2 National Guard Members Shot in DC, Trump Mental Stability Concerns Growing, & Today’s News
PDS Published 11/26/2025
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Two members of the National Guard were shot near the White House.
And there is a lot of conflicting reporting, right earlier the Governor of West Verginia said the troops were from the state’s national guard and that they were dead. []
Then he followed it up to say “We are now receiving conflicting reports about the condition of our two Guard members and will provide additional updates once we receive more complete information.” []
So there is a lot of back and forth reporting here.
With local police saying one suspect, who has reportedly been shot as well, is in custody, with the AP saying this individual's injuries appear not to be life threatening. []
Trump calling the shooter an “animal” and saying they will pay a steep price, adding:
“God bless our Great National Guard, and all of our Military and Law Enforcement. These are truly Great People.” []
And with this happening right where it did, the White House was put under a red alert, signifying a potential threat to life, but that has been downgraded to just a high risk alert.[]
And DC police say the scene has been secured. []
But as we wait for more information, the broader context here is that you still have more than 2,000 National Guard troops deployed throughout Washington, D.C.
And it was only last week that a judge actually ruled this deployment illegal, with the order blocking it set to go into effect on December 11th.
And this is already being politicized by people on the right blaming Democrats for speaking out against National Guard deployments in American cities.
Some specifically calling out the lawmakers who made a video telling troops they are allowed to reject illegal orders.
But their accusations come as we really do not know much at all, there is no evidence right now about what this motive was.
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The New York Times called Trump mentally fatigued, so Trump called one of their reporters ugly.
That was the tit for tat started by an article the paper published yesterday titled: “Shorter Days, Signs of Fatigue: Trump Faces Realities of Aging in Office.”
The piece was written by Katie Rogers and Dylan Freedman, and it said that:
“With headline-grabbing posts on social media, combative interactions with reporters and speeches full of partisan red meat, Mr. Trump can project round-the-clock energy, virility and physical stamina.”
But: “The reality is more complicated: Mr. Trump, 79, is the oldest person to be elected to the presidency, and he is aging.”
With the outlet analyzing his schedule, noting that he has fewer public events than he did in his first term.
And he has a shorter public working window, with most appearances only occurring between noon and 5 pm.
It also said that:
“when he is in public, occasionally, his battery shows signs of wear. During an Oval Office event…Trump sat behind his desk for about 20 minutes as executives standing around him talked about weight-loss drugs.”
“At one point, Mr. Trump’s eyelids drooped until his eyes were almost closed, and he appeared to doze on and off for several seconds.”
It also detailed other instances where his age showed, like when he said he got an MRI but didn’t even know what was being analyzed.
It also pointed to more general trends, like his meandering speeches and newfound obsession with the afterlife, as well as just general concerns about his health.
And Trump did not like this article.
So, in order to combat a report laying out concerns about his mental state, he went on a nearly 300-word Truth Social rant insulting the journalists behind it, saying:
“The Creeps at the Failing New York Times are at it again.”[]
He then repeated his talking points claiming he is solving wars and saving the economy, then added:
“To do this requires a lot of Work and Energy, and I have never worked so hard in my life. Yet despite all of this the Radical Left Lunatics in the soon to fold New York Times did a hit piece on me that I am perhaps losing my Energy, despite facts that show the exact opposite. They know this is wrong, as is almost every thing that they write about me.”
“This cheap “RAG” is truly an “ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE.” The writer of the story, Katie Rogers, who is assigned to write only bad things about me, is a third rate reporter who is ugly, both inside and out.”
“There will be a day when I run low on Energy, it happens to everyone, but with a PERFECT PHYSICAL EXAM AND A COMPREHENSIVE COGNITIVE TEST (“That was aced”) JUST RECENTLY TAKEN, it certainly is not now!”
And this rant took off, with tons of people specifically outraged he called the reporter ugly.
Noting it comes not long after he already called a female reporter a “piggy” just for asking a question about Epstein.
So you have tons of people defending Katie Rogers, including the New York Times itself, with a spokesperson releasing a statement saying:[]
“The Times’s reporting is accurate and built on first-hand reporting of the facts. Name-calling and personal insults don’t change that, nor will our journalists hesitate to cover this administration in the face of intimidation tactics like this.”
But this comes as Trump’s mental state has been a major talking point everywhere, right.
After Trump accused a group of lawmakers of sedition and said they could be subject to the death penalty, you had people like AOC saying:
“The president’s remarks, I think, indicate a level of instability. It's not just shocking, it’s not just offensive, it’s bizarre, it is erratic, it’s volatile. I think it indicates a mental state that we should all be questioning right now, whether that is emotional, mental, what have you.” (0:03-0:26)
Then earlier this month, you had Trump’s niece, Mary Trump, who is a clinical psychologist, comparing Trump to his father, who had Alzheimer's:
“There are times I look at him and I see my grandfather. I see that same look of confusion. I see that he does not always seem to be oriented to time and place. His short-term memory seems to be deteriorating.” (17:15-17:32)
And while obviously she is not actually diagnosing him with anything, nor has a doctor officially diagnosed him with this kind of decline, she is far from the first person to speculate.
One of Gavin Newsom’s primary attacks on Trump is his mental fitness, he has recently suggested Trump has dementia, and previously said:[]
“he's incapable of even a train of thought.”
It’s a conversation that has even left political circles.
Right, it came up recently on Shane Gillis’s podcast:
“Do you think he’s getting dementia?...I mean, I don’t think, he seems, he just seems a little slower than usual.” (22:30-22:38)
“He’s definitely not at Biden Brians yet, but he is circling the drain. Quiet piggy was fucking crazy.” (22:50-22:58)
General polling also shows growing concerns about Trump’s age, with 49% of Americans thinking he is too old to be president, which is up from 43% when he first took office. []
So I would love to know your thoughts on this one, on reports about his mental state, on how he responded to this most recent one, anything at all.
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A Campbell’s exec went on a completely unhinged tirade about poor people, 3D-printed meat, and Indian employees — and the guy who recorded it says he was fired for reporting it.
Right, the employee in question is a man named Robert Garza who had worked as a cybersecurity analyst for the company.
And Garza says that the recording was from a meeting he had at a restaurant last November with Martin Bally (Baah-Lee - Baah like a sheep), a vice president and chief information security officer at Campbell’s.
And specifically, Garza claims that he was expecting to discuss his salary in his meeting with Baah-Lee, but instead, the executive launched into a lengthy rant that Garza secretly recorded.
And in the hour-long recording — which Garza’s lawyer sent to numerous outlets — the speaker whom Garza says is Baah-Lee can be heard making a number of problematic comments about Campbell’s products and customers:
“If you look at our [expletive] pantry, we still have — we have [expletive] for [expletive] poor people. Right? We have [expletive] that’s for poor people. Who buys our [expletive]?” 00:11 - 00:20
“I don't buy Campbell's products, barely anymore, it's unhealthy, now that I know what the [expletive] in it. Even in a can of soup, I look at it and look at [inaudible] bioengineered meat. I don't want to eat a [expletive] piece of chicken that came from a 3D printer, you?” 00:43 - 00:58
Beyond that, another standout from the lengthy rant was these comments about Indian employees:
“[Expletive] Indians, they don’t know an [expletive] thing. They couldn’t think for them [expletive] selves… these dumb [expletive].” 2:25 - 2:30
And those are just two of the most controversial moments from the recording, which were also outlined in the lawsuit.
With the court filings also alleging that Baah-Lee said that he often came to work high on weed edibles.
But the meat — pun intended — of Garza’s lawsuit centers around what happened AFTER those alleged comments.
Right, Garza claims that he brought his concerns about Baah-Lee to his manager — who is also a defendant in the suit — but the higher-up didn’t encourage him to report the incident to HR or tell him how he should proceed.
And then, two weeks later, Garza was “abruptly terminated,” according to his complaint, which alleges that he was fired in retaliation for reporting the matter to his boss and accuses the company of fostering a racially hostile environment.
With Garza’s lawyer telling reporters that his client’s termination was especially shocking because Baah-Lee had praised his work during the meeting, and claiming that he had never faced any disciplinary action or write-ups for work performance.
Now, as far as how Campbell’s has responded, the company has issued a series of statements, saying in one it “has not been able to verify the validity of the recording and has not been provided with a copy either.”[]
But also saying in a separate press release that if the comments were indeed made by Baah-Lee, “they are unacceptable,” adding:
“Such language does not reflect our values and the culture of our company. We do not tolerate that kind of language under any circumstances.”
And noting that Baah-Lee has temporarily been placed on leave while they investigate the matter.
Beyond that, Campbell’s has also fervently denied the claims made in the recording about the meat it uses, calling the remarks “inaccurate” and “patently absurd.”[]
Claiming that they use “100% real chicken” meat that comes from “long-trusted, USDA-approved U.S. suppliers” and meets “high quality standards,” asserting that “any claims to the contrary are completely false.”
And adding that: “The person alleged to be speaking on the recording works in IT and has nothing to do with how we make our food.”[]
And as for Garza’s firing, Campbell’s said that it can’t comment on personal matters, but claimed that he “was terminated for good reason.”[]
So we’ll have to see how this lawsuit plays out, but it’s also not the only challenge the company is now facing.
Right, after news of the lawsuit broke, Florida’s attorney general announced that the state’s Consumer Protection division would be launching an investigation into Campbell's, noting that the state bans lab-grown meat.
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ICE wants to offer an almost unlimited amount of money to contractors to track down undocumented people so that agents can just swoop in to arrest them.
This plan is actually a revision of a version that had a much more limited scope.
Right, the previous version had a total cap of $180 million the agency could pay out to these de-facto bounty hunters.
That’s $180 million TOTAL. So certainly a sizable amount of money and a massive program, but nothing compared to the new plan.
Instead, ICE wants to set a $280 million cap per contractor, which heavily expands the scope of the proposal.
In general the firms behind this will be private surveillance companies who will rely on data given to them from ICE.
Initially, they were to be given access to federal databases that have mountains of information on 2.5 million allegedly illegal aliens.[]
But there were serious concerns about giving private companies that much access, so instead ICE is going to package up that info and hand companies little dossiers on targets.
ICE also wants to give these private surveillance companies a big incentive to actually take on the work and is offering minimum contracts of $7.5 million.
All this suggests that ICE doesn’t want this to be an experiment, but the start of a new expansive surveillance system that should be taken seriously.
This is also just one of a few ideas ICE has to bring in private companies to help with its mission.
Over in Texas they’re experimenting with private, armed companies to transport detainees 24/7.
It’s also looking for companies that can staff a program to monitor social media sites like X, TikTok -- you name it -- 24/7.
And finally ICE is trying to get a vendor to take over a call center that reportedly gets 7,000 calls and tips a day.
All in all ICE is taking its mandate from Trump to hit a million deportations a year extremely seriously.
So much so that they’re not just focusing on criminal deportations -- which is something past administrations have done.
Instead they’re just going after anyone here illegally, with non-criminal deportations skyrocketing a shocking 2000% and are now the biggest category of people ICE detains.[]
In total, DHS claimed back in October more than 500,000 people were deported.
So if you think it’s bad now, imagine what the enforcement for double that looks like.
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National Parks’ new “America-first” pricing means foreign tourists will have to pay many times the price of US residents to visit some of the country’s most popular destinations.
Right, currently, all visitors to around one-hundred national parks – no matter their nationality – pay fees ranging from ten dollars per person to thirty-five dollars per vehicle.[]
But starting January 1st they’ll have to pay one-hundred dollars per person to enter 11 of the most visited national parks.
And the annual pass? That’ll go up from eighty dollars to two-hundred-fifty for people from other countries. []
With Interior Secretary Doug Burgum saying:
“President Trump’s leadership always puts American families first.”
And with that, I will say, it’s certainly not unheard of for a country to charge higher entry fees to foreigners for its top tourist attractions.
And you have some saying this new plan could bring hundreds of millions of dollars for repairing crumbling roads and buildings at parks across the country.
But you have others arguing that people on a tight budget will reconsider their trip altogether.
Potentially exacerbating what is already a decline in foreign tourism at least partly driven by the administration’s other policies, including on tariffs and immigration.
There’s also the question of how this is actually going to be implemented.
With one former NPS official arguing:
“This whole business of determining who’s a citizen at park entrance gates opens up a whole can of worms that isn’t fair for rangers.” []
And beyond that, you have some doubting how serious this administration is about improving the national park experience given how things have gone so far.
Right, the agency has been operating without a permanent head during Trump's second term.
And it’s also lost nearly a quarter of its work force since he took office.
And all of that has reportedly led to routine tasks like cleaning and stocking the bathrooms going undone.
While you also have fewer park rangers giving tours and lectures, and some visitor centers have had to cut their hours. []
But that’s where we’re at right now, if you live in the US, or especially if you don’t and you’ve thought about visiting, I’d love to hear your thoughts.
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Indiana could be the next state to redraw its Congressional maps to favor Republicans after a top GOP leader did a complete 180 and caved to Trump’s demands.
Right, as we talked about before, late last month, Indiana’s Republican governor, Mike Braun, announced that he was kicking off a special session in December to redraw the state map after continuous pressure from Trump.
With it being unclear whether the GOP would try to gain one or both of the two Congressional seats in the state that still remain blue.
But, a few weeks later, President Pro Tem of the Indiana Senate Rodric Bray rejected the push, saying there weren’t enough votes for it to pass, and, as a result, he wouldn’t be convening the upper chamber to work on the matter.
And just a few days after that, a majority of state senators appeared to back that decision, voting to reconvene in January and effectively shutting down the possibility of the December redistricting session.
But now, less than two weeks later, Bray has reversed course entirely, saying yesterday that the Senate would meet on December 8th “and make a final decision that week on any redistricting proposal sent from the House,” adding:
“The issue of redrawing Indiana’s congressional maps midcycle has received a lot of attention and is causing strife here in our state.”
Now, notably here, that announcement comes right after Trump dramatically increased the pressure on Indiana Republicans, making multiple posts on Truth Social slamming GOP leaders.
Calling Bray a “RINO,” saying that he was “WEAK and PATHETIC,” and threatening back primary challenges to any Republican who didn’t obey his orders.[][]
With Trump also implying that Braun wasn’t doing enough to get the votes, while claiming that he himself was the only reason the governor won his election. []
Now Braun, for his part, responded by echoing Trump’s calls, demanding that lawmakers get in line with Big Daddy and threatening that he, too, would back primary challengers for those who didn’t.
And this even as the governor said that numerous Republican lawmakers — including himself — had been the target of swatting attempts, bomb threats, intimidation tactics, and other threats of violence over the heavily politicized gerrymandering battle.
But apparently strong-arming, bullying, and inciting political violence are effective tools in whatever hellscape iteration of America this is…
Now, notably here, Bray’s reversal doesn’t necessarily mean that he now magically has votes to pass new Congressional maps — it just means that the Senate is going to at least try.
And as for the State House, the Republican Speaker — who has previously supported redistricting — also announced yesterday that his chamber will meet this coming Monday.
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Trump is going to get away with it again!
Prosecutors in Georgia unexpectedly and abruptly dropped their election interference case against the President.
This marks a sudden end to what was an already tumultuous legal battle.
It was the last case against Trump stemming from the 2020 election and also saw some drama after Fani Willis was pulled from the case because she had a former romantic relationship with the special prosecutor on the case.
All of which led to an “appearance of impropriety,” which was enough.
That’s when Pete Skandalakis (Scanda-lack-is), who is the director of the nonpartisan agency Prosecuting Attorney’s Council of Georgia, appointed himself to run the case.
In a statement he said:
"As a former elected official who ran as both a Democrat and a Republican and now is the Executive Director of a non-partisan agency, this decision is not guided by a desire to advance an agenda but is based on my beliefs and understanding of the law.”
President Trump’s attorney on the case praised the move, saying:
"The political persecution of President Trump by disqualified DA Fani Willis is finally over.”
"This case should never have been brought."
But claiming that it shouldn’t have been brought might be going too far.
The prosecution did manage to secure some convictions against four out of the 18 co-conspirators who pleaded guilty.
And even legal experts are a bit shocked that Scanda-lack-is’ reasoning for dropping the case seemed to give a lot of leeway to the President and take his version of events at face value, despite at least some evidence to the contrary.
You know, things like urging Raffensberger to “find more votes.”
Even with that thought they’re not surprised the massive racketeering case was dropped.
It’s already a hard charge to prove, and it was made even harder after the judge tossed out several charges last year.
There was also the practicality of it, with one professor at Georgia State College of Law pointing out that Scanda-lack-is probably just didn’t have the budget and man hours to actually go through with the case.
(Phil, you’re in Georgia. What’s the sentiment like there surrounding this case? That it was needed, a shit show, undeserved, or a combination of those?)
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But then as we wind down today's show, let's end on a very, very different note,
Because this morning in this divorce dad looking ass rumor,
I shot, another episode of my podcast with Alex Pearlman crashing out,
And we crashed out on a number of things.
And you can watch the full thing with, the link down below, at least for the Philip DeFranco show.
I wanted to share, one of the weirdest and maybe important but also ridiculous segments.
And it has to do with everyone's favorite HHS secretary.
Ryan has released behind a paywall, behind a paywall on his Substack, a part two and part one.
He, detailed about how Olivia Nutsy, had an affair with Mark Sanford,
Who was then another presidential contender in 2020.
And then, in part two, he began to talk about her affair with RFK Jr, including, the fact that he found a note.
And on this note, there was a poem.
According to Olivia, he writes, through this time from the candidate to her.
And this is what the candidate wrote to her.
I will do as best I can an impersonation to anyone who is in their car listening to us on Bluetooth, with family while driving to Thanksgiving.
My apologies.
Your mouth.
Your open mouth awaiting my harvest.
Drink from me, love.
I mean to squeeze your cheeks to force open your mouth.
I'll hold your nose as you look up to me.
To encourage you to swallow. Don't.
Don't spill a drop. I am a river.
You are my canyon I mean to flow through you.
I mean subdue and tame you, my love.
He then said, Ryan, listen, I wrote thanks to Bobby.
I am now aware of something called belching.
Have fun.
Yeah.
Anyway, it doesn't pay as well anymore.
Hey, is that poem coming from someone else beautiful?
It was.
I mean, you're that I'm stuck on the line.
I'm. I am a river. You are my canyon.
I will say like that.
It's a good bit's your open mouth.
Awaiting my harvest is one of the fucking most.
Wild lines I ever heard. Fall for me.
He ruined fall.
Then, my friends, it brings us to the end of this video.
But you got more. Just a click away.
You can and definitely should check out the the full new Crashing Out episode.
I've got you covered here in the links below and or
if you missed it, you got last night's Philip DeFranco show right here.
But hey, no matter what you do, let me just say thank you for watching.
I love your faces.
And I'll see you right back here on Monday because I'm going to be off
for Thanksgiving.
So I also hope you have a fantastic Thanksgiving and a fantastic weekend.
