Republicans suddenly turn on Trump as Rogan sounds alarm

David Pakman (0:00)

Today, Republicans are suddenly willing to say things about Donald Trump that would have been almost unthinkable not long ago, including one longtime ally reportedly saying F them F this about the Trump White House. Trump himself delivers another remarkable appearance talking about the crazy power of the presidency. Did you know he could ban fishing if he wanted to? And then he comes back to the ever present issue of sharks and electrocution. Joe Rogan, who endorsed Trump in 2024, is now openly questioning whatever happened to that whole drain the swamp thing. And he is criticizing the administration over a new war. Trump reportedly erupts after losing another round in this bizarre fight to put his name on the Kennedy Center. And Donald Trump's surgeon general nominee, I got to hand it to her. She went before the Senate and she gave a surprisingly direct answer about vaccines, autism and measles. But is there something between the lines that we need to read? And also, of course, your e-mails, your comments in Friday Feedback. There are just days left until my new book is excuse me, I'm getting all choked up over it. There are just days left until my new book is out. We will soon never have to hear about it again. But I hope you've preordered a copy at David pakman.com/attention.

Let's do the show. Why not?

Something has broken in the Republican Party. And if you look at the language that Republicans are now using about Donald Trump, what I'm about to show you is pretty extraordinary.

One long time Trump ally summed up the mood in four words about the Trump White House. F them F this. And now Republicans are going public. We've known about the private complaining about Trump for 11 years, but we are now seeing Republicans start to publicly distance themselves from Donald Trump because they're staring down the barrel of a midterm election that might end their political lives. And so you've got Republicans running campaign ads criticizing Donald Trump's policies and skipping events with JD. Vance and voting with Democrats against Trump's war in Iran. Not a lot of them. But we finally see some Republican politicians asking a very obvious question. It's a question that was forbidden for basically a decade. Is Donald Trump a political liability for us now to the point that I need to publicly take a stand? And we start with Republican Congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar of Florida. This is a Republican. She's not a never Trumper.

She endorsed Trump in twenty twenty four. Trump gave her what he calls his complete and total endorsement just earlier this year. Now she puts out this campaign ad, which we're going to look at, filmed right outside the White House confronting Trump over his immigration crackdown. This is not a Democrat. This is not an ever Trump Republican. This is a Republican endorsed by Trump, who also endorsed Trump. Take a look at this.

María Elvira Salazar (3:07)

Mr. President, some of your immigration enforcement efforts have gone too far. In July, 50 percent of the 50,000 people that were detained had no criminal record. Be careful what your advisors are telling you about immigration policy. The same Hispanics who help you get to the White House in 2024 feel betrayed today. You can be for immigration when Lincoln was for slavery and Reagan was for communism. I'm not talking about giving them amnesty. I'm talking about giving them a dignified life in this promised land.

David Pakman (3:37)

That is a Republican. That's a Republican member of Congress weeks before a midterm election, saying to Trump publicly, my voters, my constituents, your voters feel that you've betrayed them. Now she has an election to win. And when you've got an election to win, all of a sudden, you know, unconditional loyalty to Trump doesn't quite look so hot. But this is a much bigger story than just Congresswoman Salazar, because you've got Mark Halperin reporting that there are senior Republicans and longtime Trump allies furious over the controversy over Don Jr.'s wedding party being paid for by Russian oligarch Umar Kremlin, who reportedly paid not only for this multi day wedding party for Don Jr. and his new wife's wedding, but reportedly that included, by the way, planting islands and fireworks and all of that.

He also Kremlin reportedly paid for masculinization surgery for Don Jr. His his jaw wasn't masculine enough and they went in there and they made it more like a man. Kremlin reportedly paid for that as well.

And Trump's entire response to the controversy was that this is really no big deal. I don't even know the guy. Well, there are a bunch of Republicans who think it's a very big deal. And one source said that this is it's terrible, that it's terrible for Republicans at the end of the day. And I don't think that like the wedding itself or the wedding party is the important thing.