David Pakman

And so they're not going to say it, but we see it with their behavior.

When you respect the leader, you take their words and you carry them forward, you know, like the Olympic torch.

When the respect fades, you treat their words like, OK, this is a fire.

I've got to contain the fire.

They set a fire.

If I put it out, he'll be mad because he wanted the fire.

But I don't want the fire to get bigger.

Let me just do what I can to keep the fire roughly the same size.

It's not going to get bigger, but it's not going to get smaller.

And that.

attitude is growing.

Once the people in the system start hedging and kind of distancing and protecting themselves, you have a dynamic that's permanently broken.

Trump's entire political identity is built on the idea that he's the one person in charge

Everybody else is passengers.

He's driving the bus.

Everybody else is sitting there listening to music or doing whatever.

And what we're seeing is that in these small moments, we have the erosion.

It's a repetitive pattern of the people closest to Trump realizing I got to stop being a disciple here if I want to save myself.

He's not going to be around forever.

And this is behavior that starts to happen when the realization hits that the truth is not something Trump's going to be happy with.