The David Pakman Show - Trump threatens war crimes, praises Allah on Easter Sunday

Episode Date: April 6, 2026

-- On the Show -- Brittany Page, host of the Page Perspective, fills in for David. Subscribe to her channel at http://www.youtube.com/@brittanyepage -- Donald Trump threatens Iran with the destruction of civilian infrastructure and says "praise be to Allah" on Truth Social -- Trump vacillates on Iran threats and war crimes, while Republicans struggle to defend him -- Donald Trump fires Attorney General Pam Bondi, appointing his personal lawyer Todd Blanche as acting head of the DOJ -- Vice President J.D. Vance’s wife, Usha, promotes a children’s story time show while subtly burning her husband in interviews -- Donald Trump requests a $1.5 trillion military budget while cutting social programs, harming Americans, and ignoring fiscal responsibility -- Donald Trump faces false rumors of dying while his faith is promoted by Paula White and Laura Trump -- Donald Trump plans to spend hundreds of millions on a personal White House ballroom while cutting essential programs -- The Holocaust Museum allegedly censored content on racism to avoid provoking the Trump administration 💡 Outskill: Grab your free seat to the 2-Day AI Mastermind at https://link.outskill.com/PAKMANDEC1 📱 Cape: Get 33% off for 6 months with code PAKMAN at https://cape.co/pakman 🛡️ Incogni lets you control your personal data! Get 60% off their annual plan: http://incogni.com/pakman 💻 Sponsored by Private Internet Access: 83% OFF + 4 months free at https://www.piavpn.com/DavidP -- On the Bonus Show: Ted Nugent says kids these days are soft, Americans are struggling to get medical care, and much more... -- 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 praises Allah, threatens war crimes on Easter(07:36) Republicans defend Trump on Iran(18:26) Acting AG signals shift from Epstein files(23:26) Usha Vance addresses JD Vance image(32:41) Trump plan cuts healthcare and housing to pay for this war(39:49) Paula White defends Trump’s faith(47:57) Trump compares Trump to Washington(56:04) Holocaust Museum alters exhibits on racism   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to the David Packman Show. My name is Brittany Page from the Page Perspective right here on YouTube, and I am your guest host for today. I am thrilled to be invited back as guest host and looking forward to taking you through the news today while David is away. Be sure to let him know how much you miss him in the comments, preferably with tears in your eyes.

Now, we just had Easter Sunday here in America. The White House has been celebrating Holy Week, releasing videos showing religious celebrations at the White House, and Trump's various statements about Jesus and Easter, because signaling religious faith is an important part of keeping the base of evangelical support locked in with the Maga cult.

But Trump had a different kind of Easter message when he posted a new threat to Iran on truth social, one that requires anchors like Jake Tapper to warn you if you have children in the room, earmuffs for the kids. No longer. He has just threatened Iran in extraordinary graphic terms, giving the Iranian regime just over a day to either make a deal, reopen the strait of Hormuz or face hell.

If your children are watching, be warned the president did not use polite language. Quote, Tuesday will be power plant day and bridge day, all wrapped up in one in Iran. There will be nothing like it. Open the fucking straight, you crazy bastards, or you'll be living in hell. Just watch. note that destroying civilian power infrastructure is generally considered to constitute a war crime under international law, though the president could argue that the infrastructure has dual use and also is utilized by Iran's military.

Now, I'm not sure why Jake didn't read the rest of that, where Trump says praise be to Allah. Disgusting, but yeah, Jake, I'm sure Trump would make that argument. I'm sure he's carefully thinking through what is and is not a war crime and trying really hard to avoid the war crimes. No, he's not. How is it possible that this far into this presidency that the media continues to do this bending over backwards to give this man the benefit of the doubt?

This is a man who is bombing civilian boats. He tells us they're carrying drugs. We have no evidence of this. And of course, we are in a situation where we cannot trust this administration. Just recently, the New York Times ran a piece on the US and Ecuador, bombing what they said was a drug camp that turned out to be a dairy farm.

This administration lies constantly, but not only that, they are seemingly eager to commit war crimes. So why wouldn't we just assume that, yes, Trump is threatening a war crime casually from his phone on Easter Sunday. Is it so unbelievable, Jake Tapper, when he sends his Secretary of Defense out to literally utter the phrase, Maximum lethality, not tepid legality? So at your direction, Mr. President,

the war department is gonna fight decisively, not endless conflicts. It's gonna fight to win, not, not to lose. We're gonna go on offense, not just on defense. Maximum lethality, not tepid legality, violent effect, not politically correct. You know, it's always a good sign when the morning show host on Fox News turned Secretary

of Defense stands in the Oval Office declaring that international humanitarian laws are for beta males. Part of the problem is so much is happening all the time that it's tough to keep track of the pattern that exists with this administration and allying with the worst actors to commit the worst crimes while lying and enacting the greatest harm with zero regard for civilian deaths in the process. I mean, you remember when we just bomb. a girl's school in Iran, killing nearly 200 people,

most of them children, and Trump tried to lie and blame Iran instead of showing any semblance of Karen concern for the dead children that he is responsible for killing. Again, I ask, is it any surprise that this man woke up and casually threatened a war crime on his phone in honor of Easter Sunday? All of this is, of course, under the backdrop of Iran shooting down a U.S. fighter jet prompting a search and rescue mission where one missing pilot had to be rescued, which is another surprise because just one month ago, Pete Heggssef said this.

We've taken control of Iran's airspace and waterways without boots on the ground. We control their fate. But when a few drones get through or tragic things happen, it's front page news. I get it. The press only wants to make the president look bad, but try for once to report the reality, the terms of this war will be set by us at every step. More lies. This is all so dangerous. From Donald Trump's unhinged social media posts to his administration full of liars and grifters and incompetent, insecure, sad little men, it puts all of us at risk. Trump keeps trying to convince us that we are winning this pointless war that he decided to start on a whim. And because of it,

he isn't winning, he's growing more unhinged in his threats. It isn't just the social media posts. He's also giving quotes, giving interviews to Fox News, specifically their chief foreign correspondent. Yeah, guys, good morning. I just spoke with President Trump for 15 minutes. He gave me some new details on the negotiations behind the scenes with the Iranians and what's going to happen if Iran does not make a good faith deal. The president tells me if they don't make a deal and fast. I'm considering blowing everything up and taking over the oil. The president went on to say you're going to see bridges and power plants dropping all over their country. So genocide. The president is giving quotes to major media outlets and straight up threatening genocide.

I mean, what do we expect from a man who has cheered the genocide in Gaza and partnered with Israel to help expand their attacks on civilian infrastructure, including now in Lebanon, where Israel has displaced more than one million people, killed over 1,000 and is attempting to seize territory. The cascading horrors here are really difficult to fathom. And Donald Trump's every utterance is dangerous. It is horrifying. And how bad are Republicans going to allow this to get

before they find their spines and even dare to publicly criticize this man who is near death, right? With his multiple rotting body parts from his name, neck to his hands. What is it going to take? Democrats should be holding daily press conferences detailing to the American people exactly what the cost of this war is and how complicit Republicans are in refusing to step out and criticize their boy here. No more my good friend across the aisle, no more we agree to disagree, no more behind the scenes, Republicans are enraged. No, this is a five-alarm

fire and we need to treat it as such. One thing I keep thinking about is Trump's vacillating between this whole trying to play it cool and telling us that, you know, actually it doesn't matter if the Strait of Hormuz is opened to the repeated threats to commit war crimes if the straight is not opened immediately and how this is just one of many examples of how he is dangerous, doesn't know what he's doing, is a failure at everything he does in life and desperately needs to be removed from office immediately. I mean, this was him just a few days ago. The United States imports almost no oil through the Hormostrait and won't be taking any in the

future. We don't need it. We haven't needed it and we don't need it. And now he's threatening Iran with annihilation if they refuse to open the straight immediately. So it's we don't need it to we need it now. in a matter of days. And while his weakness, his lack of mental stability and his insecurity is running the show here, there is a wide range of complicit Republicans who still cannot dare to step out and say

that something is very, very wrong here, and it's time to do something. And this is difficult to watch, embarrassing, really. But the latest example of this is, Representative Mike Turner from Ohio. He went on ABC this week with George Stephanopoulos to give reaction to Trump's truth social post, threatening war crimes, should Iran not immediately open the straight? And he gave what amounts to a three-minute word salad.

We aren't going to play the whole thing, but even George was really struggling to understand what exactly Mike was getting at here. But remember, the question is, will ground troops be necessary to open the Strait of Hormuz. The President suggested that the Straits of Hormuz could open naturally. Is that realistic or is it going to take ground troops? Well, George, in any conflict, certainly, you know, Iran is going to have some things that they're going to be able to do during the conflict. But if you don't undertake the conflict, if you just step back and watch as the Obama administration was going to do while Iran became a nuclear power and they became North Korea,

we wouldn't be looking at the Strait of Hormuz. be looking at what's, you know, having Europe be at risk. You'd have the United States being at risk. You'd have all of our allies and ultimately the continental United States at risk from Iran and the whole world being held hostage by a terrorist state. In this, as they, in their last throes, you know, begin to do whatever they have left as a state militarily, they still are being significantly diminished and their ability to be able to be marching toward a nuclear state is being eliminated.

Uh, yikes. I didn't hear an answer there, did you? I mean, what do we think Republicans like Mike Turner do after an appearance like this? Do they walk off set and pat themselves on the back for a job well done? Or do you think someone like Mike, like his ego allows him to be like, dude, that was true. truly embarrassing. You are defending a rapidly dying white supremacist president who has no idea what he's doing. And it's time to get honest with yourself now. Wouldn't that be great if these people had some semblance of a moral compass guiding them?

But this idea of putting boots on the ground in Iran was a topic across networks with Republicans giving answers ranging from what you just heard with Mike Turner's word salad, given he doesn't want to upset Trump. he just takes a non-stance until Donald Trump decides what he wants to do. And then you have someone like Representative Mike Lawler from New York who sounds more than willing to support boots on the ground. So let me ask you, would you support President Trump actually putting U.S. troops on the ground in Iran? I think in this instance, a rescue mission, it was necessary to do everything in our power to ensure that no troops were left behind. And I commend the president for taking to

action to do that. I think the question moving forward with respect to any troops on the ground would be for what purpose. And I think the only purpose that I could see would be to get the enriched uranium. And I think that is something that does need to be discussed with Congress in a classified setting. And I think Congress would need to be briefed on that particular matter. Now, this is confusing because, again, with all of Trump's vacillating in June 2025, we have this press release from the White House. Iran's nuclear facilities have been obliterated and suggestions otherwise are fake news. But then we actually needed to go to war with Iran to prevent them from developing a nuclear weapon after their nuclear facilities had been obliterated, according to the administration. And now in the middle of the war, going very poorly for Donald Trump,

he was asked just a few days ago by Reuters about a stockpile of enriched uranium, saying that he does not care about that. He said, quote, that's so far underground, I don't care about that. We'll always be watching it by satellite. So what are we doing here? What are we talking about with boots on the ground when the administration has no idea what it's doing, what the goals are here. One moment Donald Trump says that things are serious and we need to commit war crimes,

and then he's saying he doesn't care. It's like being in an abusive relationship, one moment he loves you, and the next moment he doesn't, and the dance continues. This level of instability is fundamentally unacceptable. And I need to add a clip here of Democratic Senator from Virginia Tim Kane, because I was really disappointed with how we're going to be. he handled a question on Meet the Press about Donald Trump's unhinged truth social post. And so I hope the White House, I doubt the president will, but please dial back to rhetoric

because you don't need to put people like these pilots more at risk by the rhetoric that you use. Well, you raise the rhetoric. Let me ask you about some of the president's rhetoric this morning posting on truth social, quote, open the straight, you blank bastards. Do you think that is an effective negotiation tactic? No, bombing them back to the Stone Age, cursing them, Secretary Hedgeseth saying, you know, it's death from above, no mercy, no quarter, we will ignore stupid rules of engagement. This is all embarrassing and juvenile. And it's people trying to act like they're puffed up and tough when what we really see from

the administration in this war is the absence of a plan, the absence of a clear rationale, no effort to get allies on board and thus deep unpopularity of this war with the American public. Tim says, please dial back the rhetoric and that all of this is juvenile. But it is so much more than that, Tim. I mean, what a platform you have with an invitation to meet the press, to inform the people watching that program, to guide them in how they should see this situation. And what a spectacular failure to not speak with outrage and horror

of yet another example of how. how desperately unqualified this man is to be in a position of power. It isn't just stop the rhetoric. It's stop because these are actions, not just words. Bridges are already being bombed. We're already bombing a girl's school. It isn't just rhetoric. It isn't just juvenile. It's dangerous. 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 AI to automate repetitive tasks or building agents that can handle multi-step work, connecting it to sheets or notion or CRMs. So the information moves on its own. They are going to give you,

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This ensures your data stays private. No other privacy focus carrier in the United States. can say that. Go to cape.co forward slash Pacman and use code Pacman to get 33% off Cape for six months. The info is in the description. Welcome back to the David Packman Show. My name is Brittany Page from the page perspective right here on YouTube and I am today's guest host. If you happen to be looking for other independent media to support, I would love to have you join me over on my channel where I talk about politics, public policy, and many of the

issues close to my heart as a licensed psychotherapist, passionate about changing systems to work better for the people. I have a small channel, especially compared to David's, and I would love to see you over there. Now, one aspect of the onslaught of chaos coming out of the Trump administration is that important stories sometimes fall in the ranking of what is top of mind. And the Epstein files have been fighting to stay toward the top of importance while we have numerous five alarm fires surrounding us. But the Epstein files, the story took an important new turn when Donald Trump fired Attorney General Pam Bondi last week with Todd Blanche stepping into the acting attorney general role and leading the Department of Justice. Todd is, of course, Trump's personal attorney

and the man who paid Galane Maxwell a visit in prison before moving her to a more cushy setup. He recently went on with one of the most notorious ghouls over at Fox News, Jesse Waters to outline his priorities at the Justice Department and ensure that we all know that Pam Bondi's firing was not at all related to how she handled the Epstein files. It was not at all related to her horrendous, the Dow is over 50,000 performance before Congress. And Todd won't and doesn't say that her firing was actually related in part to Donald Trump's frustration over her inability to prosecute his political enemies. What Blanche does make clear is that by firing Pam Bondi, Trump hopes to move on from the

Epstein Files and put it all behind him. Now the Epstein Files, you'd agree not handled well? And I don't, first of all, I have never heard President Trump say that the Attorney General was anything that happened to her had anything to do with the Epstein Files. And so look, the Epstein Files has been. a saga that's lasted for the entire, for the past year. And what happened when the president signed the Transparency Act is that the Department of Justice has now released all the files with respect to the Epstein saga.

And the Attorney General Bondi and I appeared in front of Congress voluntarily a couple weeks ago to answer any questions they had. We have made every single congressman, senator, available to come and see any document redacted, unredacted that they want. And so I think that to the extent that the Epstein files was a part of the, of the past year of this Justice Department, it will, should not be a part of anything going forward. Did you hear that guys?

It's time to move on. Move on from Epstein, even though there has been zero accountability and nearly everything that he said in that clip is a lie. Todd says that all of the files have been released. Not true. Still waiting on millions. We're still missing essential documents

related to specific accusations that Donald Trump abused a minor child Eustine survivors have been fighting for full transparency and accountability only for there to be numerous instances where the DOJ redacted names of abusers and left unredacted names of survivors leading to their harassment. Todd says that he and Bondi voluntarily appeared to answer questions and we all see what happens when they appear for questioning, right? We get screamed at about how the Dow is above 50,000. And what about Todd's claim that the DOJ made every Epstein document available, unredacted for elected officials to review? A hilarious claim given that we know they had to travel to a particular room,

select from one of like four computers where their research was then tracked, all of their searches in the files recorded for future use of, against them in some unknown fashion to the point where members of Congress called for an investigation into what exactly the Department of Justice was doing with records of their searches in the files. Fully transparent, fully accountable, just endless lies. There have been no arrests in the United States, and yet the acting Attorney General is ready to move on. The cover-up continues. Even as the post and courier continues to dig into allegation, against Trump from a woman who was a child at the time of her allegations against Trump,

corroborating numerous aspects of her claims and life in other areas outside of her allegations against Trump. And I hope that they keep digging because we know accountability and transparency will not come from this administration. Well, it's about that time when all of the politicians who will inevitably be throwing their hats in the ring for president start their book tours. We've seen Gavin Newsom promoting his book. Corey Booker is making the rounds, promoting his book. Basically, any politician promoting a book right now is essentially also announcing their run for president without actually announcing it.

And Vice President J.D. Vance is also about to launch his own book tour with his book Communion, Finding My Way Back to Faith, coming out June 16th. It's about his conversion to Catholicism as an adult. Hopefully, you know, he's prepared to answer for how the Catholic Church has endlessly criticized the Trump administration. I mean, from Cardinals releasing statements asking the administration to use its moral compass or Pope Leo directly criticizing the Trump administration's horrifying attacks on immigrants or never ending wars and its imperialist project.

J.D. will have a lot to answer for on this book tour, but it's his wife making the headlines today and not just because Ushah Vance is launching story time with the second lady, a new show where she invites a guest to read children's books for her on her new show. She's also making headlines for ever so subtly burning her husband during a promotional interview on Fox News. And we're going to go through a few of these clips, but we'll start with my favorite J.D. Byrne here. And he's described you as being his rock and being just a steady voice.

What do you want America to know about your husband? I know it's been asked in reverse, but what's something we don't know that you want America to know? It's hard because he's written a book. We know a lot. We know a lot of speeches. Gosh, there's so many misconceptions about him. He is just the nicest, funniest guy.

He makes everything an adventure. He's really just a wonderful person to be around. And our children, our family has so much more joy because he is a part of it. And I wish that people saw more of that. So when we look at the priorities, there are so many misconceptions about him, including that he has just a dog shit personality,

but he's actually such a nice and funny guy, you guys. His personality is not completely dark-sighted. No, he's actually such a joy to be around and he loves adventure. Do you, do you believe her? Do you believe that J.D. Vance actually has a great personality, despite the many years of evidence to the contrary. She wishes that people saw more of how fun and nice he is,

but I guess that's kind of JD's problem, right? That's not really a problem of the public failing to pick up what he's putting down. I mean, when he spends his days shape-shifting into Trump's best foot soldier after calling him America's Hitler, it might make sense that the general public fails to see how nice and funny and cool and full of adventure, J.D. Vance's,

when he's generating animus toward our nation's Haitian immigrants by saying that they eat pets, we're supposed to think what? He's just a super cool and funny guy. This is a personal problem, Usha. We don't see J.D. Vance's this person because he's not this person. He's a slimy political actor who is propping up the worst among us,

standing idly by while everything burns, eager to continue as the vice president for America's Hitler. But Usha was also asked about how she and J.D. talked to their kids about real world events in the news. How do they answer questions from their kids about the horrors that they're complicit in? Okay, maybe that wasn't the question, but I really wish it was. Talking to your children about complex topics, I heard you talk about this before. And I just wanted you to share it again because it's really tough.

you are in this lane, which is obviously politics, you keep your kids away from these world events, but it's hard. You know, I'm in news, and my daughter's walking through the room, and I remember once she looked up and she saw the war in Ukraine and she said, mommy, baby hurt, and like it crushed me to hear that. So how do you talk to them? You try to shield them, but about these big topics? Yeah, no, it's an excellent question.

It's something that we grapple with constantly because, of course, they're aging and their awareness and interests and the questions they ask change every year. So I think we try to meet them where they are. You know, we try to actually hear what question they're answering and answer it truthfully and directly without a ton of extraneous information. And we really do try to keep politics out of it, if that makes sense. It's not necessarily important for them to have formed an opinion at this point. They have their life to form opinions that make sense for them. We try to give them information that they can understand and digest and see where their thoughts are leading and follow those.

I just marvel at these politicians and their families. What a strange situation to be responsible, complicit for so many of the horrors that we see on TV, while trying to balance how to talk to your kids about what is happening and inevitably, I guess, preventing them from fully understanding your level of responsibility and complicity and the horrors. But more than anything else, this question and answer is supposed to be a message for the people at home watching Fox News who have their own families about how they should talk to their children about the, well, I would call them horrors, they don't see it that way, that they're also

complicit in given their vote for Donald Trump. And the message there from Usha is about avoiding accountability and keeping the indoctrination moving. And one thing I keep thinking about is how Usha is starting this project, this show of reading children's books. All the while, the Trump Vance administration oversees the tearing apart of families, the throwing of children in concentration camps where they eat moldy food

and have their artistic renderings of life in the camps stolen from them because ProPublica reported on those artistic drawings, revealing to us the depths of depravity in these concentration camps, agents taking crayons and paper from children who were trying to process the trauma that they're experiencing. What about those kids, Usha? What about the kids in Iran that we've killed? What about the kids in Gaza? What about the kids in Lebanon? These children matter too, do they not? I mean, this is what happens when you're a political actor who says you try to keep politics out of it. That is just another

way to avoid accountability. And we see you, Usha, we see you trying to launder your husband's image, wash away the hypocrisy, and keep the focus on anything other than what matters. We see you. Identity theft and targeted scams often start long before the breach when bits of your personal life addresses, emails, relatives, your work history are scattered around the internet on these data broker sites and that information is sold or re-reaching. used. Our sponsor Incogni will get that stuff removed for you. Not from just a single type of website. They will work to take down your personal information wherever it shows up online, shrinking the pool of info that bad actors rely on. Incogni automatically handles removals

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Get 83% off just 203 a month plus four extra months free at PIAvPN.com slash Pacman. The link is in the description. Welcome back to the David Packman show. As you can see and here, I am not David Packman. My name is Brittany Page and I host the Page Perspective here on YouTube, which you can subscribe to by clicking the link in the description below and finding me by searching my name. I am thrilled to be returning his guest host for David while he is away. And one thing that you hear me say often on my channel is that budgets are moral documents.

They reveal our priorities. If we look at Donald Trump's budget, we see that his priorities are massive tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and adding to the already ridiculously bloated defense budget while gutting our social safety net and making life harder for Americans already on the edge. We just learned that Trump is requesting the largest military budget in history, $1.5 trillion for the military. He is also proposing reductions in the budget in the areas of education, housing, health, environmental protections, all the while Americans are losing their health care, fighting food

insecurity and increased hunger, and more Americans than ever before are rent-burdened, paying more than 30% of their income on rent and utilities. And Donald Trump's policy choices are making life harder for Americans. We're continuously sold on this idea that Republicans are the party of fiscal responsibility. They are the ones concerned about the national debt. Oh, but we have a headline on this one, too. The national debt just crossed $39 trillion, almost doubling since Trump vowed to erase it.

Trump's director of the National Economic Council isn't intimidated by any of this, though. I mean, why would he be when he can make his media appearances and lie and tell us that all is well, that actually a budget request of $1.5 trillion for the military is the height of fiscal responsibility. A budget proposal from the White House came out about 60 minutes ago. Just give me a top line headline. What does it say about this White House and what its priorities are?

Well, I guess that because of all the stuff we've done like cutting government employment, that we're being very fiscally responsible, but we also have an increasing eye on the importance of national defense and the potential budgetary cost of that. And so it's fiscally responsible and an increasing spending on defense because of all the things that we're seeing in the world. We will see in the end what kind of traction it gets. Kevin has to thank you your time. And the Fox News host, I think, I think Hemmer is his name. He's just completely content with that response. But someone should really tell Kevin there about the Pentagon, failing its eighth audit in a row, just completely.

unable to pass an audit. Keep handing out the cash while they continue to fail audit after audit after audit. And remember the one big, beautiful bill act, I hate to call it that, but that's what it's called, when Donald Trump cuts $187 billion from SNAP, $1.1 trillion from Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act marketplaces to pay for the $1.4 trillion in tax cuts for Americans making more than $500,000. This budget is just more of that. It's an insult.

It is going to cause widespread harm and pain. And Trump does not care, of course. He recently even explicitly said that we cannot afford to have a social safety net. $1.5 trillion for the military. Of course, we've always got the money for war. But helping people? Oh, no, sorry. We can't do that.

Because the United States can't take care of daycare. That has to be up to a state. We can't take care of daycare. We're a big country. We have 50 states. We have all these other people. We're fighting wars. We can't take care of daycare.

You've got to let a state take care of daycare, and they should pay for it, too. They should pay. They have to raise their taxes. But they should pay for it. And we could lower our taxes a little bit to them to make up. But it's not possible for us to take care of daycare. Medicaid, Medicare, all these individual things, they can do it on a state basis. You can't do it on a federal.

We have to take care of one thing, military protection. Now Donald Trump hates poor people. We know that, but it is still stunning to hear him. So flippantly describe what he believes we cannot afford, that we cannot afford to have a social safety net. When he wants $1.5 trillion for defense, the only priority he has now is his personal imperialist project, the suffering. of Americans, it doesn't rate.

Thankfully, we have Democrats who see all of this for what it is. Additional funding for the military should be a no-go. And Representative Rokana is a firm no on any additional funding. This scenario where you would support new funding if it was determined necessary for the readiness of the military. No, I'm not supporting new funding. I mean, they're asking for $400 billion. I know you asked Senator Kane and your Representative Loller, the answer for every Democrat should be absolutely no, absolutely no. We don't need to read it. We need to study it. It's $400 billion

for a war that we oppose. We could have universal childcare for that. We could have free public college for that. We could pay teachers $60,000 for that. I call it new economic patriotism. Democrats need to oppose this funding and say we're actually for the American people. So this is exactly right. And it is particularly beneficial in educating the American public In lieu of this war that is doing nothing but causing harm, we should have universal childcare. We could have that. We could have public, free public college.

The American public needs to hear things framed in this way. And Governor Westmore of Maryland offered a similar message on Face the Nation. Quote, it's not possible for us to take care of daycare, Medicaid, Medicare, all these individual things. He argues the federal government shouldn't have to pay for those programs because, quote,

we have to take care of one thing, military protection. That's nonsense. And that's not what any of us want. We don't want to be fighting foreign wars while you're taking away our health care. This is exactly right. For so long, the Republican Party has tried to convince the American public that we couldn't afford

to take care of people to ensure a robust social safety net so that when the bad luck comes for you, you can land on your feet. And I'm a first generation college student. who benefited from Pell Grants, who grew up on food stamps, and public assistance that so many right now desperately need, but cannot access because of the policy choices of this administration. This is a choice.

We can either spend endlessly to prop up one dying man's ego, or we can take care of our nation. This choice needs to be made clear to the American people voting in the midterms and beyond. Over the weekend, the rumor mill picked up online, with false speculation that Trump was hidden away in the hospital dying. And I saw David actually post about Donald Trump Jr. going after him for his post about this very rumor. But even though Easter has already passed, the Easter egg role today

was floated as a moment that would be a proof of life situation for the president, given that he hadn't been seen publicly for enough time that people apparently started wishing that he had had a medical episode. I mean, what is that say about your life and legacy when you're absent from public for a bit. And many people are like, oh, good. Hopefully it has happened. It is the situation that Trump has created for himself. But leading up to Easter and the Easter egg hunt,

Trump and his merry band of religious faith leader enablers have been making the rounds to tout Trump's deep dedication to Jesus, to faith, to Christianity. And while his administration purges black people and women from positions of power in the military and threatens war crimes online and sends children to eat moldy food and concentration camps, you know, the typical actions of the best representations of the faithful. Just last week, Donald Trump's spiritual advisor Paula White literally compared him to Jesus. And Mr. President, no one has paid the price like you have paid the price. It almost cost you your life.

You were betrayed and arrested and falsely accused. It's a familiar pattern that our Lord and Savior showed us. But it didn't end there for him and it didn't end there for you. And now she's going on Fox News with Laura Trump to talk about Trump's long history as a faithful servant to God. But maybe you can talk about how special it is. When you look across our cabinet right now, there are so many of our folks in leadership positions who lean heavily on their faith and are very open about it.

That's a really special thing. Oh, Laura, as you said, this is probably my favorite subject to talk about. First off, to give honor to God and to President Trump for being bold and unwavering with this faith. Many people don't know like you do and say hello to Eric and everyone in the family about the upbringing of President Trump that he went to sometimes three times a week to he said it depended on the teacher

to Saturday school Sunday school church it was at Norman Vincent Pills church was a big part of his life of course Billy Graham Crusades and then he began to watch people on TV including myself and that's how we connected over 25 years ago and developed this relationship not only with him but obviously the family and so many others and now to serve in the highest place. And President Trump really is the one that takes that bold stand and has so many believers that are in his administration. So several things. Do we really believe that Trump was going to church three times a week? Do we really believe that he is a religious person? I mean, he didn't even go to church for Easter Sunday yesterday. And listen, I'm not a religious person. I went to a progressive church from

about ages 12 to 18, and I haven't been since. But I still stand back in awe of people who think that Donald Trump is a religious person. And it isn't just how his face looks when these people are praying over him either. This is a man who, do you remember when he deployed officers to abuse protesters in 2020 here in Washington, D.C., in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd,

when he went to St. John's Church and had a photo op awkwardly holding a Bible, not his Bible, a Bible. It's a Bible. And sorry if you're listening on Spotify and not watching the video, but I had to include the full weight of cringe in that video, with Donald Trump having no idea how to hold his body that he has lived in for 70 years,

just an endlessly awkward, empty vessel he is, but it's not his Bible. It is a Bible that they just found on the way there, I guess. What about when he was at? He was asked his favorite Bible verse. You mentioned the Bible. You've been talking about how it's your favorite book. And you said, I think last night in Iowa, some people are surprised that you say that.

I'm wondering what one or two of your most favorite Bible verses are. I wouldn't want to get into it because to me that's very personal. You know, when I talk about the Bible is very personal. So I don't want to get into it. There's no verse that means a lot to you that you think about or cite. The Bible means a lot to me, but I don't want to get into specifics. Even to cite a verse that you like. I don't want to do that.

You're an Old Testament guy or a New Testament guy? Probably equal. I think it's just an incredible. The whole Bible is an incredible. I joke very much so. They always hold up the art of the deal. I say my second favorite book of all time. But I just think the Bible is just something very special.

So now asking a person who says the Bible is their favorite book, which Bible verse is their favorite is like asking their STD status? Or what about when he reduced communion to having a little bit of, wine and a little bit of cracker. When we go in church and when I drink my little wine, which is about the only wine I drink and have my little cracker, I guess that's this form of asking for forgiveness. And I do that as often as possible because I feel cleansed.

Again, I don't consider these things a personal affronts. It just speaks to the level of hypocrisy constantly on display here. We're supposed to believe a man who only signals religiosity to gain a cult following is deeply religious despite having zero knowledge of the faith that he supposedly belongs to. And Paula says church three times a week. No. Also, when she said Saturday school, you know, those of us who were in Saturday school for getting in trouble heard something very different. Please tell me it's not just me, right? I'm like Saturday school. You mean when you got busted in school and they sent you to Saturday school? That seems more likely than Trump being at church on a Saturday,

because of his dedication to the faith. So this particular signaling of holiness from Paula and Trump and Trump's daughter-in-law is disturbing, especially in the broader context of the many crimes of this administration, from protecting child predators to lying about American citizens murdered in the streets for protecting their neighbors,

to kidnapping families and children. I mean, the list goes on and on, when you do these things and you try to give it a protective shield of holiness, it makes it even more disturbing. So this trend will continue, but hopefully with growing outrage from religious leaders in particular who don't work in the White House faith office. And the Easter egg roll will be Trump's proof of life until the next time we don't see him for a period of time and everyone starts wishing again that it had happened.

The David Packman Show is an audience-supported program and the best most direct way to support the show is by becoming a member at 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 join packman.com. Welcome again to the David Packman Show. My name is Brittany Page from the Page perspective on YouTube and I am so grateful to be here today to take you through the news of the day.

And as I prepare to wrap my time as guest host today, I would invite you to please join me over on my much smaller YouTube channel, where I talk about politics, public policy, and all things trying to improve the system that we have here. Now, the lengths to which these conservative commentators are going to try to prop up public support for Trump's $400 million ballroom and his,

Many renovations, I mean, from the Kennedy Center to the White House, it is truly wild. And Mark Levin on Fox News actually referenced George Washington and his love of ballrooms to try to paint a picture of Donald Trump as no different than other presidents, including the founding fathers who were just classy fellows like Trump obsessed with ballrooms. And you took a hit for that. What about George Washington? You know, George Washington was very popular for a very long time, but it was also unpopular for a period of time, too. Toward the end of his presidency, he faced intense criticism from political opponents,

cloning Jefferson Madison, who accused him of being influenced by, back then, the notorious Alexander Hamilton. And despite Washington's efforts to remain above politics, rise above the Federalist and Democratic Republican parties, he became a partisan target. The J Treaty, which was the treaty with Britain in 1794, was viewed as highly unpopular, although it was very important. Critics accused him of having a formal European style of leadership with his receptions. He liked nice, proper receptions.

He liked ballrooms. I think I know another president who likes proper receptions from ballrooms. It shows class, class. Well, Washington had class, but he was attacked for it. And by the time he left office, he was not a while. He'd celebrated as he was during the Revolutionary War as he is today. How desperate is this? George Washington loved ballrooms, you guys.

It's called class. Guess who else likes ballrooms? Donald Trump, because he's classy. Now you should all definitely support his ballroom projects. And conservative commentator like, Mark Levin, I'm sure that he has no issue with Donald Trump looting the government to renovate the White House to make it nice for himself, right? I mean, we didn't talk about this part of the budget when we were talking about the budget earlier, but get ready for your head to explode.

President Donald Trump plans to spend more than $377 million renovating the White House executive residents in fiscal 2026 and is estimating another 174.4.000. million on top of it for the next year, according to the White House's fiscal 2027 budget request. This is reporting from Politico. The budget document, which proposes slashing domestic programs to help fund a $1.5 trillion bump to defense spending, estimates spending $37 million in fiscal 2026 under an account for repairs and renovations to the executive residents. That's a mammoth 86% increase over the $39 million estimated

to have been spent in fiscal 2025 on sprucing up the area of the White House where the president lives. You remember when Elon Musk and his gang of 18 year olds took a hammer to USAID, condemning hundreds of thousands of people to death. They called life-saving programs, Waste, fraud, and abuse.

But funds that ensure Donald Trump sits on a golden toilet are what for these people? Essential spending. And to me, knowing that Trump's budget attempts to gut essential funding for HUD, housing and urban development, attempting to steal funds from essential programs to keep Americans housed, it is a particular betrayal to know that Trump wants millions of dollars for his own personal vanity projects to live. projects to live a life of golden comfort, all the while Americans across the country sleep in their cars with their families before going to work all day, or wait on housing voucher list

for months, sometimes years while suffering in poverty and trying to survive on the streets. And with the endless self-dealing from this administration, you know, the betting on war crimes before they happen, the polymarket of it all, we have to assume that when Donald Trump talks about funding coming from private donations, like he says about the ballroom. He is, well, number one, lying. And number two, those private donations are in exchange for some sort of deal, right? And the private donations came up in this reporting as well. Quote, the budget shows that $350 million of that $377 million figure is counted as mandatory spending, a classification used for programs that Congress must fund by statute, such as Social Security or Medicare.

A mandatory spending account is not subject to the annual congressional appropriations cycle. When asked for details on the mandatory spending, the spokesperson said it includes the private donations being used to fund Trump's new ballroom, and that funding is considered mandatory. I mean, this is a mess, you guys. This is a complete. mess. This is what happens when we have a grifter as president. And it's truly endlessly enraging that someone like this was elevated to the highest position of power and is being permitted by a Republican Party of cowards who refuse to do anything to stop the looting and self-dealing. I mean, is this base going to go for this kind of thing, though? That's my question. We're starting to

see anger about gas prices, anger about the lack of action. on the promise to lower prices generally, can the base of supporters really go for the idea that George Washington loved ballrooms, so we have to support Donald Trump's ballroom? I don't think any of this works without distractions. They need to keep the distractions going. They need someone like Dr. Oz, for example,

the administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services. They need him making the rounds on Fox News, talking about fraud and healthcare. All the while, Trump is engaged in a massive personal renovation project at the White House. This is making a difference. Yes, because the president and the vice president that task force says yes. So I spent yesterday when we weren't doing the bust talking to collaborators and talking about how we're going to be able to recruit the right people back into government because we need people. And by the way, please, I came on the show in part to recruit folks.

There's a generational opportunity to serve your nation. If you're interested in this space of fraud, come on, give us a call. We want to hear your tips. The pattern here is clear. Donald Trump wants to make claims about certain groups of people engaged in fraud, preferably non-white, immigrants, and poor people to distract from the actual source of waste fraud and abuse that is his presence in the White House. And for a lot of people it works, they are happy to turn their anger and frustration on

non-white people, poor people, homeless people, immigrants. Anyone but the man actually responsible for the pain and suffering. and who's capable of stopping it through moral budgets and policy choices and an end to the endless self-dealing. Can you believe we're at a point where the Holocaust Museum is altering their content to avoid upsetting the Trump administration? Politico is reporting that former employees have come forward to allege that the museum removed resources on racism from its website and changed the names of workshops to avoid. becoming a target of the Trump administration. And listen, it cannot be said enough that Donald Trump is a white supremacist. He started his career as a slumlord, fighting the Department of Justice after they brought

a suit accusing him of refusing to rent apartments to black people in violation of the Fair Housing Act, the same act that he is preventing the enforcement of as president per HUD whistleblowers who came forward. As you can see there in my write-up from Substack when I attended the whistleblower hearings, his first declaration when he launched his campaign for president was to accuse Mexican immigrants of bringing drugs and crime and rape. And he's led a cleansing campaign across the country in an attempt to purge the United States of non-white people while also trying to strip birthright citizenship from people he doesn't want here, undocumented immigrants and visa holders.

The list is long and I could keep going for a very long time. But there's this thing that happens in polite society, heavy air quotes, where you can't call someone a racist. You can't speak plainly about their racism. We saw this when Elon Musk was initially doing his work with Doge. From the Nazi salute onward, there was this discomfort with calling these racists what they are. And Elon is now, I don't know if you've seen this, reposting what he calls an important reminder, Never get so racist that you forget white leftists are the worst people in the world. He doesn't want too little racism or too much racism.

He wants just the right amount of racism. But do not under any circumstance call him a racist, you guys. And the same is true of Trump. The media really struggles to just be honest about what we're facing here. But when the Holocaust Memorial Museum is censoring its content on racism and the fragility of democracy to avoid becoming a target of the Trump administration, what do we call that? I think we know what to call it. Reading from Politico, the museum pulled from its website a page called Teaching Materials on Nazism and Jim Crow at some point after August 29, 2025. The last time the page was captured on the Internet Archive,

that page provided lesson plans and resources about the connections between American de jury racism and the Nazi regime, including links to sites about African-American soldiers during World War II and Afro-Germans during the Holocaust, among other topics. It also linked to a 2018 video on the museum's YouTube channel featuring a conversation between a Holocaust survivor and a woman whose father was lynched in Alabama.

That video is now unlisted, meaning it does not show up on the museum's YouTube page, but is still accessible via direct URL. So polling teachings on the history of Nazism and Jim Crow. Polling conversations with the Holocaust survivor and a woman whose father was lynched in Alabama. These are truly disturbing examples of the kind of censorship we've come to expect from the Trump administration, whether going out of his way to put up statues of enslavers or ripping down slavery exhibits, this is what this administration does. Attempts to censor reality, to keep people ignorant of history, that way they're more easily

manipulated, more easy to use to build the base of support in the cults. And this reporting continues. Leaders at the museum also renamed a one-day civic education workshop. designed for college students, from fragility of democracy and the rise of the Nazis, to before the Holocaust, German society, and the Nazi rise to power. In an email obtained by Politico,

between a senior staff member at the Museum's Levine Institute for Holocaust Education and a staffer planning the workshop, the senior staff member said the change was necessary due to concerns regarding how the term fragility may be perceived or interpreted in the current climate. I really believe we're in this place because we've refused to name this problem what it is

directly for more than a decade, whether the media, the prominent figures in the media, or other people in positions of power, refusing to name all of this what it is. I mean, how many reports do we see of Pete Hegeseth firing someone who was black or a woman? More than a dozen senior officials in the military he's gotten rid of. And we still have to play this game like it's impolite to describe someone as a racist when that's what they are. This administration knows who they're signaling to with all of this, but it isn't even a signal at this point. I just wish the media would name it directly and accurately. And if you're still with me, we do a lot of media criticism like this on my podcast, I doubt it,

the podcast that I have hosted with Jesse Dallimore since 2014. We'd love to have you join us on the bonus show. Coming up, where we will be covering a few more stories for you. As I wrap here, my name is Brittany Page, and I have loved being here today for my triumphant return to the guest host chair in these extremely trying and horrific times. I wish you moments of peace,

and we'll look forward to hearing your thoughts on all of these stories that I've talked about today in the comments. Please don't forget to join me on my channel, Page Perspective, Britney Page, linked in the description below. And for today, take care, and I'll see you next time. Thank you.