7/11/24: Trump panics about Project 2025, inflation comes in negative

This episode dissects recent economic trends, specifically a rare drop in inflation, and delves into political maneuvers surrounding the upcoming election.

1. Economic Indicators: A unique drop in inflation could mislead voters about the health of the economy.
2. Political Spin: Media and political figures may distort economic data to fit their narratives.
3. Election Strategies: The episode examines how economic perceptions are being leveraged in political strategies for the upcoming election.
4. MAGA Movement’s Views: There’s a critique of the MAGA movement’s interpretation of economic declines as victories.
5. Project 2025: Trump's response to the speculative political strategy "Project 2025" is discussed as part of his broader electoral tactics.

1. Inflation and Economic Trends

Pakman discusses the first decline in monthly inflation since 2020, explaining the economic and political stakes involved. He critiques the MAGA movement's celebration of the decline, emphasizing the complexities of economic indicators. David Pakman: "Deflation might sound attractive, but it triggers a harmful cycle for the economy."

2. Political Reactions and Strategies

The focus shifts to political reactions to economic data, particularly how it is spun in media and political rhetoric to influence voter perceptions. David Pakman: "Even though it's enough that you can afford it, if you wait, things will get more expensive."

3. Media Coverage and Public Perception

Pakman critiques the media’s role in overshadowing significant economic news with political performances, particularly Joe Biden's recent debate. David Pakman: "The good economy was also being ignored before Biden's debate, but for different reasons."

4. Project 2025 and Trump's Panic

This chapter explores Trump’s panicked reactions to the speculative "Project 2025," a strategic outline perceived to guide his potential second-term policies. David Pakman: "Trump is panicking about Project 2025. He again lied on Troth Central yesterday, saying, 'I don’t know a thing about it.'"

• Stay Informed: Keep up-to-date with economic trends and understand their broader implications beyond the political spin.
• Critical Analysis: Analyze political statements and media coverage critically, especially during election seasons.
• Engage in Civic Activities: Participate in discussions, debates, and forums to propagate informed opinions.
• Fact-checking: Utilize reliable sources to fact-check information circulated in media and by political figures.
• Vote with Knowledge: Let your understanding of the issues, not just political rhetoric, guide your voting decisions.

-- On the Show:

-- Inflation comes in negative for June 2024, which MAGA claims to want

-- As corporate media focuses on Joe Biden's debate performance, the economy continues to perform stunningly well

-- The newest conspiracy spiral, this time pushed on MSNBC, is that former President Barack Obama is orchestrating the removal of President Joe Biden

-- An uncontroversial comment from Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal is spun as anti-Biden

-- Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez files articles of impeachment against Supreme Court justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito

-- Donald Trump's most likely VP selections all hate him and have attacked him previously

-- A panicked Donald Trump again insists he doesn't know a thing about Project 2025 as the country slowly wakes up to the horrors of the proposal

-- Dangerous extremist Michael Davis, the architect of the Article III Project, admits what will happen if Donald Trump becomes President again

-- Failed former President Donald Trump makes a stunning admission about his VP selection

-- An audibly terrified voicemail caller says that Biden is dying politically and simply cannot win in November

-- On the Bonus Show: Milwaukee restaurants worry the RNC won't really help them, children's sugar consumption halved since tax announcement, Ozempic's popularity leading to shortages for diabetics, much more...

People

Donald Trump, Joe Biden

Companies

None

Books

None

Guest Name(s):

None

Content Warnings:

None

A
Welcome, everybody. Let's start with the economy today. There is a perspective that Joe Biden's debate performance is not going to impact the election in November, but that the state of the economy is. And we have some extraordinary news. For the first time since 2020, monthly inflation has actually declined. I will explain to you what this means. I will explain to you you why the MAGA, right, thinks that this is fantastic. Even if may, it may not actually be the case. So CNBC reports this morning because it's July, we got our June inflation numbers. Inflation falls 0.1% in June from prior month, helping the case for lower rates. We're talking about the federal funds rate. The article explains. The monthly inflation rate dipped in June for the first time in more than four years, providing cover for the Fed to start lowering rates later this year. The consumer price index, which is a broad measure of goods and services across the us economy, declined 0.1% for May, putting the twelve month rate around 3%, around its lowest level in more than three years. The all items index rate fell from 3.3% in May when it was flat. If we go and read a little bit lower into the article, you see that the month over month percent change has been positive, dating back four years. A couple of months it's been zero.

But this is the first actual decline, down 0.1% in June of 2024. Gas prices also declined in June.

Electricity prices declined in June. Rent had its smallest monthly increase of just 0.2% since August of 2020, mind 2021. Now here's the interesting and important thing here, MAGa. People have been accurately on the facts, but wrongly on the meaning, saying for years now as we report that inflation is still positive, but it has come down from pandemic highs. They go well, but things are still more expensive than they were before the pandemic. Yes, that's true. And things were more expensive before the pandemic than they were under Obama. And things were more expensive under Obama than they were under Bush. Why is this the case? Well, because there's inflation in traditional economics. In healthy economies, you have some inflation, and so things do get more expensive over time. The goal is that wage growth exceeds inflation. It doesn't always happen. It has actually been happening under Joe Biden. But the point I'm getting to is the following.

A lot of MAGA people have insisted, we won't say that inflation is really under control until we see actual declines. Now, actual declines are quite rare, and they're not particularly attractive. Now, down 0.1% one month is not a big deal. But as I've explained before, and please, if you already understand this, bear with me, because if I don't include this in the segment, then I will get emails and people will say, David, I don't get it. What are you talking about? You want a little bit of inflation, not a lot, but you usually do not want deflation. Why not? Well, it's easy. If you imagine the two scenarios, if you have significant inflation, particularly as it exceeds wage growth, people can't afford things, so they don't buy things. If inflation is too high, you can't afford certain products, you don't buy them. This hurts the businesses that make those products. Those businesses have to lay people off. Their employees have less money with which to purchase things. You can see how that would be bad for the economy.

A deflationary situation might sound attractive. Hey, if prices go down, all of a sudden, I can afford everything I want to buy. The problem with deflation -0.1% is not really deflation. We're talking about a deflationary spiral. If you start seeing down 2%, down 2%, down 2%. If the expectation becomes prices are going to continue declining, people wouldn't buy things because you would say to yourself, hey, if I wait another month, it'll be cheaper. If I wait another month, it'll be cheaper.

The fact that people aren't buying things on the expectation that they will be cheaper hurts the businesses selling the products. The businesses have to lay people off, and the exact same cycle is triggered. So this is why in traditional western democratic capitalist economies, it's considered that you want a little bit of inflation, usually between two and 3%. It's just enough that it generates economic growth but also incentivizes people to buy. Now, even though it's enough that you can afford it, if you wait, things will get more expensive. Okay, so the magaz have been saying we actually want a decline. They don't seem to understand that carried out indefinitely. That would be a bad thing for the economy. But they got one. They finally got one of these declines. Too much of it wouldn't be good. But it's hilarious that what MAGA claims would be a sign that the economy is doing well, even if it isn't. Even if it isn't has now happened under President Joe Biden. Will this ultimately matter more than Joe Biden's debate performance? Well, it's a predictive question. We don't have the answer. We have to wait to see. But certainly historically, and this sort of goes to the framework of, of someone like an Alan Lichtman, who we spoke to yesterday, who makes a qualitative analysis of what's going on, rather than, oh, the debate performance. I don't know. And what about the age of the candidates? No, no, no, he says. Qualitatively, we need to look at these scenarios. And qualitatively, a, the perception of a solid and steady economy is very useful and advantageous to incumbents trying to get themselves reelected.

So that's the latest with inflation.

Let's now zoom out a little bit more and take a broader view of the economy in the context of the June 27 presidential debate and in particular Joe Biden's performance making a wall to wall situation on corporate media.

We have missed another several weeks of the economy continuing to perform very well. We already talked about inflation numbers, inflation actually declining month over month, 0.1% for the first time since 2020. This is what magaz have been saying we want. Well, you got it. Whether it's good or for the economy or not is another question, but you got it. Inflation very much under control.

Yet another record high for stock markets yesterday, stunning days. Again, it's, how many times are we going to do this? S and P 500 up 1%.

The Dow up 1%. More than 400 points. The Nasdaq, or Nasdaq, as former President Trump calls it, up more than 1%. The Russell 2000 up 1%. Ok, yet another set of fresh highs for the stock market. What about jobs? Employers continue adding jobs right around 175,000 new jobs per month over the last quarter. Unemployment still very low. It's now reached 4.1%. We had this sustained under 4% period for a record period of time. We've now gotten to 4.1% breaking that streak, but still very low. Historically, we're seeing $5 meal deals at McDonald's. I don't know if any of you have been watching Copa America. We're hopefully Argentina will finally break the curse of Messi in this tournament and win on. Okay, I've been watching it, and one of the common commercials I'm seeing during the games at the bottom of the screen is $5 meal deals at McDonald's. We're seeing discounted groceries at big box stores. Gas prices are down. So listen, the reality is the good economy was also being ignored before Biden's debate, but for different reasons. And in exchange for other stories, we now are seeing a continued solid economy that on just about every metric is looking fine. It's looking fine. I don't need, you know, the realization I had, as I was reading the inflation data and the stock market data and the jobs data and reflecting on Biden's debate performance, was I don't need Biden to be better at citing statistics about the economy during a debate. I just want the statistics about the economy to look good.

And this is the argument from those who believe that at the end of the day, the debate is not going to have this disastrous impact on President Biden's reelection chances. Now, later today, President Biden is going to be holding what they're calling, I'm not kidding about this. Not a joke, folks. Not a joke.

They're calling it a big boy press conference. Okay, Operation big boy. And the idea here is that Joe Biden is going to take questions from members of the press to show that he can think on his feet and he is cognitively up to the task of becoming president once again for four more years. I'm very interested in seeing how this goes. I will be live streaming it on YouTube, Twitch, and Facebook. I hope you will join me for that.

But the big story here is a continued, solid, good looking economy, a story that has been effectively buried by Joe Biden's debate performance. And by the way, the absence of enough criticism of Donald Trump's debate performance, which was an absolute disaster. So here's what we have coming up today. I'll kind of give you, let me give you the texture of today's show.

We're going to take a quick break. I then am going to go through the last 24 hours of conspiracy mourning Joe, now piling onto the conspiracy that former President Barack Obama is orchestrating, the removal of President Biden. We will talk about the false spinning of Senator Richard Blumenthal's comments about his concern about Biden. And we will also talk about the impeachment articles that democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez filed against Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito. After that, we are going to take a deeper dive into Trump's likely vp picks and how they all seem to hate him. And we will again look at project 2025. I am very much encouraged that so many of you are now engaging with Project 2025. You've downloaded the white paper. Trump is panicking about Project 2025. He again lied on troth Central yesterday, saying, I don't know a thing about it. He does. And then later, we will look at some stunning admissions made by MAGA over the last 24 hours about the race as it is coming forward.

And then we'll hear from a voicemail caller who makes a very concerned point about President Biden. So a lot on the program today. Make sure you're subscribed on YouTube. Get the free Project 2025 white paper at david pakman.com slash. That's a forward slash project 2025. And we'll be right back after this extraordinarily short break.

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Every single one of those revenue sources has at some point been completely turned off. They turned off the siphon due to the vagaries of the algorithmic considerations, or simply because political content got a little too spicy for advertisers. And so the way that we can build a reliable revenue source is to skip all of that and to go directly to our audience. This also gives me the flexibility as the host of the show to cover whatever stories I want to cover, regardless of what's going to happen algorithmically. Sure, every single one of our members could cancel their membership, but the idea is you spread out your revenue sources and then no one can have you over a barrel, which is a really poor place to be. So I invite you to sign up at join Pacman.com. we do offer great perks to all of our members, including an extra show every day called the bonus show, as well as commercial free audio and video streams of the show made available to you hours before the show is made public. Every single day.

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But if that sounds okay to you having a couple days off a week, I encourage you to sign up at join pakman.com and you can use the coupon code savedemocracy 24 to get a tidy little discount off of the cost of membership. All right, let's dig into some of the latest conspiracies and see if we can explore whether they are based in any sort of fact on MSNBC's Morning Joe, which has been a sort of strange node of disinformation lately. They are now pushing the idea that it is Barack Obama, and maybe even Barack Obama and Michelle Obama. Obama, right. Who are orchestrating behind the scenes the proactive and careful removal of Joe Biden as nominee and maybe even as Joe Biden from the White House. I don't know that they actually have any evidence for this, but let's listen to the report from morning Joe this morning.

B
One thing that we do have to underline here, just so, so viewers can, can follow what's going on behind the scenes, is, is the Biden campaign and many democratic officials do believe that Barack Obama is, is quietly working behind the scenes to orchestrate this.

A
Okay. The White House has weighed in on that and said they absolutely do not believe that. I know that Joe there cites the Biden campaign and democratic officials.

I looked, if it exists, I couldn't find a single person willing to attach their name to that or anybody willing to cite a specific source. It's not impossible that there is this belief that Barack Obama is orchestrating all of what's going on, uh, and nobody is willing to put their name to it, but it certainly makes me question it. And right wing conspiracy theorists, by the way, who have insisted for years that Barack Obama is secretly in charge, not Joe Biden. They are absolutely loving this. They're seeing what Joe Scarborough is saying, and they're like, this is beautiful. This is perfect. Let's watch a little more from this morning's morning Joe on this very same issue.

B
And this is the reality.

Jonathan O'Mear, Joe Biden is deeply resentful of his treatment under not only the Obama staff, but also the way he was pushed aside for Hillary Clinton. He's deeply resentful of those trying to shove him out of the way. He's always felt like an outsider, always felt like people have looked down upon him. And that's why he said at the.

A
Top of the show, there is a heavy, heavy amount of speculation, conjecture and hyperbole there. Now, everything Joe Scarborough is saying is absolutely possible.

I mean, why not, right? Just about. Unless there's some physical reason why it wouldn't be possible. You know, Joe Biden carries around the moon in his pocket, right?

It's certainly possible that Joe Biden harbors a deep seated and long lasting resentment, not only against Barack Obama, but against the Democratic Party because he feels he was pushed aside in 2016. It's all possible.

There's just no real evidence of it, number one. And number two, it runs directly contrary to what the White House and Biden campaign have said. What do these stories serve to do, really? They probably either do nothing or they help Trump. It's one of those kind of best case, worst case scenarios. Best case, the speculation about a Biden Obama battle that is brewing does nothing. And worst case, it generates and foments uncertainty and the feeling of chaos and disharmony, which in some general sense maybe helps push a few people to stay home rather than getting out to vote. I don't know. But this is, you know, we in independent media, online media, et cetera, are often accused of just looking for clicks and rage bait and clickbait and all of this sort of stuff rather than sticking to what we know.

Joe Scarborough didn't demonstrate to me in these segments that this is in any way based on anything factual that we can point to. So I would be very skeptical about accepting any of that. And most importantly, this all goes back to the idea that maybe Barack Obama, you know, I hate that it goes back to one of the favorite MAGA conspiracies. They've been pushing that Michelle Obama is going to become the nominee.

And all of this feeds the notion that Barack Obama now wants that and is going to orchestrate the removal of Biden specifically to help his wife become the democratic nominee. I'm not a betting man, but if I were to bet, I bet that that does not happen. All right, let's look at another one of these propaganda spirals and seeing how someone saying a gets twisted around, mashed up, sauteed, processed, extruded, juiced.

And then we have the opposite of a as what's presented in corporate media. I have video for you here of democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal saying he is extremely concerned that President Biden could lose and what that would mean for America because Trump is such a danger. He's not worried about Biden as an individual.

But what I'm about to play for you was turned around, taken out of context, to suggest that Senator Blumenthal is saying, I'm concerned about Biden's health. I'm concerned about Biden's brain. When you will see here very clearly what Blumenthal is concerned about is the possibility that Trump will be president again.

C
I am deeply concerned about Joe Biden winning this November because it is an existential threat to the country if Donald Trump wins. So I think that we have to reach a conclusion as soon as possible.

And I think Joe Biden, as the democratic nominee has my support.

A
Brian, give me a reaction. And how are they going to ultimately reach that conclusion he discusses? Okay, so as you can see, what Blumenthal is saying is Biden, as the nominee has my support.

I'm concerned if Trump wins, it would be terrible for the country.

If whoever is making these decisions believed to be, obviously, Biden, in consultation with his campaign and family. If there is a possibility here that there's going to be a change to the nominee, that has to be done very, very soon. But there is an existential threat to the country if Trump wins. That's Blumenthal's concern.

That was spun, it was spun as Blumenthal is concerned about Biden. And of course, in the context of everything that's been discussed since the June 27 debate, it sounds like what they're saying is Blumenthal is saying, I'm concerned about Biden's health. I'm concerned about Biden's brain. It is so irresponsibly taken out of context. And this is why I always say, critically analyze primary sources.

Critically analyze, you know, caps lock, c, a, p, s, caps, critically analyze primary sources.

Even low information Trump voters. And I say this sort of as a joking, even low information Trump voters if they watch the video of Blumenthal saying what he says, he says he supports Biden, and he says his concern is the existential threat against the country if Trump wins. That's very obvious from the video. If you abstract only the quote, I am deeply concerned about Joe Biden.

It sounds like the exact opposite of what he is saying. So just a reminder, I know most in my audience don't need this reminder, but just a reminder, go to the primary sources. Don't go with the rewritten blog articles. Go to the original article in the original source, and fact check me. By the way, you know this, one of the things that's different about this show and some others is I don't pretend that I'm the ultimate source of truth. I'm just like you, except I'm in a padded room, right? I mean, literally, there's padding for sound, acoustic purposes all around me. I'm like you, but in a padded room with a microphone. Okay? Quite, quite, quite a vision.

I'm trying to interpret what we get, just like you're trying to interpret it. Fact check me when I show you a clip, as I'm about to do of AOC, for example.

Go and look at the full context and keep me accountable. That's the point. All right. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez has done what she promised to do. She has filed articles of impeachment against multiple supreme court justices. Those justices are Clarence Thomas as well as Samuel Alito, known to many as Samuel Alito Junior. Why is she doing this? Well, I will let her explain it. Take a listen to this.

D
Thank you, Mister Speaker.

I rise today to introduce articles of impeachment against associate justices of the Supreme Court Clarence Thomas and Samuel Anthony Alito, junior right against Justice Thomas. The resolution includes three total articles one count of failure to disclose financial income, gifts, reimbursements, property interest, liabilities and transactions, among other information and two counts of refusal to recuse from matters concerning his spouse's legal and financial interests before the court.

The second resolution includes the following impeachment articles against Justice Alito one count of refusal to recuse from cases in which he had a personal bias or prejudice concerning a party before the court and one count of failure to disclose financial incomes, gifts, reimbursements, property interests, among other information.

A
So that is the basis for these very much warranted articles of impeachment. It's nice to see democrats playing offense every once in a while. In this case, it's also very much warranted. I would love to see more of it, although I don't believe this is going anywhere. But that's not always what matters. Here is AOC explaining that the proof is really undeniable.

D
Here is undeniable, and here I will lay it out.

Justice Clarence Thomas, for decades now, has carried on a close, financially entangled personal relationship with real estate billionaire Harlan Crowe. Indeed, it is of material importance to the american people to note that Justice Thomas relationship to the billionaire only began after Thomas powerful appointment to our nation's highest court.

The cash, goods and services Justice Thomas received over the years include large loan balance cancellations, tuition payments for family, and vacations in private jets and yachts worth up to half a million dollars alone.

A
AOC continues explaining the details of the Clarence Thomas stuff, much of which I've reported to you and much of which we've discussed. And then she also explains the case against Samuel Alito, which is, which is quite a vile case I might mention.

D
Now take Justice Samuel Alito, who has no shortage of billionaire associates of his own.

After billionaire Paul Singer gave Justice Alito a luxury fishing trip on a private jet, a contribution that was also hidden from the public and the court, Justice Alito not only refused to recuse, but changed his mind regarding his gracious host's case.

Just a short time after accepting the lavish, undisclosed trip from Singer, Alito joined the court in reversing its previous position and took up Singer's case. He did not recuse.

Justice Alito also refused to recuse in the case itself, ultimately leading to a ruling that netted Singer $2.4 billion.

And that ruling did not just enrich Singer, it also structurally tilted the playing field further away from working people. People. And towards the vulture funds, siphoning money and resources away from the communities that need them most.

A
So, listen, this is, of course, correct. We know that one of the real problems with the Supreme Court, and we've talked about before how even their new ethical standards guidelines have no enforcement mechanism and no teeth whatsoever. We know that the Supreme Court only has oversight. In some theoretical sense, these impeachments are going nowhere. But why is it that I think this is a good idea when in the past I've found some of the symbolic things that AOC or others wanted to do, not particularly logical? Well, this is a reminder that there are people out there trying to hold the unaccountable accountable. And as a reminder also, because the Supreme Court played such a role, not only with the recent Trump immunity decision, but in overturning Roe v. Wade and in so many other ways, this injects back into the discussion the corrosive and destructive and vile impact of this right wing mag accord into the discussion. And hopefully, and I know I'm thinking optimistically here, hopefully, it also will remind folks this is how much damage the Supreme Court has done and what it has become with just three Trump picks. If Trump wins and gets two more, we could be talking about an even more weaponized Supreme Court.

But not only that, we could be talking about a MAGA majority supreme Court until 2048 or 2050 or even into the second half of the 21st century. So I don't think the impeachment will go anywhere, but I still think this is worth doing. If there's any criticism, it would be, hey, you know, AOC, maybe do it in September or even very early October to try to maximize the impact on the election. But this is the sort of symbolic action that I can get behind. I know some people will say, David, it's not symbolic. It's real. Okay, yeah, it's real. They're real articles of impeachment. I just don't have any reason to think it's going anywhere. This is something I can get behind. To the extent that it reminds voters all the Supreme Court stuff we said in 2016 about Hillary versus Trump, it came true. Let's not make that same mistake again.

Let's say you want to figure out if Trump did use a nazi slogan in a campaign video or if it's just a misunderstanding. Fake News is an app and website that gathers news stories from across the world and political spectrum. So you can decide for yourself. It's a great tool. I'm happy to be partnering with them for this video. Yes, Trump did in fact use a nazi slogan in a campaign video he posted and then he deleted it. On ground news I can access almost 200 articles covering the story and see that only 17% of those are right leaning. No surprise there. Comparing coverage is interesting. Some sources on the left references language comparing him to Hitler, while on the right RT highlights his explanation of the video and Israel's are highlights that he deleted it. The ground news blind spots feature will highlight stories like this that are disproportionately covered by either political side, so you are guaranteed to see the full picture. Sign up through my link for 40% off their vantage subscription, which gives you access to all of their features. Go to ground Dot News Pacman the link is in the podcast notes one of today's sponsors is Stride Line, the creator of the most comfortable sock on earth. Established in 2009 by childhood friends in Seattle, Stride line has dedicated years to researching the most comfortable socks. And they really are. They present you with socks that are not only incredibly comfortable, but highly functional for an unparalleled experience. For the sports enthusiasts in the audience, Stride line will keep your feet warm on game day as an official partner of the NFL, MLB, NCAA and Major League Soccer.

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We will soon, I guess, know who Donald Trump's vice presidential running mate is going to be. Trump intimated Trump never really intimates, but I'm calling it he intimated. He intimated to Sean Hannity earlier this week that he would make the announcement right around, or maybe at the RNC, which of course starts Monday. Now, one of the things that is fascinating, and it goes to the idea that Trump doesn't really have friends and that much of the Republican Party despises the guy is that everybody who seems to be on the short list, the real short list, the finalist to be Trump's VPN, all seem to dislike the guy. And unless you completely suspend disbelief and tell yourself, oh, you know, they used to not like him, but now they do, we have to acknowledge that they almost certainly dislike him right now. There's an interesting Washington Post article, unfit to serve con artist, how Trump's VP finalists once bashed him. And the article explains that the folks most recently considered as being Donald Trump's final shortlist, Senators JD Vance or Marco Rubio, they've called him everything from unfit to a con artist.

And even worse than that, the article explains all of the different ways in which they have gone after Trump. JD Vance calling himself a never Trump guy, saying that he is unfit for the highest nation, the highest office in the nation, and so on and so forth. I think you get it. The specific comments don't really matter. Now. What are the defenses that have been put out there by people around Trump, like Jason Miller and other Trump aides, when they've been confronted and told, hey, all these people have attacked Trump and now they're on the short list? Jason Miller has essentially chalked it up to politics.

It's politics. There's disagreements. People say different things. The reason that that explanation falls short, there's actually a couple of reasons why it falls short. But one particular reason why the hand waving away as this is just politics, and people say different things in politics. And then, you know, you govern together, is that the attacks that and the barbs that have gone from Trump to his opponent, previous opponents, and from Trump's previous opponents back to Trump, they are personal in a way that you don't as often see in politics. Even when politics gets ugly, Trump saying Ted Cruz's wife is ugly, for example, or talking about Marco Rubio's appearance or whatever else the case may be, calling people lightweights when they levy even the softest and most minor critiques against Donald Trump, there is something different here. And the personal nature is different. The thin skinned nature of Trump is also different. And this is something that, you know, on the one hand, there's the, it sometimes gets ugly in political campaigns, and that's true.

The other side of it is that most candidates and people in politics have a thicker skin than Trump. And Trump is known for being particularly triggerable and thin skinned to wanting and demanding absolute and complete loyalty. Never question anything that he wants. And it goes to such a degree that Trump's supporters almost got Trump's former vice president Mike Pence killed on January 6. So I think it will be very interesting to see who Trump ultimately picks. It seems as though it will almost certainly be someone who dislikes Trump deep down, but they want access to power. They want to be a heartbeat or a breath away from the presidency of the United States. Many people would, and they would accept being vp to someone they dislike. I think it's obvious when you look at the totality of their backstories that all of these guys, Bergam, Vance, Marco Rubio, and others, on a personal level, probably, to quote Tucker Carlson, deeply despise Donald Trump. But they're willing to suspend all of it if they believe it's going to get, uh, them close to power. We'll see who it is before you know it. Then we will analyze a terrified Donald Trump is now panicking, as is everyone around him, about Project 2025. Something fascinating is happening, and it's actually a great thing. Over the last 72, 96 hours, few days, the interest level in figuring out what is this? Project 2025 has exploded. I'm glad to say we were early on Project 2025. I've been talking about it now for over a year. We put out a free white paper which has now been downloaded 40,000 times and probably distributed to hundreds of thousands of people at this point.

And Donald Trump is now again coming forward on truth social and saying, I know nothing about it. This is a similar message to the one Trump posted over the weekend. Donald Trump trothing just hours ago, quote, I know nothing about Project 2025. I have not seen it, have no idea who is in charge of it, and unlike our very well received republican platform, had nothing to do with it. The radical left Democrats are having a field day, however, trying to hook me into whatever policies are stated or said. It is pure disinformation on their part. By now, after all of these years, everyone knows where I stand on everything.

DJ T naturally, this is simply a lie in so many ways. First of all, as far as policies, Trump claims he knows nothing about it, doesn't know the people that wrote it, has nothing to do with it. And his policies are all different. And yet so many of the policies he espouses on the campaign trail, to the extent that he talks about policy, align perfectly with what is in Project 2025. The mass rounding up and deportation of migrants, the replacement of bureaucrats with political actors, all of it. Now, it's also important to remember that Trump is lying about all of it. Here is video of Trump shaking hands with Project 2025. Mastermind Kevin Roberts, president of the ultra conservative Heritage foundation. And then Trump saying he's doing a great job.

E
Heritage foundation president, somebody else doing an unbelievable job. He's bringing it back to levels it's never seen. Doctor Kevin Roberts. Kevin, thank you.

A
Trump knows him. He shakes hands with him. He's buddy buddy with him. Trump's press secretary, Caroline Levitt is starring in ads for Project 2025. As I told you earlier this week, Trump's former top aide John McEntee is directly behind Project 2025. Trump's super PAC is running ads saying, hey, learn about Trump's project 2025. The Trump campaign chose Project 2025 leader Russ Vought to co lead the RNC's platform committee. Trump says, we put out a great platform. Yeah, the platform you put out is co led by one of the Project 2025 leaders. The platform and Project 2025 have almost no daylight between them. And of course, Trump is mentioned more than 270 times in Project 2020 five's founding document. A number of former Trump administration officials are directly connected to Project 2025. So what is happening here? It's very clear they are realizing they must get out ahead of this because actual conservatives would oppose this insanity.

Real conservatives. How many are left? I don't know. Real conservatives would oppose the insanity of Project 2025, and they would be dissuaded from voting for Trump if they come to know about it. And also, by the way, everybody talking about, oh, people on the left will be dissuaded from voting Biden because of the debate performance.

Reading up about Project 2025 will likely have very much the opposite effect and will very much inspire and instigate more voting from the left. The hilarious, by the way, unintended consequence of all of this, just one of them is that right wing trolls and conspiracy theorists Alex Jones and Nick Fuentes don't seem to understand that Trump is almost certainly only pretending that he doesn't know anything about Project 2025. And they're furious. They loved Alex Jones and Nick Fuentes, loved that Trump was going in on Project 2025. They saw Project 2025 as a big feature of Trump's potential second term. Now that Trump said, I don't know anything about it, they're furious. Well, don't worry. They don't have to worry. Trump's pretending he's lying. But the good news is that for now, most Americans are not falling for this. There's a new survey that was released yesterday. A majority of Americans believe Project 2025 does represent what Trump stands for, whether Trump knows about it or not whether Trump claims to know about it or not, whether Trump claims to be involved in it in any way. Shockingly. Now, here's the. That's the good news. The good news is, for those who have heard about Project 2025, they overwhelmingly believe this is. This is Trump. There's no daylight here. The sad part, the shocking part, is that 77% of respondents say they had heard little or nothing about Project 2025. So we must get the news out there. There's a reason they're trying to distance themselves from this.

One thing you can do.

I know, but David, this is your white paper. I'm giving it away. There is no reason other than get this to as many people as possible. If you go to David Pakman.com project 2025, it's a twelve page white paper, tells you what's in Project 2025, why it's risky, historical comparisons to Project 2025 type agenda, and what we can do to stop it. Nearing 40,000 individual downloads in about a week and a half, people reporting they are sending it to others. Realistically, the white paper has reached a couple hundred thousand people by now. Get the white paper at david pakman.com project 2025 and send it to your crazy uncle who says the MAGA stuff at Thanksgiving and do what we can to make sure people understand the stakes. They are panicking because they know there's very few people, statistically speaking, that will be thrilled by the Project 2025 agenda. There's still millions, but it's a country of 340 million, and they are terrified. So we have to make sure we get that news out there. Let's take a very quick break.

We will follow up with much more of what's been going on over the last 24 hours. After hearing from just a sponsor or two, there was recently a huge data breach at T Mobile. 37 million customers. Personal data was exposed, and the data stays online forever and for anyone to access. And the number of data breaches in the US is increasing by about 80%. It is not getting any better. That's why it is so important to use a VPN. Anytime you connect to the Internet changes, your ip address makes you anonymous. The only VPN I trust is private Internet access. The only major VPN that is demonstrated in legal cases.

They do not possess your Internet activity, and the software is open source for the world to verify. When a company like T Mobile or Verizon gets hacked and you were using a VPN, your data still gets leaked, but it's associated with a. Yeah, fake IP address, essentially not linkable. To you. Private Internet access is optimized for streaming and file sharing without the lag and buffering you get with other VPN's. And one of my favorite things about a VPN is being able to access streaming content not normally available in my country, like UK Netflix get private Internet access for 83% off. That's just 02:03 a month, plus four extra months for free. Go to pia vpn.com. david the link is in the podcast notes without a doubt by now you've heard of Project 2025 because we've been talking about it on the show and it's starting to get more mainstream attention.

You maybe have heard about agenda 47, 47, of course, referring to Trump, Trump being number 45, and he wants to be number 47, which has a lot of overlap with Project 2025.

But what about the article three project? I much more recently learned about the article three project, and I'm going to play for you so you can hear it from the creator itself, the, from the creator himself, rather, itself, a little more about it. And keep in mind, as you listen to Mike Davis here, former clerk for the Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuche, that the article three project is a nonprofit. It's a nonprofit that sort of ostensibly promotes the confirmation of right wing justices to the Supreme Court. But really what it promotes, in addition to just the the appointment of supreme confirmation of Supreme Court justices that are right wing, it wants to actually get things done that those Supreme Court justices would allow or would find, find constitutional. So here is Mike Davis speaking to Benny Johnson. You might remember, Benny, from my recent appearance on the Piers Morgan program.

And he tells us what it is that they are going to do. And you'll find that much of this is sort of new ground of extremism, and then some of it is retreading Project 2025. Mike, I've never called for lava to rain down from the heavens, but maybe upon Washington, DC. Would you be that sweet red hot lava for us?

F
I've never been called sweet, and you call me sweet ginger. So I think I meant Ben during my three week reign of terror as Trump acting attorney general, before I get chased out of town with my Trump pardon, I will reign hell on Washington, DC. We've talked about this, Ben. I have five lists ready to go, and they're growing. List number one, we're going to fire. We're going to fire a lot of people in the executive branch in the deep state. Number two, we're going to indict. We're going to indict Joe Biden. And Hunter Biden and James Biden.

A
And this is all out of Project 2025. If not literally, then metaphorically. So just two examples. Okay, right. Right there.

When it comes to firing people from the executive branch, this is the Project 2025 idea of replacing career bureaucrats with political actors. When it comes to we're going to indict Joe and Hunter Biden. This, I mean, listen, Trump is straight up talked about that. That skips over even necessarily being Project 2025. These are all versions of the same autocratic insanity that these people want.

F
Every other scumball, sleazeball fighting, except for the five year old granddaughter who they refused to acknowledge for five years until the political pressure got to Joe Biden. Number three, we're going to deport. We're going to deport a lot of people, 10 million people, and growing anchor babies, their parents, their grandparents. We're going to put kids in cages. It's going to be glorious. We're going to detain a lot of people in the DC Gulag and Gitmo. And list number five, I'm going to recommend a lot of pardons. Every January 6 defendants is going to get a part. And especially my hero, horn man, specially. He is definitely at the top of the part list.

A
We actually went out and have some upcoming content with Jacob Chansley. We did a podcast interview with him, went out into the desert. We wanted to learn about shamanism, so we went on speaker one. So listen, the game that they are all playing, Trump's playing it when he says, I don't know anything about Project 2025. I don't know anybody there.

All of these games that they are playing are seeking to hide that this is all an interrelated series of ideas. There's not a perfect overlap between agenda 47, the stuff Trump says on the campaign trail, project 2025, and the article three Project. It's not a perfect overlap, but the Venn diagram would have significant overlap. A lot of these ideas are similar. Article three, Project, Guy talks about pardoning the January 6 riders, Trump talks about pardoning the January 6 riders, who he now refers to as hostages. Article three, Guy and Project 2025 talk about mass deportations. Trump talks about mass deportations while saying he has nothing to do with Project 2025. The idea of firing half or some number of bureaucrats and replacing them with political actors. Article three, Project talks about that. Project 2025 talks about it. Everybody around Trump is talking about it, even if Trump has only mentioned it sort of in passing. But we know it's an idea that he likes based on things he's previously said, we have to believe them when they tell, everywhere is telling us this is the stuff they're going to do.

The rare Republicans who are willing to say this isn't conservatism, this doesn't represent me, they are telling us that this is the stuff they're going to do. Trump, when he actually speaks clearly, which is rare, but when he speaks clearly indirectly, is telling us this is what they're going to do. The project 2025 documents tell us this is what they're going to do. Vivek, when he says, if I'm involved, this is what I would do. Article three, agenda 47, it's all very clear. And so what we can't have is a situation where this takes us by surprise.

Vote however you want, whatever. Right? I get it. Vote for whoever or stay home or, but just understand that they're all telling us versions of the same thing. This is what's coming. If Trump wins, the only hope would be he can't get away with it. Now, I'm not going to come up here and do the hyperbole where I say democracy is over if Trump wins. No, I mean, listen, hopefully he would be restrained in that and he wouldn't be able to do a bunch of these things. But at least as far as the reality that they will try, we have to believe them because they're all on the same page. All right, I want to play one little clip for you related to both Joe Biden and the controversy around him since the debate and Donald Trump's vp pick. This was actually an interesting moment. I'm not going to torture you by subjecting you to long swaths of Brian Kilmeade's recent interview with Donald Trump. But there was an interesting moment where the idea, what about waiting to see what happens with Biden and running or nothing before deciding on your vp pick? Or put a different way, is there some way in which Biden staying in the race versus Biden stepping down would affect who Trump selects for his vp? There's a lot of interesting stuff here. Let's listen. I'm wondering if it factors in that Joe Biden not, might not be the nominee, and if does that factor in who you pick? Because a lot of people think it's got to be Kamala to be number one. She goes and picks a battleground state governor like Shapiro or Whitmer.

Does that change your thinking? Maybe you need Virginia and you might want to go get a youngkin.

E
I don't think it does. You know, I asked that question a lot. Am I waiting for that, you know, for the x to fall? And frankly, you know, I'm amazed that, you know, I hope he can carry it on. I just assume we planned for him. But whether we plan for him or anyone else, the planning, I think, is the same. It's a policy that the Democrats have. Open borders, high taxes, high interest rates, being weak on foreign, I mean, look at how bad they're laughed at by everybody. This guy is walking around being laughed at by the leaders. I know all these leaders. He's being laughed at by the leaders of foreign countries.

A
Now, of course, remember, Trump was literally laughed at by the leaders of foreign countries when he gave that un speech. Biden has actually, fortunately, repaired a lot of those alliances. But there's two really, really interesting things here. Number one, Trump seems to acknowledge that he is actually set up to run against Joe Biden specifically. And so there's a little bit of an interesting aspect there where Trump seems to recognize that swapping Biden for someone else would actually be destabilizing to his campaign as well. And he's probably seen polling where almost no matter who democrats run, if there were to be a change, assuming it's a well, relatively well known Democrat, does just as well against Trump as an immediate starting point and potentially could even build up to do even better by the time the election actually happens. But then, number two, and he actually admits it earlier in the clip, is something I agree with. I don't really think it matters what happens with Biden in terms of who Donald Trump selects. And to be honest, even this individual state strategy. There used to be, you know, how there's these conventional wisdoms in politics, and often they don't end up being that conventional, where, you know, if you are, sometimes it would be said if you're running as a Democrat for president and you're a senator, what you want to do is pick a southern governor to be your running mate, because then it appeals to a certain part of the country. I think that stuff is mostly irrelevant now.

I'm not saying it always was irrelevant. I'm saying it's mostly irrelevant now, particularly since 99.9% of voters are getting all of their information in ways that don't really depend on the geographical origins or placement of candidates and the idea that, I mean, listen, this is a turnout election at the end of the day, this is a referendum on Biden and a referendum on four more years of Trump. I don't see any way in which Trump selecting Youngkin, if it's Kamala. But selecting Rubio, if it's Biden, I don't think it makes any difference. And Trump seems to be acknowledging that. So it is a particularly interesting revelation that that's not a calculation. One last thing I think it's important to remind people of.

It's very obvious that Trump has been lying about the entire vp process for close to a year now. Because you might recall that close to a year ago, he said during a town hall, I've already selected the VP. It's all, it's, I already know who it's going to be. And then later said, I'm considering this and I'm considering that. Oh, but you had already said you had selected. I guess he hadn't. And then later said another contradicting thing. And then later said another contradicting thing. So almost certainly Trump has been lying about the VP issue all along. But where I agree with Trump is I don't think it matters one way or the other. We have a voicemail number. That number is 2192. David P. Here is a very distressed and terrified caller. I can hear the fear in his voice. He says Biden is politically dying. Cannot win. Cannot win, and that something must be done. Take a listen to this.

C
Hey, Dave, long time, you know, listener, really do appreciate you of your pragmatism and whatnot.

As long as far as this, like, it's difficult to, like, really put in the words, like, with what's going on with Joe Biden, dude, like, man, you know he can't win, dude, you know he can. And I appreciate your, like, sort of, like, stoicism and, like, you know, like, you're sticking to it.

A
So let me address this. This is a, this is kind of a long message. So I want to address it in parts of it's not stoicism and it's not about sticking with it. If I became convinced that the way to defeat Trump was to replace Joe Biden today, I would say, replace Joe Biden today. I simply am not convinced of that. And I see conflicting empirical arguments made one way or the other. I also have no control over it. And so my view is I'm along for the ride like everybody else, and I'm going to do everything I can to defeat Donald Trump. I can't do anything else because I can't do anything else. So let's continue.

C
But everyone saw, everyone saw what happened on that debate.

And people will say, oh, debates don't matter. Look, man, it's not about debates. This is not the same thing. Like he's, Joe Biden is not a reasonable person anymore.

A
Ok. On this argument that even if generally debates don't matter this time, the debate matters because Joe Biden was so obviously impaired at the debate. So it's different.

I'm open to that.

I'm not seeing that in the polling. I'm just not seeing it there.

Some of the swing state polling has tightened. Now you could say, well, the polling doesn't matter. Well, if the polling doesn't matter, then how can we even figure anything out? Okay, so we're just going to dismiss it all together. But if we look at polling, I'm open to the case that that was such an irretrievably, irreparably bad debate performance that it's just over. The debate matters this time. The swing state polling has tightened. Trump's lead nationally went from 1.5 to 3.3, flatlined, and now is back down from 3.3 to three.

It, we may already be seeing the evaporation of the impact of the debate. So for all these people who email me convinced, and every day now I get people who go, David, any conclusion other than Biden must step down today is obviously wrong. I'm not seeing that in the data.

Or, David, there is no way to consider anything other than just Biden all the way.

I'm not seeing that in the data either, because just everybody is polling right around the same.

I'm not finding an empirical case for the things that this caller and many of the emailers are saying. Let's listen to a little bit more.

C
Speaker two over. Dude, he showed that he is dying politically and he show is probably dying. Like, physically.

It has to change.

If you're truly, you know, if you want to be like, oh, we're all progressive. Like, I consider myself progressive, too.

Like, but dude, it's got, it has to end, man. I'm sorry, bud. Like, it's, it's, we need to turn the page, man. It has to. Or we're looking at Trump again, which I really, really don't want. And yes, if, and if Biden is the, what's going to be on the ballot for me in Georgia or wherever, I will vote for him. But, bud, like, it's got to end, man.

A
I think the smartest thing the caller said there is, if it's Biden, I'll vote for him. And that's where I am. And I know it's been a stressful couple of weeks for many in my audience, including just reacting to the things I'm saying but I am not here to protect you from my real beliefs. I'm here to give you my real beliefs. And that is what I have presented since June 27 on the bonus show today, Milwaukee restaurants are worried even with the RNC in town next week, it might not be that great for them. I'll tell you why. An interesting study finds that children's sugar consumption is down 50% since a tax announcement on sugar and Ozempic's popularity as a weight loss drug, and in other ways, by the way, is leading to shortages for people with type two diabetes. It was predicted, and now it is happening. We will discuss all of those stories and more on today's bonus show. Don't miss it. Sign up@joinpakman.com.