4/15/25: Deporting citizens goes mainstream as dictatorship in focus

The David Pakman Show

David Pakman

News, Politics

4.8 • 6.2K Ratings

🗓️ 15 April 2025

⏱️ 66 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

-- On the Show: -- Jonathan Allen, senior political reporter for NBC News and co-author alongside Amie Parnes of the new book "Fight: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House," joins David to discuss the book, Biden's failed re-election campaign, the election of Donald Trump, and much more. Get the book: https://amzn.to/3Y2mwMF -- Donald Trump's America is becoming a dictatorship, and we deep dive into why that term is not hyperbole -- Presidents Donald Trump and Nayib Bukele of El Salvador hold a dystopian, terrifying press event at the White House -- A shouting Stephen Miller melts down on Fox News and defends a deportation that the Trump administration has already admitted was a mistake -- At the latest AOC/Bernie Sanders rally in Nampa, Idaho, Ocasio-Cortez refers to Donald Trump as a rapist and criminal -- Donald Trump gets the epitome of the softball question, asked how he manages to be so healthy -- On the Bonus Show: Bill Maher visits the White House, Social Security wrongly lists thousands of migrants as dead, Trump admin announces freeze to billions for Harvard, much more... 📜 Trust & Will: Save 10% on your estate planning at https://trustandwill.com/pakman ⚠️ Ground News: Get 40% OFF their unlimited access Vantage plan at https://ground.news/pakman 🥐 Wildgrain: Use code PAKMAN for $30 off & free baked goods at https://wildgrain.com/pakman 🔊 Babbel language learning: Get up to 60% OFF at https://babbel.com/pakman 💻 Sponsored by Private Internet Access: 83% OFF + 4 months free at https://www.piavpn.com/Pakman 🛌 Helix Sleep mattresses: Get 20% OFF sitewide at https://helixsleep.com/pakman -- Become a Member: https://davidpakman.com/membership -- Become a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/davidpakmanshow -- 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

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome, everybody.
0:08.2	I want to start today using a word.
0:11.8	We have the best words here that many people are understandably afraid to use.
0:18.2	That word is dictatorship because of course we look around we have elections we
0:24.3	have courts that some people follow when they make a legal court order um but what we are seeing
0:31.1	right now at the federal government is not just dysfunction it is is a devolution, de-evolution, devolution, uh, into
0:41.6	dictatorship, becoming a dictatorship and becoming is a key word. Now, I want to make it very clear
0:50.0	that this is not some like over the top hyperbolic nonsense. I'm not saying we live under Hitler. I'm
0:57.3	not saying we have a 20th century style literal dictatorship under Donald Trump. But what we do have
1:05.3	are the first signs of the structural decay where courts get ignored, the law is bent around one man, a large
1:16.5	orange man, civil society gets demonized, power centralizes in the executive, opposition is
1:24.5	framed as illegitimate, media critical of leadership is seen as disloyal and treasonous and you don't have to live under literal dictatorship to see that these are the early stages of how dictatorship forms.
1:40.3	Plato warned about this.
1:42.3	First the people get angry and they get desperate.
1:45.8	Then a strong man comes in loud and angry and vengeful and sometimes charismatic who says
1:53.0	he basically always he is the only one who can fix it.
1:58.0	And soon the institutions don't work unless he allows them to. The institutions
2:02.9	don't work unless, unless they allow him to do whatever he wants to do. So it's really important
2:09.1	to understand that authoritarian don't always storm the palace on horseback. Sometimes they tweet,
2:14.7	or once Twitter becomes X, they excrete on X. Sometimes they host rallies. Sometimes they tweet or once Twitter becomes X, they excrete on X.
2:19.0	Sometimes they host rallies.
2:20.9	Sometimes they just ignore court rulings and dare anyone to stop them.
	...

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