Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
We have new economic numbers and the growth of the American economy has collapsed to zero point seven percent.
Chapter 2: What does the new GDP data reveal about the U.S. economy?
This is a massive slowdown and importantly, this is before the economic damage from the Iran war even started to show up. Meanwhile, Donald Trump is now claiming the United States has completely decimated Iran and won the war. But the missiles are flying. The Strait of Hormuz is incomplete in total chaos and oil prices are at one hundred dollars a barrel.
When reporters try to ask basic questions about the war, Trump melts down. Caroline Leavitt melts down. The insults fly. Reporters are called obnoxious. And Trump actually admits the most important point of all of it. which is maybe the United States shouldn't even be there at all. We will talk about it.
We will also look at a bizarre moment when Donald Trump's Treasury secretary is yanked out of an interview, rushed to the Situation Room. And when he comes back, he's shaken up, he's mumbling and stumbling and stuttering. and looks to be on the verge of tears.
Chapter 3: How does Donald Trump claim victory over Iran amid ongoing conflict?
And then just wait until you see the surreal interview between the president of the United States and Jake Paul. What a show. The David Pakman Show David Pakman dot com. We just got the new GDP numbers, not for Q1 of 2026. We're still in Q1 of 2026. It'll be over at the end of March.
We just got the 2025 fourth quarter GDP numbers and the US economy grew just zero point seven percent in the final quarter of 2025. Now, even the estimate wasn't that robust. The estimate was one point four percent, the expectation. And we have now determined it's zero point seven percent. You will remember that Donald Trump was talking about four or five percent growth.
Why can't we have six or seven? Could we have eight or nine percent growth? Some of the people around Donald Trump said. And so we have a massive, massive slowdown and we now are facing disastrous Q1 GDP numbers because of Trump's optional and probably illegal Iran war.
Chapter 4: What challenges does Trump face in addressing reporters' questions?
which would be the second quarter in a row of really terrible GDP numbers. Now, some of the estimates of the effect of Donald Trump's invasion of Iran on GDP are about a one full percentage point reduction. If growth was already going to be point seven percent this quarter, we don't know.
But imagine that this quarter was going to be like last quarter, zero point seven percent growth, losing a point because of Donald Trump's Iranian invent invention invasion. would push GDP negative in Q1 of 2026. Oil prices are out of control because of the conflict.
Chapter 5: How does Karoline Leavitt defend Trump's policies on Fox News?
In fact, just to be thorough, let's just see where they're at right now. We know what's going on with gas prices, about 100 bucks a barrel as of this exact moment that I am recording. Gas prices, as you know, rapidly approaching four dollars per gallon now at above 370 per gallon. So Donald Trump is a major economic problem. It's a it's a political problem.
The Federal Reserve now also has a major problem on its hands. This actually relates to Trump's obsession with I got to get too late, Powell, to cut the federal funds rate. Normally, as stagflation fears grow, which they are growing right now, normally the Fed would say, hey, we have a tool for that. We can cut the federal funds rate.
But if inflation goes up because energy prices are going up, oil is up, gas is up, that increases the cost of transportation, meaning everything that gets shipped to you or to a distributor gets more expensive. If you're in that situation and the labor market starts showing signs of weakness, which it is, we lost ninety two thousand jobs in February. Unemployment ticked up a little bit.
All of a sudden, the Fed is going to say, I don't know that that's the right thing to do here.
Chapter 6: What are Trump's struggles when discussing the Iran war?
And consumer confidence reflects this instability.
Chapter 7: What happened during Scott Bessent's abrupt interview exit?
Consumer confidence is falling. And there are a few different important considerations here. The most important, the one I care about the most is what happens now in your home. I just care about the average person.
What is the effect of the weak jobs market, spiking energy prices, reduction in GDP, which can often mean that companies start laying people off or at least doing a hiring freeze or all sorts of things can happen. Can you afford your life?
Chapter 8: What bizarre moments occurred during Trump's interview with Jake Paul?
That's number one. This is a political show. And so we also have to consider what this does for Donald Trump's party, especially given that they could lose control of the House and the Senate. the forthcoming midterm elections. Historically, when you've got a weak economy and you've got a foreign war, it's a problem.
And I know that there is a sort of rally around the president kind of thing generically with foreign wars. But when that war is seen as optional, boneheaded, not in the interest of the United States, at least not right now. For most people, I don't know that it ever would be, but certainly not right now. And the economy is weak.
And for Donald Trump, we may not even yet know the full economic disaster because we're not going to get those GDP numbers for some period of time. You've got a real problem. Now, consider all of the failed promises that Donald Trump has made and hasn't stuck to. He promised to lower the cost of living, but it's up. He promised to lower gas prices, but they're spiking like crazy.
He promised cheaper energy, but oil is up. Electricity is up. He promised inflation would be over, but inflation has remained positive. And he said it would we would see a price level decrease, which requires deflation. We haven't seen it. He says GDP is going to be phenomenal, but GDP has been pretty weak under Donald Trump.
He said we'll have a manufacturing boom, but the manufacturing jobs level in the United States is the lowest it's been in a very long time. He said factories would come back. Most of the factories they can point to as being under construction are related to things that happened while Joe Biden was president.
Even though Trump wants to take credit for all of that himself, Trump said that the national debt was going to come down, but it has continued to increase. He said, we're going to see middle class tax relief, but much of the benefit of the tax plan went to corporations and really wealthy people. He said the trade deficit would be gone, but we're still running very large trade deficits.
He said tariffs would strengthen American industry, but they've made everything more expensive. I'm not going to give you the full list. This is a full blown, full blown economic disaster for Donald Trump. And it is only going to get worse the longer this continues. Now, let me say one other thing about the the longer this continues, Trump keeps playing with
We've basically completed the war where we've won the war. It's over. We're ending it. And meanwhile, the strikes continue. But there's another layer to that, which is it's not only Trump's war to end. One of the biggest factors now driving oil prices up, which drives gas prices up, which will drive the price of everything up. is the situation in the Strait of Hormuz, which is not open.
Trump's administration put out something like it's open other than, you know, other than the little detail that ships might be fired on by Iran. It's essentially open. OK, so then it's not actually open. Trump can actually end it for real this time, even if we stop the start of the missile strikes and the bombing.
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