Pentagon runs out of cash, Trump runs out of excuses

**Pat Ford** (0:06)
Hello, and welcome to The David Pakman Show. I'm producer Pat Ford filling in for David today. David is coming home from a big podcast appearance. He did yesterday. He's going to tell you all about it on the show tomorrow. But here I am today to present today's show. We have a lot of fascinating stories we're going to delve into. We're going to talk about this congressman who claims that you need an ID to buy pasta at Olive Garden. We're going to talk about Pete Hegseth giving this disastrous testimony in front of Congress. And I want to start today by talking about Donald Trump who hosted the Lebanese president in the Oval Office and just how evasive, how deflective he was. So Trump fielded questions from reporters in the Oval Office. Obviously, these questions can be about any topic, but at the top of mind right now is the Iran War, which has started up again in full force. We're seeing more American troops dead. We're seeing prices soaring. A reporter asked Trump how much longer he needs in order to ensure that the Strait of Hormuz can be open, that ships can go through there without the risk of getting attacked.
The reporter even provides a scenario that I understand you may not be able to get to a ceasefire or end the war anytime soon, but at the very least, when can you ensure that ships can start going through the Strait of Hormuz? And this is how Trump decides to handle the question. Thank you, Mr. President. A follow-up on Iran.

**SPEAKER_2** (1:37)
If the Iranians do not make a deal, ultimately, how long will it take for you to stamp out their threats to the Strait and enable full shipping?

**Donald Trump** (1:47)
So if we left right now, it would take Iran 20, 25 years to rebuild, okay? And we're not finished at all. But if we left right now, it would take them a long time, years, years to rebuild.
But we're not leaving right now. So we've had a big impact on Iran.

**Pat Ford** (2:07)
Right. So notice how Donald Trump does not answer the question here. He was asked how long it's going to take before ships can go through the Strait of Hormuz safely without fear of being attacked. And instead, he answered the question, how long before Iran rebuilds its infrastructure? So Trump clearly taking liberty here on the question and answer session and answering a question that he felt a lot more comfortable answering, but not the one that was asked of him. Then Trump is asked what the plan is because it seems Iran doesn't have any motivation to stop the war effort really. Things have been going more so in their direction than that of the United States. And here is Trump employing a few different logical fallacies, but the main one is appeal to ignorance. I'll play the clip here and then we'll see if we can identify it and then I'll discuss what exactly I mean.

**SPEAKER_4** (2:56)
Mr. President, there are no signs that Iran is ready to stop fighting. So what is the plan? Is the plan to just keep bombing until they give up?

**Donald Trump** (3:03)
There are no signs. What? Do you know something that I don't know?

**SPEAKER_4** (3:07)
Well, they continue to attack our allies and kill Americans.

**Donald Trump** (3:09)
I don't know what the dialogue is behind the scenes that they want to meet desperately to try and end it because they're getting decimated. You don't get that when you listen to your fake station, you don't know anything. So talks aren't still possible lately? Do you know something I don't know?

**SPEAKER_4** (3:26)
Well, tell us.

**Donald Trump** (3:28)
I will tell you, they want to desperately meet and until they're ready to meet in a meaningful way, we have no interest in even.

**Pat Ford** (3:36)
So Trump is obviously in a corner here. He doesn't want to answer the question. So what does he do? He uses the fact that he's president and the idea that he must have access to information that this mere reporter doesn't have as a way to prove that he is right in his mind. Of course, this is logically fallacious. Trump is using the absence of the journalist's knowledge as proof that she is wrong. But of course, you can't even engage with the argument. You can't even engage with the claims that Trump is making if he just says, well, it's classified and I'm privy to all this information that you're not. Next up, we have Trump being asked about the impact of the war on the midterms. And I think there are a few different schools of thought when it comes to this. A lot of different opinions about what Trump thinks about the upcoming midterms. So let's play the clip and then we'll explore some of those different ideas.