Everything they warned us about is happening
The David Pakman Show - July 23, 2026
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The United States recorded over 2,000 measles cases after Donald Trump appointed anti-vaccine advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to head the Department of Health and Human Services. Hospitalized patients in Utah requires oxygen and intravenous fluids to treat severe pneumonia.
Senator Mitch McConnell has remained out of public view for five weeks following a hospital fall. Although his office released a single photograph, lawmakers are demanding video proof of his capacity to represent Kentucky residents in the Senate.
During a rally in Marietta, Georgia, Donald Trump appeared swollen and sweaty while repeatedly mispronouncing basic words on stage. He mused about seeking an illegal third presidential term and dismissed concerns about high grocery prices.
Before receiving the bodies of four American service members killed in Iran, Donald Trump claimed the deceased soldiers strongly endorsed his military strategy. He also cited fabricated polling data even though independent surveys show nearly 70% of Americans oppose the conflict.
The David Pakman Show placed twenty-sixth in the political channels ranking on YouTube, ranking directly ahead of Fox News and CNN. This milestone comes despite receiving official attacks and intimidation from the White House.
Representative Tom Emmer publicly stated that the upcoming midterm elections center entirely on Donald Trump. However, persistent inflation and rising energy costs are leaving voters financially strained.
Finally, Jessica Valenti, bestselling author and creator of the Substack newsletter Abortion, Every Day, joins us to discuss right-wing efforts to restrict reproductive access and why Democrats should run on abortion rights.
On today’s bonus show:
Troy Jackson leads Susan Collins in a new poll, Nicaragua's president says there will be no more elections, the House proposes an AI "kill switch" bill, and much more...
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Don’t miss the full show with these stories and others, plus all of our analysis.
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Mitch McConnell will lose his valiant fight against pneumonia on or around August 4th.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0jwRYgdVKQ
The legacy media is hyper-focused on the political theater of Trump’s latest ultimatum—threatening to bomb Iranian bridges and power plants every time a commercial ship is targeted in the Strait of Hormuz.
But while the mainstream press obsesses over rhetoric and the rapid collapse of the U.S.-Iran MOU, they are completely missing the physical math playing out on the water right now.
Overnight, the Houthis officially opened a second front, striking two Saudi oil tankers (Encelia and Layla) with missiles and drones in the Red Sea, and announcing a total blockade of Saudi-linked shipping through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.
Here is the data that matters:
Because the Strait of Hormuz is effectively a warzone, Saudi Arabia has been desperately routing nearly 4.9 million barrels of crude and refined fuels a day through its East-West pipeline to the Red Sea port of Yanbu. It was their strategic workaround to bypass Tehran's chokehold.
Now, the Houthis have neutralized that backup plan. We are looking at a maritime "double whammy." Both critical chokepoints—Hormuz and Bab el-Mandeb—are compromised simultaneously. Brent crude instantly spiked back toward $100 a barrel this morning, and the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve is already mathematically drained to a 1983 baseline.
We warned you weeks ago that this "diplomatic breakthrough" was a manufactured geopolitical fiction designed to distract from structural failures. Now the illusion has entirely collapsed.
When you strip away the narrative and look at the actual ledger, Trump really only has two strategic options left on the table.
We don't trade in hopium; we track the physical math. Read the full breakdown of why this was always going to fail—and what happens next:
https://triggledger.substack.com/p/trumps-two-options-in-the-strait?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=8gc1qf