2026 is already insane

The David Pakman Show

David Pakman

News, Politics

4.8 • 6.2K Ratings

🗓️ 2 January 2026

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

-- On the Show -- Donald Trump faces a hard power cutoff in the 2026 midterms where losing the House would effectively halt his legislative agenda and severely weaken his leverage -- The United States dollar suffers its largest annual decline in nearly a decade due to Donald Trump's tariffs, attacks on Federal Reserve independence, and destabilizing foreign policy -- Corporate bankruptcies hit a 15-year high as Donald Trump's tariffs raise costs, squeeze margins, and push construction, manufacturing, and consumer businesses into collapse -- Gen Z men rapidly turn against Donald Trump as new polling shows collapsing approval driven by economic frustration and disillusionment with culture war politics -- Donald Trump remains in office despite actions that would remove leaders in functioning democracies, exposing institutional failures -- AI-generated impersonation scams are eroding trust and preparing the ground for large-scale election disinformation -- The Friday Feedback segment -- On the Bonus Show: The 10 most outrageous things Trump did in 2025, and much more... -- Become a Member: https://davidpakman.com/membership -- Subscribe to our (FREE) Substack newsletter: https://davidpakman.substack.com -- Get David's Books: https://davidpakman.com/echo -- TDPS Subreddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/thedavidpakmanshow -- David on Bluesky: https://davidpakman.com/bluesky -- David on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/davidpakmanshow (00:00) Start (01:29) Trump's 2026 power stakes (06:51) Dollar collapse under Trump (14:15) Corporate bankruptcies surge (18:19) Gen Z abandons Trump (24:18) Democracy fails to check Trump (32:02) AI impersonation attacks (39:17) Friday Feedback Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to 2026. This is not a normal moment and 2026 is not going to be a normal election year.
0:07.9	Today we are going to look at why the 2026 midterms are the real deadline for Donald Trump and
0:14.1	Trumpism, not just politically, but mechanically because if Republicans lose the House,
0:18.6	Trump's presidency is effectively done.
0:21.4	If they don't, he gets two more years of real power and the ability to shape 2028.
0:26.4	We are also going to talk about the dollar.
0:29.3	This is something Republicans used to scream about.
0:32.0	But under the current administration, the dollar is collapsing and it is hitting prices.
0:37.4	And it is related to the policies of this
0:39.3	administration. We are also going to go beyond record GDP headlines to look at the surge in
0:45.5	corporate bankruptcies and other potential signs of trouble. And also young men, one of Donald
0:51.5	Trump's crucial 2024 groups are bailing quickly. New polling shows that
0:58.6	buyer's remorse is really setting in. And finally, scammers using AI to impersonate a lot of
1:06.1	your favorite content creators, including me, fake videos, fake voices, I believe it's a preview of where
1:11.9	disinformation is headed. It is the start of maybe the most consequential midterms I've ever
1:18.3	covered. I'm glad to have you with us. Welcome to 2026. Well, my friends, you made it.
1:30.9	If you are hearing this message, you made it into 2026.
1:34.7	I believe this will be one of the most consequential years politically as far as midterm elections
1:40.5	go, probably that I have ever covered.
1:42.9	I've said before, you know, the 2012 election,
1:45.6	I thought Obama was the better candidate than Mitt Romney, but I didn't believe that it was
1:50.2	existentially important as an inflection point in the way that I think the 2026 midterms are
	...

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