The David Pakman Show - Trump’s SOTU disaster could cost Republicans 2026

Episode Date: February 25, 2026

-- On the Show -- Donald Trump’s 2026 State of the Union address was a low-energy, reality-detached speech filled with false claims, self-praise, and economic distortions -- Right-wing politicians and media figures exaggerate and misrepresent data to portray Donald Trump as dominant and successful despite weak approval numbers -- Attorney General Pam Bondi struggles to defend Donald Trump’s State of the Union during a Fox and Friends interview and fails to present a clear argument -- Several voters criticize Donald Trump’s State of the Union speech for lacking economic clarity while one swing voter offers vague praise without specifics -- Mike Johnson admits that losing the midterms would expose Donald Trump to renewed investigations and aggressive House oversight -- The United States Department of Justice withholds dozens of tracked FBI pages tied to allegations involving Donald Trump in the Jeffrey Epstein case -- Joe Kernen challenges Senator Markwayne Mullin’s inflation claim on CNBC, undercutting a key Republican talking point about economic progress -- Global markets significantly outperform United States markets since Donald Trump returns to office, weakening his economic leadership narrative -- On the Bonus Show: Democrats win three more elections, prices likely won't go down despite SCOTUS's ruling against Trump's tariffs, the US government drops its case against six Democratic lawmakers, and much more... 🛍️ Shopify: Sign up for $1/month trial and start selling today at https://shopify.com/pakman 🛡️ Incogni lets you control your personal data! Get 60% off their annual plan: http://incogni.com/pakman 🛏️ Eight Sleep: Get up to $350 OFF the Pod 5 at https://eightsleep.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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Donald Trump delivered what may be the most detached from reality state of the union address we have ever seen, rambling and confused and claiming he ended wars that he didn't really end, suggesting it should be his third term and of course insisting this is the best economy anyone has seen or heard of ever. But if everything, if anything is not so good, it's Joe Biden's fault. Meanwhile, Americans realize that's not true and we actually heard from a lot of them after the speech. Republicans are panicked. They're saying it was majestic. They're saying it was the best state of the union ever. We'll show you the clips of them making that case. And then in total panic mode, the DOJ has records tied to Epstein allegations that are missing. Serial numbers

exist. The pages don't. Where did they go? 53 pages. We'll talk about it. And even CNBC's MAGA friendly host Joe Kernan shut down inflation spin from a Republican senator live on air. It was fascinating. And then the moment that MAGA Mike Johnson realized if Republicans lose the House in 2026, which is looking more and more likely, the shield is gone. Trump's term is over. Maga Mike Johnson gets it. I hope we do as well.

Let's get into it. Donald Trump just completed his 2026. State of the Union address, it was a global humiliation and a total disaster. We just watched it. I'm going to show you some of the most critical moments. But what I can summarize for you is that this was not only a ridiculous speech and a dangerous speech, it was kind of a pointless speech. Much of the speech spent giving people awards and medals in the crowd, some deserving,

some not so much, but a real waste of time at the end of the day. day and Donald Trump sort of plodding through with increasingly less energy as it went, delivering the lines without really any attachment to them, told endless lies. But let's start with Donald Trump's arrival, where he looked rough even at the beginning. Trump looked so rough at the beginning as he arrived with his hair completely blown out of proportion, makeup inappropriately applied, orange-faced in some areas, missing makeup and others, just from what he looked like when he arrived. You knew that this was not going to go well.

And indeed, indeed, Donald Trump sticking with a lot of what he says every day, which is it doesn't matter how you feel things are. Everything's great and I fixed it. And the last remaining things that are not so good are the fault of Joe Biden or definitely someone else. For example, Donald Trump insisting he inherited a stagnant economy with record inflation. When I last spoke in this chamber 12 months ago, I had just inherited a nation in crisis with a stagnant economy, inflation at record levels, a wide open border, horrendous recruitment for military and police, rampant crime at home, and wars and chaos all over the world.

But tonight, after just one year, I can say with dignity and pride that we have achieved a transformation like no one has ever seen before. And of course, most of that isn't true. Inflation was like 2.8% when Trump came into office. The crime rate has been declining for decades in the United States. It's just a made-up farce at the end of the day. Trump at one point agitated and kind of screaming into the microphone saying we're winning so much. People are saying, please, it's too much winning. And for all of these reasons, I say tonight, members of Congress, the state of our union is strong. All right, let me actually skip forward to when Trump resumes talking. Mr. President, we're winning too much. We can't take it anymore. We're not used to winning in

our country until you came along. We just always. losing, but now we're winning too much. Anyway, that's Trump's impression of people coming up to him crying, saying we're winning too much and Trump screaming into the microphone to the point that it was blowing it out and clipping. Notably, Republicans kind of clapping like seals when Trump would just tell his lies. Here's just one example of that. In 12 months, I secured commitments for more than $18 trillion pouring in from all over the globe.

Anyway, they clap and clap and clap, but it's a lie, as I've told you before. Donald Trump has really not secured anything. He's gotten people to say to him, hey, you know what? If you bring us some interesting investments or potentially we would make purchases over the next 10 years. And it's not really free money, even if we get it, because it's being exchanged at the end of the day for goods and services. But why let a little bit of information get in the way of a good story?

Trump did glitch a bunch. I mean, we could just do a clip on Trump's glitches. Trump's energy diminished throughout the speech, his slurring increased throughout the speech, and the glitches became more frequent. Just one example, but there were a lot. It comes to the corruption that is plundering. Really, it's plundering America. And that's that same glitch where Trump goes when it's plundering and then he glitches and

then he realizes he messed up and he goes back to the beginning. I won't bore you with it. Glitch after glitch after glitch. Trump notably has reframed kicking people off of food stamps as living. lifting them off. The word lifting is doing some really heavy lifting here. We cut a record number of job killing regulations and in one year we have lifted 2.4 million Americans a record off of food stamps. And of course, lifted implies that their economic circumstances have improved so much that they no longer

need food stamps. But of course, they just put in a bunch of paper requirements and kicked a bunch of people off. Not really the victory that Trump wants it to be. When the topic of tariffs came up, it was very interesting because recall that just five days ago, the Supreme Court said Trump's blanket tariffs are illegal. Trump insisting that foreign countries pay the tariffs. We'll get to the Supreme Court part in a moment. We all know, of course, that American businesses pay the tariffs, 90% of which is passed on to the average consumer. I believe the tariffs paid for by foreign countries will like in the past substantially replace the modern day system of income tax, taking a great financial burden off the people that I love. And unfortunately for Trump and really

for the whole country, I mean, listen, if tariffs work that way, maybe they wouldn't be destructive. But that's not the way that they work. The camera shifting to the Supreme Court justices as Donald Trump arguing that he already has permission to do tariffs based on prior Supreme Court decisions. This is Trump's totally bizarre kind of novel legal interpretation, an awkward moment, say the least. Supreme Court's unfortunate involvement. So despite the disappointing ruling, these powerful country saving, it's saving our country,

the kind of money we're taking in. Peace protecting many of the wars I settled was because of the threat of tariffs. I wouldn't have been able to settle them with a will remain in place under fully approved and tested alternative legal statutes. Oh, yeah. And they have been tested for a long time. They're a little more complex, but they're actually probably better, leading to a solution that will be even stronger than before.

Congressional action will not be necessary. It's already time tested and approved. That's Trump's legal theory about tariffs. The Supreme Court justices did not seem impressed. I did have on my bingo card Trump mentioning the Dow hitting 50,000 at one point. And indeed, he mentioned it. And it sort of sounds like one person clapped about it. Now it's just taken off.

One of the primary reasons for our country's stunning economic turnaround, the biggest in history where the Dow Jones broke 50,000, four years ahead of schedule. And the S&P hit 7,000. where it wasn't supposed to do it for many years were tariffs. I used these tariffs, took in hundreds of billions of dollars to make great deal. The money comes from American companies, of course. I also had on my bingo card Trump claims he won 2020, and indeed he did by referencing that this should be his third term because as he believes he won 2020. So in my first year of the second term, should be be my third term. What? Strange things happen. Right. At another moment, Trump said,

if you agree with this statement, stand up and show support. You'll hear the statement in a moment. Tom Swazi, Democratic Congressman, was asleep at the start of this moment. The state of the union is how it gives Americans the chance to see clearly what their representatives really believe. So tonight I'm inviting every legislature to join with my administration in reaffirming a fundamental principle. If you agree with this statement, then stand up and show your support. The first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens. And they did a whole dog and pony show where for a whole bunch of times, some people were standing,

some people were sitting. Of course, it's a completely false choice. you can protect citizens and follow the law on immigration and protect people in a lot of different ways that are legally coherent without making people have to sit or stand or put their hand up or hand down to show who is the highest priority. It's just a false framing completely. At one point, Trump getting frustrated that Democrats weren't clapping for a lot of his crap and he said, these people are crazy. Nobody stands up. These people are crazy. I'm telling you, They're crazy.

And you noticed that Pete Hegseth really liked that and actually stood up and clapped for that statement. Big picture, this really was like just seeing a guy in cognitive decline, maybe with frontotemporal dementia, ranting, raving, but really losing energy very quickly. Trump did seem to be sundowning during this entire thing. And look at how he presented his claim about the number of wars that he ended. Our country has never been stronger. My first 10 months, I ended eight wars, including Cambodia.

Isn't it funny? Sick people. Cambodia and Thailand. Pakistan and India would have been a nuclear war. 35 million people said the prime minister of Pakistan. Yeah. So Trump repeating that widely debunk claim and then putting sort of a classic Trump point on it, there was a long period of time, about a half hour where Trump was just giving out medals

to people. You get a medal and you get a medal and you get a medal. At the end of all of it, after honoring a World War II veteran, which was maybe the most interesting moment of a generally very uninteresting speech. After honoring a World War II moment with the Congressional Medal of Honor, Trump has to make it about himself. He goes, I kind of would like to give myself this one, but I'm not allowed. I've always wanted the Congressional Medal of Honor, but I was informed I'm not allowed to give it to myself. And I wouldn't know why I'd be taking it, but if they ever open up that law, I will be there with you someday. But you know, that's our highest honor, congressional medal of honor. And that's a big thing. It's an honor to be in the same room with you.

Thank you both. There you go. So listen, big picture. What was most notable about the speech was how inconsequential it was. Trump's claims were mostly lies. Trump's promises about what he will do mostly fell flat. And Donald Trump's. Trump's demeanor, energy level, the reactions in the room. I believe in watching the state of the union because it's important as an institution, but specifically as a speech, not only low energy, but meaningless and inconsequential for the most part. So what I think we should do is, yes, remind people that it was riddled with lies.

Yes, remind people that Trump couldn't make it about anything other than himself. But let's move on from it because it made such little. And it was at the end of the day, really a waste of a lot of people's time. Let me know what you think. Info at David Pakman.com. Hit the subscribe button. Let me know on Substack. I want to hear from you.

A lot of people have an idea for something they want to sell, a product, service, some kind of side project. The hardest part can be figuring out how to actually get it off the ground without it turning into a full-time tech nightmare. is the commerce platform behind millions of businesses around the world and the one we use for our merch store, everything from large established brands to people just launching one store product are using it. Shopify lets you build a professional looking online store with ready to use templates,

manage inventory, process payments, handle shipping returns, all of it in one place. They've got a ton of built-in tools that will help you write product descriptions, page layouts, marketing emails, all of it in one platform. If you get stuck, Shopify offers award-winning 24-7 customer support plus that purple shop pay button helps reduce abandoned carts and makes checkout faster for customers. Sign up for your $1 a month trial today at Shopify.com slash Pacman. The link is in the description. Scams and identity theft rarely start with a hacked password. They usually start when your personal information is easy to find online.

Your address, phone number, relatives, employment history. That information lives on countless data broker sites on the internet, accessible to almost anyone unless you actively remove it. Our sponsor, Incogni, is a service that handles that for you. Incogni doesn't just focus on one category of sites. It works to take down your personal data wherever it appears online. Reducing the raw material scammers used to impersonate you or target your family, incogny will automatically handle removals across hundreds of known sites, but the most powerful feature is custom removals, which is included with the unlimited plan. If you find your info anywhere, even an obscure directory, a business database, something new, you paste the link into incogny.

Their team will work to get it removed. That level of coverage really matters. even a single exposed profile can lead to fraud, harassment, identity theft. 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. As an independent progressive media show, we do depend directly on your support. I want to say a huge thank you to everybody who signed up for members during last night's state of the union stream, close to 100 new members.

I invite you to sign up as well at join packman.com. It's quick. It's easy. It's simple. And it feels good. And you can use the coupon code, which feels very appropriate in the context of yesterday's speech. Sad Trump. The coupon code sad Trump with no spaces will save you bigly off of the cost of a membership. In a panic as Donald Trump crumbled during the state of the union address. Republicans went on TV before and after the speech, clearly anticipating how terribly it would go and then reacting how terribly it did go. And they realized that the Republican Party is on the ropes.

They acknowledge and understand to themselves. They'd never say it out loud, although occasionally one of them will. Maga Mike Johnson, but we'll get to that. They recognize that this may be a two-year dead zone for the Republican Party if they do indeed lose the House of Representatives just months from now. So what do they do? They just make stuff up. I have an entire section in my book, the echo machine about what happens when you stop arguing about what the facts are and you can no longer even agree as to what are facts, what sorts of statements count as statements of fact. We are going to look at a variety

of opinions and supposed factual claims here, starting with Senator Tommy Tuberville, a Republican, who says no one has ever worked harder than Trump, and Trump now only sleeps two hours a day, which is there's an important detail about him saying two hours a day, which I will point out in a moment. So the rest of the story, look, America today is a prosperous country, it's a safe country, and it's a very well-respected country around the world. Don't you think? Oh, and I'll tell you why, we got the hardest working president ever, ever. He's not getting He didn't allow to help from Congress, either the House or the Senate, Republicans either. We've done a little bit here.

We should have done another reconciliation on health care before the first of the year. We didn't do it for some reason. We have another one we can do. All it takes is a little bit of work, but President Trump sleeps about two hours a day. He's bound and determined, not to just take care of the people, the taxpayers here, but as I said, the rest of the hemisphere, what he did down in Venezuela was outstanding, what he's trying to do in Greenland with the Golden Dome. all the things he's put to get.

Yeah. What he did down in Venezuela appears to be against the law. But notice how he said Trump sleeps about two hours a day. For a long time, the rumor was Trump sleeps four to five hours a day, which by the way is not enough. And could explain to some degree, Donald Trump's bizarre, excuse me, bizarre behavior and constant outbursts. But they always have to go further. Now it's only two hours a day that he sleeps and they can never just sit with the facts. You've got to go further. We don't believe it, Tommy.

Not to mention that if it were true that Trump is sleeping only two hours a day, that would be a major red flag, both from a competence standpoint and just a health standpoint at the end of the day. All right. Next example. A Fox business host talks about Trump's approval ratings from last month, ignoring the fact that Trump's approval is down four to five points from last month. We have newer data.

It's almost March, but they are talking about old approval ratings because it's the only way to even plausibly argue that Trump isn't the least popular president at this point in his presidential term in history. To have you back on, what are you going to be looking for in the president's address? Let's show his approval. He's nearly 43%. He's the head of George W. Bush. He's pacing for pacing Barack Obama.

What are you expecting tonight? Well, Liz, I think he's going to talk about what he and why is she talking about those approval ratings because they are old and they are higher than the current approval rating. This is not like the most groundbreaking thing, but we're building up a picture of how they have to lie because they know this presidency is a disaster and it's bad for them and it's going to be a disaster based on what happens in November. we go to a conversation between John Berman of Cn. of CNN and Republican congressman, Byron Donald's, a Trump suck up if I've ever seen one.

The topic was GDP. And a Byron Donald's simply tries to deny reality. And what is really a bummer about this is that it works. Even though Byron Donald simply goes, that's not true when John Berman gives him the GDP data. A lot of people hear Byron Donald say that's not true. And they They accept it. That's really terrified. The previous economy under Joe Biden, we all know that was a terrible economy for everybody. Everybody was suffering in America. You brought up GDP growth. Inflation was higher, but GDP growth was also higher during the Biden administration. That certainly it was last quarter and the average of year to year.

But Congressman, I do want to ask you about GDP growth. You can go check GDP growth. I mean, you can say what you want about inflation, but the GDP is what the GDP was. GDP growth last quarter was 1.4%. John, here's, John, here's what I will tell you. Under Joe Biden's economy, wages adjusted for inflation were down in America. I mean, families were falling behind left and right. 13 months with Donald Trump back on the job wages adjusted for inflation around. I was talking about GDP. All I was saying was GDP growth, which you said. And of course, Byron Donald is also being

deceptive there because he is talking about a very short period, a very high inflation due to the pandemic at the very beginning of Joe Biden's term, which of course was inherited. from Donald Trump. Doesn't mean Biden has no responsibility, but what did happen under Joe Biden is a precipitous decline in the inflation rate down to a roughly 3% low in June of 2023, and it stayed that low since. And for the rest of 2023 and all of 2024 and 20 days of 2025, inflation was 2 to 2.5 to 3% under Biden. It's in the same place under Trump, but they want to claim Trump did something, even though inflation is flat since he took over. They have to lie because the the facts aren't on their side.

Next, Steve Scalise, who wants to argue that people have more money in their pockets because of tariffs, because gas prices are lower. This is completely incoherent. You might scratch your head and go, I don't know that I really understand what point he's making. And I sympathize with that. It doesn't make any sense. Are people sold on tariffs? Every Democrat we have on talks about the Josh Gottheimer just said New Jersey residents, tariffs

cost them $700 in a year. And I've heard other figures from different individuals about how much that costs. Are Americans sold on tariffs in general? And I think you'd go to WIPP? Because I guess Mike Johnson would go to Minority Leader. You'd go all the way to, would you go to WIP? Is that what would happen? Is that the...

First of all, I'm not talking about those titles because we're going to keep the majority. But again, the tariffs... The tariffs are in place. I know. I know what you have to do. But the tariffs are in place with all of those great economic indicators I just mentioned to you. You have $600 back in your pocket with the tariffs because of lower gas prices. Now, of course, I tried to figure out where did that math come from? And quite literally, I wasn't able to figure out how that is possible. Now, put aside for a second that the tariffs have not lowered gas prices. But very simply, if you go to a,

around January 20th when Donald Trump took over, gas prices looks like it was about 309. And right now, they're 298. There was a period where they were higher and there was a period where they were lower. Let's just pretend that it's a straight line decline like on average. 309 and 298. That is an 11 cent reduction in gas prices. Trump's been president. This is just rough back of the envelope math.

been president 13 months, that means times 4.3 weeks per month. It's been 55, 56 weeks, we'll call it of Trump's presidency. If you buy 20 gallons of gas a week, and that is, that is a lot. If you buy 20 gallons of gas a week, your savings under Trump would be $100 over 13 months. I don't know where Steve Scalise is getting his numbers, but I can tell you. that they're not from reality. Ted Cruz, after the state of the union, simply said that it was majestic. Ted Cruz is out of ideas. Ted Cruz has no substantive way to defend what was maybe the worst state of the union address I've ever seen. So he says the following. And I got to say, President Trump gave a majestic speech tonight. It was bold. It was optimistic. It was forward-looking.

And it was a litany of successes. It was mostly stories of murders, uh, crimes, lurid details, and Trump giving people medals. That's what the speech mostly was, combined with maybe five or six hundred lies. Congressman Jim Jordan was on with Maria Bargaromo this morning, and he now is using the term apple pie to describe stuff that he likes. And he says the whole speech was apple pie. First, give us your sense of the president's speech last night. He's apple pie.

I mean, you would congressional medals of freedom, congressional medals of honor, Olympic gold medals, Purple Heart, it was as apple pie and patriotic as I've ever seen. The only one that compares and Kevin and I've been to last night, I think was the best one I've ever been to. But when you go back a few years ago when the first lady gave Rush the Medal of Freedom, that was a special night as well. But last night I thought was even better in hockey team there. It was just, it was as apple pie as you get. I always say we it's apple pie. It's apple pie. Today's show is going to be apple pie. And in fact, on the bonus show, producer Pat and I will see. simply be sampling various different apple pies. It was apple pie. It's so good. We're supposed to love it.

All right. And then finally, Bill Pulte asked by Maria Bartaromo, how do you react to the speech? Listen to what he had to say. Join me now is U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency Director and Chairman of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, William J. Pulte. William, thanks so much for being here. What is your reaction to the President's State of the Union speech specifically about housing? Well, he's the greatest of all time, right? He showed that last night. There's nobody like him.

Look, the housing market was in- All right, the housing market stuff is immaterial for us today. He's the greatest of all time. If last night's speech proved anything, it is that Trump is not particularly great. The problem is for all of these Republicans, that Americans by and large didn't believe last night's speech was so good. And we're going to get to that in a moment. But first we're going to see what Pam Bondi had to say. This morning on Fox News, Pam Bondi appeared.

She is, of course, the Attorney General of the United States. And she incoherently ranted for four minutes. I've never seen her like this where she, I guess is realizing that the scam is ending and that that speech last night was so embarrassing and such a self-owned and a complete fail in every way. She tried to figure out some way to defend it, but she couldn't. She could not express a single coherent thought. Let's listen to a little bit of it. And I'll just jump in as necessary. And she joins us now. Madam Attorney General, thanks so much for joining Fox and Friends this morning. Your immediate reaction to what Ainsley was just referring to, you got that mother. She's bawling because her daughter was brutally murdered on video and the Democrats don't even stand.

Yeah, Lawrence, it's this is the stark contrast. They would not stand the Democrats for that beautiful young woman, Irene Zerutska, who was killed, who was murdered on the subway. And here's the contrast. We are prosecuting the guy, the monster, and we are seeking the death penalty. That's the stark contrast between Donald Trump Republicans and the Democrats. They refused to even stand. And of course, what Democrats were indicating by not standing. is that they weren't going to participate in or endorse the extremely cynical use of people

for political purposes that doesn't even relate directly to the policies of this administration. Trump's not solving any of these problems through policy. And Democrats said we're not going to participate in this sort of lurid violence porn. For that victim, it actually, it was heartbreaking that Irene's mother. had to experience that. That should be nonpartisan. Yeah, I appreciate it last night not only these touching stories

and reasons why Donald Trump has these laws. It's not because they want to say he's racist. It's because when you're here illegally, you should not have a driver's license. You see what happens when there's a crash when you can't read the road signs, when you don't speak English,

you can't read English, and then you plow into this little girl. Her life has changed forever. Her parents have to take it. This whole thing about being able to read English. I don't know that there's enough attention paid to the fact that we are shuttling through people through high school and even into college who can barely read and write. And in fact, if you look at my email, I get a ton of email from people from other countries

who say, David, I'm from Germany. David, I'm from the Netherlands. David, I'm from Bolivia. I'm from Argentina. And the English is pretty good. And then I get emails from American-born magas writing me angry crap and they can barely write. They can barely express themselves in written form. This whole, the reading and writing as a litmus test, there's a whole bunch of magas that can't

read and write and they know only one language and they barely know it. It's English. Here of her forever. This lady leaves Ukraine, leaves Ukraine and comes to America. And her child is throat slashed on a train in North Carolina. up because this guy is out on cash bail. These are the kinds of things. They want to say he's racist.

He really just loves Americans and is trying to protect families. Right. Ainsley, as you know, he loves America. President Trump has made America safe again. And that's what he's doing. And in turn, that makes Americans feel safe to go to work. She has no idea what she's saying. To have jobs, to be able to go to church, to be able to function in,

our country and be safe. And that's what's driving our economy. Donald Trump making America safe. And that's why our economy is at a record high. We all know that and it's safe. And you know, we also had last night there Andy Wolf. And I've gotten to be very close with his mom, Melody. And you know something else? Ansela, you'll appreciate this. What President Trump said, what's very different? We are a praying administration. I love that. And we all are. Our cabinet prayed. before we went out there last night. We prayed for the president.

We prayed for Congress. We prayed for the country. And that's because of Donald Trump. And that's what's making America safe. And you know, Andy Wolf is a miracle. I hope you notice how this is all over the place. She's talking about the economy, which she has no expertise to even weigh in on. She's just flitting and flotting back and forth between random topics.

All of it trying to defend a speech that is quite frankly indefensible. And seeing him standing there with his mom, Melody, she's such a proud mom. And I think I've spoken to you about this. They prayed so much about his health. President Trump talked to them on the phone with me many times. And he's just, he so deserved the Purple Heart. And so did Sarah's parents who lost her life that day. President Trump is always going to keep Americans safe.

So the president gave everybody a choice last night. He said the first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens. Stand up if you agree. and almost all the Democrats stayed seated. That's what you were up against on a daily basis, isn't it? That's what we're up against every single day. Great question, Brian.

Every single day, that's what we're up against. But as you saw, Donald Trump won't be deterred. We won't be deterred. We're going to protect Americans. And it's very simple. You should have an ID to vote in an America. I actually am going to have to stop it because it's becoming nauseating. Unable to just coherently stick to one topic.

couldn't have simpler or easier questions. These are barely even questions. So it's like, Pam, tell us how awesome is Trump and like how great is everything that you're doing? And she still can't stay focused and is just jumping from one topic to another to another. Now, there's a few things that are that are exposed here. One, when it really comes down to substance, the speech was indefensible and the state of the country is completely indefensible. You know, even when she says, well, the crime rate is coming down thanks to Trump. The crime rate has been coming down for 30 years. There's no evidence that has anything to do with Trump. And in fact, it's kind of weird that Trump has deployed people all over the country and arrests and deportations. And the

crime rate is still on its exact same trajectory that it's been on for decades. So that's a kind of a weird thing. She then tries to jump in and out and grasp for anything. The economy, you know, during her testimony last week or the week before, she was talking about Dow, $50,000, I mean, 50,000. And she doesn't even really have the chops to talk about that stuff. And at some point in the back of their heads, what I believe is happening here is that they realize that there is no empirical factual case to make for things being good. So they've got to come up with stuff like, oh, my God, he gave people medals and it was just so great and everything's so awesome and how dare they not stand and this is what we're up against. She can barely, this is a top lieutenant

of the administration. This is the Attorney General of the United States. She runs the DOJ. And even her defenses of Trump are pretty flaccid at the end of the day. But what do voters think? Let's explore that. There was a very interesting, sort of a focus group on CNN after Donald Trump's State of the Union speech last night. And there were some people interviewed who completely delusionally tried to say that it was a good speech. And it's almost laughable. And there were a bunch of people who put together pretty good critiques of the speech as to why it wasn't good. So let's start with one voter who makes a very similar analysis to part of what I said, which is that giving people medals, applause lines, saying Democrats are crazy, saying the Supreme Court didn't decide the way you wanted. None of that is going to make anyone's life better.

And my suspicion was that there were going to be people watching who would say whether I like the optics of this or I don't. This is not explaining how my life will be improved by Trump, and he promised he would improve it. And here's a voter who had exactly that reaction. You did not like this speech at all. Tell me why. I didn't like the speech because he did not talk about what he was doing to make our lives better.

As Governor Spanberger said, is the president working to make our lives better? No. James Carville said, it's the economy. And it still is the economy. And he's not talking about that at all. What about the Trump accounts? What about the tax cuts? Did that move you at all?

Did that make you feel like he's on your side? No. No, it did not. Why not? He talked about the health care plan. Where is his health care plan? People's health insurance premiums are going up. What is he doing for that?

What is he doing for our seniors? So she didn't fall for it and astutely pointing out, none of this show, none of this Michigas, is really getting to anything that is going to improve my life in a real and tangible way. You know, Trump mentioned the Trump account and that so many people are signing up, so much money is going out. If you go to the Trump account's website, it says coming July 5th. Trump just made it up.

Nobody's getting anything out of it at this point in time. They're planning to do it. Maybe they will. Maybe they won't. But all there is right now is a site that says coming July 5th. Now, there was a guy who completely fell for it. This guy understood nothing has no idea what's going on and just dumps a word salad of nonsense. And sometimes you can tell when they don't know what's going on because you can tell

that emotionally they want to defend the speech. But when you listen to the words, it's just ping, ping, ping, ping, ping, ping, ping, bouncing around what Trump might call the weave, but there's no substance here. Take a listen to this. But you said that you enjoyed this speech and that there were moments that moved you. What moved you about this speech? Well, the celebrating people is always good. But again, that 18 trillion investment, the 25 million in Trump accounts. But okay, let's stop right there. I like the 18 trillion. in investments and 25 million into Trump accounts. Again, the Trump accounts are theoretical right now. The landing page at Trump accounts.gov says coming July 5th. There's no money for anybody at this

point in time. Nobody's gotten a dollar out of that thing. Trump's been saying it for a really long time. This guy fell for it, like as if it's something that has happened. Trump just repeated the phrase Trump accounts again, but nothing has happened. 18 trillion in investments. There is no investment money that has come in yet. I hate that I have to explain this again. Trump went to the Middle East. And he met with people. And to placate Trump, to throw Trump a bone, a lot of leaders of Middle Eastern nations said, hey, you know, we might be in for 500 billion over 10 years if you bring us an investment opportunity or you bring us or offer us products that we want to buy.

Trump acts like he stuffed cash from the Middle East in the belly of Air Force One and brought it back. All it is is we might be interested in investing or buying stuff from you. you over 10 years if you bring us something interesting. And by the way, it's not free money. If you invest 500 billion in companies, you now own a piece of American companies in exchange. If you buy 500 billion dollars worth of stuff from the U.S., we're sending you 500 billion dollars. It's not just 500 billion that comes in. We're trading the cash for goods. But this guy fell for it, 18 trillion in investment. I did hear something on the health care, right? We have a law, the Obamacare

the ACA and we don't have a we don't we don't have a way around it and it's really we have a law and we don't have a way around it sir you're using words i recognize but what you're saying is meaningless really just pooled care that's gone up every year and he this most favored nation he's taking a stab at lowering the cost for us and uh unless unless the legislature acts he's at least doing something that's going to hit our pocketbook he's at least doing something that will hit our pocketbook That gentleman said nothing of substance or fact in that entire time. Everything he used to justify liking the speech is meaningless. It is just completely linguistically and substantively meaningless.

We then had a Michigan voter. The Michigan voter said, you know, a focus on the economy was completely missing from this speech. And I'm glad to see a bunch of people did get it. The thing that I missed the most was a focus on the economy and looking forward. And Supreme Court struck the tariffs down and he's going for another round of tariffs. And I also think that's the wrong direction. Tariffs cost our company a lot of money. Our costs are up and we need to control our costs.

And without, you know, raising rates, we can't give raises to our employees. We can't help them. So I'm stuck in that kind of vicious cycle of raise the rates. Prices go up, raise the rates. And, you know, how do we continue that? Well, I have an answer for this gentleman. Trump doesn't give a damn about these small businesses. He could not care less about it.

The reason that that was missing from the speech is because Trump doesn't even. Not only does Trump not care about it. He doesn't even care to pretend to care enough to include stuff about that in his speech. So bottom line, a lot of voters saw the speech for what it was. Meaningless drivel. Some did fall for it. I don't think that's going to be enough for them in November. I run hot when I sleep.

I end up kicking the blankets off in the middle of the night. I needed this huge, loud, eyesore fan before and would still wake up too warm, which is why I love our sponsor 8 Sleep so much. Their pod five smart cover fits on top of your existing mattress, automatically adjusts temperature on each side of the bed so you're not waking up too hot or too cold. It also means partners don't have to fight over the thermostat settings anymore. Each side can run at a different temperature. The pod five will also track sleep passively.

It can even adjust the bed slightly if you start snoring all in the background so you just settle into deeper, more restorative sleep. My favorite thing is the system learns your patterns and adjusts over time to optimize your sleep instead of locking you into one setting that might not work every night or all night. Go to 8th sleep.com slash Pacman. Use the code Pacman to get $350 off. Plus you get 30 days to try it at home. The link is in the description. Well, Maga Mike Johnson said the quiet part out loud again. If we lose the midterms, heaven forbid, it would be the end of the Trump presidency in real effect. That is not red meat for the base. That is not optimism porn. It's not a fundraising line. This is fear. And this is not the first time

that Mike Johnson has shown that he is afraid of this. And it came right after one of the worst state of the union speeches that we have seen in modern times, rambling and incoherent and factually detached, weird jokes about third terms in Cambodia, medal of honor for himself. And here is Maga Mike Johnson explaining all of it. He needs all four years, not just to fix the mess. And that's what we need. If we lost the midterms, heaven forbid, if we lost the majority in the house, it would be the end of the Trump presidency in a real effect. So we've got to keep this going. And I think we're excited to put our candidates on the field to explain all this for the people. MAGA Mike Johnson knows something that some Republicans aren't willing to say, box hosts

aren't willing to say. If they lose the house, it's over. It is over. MAGA has operated like the rules don't apply to them for a long time. They've ignored subpoenas. They've protected witnesses. They've tampered with witnesses. They've buried oversight and stalled ethics complaints.

And the assumption was, we've got all the power, nothing sticks. Johnson understands that 2026 changes everything. The moment Democrats take the majority, every blocked subpoena comes back. Every withheld document is going to be requested again. Every buried investigation is going to be reopened. Overnight, House oversight is going to flip. If you think that those January 6th pardons won't be examined, wait until Democrats take control of the House.

if they do. If you think foreign business ties in this administration won't be looked at again, well, just wait and see what happens. If you think DOJ decisions about Epstein files aren't going to be scrutinized under oath, Johnson realizes what's going to happen. And he's saying it as a warning. This is less about losing and just being a loser in the books of history. It's about legal exposure.

It's about exposure to negative PR cycles. federal cases may be dead for sure. But all of the wrongdoing is not erased. There are still state level cases against Trump that aren't pardonable, civil judgments that he is going to get pounded with, financial liabilities. And so the stakes are huge here. If Republicans lose the House, Democrats don't need to impeach. They need to investigate methodically and relentlessly and make these people's lives

the living hell that they deserve. That is what terrifies them. for years they've been acting invincible. They test every guardrail and bend norms and dare institutions to respond. Now Johnson is staring at a map that shows suburban district shifting, special elections tightening, voters reacting badly to tariffs, reacting badly to economic instability, reacting badly to that mess that was a state of the union speech. And they know, and Mike Johnson is willing to say it, their coalition is not solid at all.

It is a calculated declaration. And he's asking what a lot of Republicans are asking, how tied to this, am I if it goes south? How much of this is going to stick to me? If this entire thing collapses, where do I even stand? And the truth is that when power flips, the narratives start to flip with it. And suddenly the same actions that were strength become abuse. The secrecy that they've been getting away with becomes something we call obstruction. The loyalty to Trump becomes complicity.

And it's not a warning for Democrats that Mike Johnson is laying out there. It's a warning for Republicans. And when the damn breaks, 2026 could really be an inflection point. And that's why even a bad state of the union matters. And that's why weak approval numbers matter. And that's why anecdotally Republicans saying no more of this matters, Marjorie Taylor Green or whoever else. And Mike Johnson seems to know.

is temporary. You don't keep power forever unless it's a literal dictatorship. And even then, often it ends and it comes crumbling down. He's exposed. His colleagues are exposed. Allies are exposed. It's up to us to make it a reality. And so, you know, yet during my state of the union stream this week, I did just like a mini rant after some questions came in about my views on leftist infighting. And already there are people angry with me. David, how dare you castigate people who question that. I'm not castigating people who question. What I'm pointing out here, it's not vote blue no matter who.

It's not shut your mouth and vote for Democrats. I'm not even a Democrat. I don't even care about the Democratic Party. I think it's extraordinarily poorly run. It's aimless. For me, it's we are fighting literal wannabe fascists here. If they could actually turn the country into a fascist state and take dictatorial control, they would do it. We wouldn't.

And we need to carefully think about the candidates. And so when we start in February of 2026 bashing potential candidates for 2028 and attacking people running in 2026 and we just have to understand what the stakes are. And as I've said before, you know, I am, I I'm trying to vote in a way that isn't necessarily, the best for me personally. Like I've said before, Trump's tax plan is better for me than Harris's tax plan. Trump just gave me another tax cut by increasing the deduction for certain types of small businesses. But I don't deserve that. And it's not good for the economy. And so I'm trying to vote for what is best for the greatest number of people. If we want to just do something that leads to Republicans holding power and Republicans winning in 28 and do it. Right. I mean,

it's like, I can't stop you. I'm just one person. I've got a show. I'll vote. and I'll tell people what I think, but we really need to understand what we're up against. They know that it all comes crumbling down if they lose, and we have to make damn sure that that happens. For months, the Department of Justice under Trump promised full transparency on the Epstein files. Officials said, we will withhold nothing because we must be transparent. And then the pages started disappearing. An investigation has found that the Department of Justice under Trump has withheld or removed dozens of pages from the public Epstein database, including documents tied to allegations involving. Who do you think? Donald Trump. These were not

random gaps in the data. FBI serial numbers show that 50 pages of interview notes and related materials that are in the logs are missing from public view. The tracking numbers exist. The documents do not. The department has declined to answer detailed questions about this. Why are the files missing? Why were they removed? After publication, officials said that any unpublished material is privileged, duplicative, or connected to ongoing investigations. They denied. We've withheld anything for political sensitivity reasons. One set of missing records involves a woman who told investigators that around 1983, when she was 13, she was introduced to Trump by Jeffrey Epstein. And according to internal FBI summaries that were released, she alleged Trump forced her into a sexual act and assaulted

her when she resisted. The allegation is in FBI lists. It's in a DOJ PowerPoint presentation, referencing prominent names. But the interview notes are gone. The FBI interviewed her four times. Only the first interview, which doesn't mention Trump, is available. The others are missing. Hmm. Investigators treated this seriously enough to do three interviews after the first one. The public can't see what those interviews contain. There's another woman who later testified against Jelaine Maxwell, who said she met Trump at Mar-a-Lago while she was a minor being abused by Epstein. There's an FBI report.

She recalled Epstein introducing her to Trump with the comment, this is a good one, followed by laughter. She later said she felt uncomfortable, but was too young to understand why. interview was published in January and removed from the DOJ website, restored later, and other interviews remain offline. So there is something very sketchy happening here. Now, the department is just generically saying, oh, stuff is published and then removed for different reasons. Things are taken out. Things are taken down. No real problem here. It's just the way it is. House Democrats in the Oversight Committee have opened a parallel inquiry into these releases to try to figure out

What the hell is going on? Meanwhile, Trump and the White House insists that he's been totally exonerated and has done everything he can to release information. Hard to believe that, isn't it? Meanwhile, thousands of pages have been removed and re-uploaded to fix improper redactions, including accidentally exposing victim names. Think of that. The idea was we will redact to protect victims. They redacted to protect alleged perpetrators. And meanwhile, accidentally did not. not redact some victim's names. Total and absolute incompetence. Now, some of the files that went dark and returned returned with different metadata. We don't really know why. It's a chaotic rollout. And the central issue is very simple. If official logs point to a document that exists

and was tracked and was referenced internally, yet now it's missing, that raises real questions and I believe that we deserve answers. If the files are privileged, the DOJ could explain that and explain why. What's the basis for the privilege? If it's a duplicate file, they could tell us, oh, here's the original. Like, for example, if file 706 is gone, but it's gone because it's just a duplicate of file 705, they could tell us that, except because we have the metadata, we know what is in 706, generically, and we know that it's not a duplicate file.

But they could point to that. And if some of the files are tied to active investigative. Well, they could tell us they could go, there's an investigation in this jurisdiction. Here's how the file is loosely related. And that's why. There's none of that. They are not giving us any of that. So they promised total transparency.

It became clear Trump didn't really want that. The documents tied to the most powerful person in the country go missing. We are right to be suspicious. Of course, no one can trust a word Trump says, but we've got to get these files. 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. I love this clip. You know, when you start losing the business crowd as a Republican, you've got a problem. And Senator Mark Wayne Mullen went on MSN, on CNBC, sorry, and tried a very standard line. One of the great things that we and Trump have been able to do over the last 13 months since Donald Trump came back to power is we cut inflation in half. Hosts Joe Kernan, not exactly Rachel Maddo, right? I mean, like a pro-Trump guy in general, interrupts and goes, but inflation's exactly where it was when Trump.

Trump came into office and so Mullen tries to recover with a moronic claim. And I'll prove that he's wrong about this. Take a look. Start talking about the economy and the amount that we brought down inflation. We cut it in half on average, but from a high at 9.1 to 2.4. But when he came into office, it was about where it is right now. Well, we stabilized it. When you start talking about energy cost, the way the energy costs have come down, which

the energy costs, Joe, you know. Well, we stabilized it, but energy costs are down. Now, let's go through piece by piece. Energy costs are up. Electricity up 10 percent. Energy costs are not down. That's not the main focus of this clip. The main focus of the clip is that exchange where Mullen says we cut inflation in half on average.

On average, I don't even really know what that means. And then Joe Kernan goes, well, it's where it is when Trump came into office. And he goes, well, we stabilized it. We have the data. We have the data. And in fact, it is true. that inflation was 9.1% at one point if you go back to June of 2022. But by June of 2023, it was down to 3%. Who was president in June of 2023? Well, it was Joe Biden. You then look from June

until now. It's stable. In what way did he stabilize it? You look from June 23 to January 25 and it's about 3%. And you look from January 25 until now and it's about 3%. You know, some months were lower, Biden had a 2.5 month. Trump had a 2.4 month. But what is he talking about? This is a pro-business Republican host Joe Kernan calmly saying, you're not telling the truth, Mark Wayne Mullen. You're just not telling the truth at all. And Mullen has to pivot because they always pivot too well. Maybe we didn't reduce it, but we stabilized it. Yes, it was actually. the same, but we stabilized it. So you're acknowledging you just made that up. We cut it in half. No, you didn't. It's been the same. Yeah, but we stabilized it. Oh, so your first claim was a lie. That would be the logical

follow up there. And so this is the new strategy. We cut it. Maybe they get away with it. You didn't cut it. Well, we stabilized it. Maybe we don't let them get away with that either. If the inflation was down under Democrats, you ignore it. If it levels off under Republicans, it's because of something that that Republicans did. The real issue, I think, is actually bigger than this. Yes, he's a liar. Yes, they tell these lies all the time. But Americans remember that high inflation period. Americans remember their grocery bills at the time. They remember gas prices at the time. They also can compare that to right now. And over the last 13 months, as Donald Trump has been president, none of those things have gotten cheaper. There is on there is this on average gas prices.

There have been periods where they've been more or less. Right now, gas prices are down about 11 cents from when Trump took over. There were periods where gas prices were higher. But to be frank, it's been plus or minus 20 cents for a really long time. For the average person, it makes no difference in their monthly budget. And I'm not saying that to be dismissive. If you look at the average miles driven, if you're a long haul trucker or independent operator of transportation fleets or something, it makes a difference.

or minus 20 cents for the average person, you don't even notice it. And so even like the gas prices being down 11 cents now, but before they were up 20%, it's basically irrelevant. The important thing is inflation fell to where it is now years before Donald Trump came back. You can't memory hole. Like we have the data. It's very clear. And then because it's Mark Wayne Mullen, he adds another gem. And I love there's a specific part of this. If you know, me, you'll know which part of this I love. Listen to his follow up here. But anybody that's playing on going to Mexico for spring break. I mean, my chiropractor called me yesterday and said he's still playing on going to Cancun. I said, are you crazy?

Right. No one should be going down there right now. It is very volatile. And the United States is laser focused on watching what's taking place. Senator, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. No, no Cancun. No. The, it is maybe one of the least surprising things in the world. that Mark Wayne Mullen is the type of person who would have a chiropractor and believe that chiropractors are evidence-based. That is just so completely unsurprising and a little cherry on top. I'm not shocked that the guy who is going upside down to tell us about how Trump fixed inflation

goes, my chiropractor said the following. Mark Wayne Mullen is pathetic. Joe Kernan is normally a very flat-out pro maga guy. I have to tell you the fact that he called out Mark Wayne Mullen's nonsense, I like. Trump keeps bragging about the stock market. The Dow is at 50,000. Stocks are booming. Best economy ever.

Technically, it is true that stocks are up. U.S. markets are up about 14% since Donald Trump took office. But there's a little bit of a problem here. Take a look at this chart. This chart was taken when American stocks were up 16%. The problem is that the stock market return on Trump is 21st out of 23 developed markets. Hmm.

We are actually getting crushed. Global markets are up. Triple what the U.S. is up. So this is not a story about stocks are down. Stocks are up. My portfolio is up. I like that. I'd rather my portfolio be up rather than down.

But there's a different story that. that Trump isn't going to tell you and it requires going a little bit deeper where we are comparing to context. We are comparing to our cohort. And the story is the majority of the wealthy developed world is outperforming us. If you only listen to Trump or to Pam Bondi, you would think that the United States stock market is uniquely thriving and the data points the opposite way. investors can put money anywhere. I mean, Europe, Asia, emerging markets, even in some cases, if the U.S. were truly the strongest, capital would be flooding here at a much higher rate. But instead, we're lagging. And the reason this matters is that the stock market is supposed to

reflect confidence in the stability of the United States, in the policy of the United States, in the future growth potential of the United States. And what Trump has delivered, since returning has been tariff chaos, trade fights, legal uncertainty, erratic speeches, of course, threats against institutions, and markets don't like unpredictability. Now, the part that really hurts is remember how Republicans framed inflation under Biden. They said, you can't just look at the U.S. in isolation. You, you, or rather, they said inflation has been so high under Biden, because of Biden.

And when you compare to other countries, you would say, oh, actually, U.S. inflation peaked lower than many of our peer nations. And it came down faster than many of our peer nations. Context matter. When Biden became president, inflation was high. But it was higher in other countries and it came down more quickly here. So we have to compare that and say, well, what's the context of where we were operating? The same thing applies right now, which is context matters.

If global markets are ripping higher and the United States is, you know, the United States is crawling by comparison, you're not really dominating the stock market. You're actually underperforming the stock market. They are claiming victory when their line is slightly up, when everyone else's line is way up, right? And it undercuts one of the core myths of Trump, which is that he's the markets guy, the businessman, the deal maker, the guy Wall Street loves. You could actually apply this to Trump personally, where he got a little bit of money from his dad and he ended up making billions. But if we go back, If he had done nothing and just put the money in a total stock market index fund, he'd have more money. Now, this may be different now because of the crypto grift of the last 18 months, but that's a

different story. So you have to compare to what? Yes, he's got billions, but he would have even more billions if he had not done any of his stupid businesses with it and let the money grow in an index fund. So what these data show is that capital moves to where investors think growth will be stronger and risk is lower. Out of 23 countries, the U.S. is 21st. And that's why that chart is so devastating. Trump can't spin it. We're lagging on stock market performance with these 22 other peer countries. They won't tell you that, but I'm here to show you the data. We have a phenomenal bonus show for you today. Democrats had three election wins during last night's state of the union address. We will talk about the latest implementation of tariffs and what it'll do to prices. And

also the U.S. government has dropped its case against Democrats in that illegal orders video. We knew it wasn't going anywhere. And it's not. Get the bonus show instantly by signing up at join packman.com. Remember to follow the podcast. It's free on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, or you get your podcast.