office. Even the Democrats who didn't want to talk about impeachment at the start of this term, because they were focused on, rightfully so, on the kitchen table issues, they are now the ones being forced to respond to. But I want to give you a real option. The optimistic view here. How do we actually control Trump? November 2026.

Imagine what happens when we control Congress. Trump's agenda would be dead on arrival. We'd have hearings. We'd defund any of the press. Project 2025 madness. We would hold people accountable. It would leave Donald Trump as nothing more than this powerless figurehead that's out there on truth social, ranting like an old demented grandpa. That's why you don't hear Donald Trump that worried about impeachment. He's far more worried about election security. He sees the numbers. He sees the writing on the wall. He's seeing

the results in these special elections, the early elections. He's losing big lean. So he is trying to rig the game. But even with that, even with them trying to pull all the levers, we can win in November, but you've got to make it happen. And Republicans, they are making this easy for us. Because if you're a Republican member of Congress right now, you're stuck in the worst position in modern political history. Your voters are turning on your president. Your president is turning on your voters' favorite media figures, the places they get news, and their pocketbooks. And you're just supposed to sit there and smile and hope that that little R next to your name is enough for you to win. It's not, because we're hearing reports that internal

Republican disputes are essentially keeping Congress frozen. No one can agree on anything, because no one knows which direction the wind is blowing. Do you back Trump with his war? Well, your anti-war constituents, the ones that elected him because he was promised no new wars, remember, this is the peace president. He's got the FIFA prize to show it. So you break with him? Well, if you do that, he's going to find a remaining loyalist to primary you. And he's going to have the backing of mega donors like Elon Musk. So then your other options to stay quiet. If you do that, both sides are going to call you a coward, a rhino.

And we talked about how the MAGA influencer ecosystem, they're openly fantasizing about fighting each other. You see a report from the bulwark that, prominent MAGA media figures are salivating over the idea of using government power against other MAGA figures who've broken with Trump. That's not how the government is supposed to work. This is a reality show where contestants are fighting to the proverbial death. And I guess that's what you get when a significant number of the people in charge are

literal reality show figures. Think about it. The Republicans are in charge. Both houses of Congress, the executive, they pretty much have the Supreme Court eating out of their hand, and they can't move legislation because they can't get their members in the same room without fighting. They can't hold press conferences because every reporter's first question is, do you agree with the latest crazy thing that Donald Trump said? The only trick they have is pulling the little Mike Johnson trick of, I haven't heard anything about that. Oh, really? You didn't hear that your bestie posted another insane thing about wiping out civilizations on truth social. Didn't have time for that.

Meanwhile, Republicans can only fundraise from mega donors who are scared of losing their billions of dollars. Everyone else is broke and they're 10. terrified, terrified from economic uncertainty, war-related uncertainty. Everyone in red is paralyzed. And every Republican strategist in Washington should be terrified because the midterms are right around the corner. And we've seen the special elections. They are showing a massive shift toward blue candidates. Even in Mar-a-Lago, they flipped that district.

And we're seeing it. MAGA endorsements? It doesn't mean anything anymore. I mean, if this is what the Republican Party looks like in April, what will they look like in November when they're fighting each other on debate stages? And I can't help be a little giddy because Trump already predicted, you heard it, if we lose the House, he'll be impeached again. He said it himself, which means that every House Republican knows that their personal political survival

is now directly tied to defending a president that's run off the everyday citizens that put him in office because he is so unwell. But I want you to remember something. Even with all of the craziness, Trump is still the symptom. And now, the disease wants nothing to do with him. Good luck with that. But while the Republicans are fighting, we've got to talk about the other side. Because Democrats, they're in their own version of a crisis. And I hate to say it, we're handling this about as well as you'd expect,

especially given the history of the last few election cycles. We're seeing the 2028 primary, that field, we're seeing it become visible. We see the potential candidates that are starting to position themselves. And that means that you're going to see public fights over the next two years over who, who gets to run and who's going to get endorsed by the Chuck Schumers and the DNC. And that's what they're going to be doing instead of building a message that works, that unifies people. And we see the polls. Kamala is still at the top of the polls, Newsom, Buttigieg, Mark Kelly, AOC, Pennsylvania's Josh Shapiro.

And there's certainly many more to come. And you're going to see the people that are filling in for their seats as they run for office. California's shaping up that way. And the DNC is struggling to fundraise. The Washington posted a decent job reporting on the growing rift, especially when it comes to money between the establishment and the progressives. Money and messaging that could not be more divergent. And it seems like we can't learn from our past mistakes. Same fight we had in 2016, Bernie and Hillary all over again. Establishment Democrats, they want to run on moderation and electability.

Whereas there's progressives that want to run on policy and mobilization, things that actually matter to the American people. Right now, there is a crisis. All we have to do is have a message of how to fix things. And yet instead of synthesizing things, instead of finding a unifying message, or back to the same old argument we've had for over a decade. Where is our unified plan?

Where is our outreach? We watched this party gatekeep against Bernie Sanders. We watched a more subtle version of it in 2024, and it worked for Trump. And now, at this moment, when the Republican Party is literally tearing themselves to shreds, when Trump is attacking his own supporters, When there are bipartisan calls for the president's removal, Democrats are fighting about who gets to be on the debate stage in two years. Or they're throwing money behind an aging, losing establishment candidate in places like Maine rather than backing a popular oyster farmer. The GOP is handing Democrats the biggest political opportunity in at least a generation.

and the Democrats' response is to argue over who's better suited to get the DNC support. We have got to get it together. November is coming quick. And we have got so much more to cover on this show. I'm having a absolute blast filling in for David. I'm Josh Gay from The Ring of Fire. You can catch me at YouTube.com slash the Ring of Fire. new content seven days a week. But we are closing in on 100,000 followers on Instagram.

I would love for you guys to help me do that. So go to Instagram, find us, give us a follow. Visit BetMGM Casino and check out the newest exclusive. The Price is Right Fortune Pick. BetMDM and Game Sense remind you to play responsibly. 19 plus to wager. Ontario only. Please play responsibly.

If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to, Peace contact connects Ontario at 1-866-531-2,600 to speak to an advisor, free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming, Ontario. When WestJat 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. Packman Show is an audience supported program and the best most direct way to support the show is by becoming a member at join packman.com. You'll get the daily bonus show, the daily commercial free show, and plenty of other great membership perks. Get the full experience by signing up at Joinpackman. You know, Donald Trump's insanity has left us grasping where it seems like we have no idea

what to do about it. I'm Josh Gay. I'm filling in for David Packman. You can catch me on the Ring of Fire at YouTube.com slash the Ring of Fire. And again, it seems like there's nothing we can do, right? The walls are closing in on us, but somehow the walls are also covered in butter, so nothing sticks. But there are people who are really making moves, beyond just talking points, beyond hashtags and ex-posts and press releases that get read once and filed in a drawer somewhere. It's a group that is putting in real work. And I have a funny suspicion that's somewhere between now and November 2028, they are going to be a much bigger player than they have been recently. And I'm talking about the NAACP, the one that has been around since 1909 that survived Jim Crow.

It fought the people in the white bed sheets in court. It paid for funerals and buried its members after lynchings. It outlasted every president who ever stood in the way of black freedom and black progress. Every single one. It's an organization that has more patience. than a DMV employee on their last day before retirement. And this week, they did something unprecedented. For the first time, in 117 years,

they too called for a sitting president to be removed under the 25th Amendment. Yes, just like everyone else, they're saying it too. And I want you to think about the timeline for just a second, founded in 1909. The NAACP endured Woodrow Wilson screening birth of a nation in the White House. They endured Nixon. Reagan. There's war on drugs and ignoring the AIDS crisis and its impact on black communities. It endured every politician who used race as a weapon for more than a century, 117 years.

They've been around longer than sliced bread, literally. Slice Bread was invented in 1928. The NACP, they were up and running for 19 years before that. And all of that time, through all of their history, this is when they're calling for the president to be removed. And it shows two things. Number one, the depths of Trump's depravity. It's awful. But it also shows the growing power of the minority voice.

NWACP President Derek Johnson said The president is unfit, unwell, and unhinged. It's three U's like my first grade report card. And the NWACP is calling out alarming signs of President Trump's deteriorating health and increasingly delusional behavior. It's stuff we've seen. But we're seeing that NACP say it out loud.

It's important, especially again given their history. And they are saying that the situation with Donald Trump is a direct threat to the well-being of millions of Americans and the integrity of our armed forces. And it's one thing to say things, just to get out there and put out statements. But here's where the NAACP separates itself from just about everybody else that's in the conversation. They didn't just issue a statement and go home. They didn't just tweet about it and wait for likes and shares to roll in. They took real legal action, real in the courtroom.

filing motions, action, stuff that could actually change things. They filed a suit to stop Trump's executive order targeting mail-in ballots. They won a legal case in Massachusetts protecting voters from the DOJ's interference. So while everybody else is writing op-eds, the NACPP is writing those op-eds and legal briefs. This is an organization that understands that calling for something as big conceptually as the 25th Amendment is symbolic. But doing the real work on the smaller scale, like protecting voting rights in various districts around the country, that is operational. And the NACP is doing both.

Belts and suspenders, rhetoric, and receipts. And in reality, they have to. They have to do both. Because we're seeing this assault on voting rights, it's not theoretical. It's happening. Trump's election moves and the redistricting pushes all over the place. are predominantly impacting underrepresented populations. In my home state of Florida, there's a redistricting push from DeSantis

that would move or would remove two black majority districts. Just erase them. And then there's the voter ID push. And I want to walk you through how it actually works because I hear it all the time. The Republicans love to say in post memes, how is it racist to require an ID? And on the surface, it sounds reasonable, right? Everyone should have an ID, right?

Wrong. I'll take you to Alabama. Over the last several years, Alabama has closed dozens of DMV offices primarily in black counties, not the ones in the suburbs, not the ones in the wealthy areas, the ones that are in the communities that already have the fewest resources. So now, for those people, predominantly black communities, to get an ID, you have to make an appointment months in advance. Sometimes you have to drive for hours. Take a full day off work because we know a DMV is not efficient.

And for someone who's working hourly, barely scraping by, losing a day's pay, they can't afford to lose it. They'd have to find childcare, transportation, all to get a piece of plastic that says that you are allowed to participate in our democracy. And then on top of that, the SAVE Act would force them to do it all over again, even if they've already registered to vote, even if they've done all their requirements before November. New requirements, new hoops,

and it's the same people getting squeezed. So when you hear MAGA asking, how is it racist to have voter ID laws, this, this is the story. It's not a big sign that says no black voters, that's too obvious. You just make sure that the nearest DMV is 90 miles away, open two days a month, and staffed by one person who somehow works fewer hours than the McDonald's ice cream machines. And the same result happens, though, whether it's the big flashing sign that says no blacks allowed, or if it's voter ID laws. Jim Crow, but wearing a fleece vest and khakis now. And fortunately, there are organizations like the NAACP that are doing more than just talking about it.

Their voice is being echoed across the political spectrum. And like I've mentioned on other segments, the NWACP's work is adding to a chorus that now includes Democrats, Republicans, civil rights organizations, and conservative media figures. There's retired generals, former Trump staffers, Marjorie Taylor Green, Alex Jones, House Democrats, when you have all of them agreeing on the same types of things and ultimately that our president needs to go, that's a powerful message. It's a political Venn diagram that should never exist, but it does because of how terrible things have gotten. These groups agree literally on nothing else. If Alex Jones talking about the frogs and

Marjorie Taylor Green with the space lasers. And yet you have great organizations like the NACP who's been fighting against people like that for over a century. And Donald Trump is the one that's uniting them all against him. In the same corner for the same reason. The only difference is that the NACP, A, is smart. And B, they know that the message isn't enough. They're putting in the work, just like all of us have to do.

They always have been putting in the work. And we should be paying attention because they are going to have a huge role in November 2026, but especially November 2028. And when everybody else is just arguing over whether or not Trump should be removed, the NAACP is quietly making sure that when the next election comes, the people have been shut out of the process, get to actually vote in it. And that is how we control Trump. And now I want to talk about Dr. Oz and his awful math.

Because Dr. Oz had to admit for once that he and the Trump regime were wrong. I know. Take a minute. The world might be spinning a little bit for you. Breathe it in. The man who once spent a decade on daytime television telling your aunt that Raspberry keytones would make her skinny, just had to admit that his numbers were completely wrong on a federal fraud investigation. I'm Josh Gay with The Ring of Fire. I'm filling in for David Pacman. You can catch our content seven days a week on YouTube.com slash the Ring of Fire.

We're also closing in on 100,000 Instagram followers. We would love for you to find us there. But the bar for this administration, the Trump regime, I mean, it's hell. And Dr. Oz is out there with a shovel instead of a ladder. And he keeps digging. And you have to remember, these people have built their entire domestic agenda on one word. Fraud. Medicaid fraud, food stamp fraud, immigration fraud, fraud everywhere you look. It's like Oprah, but instead of

giving things away, they're accusing everyone of stealing. You get a fraud, you get a fraud, you get a fraud accusation, everyone gets fraud accusations. Just one problem here. When Republicans and Maga types try to prove fraud, they can't do the math, literally, like with numbers and everything, you know, the thing that math is actually made out of. Dr. Oz, who somehow, through a series of events that future historians will describe as deeply unsurious is the administrator of the Senators for Medicare and Medicaid services. And he claims that 5 million New Yorkers were receiving personal care services through Medicaid. Five million. That's nearly three quarters of the state's entire Medicaid population. To put that in perspective, that would mean

that three out of every four people on Medicaid in New York had a personal care assistant helping them bathe, helping them eat, helping them get dressed. It kind of sounds like a nice spa, not a Medicaid program. Oz, he called this unheard of that five million people had this, and he demanded that the state come clean. It was a centerpiece of his entire fraud investigation there. It was a big gotcha moment.

It was the thing he built his whole case around. But there was a problem. The reason it was unheard of is it literally never happened. The number was completely wrong. The Fiscal Policy Institute caught it. It was just a basic math error, essentially moving decimals the wrong way. Not some complex statistical modeling disagreement, not a difference in methodology, just a math error. The kind of thing that a calculator could have fixed.

The kind of thing that if a fourth grader turned it in, the teacher would write to, in red pin, check your work. We are so not a serious country now. I mean, there's analysts out there that are saying that the numbers could have been cleared up in a phone call. One phone call, call it up and go, hey, is it really $5 million? Nope. Oh, okay, thanks. We'll fix it. It's all it would have taken. But they didn't make the call because the point isn't accuracy. The point for people like Dr. Oz and Trump is the headline. And that's exactly the point. It's not about

fixing mistakes or even being right. Dr. Oz already got the talking points out there. Fox News ran with it. Your idiot cousin on Facebook shared it with a fire emoji. And the caption, This is where your tax dollars are going. Thanks, Libs. Newsmax made a graphic

and they're going to cite it for the next three years. Meanwhile, the correction is just going to get a fraction of the coverage. And that's how this Trump regime works. You launch the lie like a rocket, a hundred miles an hour, and then somewhere three weeks later on a broken tricycle, the correction shows up. But all of this gets worse because Dr. Oz didn't just get one thing wrong. He went for a hat trick because he also claimed that the state had recently made eligibility standards more lenient

by allowing a problem like being easily distracted to qualify for a personal care assistant. Easily distracted. I would most certainly qualify under that guideline. I mean, I'm worse than that dog from up. Squirrel, I'll take my bath now, please. Of course, an organization like the Legal Aid Society, they studied this, and they showed that the absolute opposite was true. The state actually made requirements more stringent last September, more stringent, the opposite direction. And the phrase easily distracted never appears in their

standards. Dr. Oz made it up. Shocker, just like all the other crap in his career. You know, the man who once told America that green coffee bean extract was a miracle weight loss cure. A man that the FTC literally went after for deceptive advertising. And now he's running a federal agency with the same commitment to factual accuracy that he brought to selling diet pills. And then Oz, another thing he got wrong, in his videos and statements, described personal care services. As something our families would normally do for us like carrying groceries. Carrying groceries. A way to think of a 33-year-old woman with quadriplegic cerebral palsy named Kathleen Downs, she responded.

to that. She needs help showering, using the toilet, eating. Her mother did that work unpaid for years, giving up her own career to do it. And Dr. Oz's response is basically she should have done that for free, forever. It sounds like a man who's never had to worry about who helps him out of bed in the morning. And that man's telling your disabled aunt, go figure it out. And while Oz is throwing out BS fraud numbers, there's actual fraud that's not getting investigated. ProPublica reporting that the Trump DOJ, they've been declining criminal investigations into immigration fraud cases all across the country. They won't even look at it. Yet in California, Governor Gavin Newsom busted a major hospice fraud scheme in L.A., brought criminal charges, real fraud, real investigation, real accountability.

So state governors out there finding, prosecuting real fraud with real numbers, while the federal government is just manufacturing crap, based on fuzzy math that they couldn't get right like a third grade homework assignment. California caught actual criminals stealing from dying people, and Dr. Oz is accusing New York of having too many people that need help bathing, and he couldn't even get the numbers right. It's the whole Trump philosophy. Announce some huge disaster, a huge fraud number.

Get the media coverage. Use it to justify cutting programs and pointing fingers at people like disabled people who need help bathing and eating. And yet when somebody actually checks the math, you can go, I don't know anything about that. And it just goes away. Like a bad magician who screws up a trick and still goes,

Thank you very much. Well, Dr. Oz, we noticed your math. We noticed, and that is why independent media like this channel, like the Ring of Fire, all of them are so important. If you don't already, be sure to subscribe, leave a comment, hit the like button. Because the corrections, they're not going to show up on Fox News, but they're going to show up on channels like this. And I want to close with something that it should be funny if it weren't so ugly.

This headline's crazy. The Trump administration is now in an open feud with the Pope, the American Pope, the first American Pope ever, the leader of 1.3 billion Catholics worldwide. And the feud is so ugly that the Pentagon had to issue a denial that it threatened the Vatican. I've got to say that again. The United States Department of Defense had to publicly deny that it threatened. the place with the Sistine Chapel, the place with the Swiss guards and the really long lines of tourists, a country the size of a golf course that's primarily defended by guys wearing pantaloons. The Pentagon, with its nearly $1 trillion budget and a nuclear arsenal, had to go on the record

and say, we did not threaten the Pope. I'm Josh Gaye from the Ring of Fire. I am filling in for David Packman. You can catch me seven days a week on YouTube.com slash the Ring of Fire. And here's the really wild part about this. This is where we are as a country that the headline, Pentagon denies threatening the Pope, is completely buried because it's easily not in the top ten craziest things that the Trump regime has done this week.

It wouldn't crack the top ten. We live in a timeline, where the Secretary of Defense and his goons may be threatening the spiritual leader of over a billion people is a normal Tuesday. And look, the Vatican for their part, they're trying to downplay things, but they fell short of saying things didn't happen, that the threats didn't happen. They said that the talks were unusual and challenging and discussed how far apart the U.S. and the church are on certain matters. How far apart? According to certain reports, a U.S. official went as far as to talk about the Avion Papacy. And if you are not familiar, that's when back in the 1300s, France used their military to install their own French Pope.

That is what a U.S. official floated to the Vatican. And this hate on Catholics, it's not new. And it's not just because the Pope happens to disagree with Donald Trump's policies, much like any Christian should. The hate on Catholics isn't new because you have the Department of Defense, Pete Hegsseth, his pastor, the wacko Doug Wilson, the guy who's somehow invited to preach at the Pentagon, has publicly called for a ban and asking for the government to ban Catholic processions that honor the Virgin Mary. They're called Marian processions. And if you're not Catholic,

they're centuries old traditions. People walk through the streets, carrying flowers, singing songs, carrying candles. They're about as threatening as a church bake sale. Less threatening, actually, because a church bake sale, you could at least have the potential to get like food-borne illness. But in this world of Christian nationalist extremism, Catholicism is just another enemy. Hegset and Wilson, they say they love Jesus. Just not his mom, or Jesus' actual teachings, which is a wild theological position to take, by the way. Yeah, we worship the son of God, but we think that the woman who gave birth to him is kind of the problem. Also, he's too woke.

Pick a wane, gentlemen. But to them, it's fine if you're somebody who's in the Epstein files, because that's when their moral flexibility starts to kick in. Somehow you can be associated with a child abuser and be welcome at the table. But if you're a 90-year-old woman carrying a candle through the streets of Boston, you're the real problem in America. And I know the comments are coming. I will always say this. The Catholic Church, they've got plenty of sins to atone for centuries. Truly horrific, systemic, institutional sins that still have not been reckoned with. But the last couple of popes, including Pope Leo the 14th, the first American Pope, have moved things in the right direction. This Pope has been vocal about climate change, about poverty,

about welcoming refugees, and about denouncing illegal wars in the Middle East. Which, by the way, those are concepts that Jesus talked about, helping refugees, ending poverty, blessed are the poor, you know, Jesus, the guy that Maga claims to follow. And I've got to mention that Hegis pastor, this Doug Wilson guy, Hexseth, by the way, calls him him a mentor. This guy literally wrote a book called Papa Don't Pope. It's title, Papa Don't Pope. That is the level of theological sophistication we're working with. An 11-year-old wrote that. And he's at the Department of Defense preaching. The man who's guiding the spiritual life of our defense secretary wrote a bad pun book about hating Catholics.

And, in fairness, Doug Wilson doesn't just hate Catholics. He's got a greatest hits list of terrible positions like defending slavery as not being as bad as it's made out to be. He's compared women that use birth control to murderers. That's the guy who's advising Pete Hanksiff, the guy whispering in the ear of the man who controls the largest military on earth. Sleep well. And meanwhile, over at the DOJ, they're tackling Christian bias. They're pushing a narrative that the Biden era, their DOJ, was anti-Christian, which is really just code for, we want to establish our own specific brand of Christianity,

the Christianity nationalism, the Christian nationalism, it's the default for them. Their Christianity doesn't resemble Christ, a nationalism that doesn't promote the things that make our nation great. And frankly, a Christianity, like all the other religions, that have no business being a significant part of our government at any level. It's not me being anti-religion, it's me being pro-constitution. The founders of our country were damn clear about it. They literally put it as the First Amendment. But you and I both know, it's not about Christianity.

It's about this narrow strain of Christian national extremism that has no room for Catholics, no room for mainstream. mainline religious people at all. No room for women. No room for people of color. No room for anyone who doesn't subscribe to their particular worldview, and they somehow shoehorn that into the Bible. Think about it. If you're a Christian who believes in the sermon on the Mount, caring for the poor, welcoming the stranger, turning the other cheek, they don't want you. You're the problem. You're soft. You're woke. And the Jesus who fed 5,000 people for free, socialism. Jesus who healed the sick without checking their insurance, Medicaid fraud.

The Jesus who said, blessed are the peacemakers, they're low IQ, third-rate apostles. And that is who's running our Pentagon. We have had a fantastic show for you guys. I'm Josh Gay. I have loved filling. in for David. He will be back, but we do have a bonus show coming up just for our members. If you're not a member already, check it out. The Soy Boy package looks phenomenal. We will see you in the bonus show, members.