Measles goes viral as world moves on from Trump
The David Pakman Show - January 23, 2026
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Growing concern about Donald Trump’s cognitive decline is being met not with transparency but with frantic spin from his inner circle. Over-the-top praise from figures like Lara Trump, calling visibly rambling and confused performances “brilliant” and “dominant,” signals panic rather than confidence. The exaggeration asks people to ignore what they can plainly see and hear, and that kind of cult-style myth making only amplifies doubts instead of calming them.
Trump’s interaction with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins exposes a deeper problem with his foreign policy rhetoric. Pressed on why he would invite Vladimir Putin to a peace board while also warning that Putin is a territorial threat, Trump never resolves the contradiction. He deflects, rambles, and reframes authoritarian leaders as people who “get things done.”
The accelerating measles outbreak in the United States is another crisis flying under the radar. Cases are surging to levels not seen in decades, putting the country’s measles elimination status at risk. Most infections are among unvaccinated people. This is a self-inflicted public health failure, not a medical mystery, involving a disease we know how to prevent with a safe and effective vaccine.
Polling showing that most Americans believe the country is “out of control” masks a profound divide over what that actually means. For critics, it reflects institutional breakdown and reckless leadership. For supporters, it proves the need for a strongman to impose order. Authoritarian-minded individuals experience disorder as weakness that demands dominance, and that dynamic allows chaos to discredit institutions rather than the leader.
On the world stage, Trump is not being feared into obedience but quietly sidelined. Allies are responding to unpredictability by building alternatives that exclude the United States, from major European trade agreements to Canada openly calling its relationship with China more predictable than ties with Washington under Trump. This is not rebellion but adaptation, and it is steadily eroding American influence.
Finally, even Trump-friendly media occasionally lets the truth slip. A Fox Business guest openly acknowledged that markets would welcome the Supreme Court blocking Trump’s tariff strategy because unpredictability is worse than bad policy. The admission underscores that Trump’s economic approach is not a strategy but impulse-driven chaos, and that stability would come not from doubling down, but from constraining him.
On today’s bonus show:
Sean Hannity says paying Greenlanders $100K each for the territory is a "no-brainer," a Minnesota economic blackout takes place to protest ICE, and much more...
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Trump, a treasonous president, would invite Vladimir Putin because Putin has a lot of control over him. Now Putin's involved in a Ukraine meeting, and we've all seen how those go. Trump's main concern seems to be helping Putin gain what he wants.
There could be an upside to a measles epidemic. More Republicans than humans died of Covid for not getting vaccinated and not wearing masks. And I know the bleeding heart liberals will be saying, what about their children. To that I would say the same thing they would say about the children of humans, “F THEM”! HA!