How Trump's Rock-Bottom Will Only Get Worse: Wolff | Inside Trump's Head

He is at the nadir of his presidency. Everything is going wrong. His numbers are terrible. All of his key policies have come back to bite him in the ass. From tariffs to the cruelty of his immigration policies to the war, there is nothing going right for him

at this point. The movement against Trump is so strong, so large, and growing so quickly that it doesn't matter what he does. He is going to be overwhelmed.

Michael.

Joanna.

This is our hundredth episode. We've survived the winter and now it's spring. And now it's spring. We could thank everybody for helping us get to 100.

But you're not going to.

No, no, I'm thrilled that we're at 100 episodes.

I'm just conscious.

The implication there seems to be, we could thank you, but we're not going to.

No, no, I'm just concerned because the world is on fire this morning. We've got the Pope, we've got Pete Hegseth, we've got RFK facing a hearing.

Every episode that we start with, you say the world is on fire.

Because it is.

It is on fire.

Keeps burning.

Keeps burning. So enormous gratitude to everybody who has supported us along the way.

Feel free to continue to support us.

Please hit the subscription button as we go along. We're hoping to get to 700,000 subscriptions very quickly.

And, you know, I hit the subscription button the other day. But what do I get for that? What does it do?

Do I get any extra videos of yourself?

No, but it does. I don't get notice, a notice that when the episodes are up, what does it do?

Well, I didn't know you didn't get a notice. Sorry about that.

Well, anyway, just, see you haven't hit the button that probably means.

No, no, I have hit the button. I am a subscriber and I'm, do you know the most fun thing about this whole journey has been when the episodes go live and you go in and watch the conversations and join in the conversations

and reading people's comments? Because I hope what we're doing is connecting with people who feel as concerned

about what's going on as we do? No, it's an, I mean, we do this because this is what we do. We're journalists and it's kind of fascinating to be talking about this on an extremely regular basis. But then the other thing is, and which I'm not sure we really appreciate or register that the effect this does have on people, this could have, that there is, I hesitate to say a movement because that seems too...

Grandiose.

But something is happening out there. There is, I mean, and it has taken kind of a long time to kind of materialize a people looking for the way to say this is abnormal.

Do you know, I found myself at the weekend, I went into the Strand bookstore, which is one of the glorious places in New York. I'm waiting for you to say, I hate the Strand,

I don't like that bookstore.

Whatever, which is what you normally do when I enthuse about something. But the Strand Bookstore, and I found myself in the basement where they have political science and history loading up on books,

because I thought I have to understand what's going on better. And you know, I did history at ages ago. One might have said before we began this project,

you might have.

Well, I should have done, of course, of course. And I have a modicum.

You have boned up on our subject, but that's okay.

Well, I'm boning up even more deeply because what I know is not enough. And you know, I can't remember a lot of it, but I've gone down a deep Timothy Snyder spiral at the moment. That's where I am with his book on tyranny.

And it's really alarming what's going on. It is alarming. And that's why we're doing this podcast. And also because we want to look at it in a different way, which is through the eyes of-

Also, we don't really feel that anybody is. I mean, it has been so confusing for everyone, across the board, everyone, to find a way to talk about Donald Trump, because the President of the United States inexplicably, and we begin there, nobody can yet explain this. And yet he has become the President of the United States so that we believe, most people believe, people talking about him believe that he has to be treated as the President of the United States. even though he treats the presidency in some extraordinary, abnormal,

conflicted, confused, fantastical way.

Well, and it's a government of one and it's increasingly becoming a world of one, it feels like, that his decisions, he makes unilaterally, solo voyage into war, no explanation to the American people,

and it's having an impact everywhere. And on top of that, he is a person who we can't even get a grip on his intentions, his intelligence, his own motivations, or his goals.

Right. So it's all alarming, five alarm bell fire, which is why we're not going to talk anymore about the 100th anniversary. Well, we might do a little bit at the end, but simply to say thank you, really thank you for all your comments.

And what I love is the conversations that go on in the comments with people. And some of the top comments get hundreds and hundreds of likes and comments and mini threads because people are so concerned about what's happening.

No, it's just worth also saying that the age of cable television has passed and I was not entirely aware of this. I mean, the rumors of its demise, etc.

I think you wrote a book about it saying that it was happening.

But it has happened. And this is, I mean, this is a first-hand experience with it. Our audiences are bigger than CNN audiences. They're bigger than MS or whatever it's called now. Audiences, I think Fox's are still somewhat bigger than we are.

Yeah, Fox's are bigger. But on we are. Yeah Fox's are bigger but on Saturday our podcast on Saturday got 2 million views. No no it's it's no it happened cable disappeared. All right so enough talking about ourselves and let's talk about Hegers. Hegers Hegers what were you thinking when you introduced the prayer that you said was from Ezekiel? This morning, we're recording this on Thursday morning,

this morning Hegers came on at eight o'clock, which I would think is quite early for Hegers actually, to tell the press that they were terrible, that they were unpatriotic, and that they weren't supporting the American war ethic, and he was sick of them. He was sick of them and he was standing there

with his little handkerchief, which looked even more preposterous, his stars and stripes American doll handkerchief or pocket chief or pocket square as you call them, next to Dan Cain and the unfortunately named Bradley Cooper, head of CENTCOM.

If I were him, I would have made a joke about his name but not to worry. Actually, he looks better than Bradley Cooper. Now, Bradley's had all that filler put in, which is unfortunate, but they had all their medals on and Pete had his little pocket chief

and he just harangued the press and said we didn't understand what he was doing.

You know what, this always happens. I mean, it always comes in the succession of wars to the press doesn't get it. And what that is, and we're seeing this now very, very clearly, is this incredible discrepancy between what they are saying and what everybody knows is happening or what everybody certainly has reason to suspect is happening. Now, the further dimension of this is, of course, that nobody knows what's happening.

And that it has-

It's so bad.

And then it has its own life, which we don't really understand until months or years later that this is a complete catastrophe.

Right, and Hexer seems like a parent who's yelling at his children for not being grateful that he is their parent. I mean, it's like, what do you expect, dude? What do you expect? You didn't explain why you're going to war.

And then my favorite thing is that at a prayer breakfast at the Pentagon on Wednesday, he started quoting a prayer, which he said was from the book of Ezekiel. And of course, it's actually from Pulp Fiction, the movie, the Quentin Tarantino movie, which you which of course makes sense that you realize that Pete Hegseth just has pulp fiction on a loop and this is what he pumps himself up to every morning.

So he thought the prayer was a real prayer. This is the man who claims to be a Christian nationalist, quoting his preacher at today's press conference. In fact it was a pastiche of a prayer from pulp fiction. Well, of course, all of these guys from Donald Trump

on down have just transformed themselves. We can't say converted, because they haven't converted. They've just transformed into Christian nationalists when, obviously, Pete Hakeseth the formerly not only a television person

but a drunk and now he's become a Christian. Well maybe Christianity's helped pull him out of his alcoholic slump where he was frequently carried out of work events because he

couldn't stand up. Yeah and I continue to, I mean this is, he has put this out that he is no longer, he no longer drinks.

What didn't he say to Joni Ernst when she was pretending that she was actually nervous about him becoming the Secretary of Defense slash war, that she needed to know that he was going to stop drinking? Yes, I'm going to stop drinking today. Yeah. It's always, it's always today. I'm going to stop eating sugar today. But so he's out there this morning.

Now we can assume that he's out there on the direction of the White House, of the President of the United States. And that's interesting, because I would have said yesterday that we were in a new phase of the war.

And the new phase was the spin phase and the denial phase. We've won the war, it's just clean up, there's nothing more to do. We got it under control. We're going to get what we want. And it doesn't matter what the reality is. It's just that's our line, that's our spin, because we're stuck in this situation. So we're just gonna say we've won mission accomplished But then then Heggers is out this morning falling back on the old script We're gonna bomb you into the Stone Age and the end of civilization

oblivion and Obliteration. So again, it's that it's that thing that there is no message here. There's not even a plan about what the message should be.

Well, his speech was also really bad. I wondered who'd written it because there were several repetitions actually in it. But also he appeared to be mansplaining Iran to Iran, which was also very confusing. I mean, he's just a terrible deliverer of messages. He's, I mean, next to the two people who are actually running the

military operations. Well, he looks like a weekend television host. So we are at a new stage in this war. And the stage we are at is not that the war is over. The stage that we are at is that the war actually may be on the verge of becoming even more precarious. So the reality is we can't get out of there. We're stuck.

So now we are blockading the Strait of Hormuz for how long? Indefinitely. And will we be able to do that? Or have we set up just a force of who can stand it longer? Because we can't, I mean, to close this down,

to effectively say we're going to accept oil at north of $100 a barrel. Indefinitely? When? Remember, this is the war that was supposed to take five weeks. What are we in? Week seven now, and with no end in sight.

And at least a dollar a gallon increase for everybody, which they're very conscious of as you stand at the gas station and watch the, you know, those little numbers that go up that give you your tally. It's the one thing that you're watching the price of, and also that men pay for because

men get out and take care of the gas normally. But as Hegseth said, he urged you are…

We have an electric car. It just goes away. That feature of life suddenly disappears.

Do you charge it at home?

It's kind of bizarre, yeah.

Okay, I had an electric car and I used to come to East Hampton and charge it on the fast charger and then I would busy around East Hampton shopping and come back to it. Then I got rid of it because Elon Musk, it was an Elon Musk car and I couldn't stand

it.

No, no, we have a little thing right in there, you just plug it in and no more gasoline stations.

It's magic. It's just magic. All right, so Hegseth has repeatedly urged Iran to choose wisely. That's what he said, choose wisely. I mean, I wonder if the Iranians are watching his press

conference.

No, well, I think they're watching and snickering.

I hope.

I mean, because it's like, it's like, hey, maybe, you know, if the shoe fits, you ought to choose wisely.

Yeah, they proved to be an adversary that we weren't expecting.

No, well, that's the that's this is this other thing. Everybody, that's just the new the new norm of war. Everybody is an adversary that, an unexpected adversary. I mean, the Russians go into Ukraine and what happens? They're still there, are we on year four?

Yeah, we are.

February they went.

And nobody can move. Everybody is pinned down. And they're pinned down because the war has absolutely changed and no one told Donald Trump or Pete Hegseth or apparently the American military.

Yeah, okay, so it's a David and Goliath struggle. We'll carry on watching it, obviously, because we have no choice.

I mean, so it's literally, I mean, it's confounding. So it costs us, you know, you know, essentially millions of dollars to shoot down a $10,000 drone. Right. And the whole thing is costing us billions of dollars after Trump got elected saying The other public airing of the Trump minions was RFK Jr. on Capitol Hill this morning. Oh, I'm sorry, that's terrible. I shouldn't mock this and I realized that when you see him now, and this is a major problem for the Trumpers, is what you see is not a Kennedy, what you see is an anti-vaxxer.

So he has become so successful in adopting this brand that he is now the representative of one of the least popular points of view in the country.

I just did an interview with Isabel Vincent, who's written a biography of Kennedy. She got hold of his diaries, and it's called RFK Jr. The Fall and Rise. And I've never had so many comments that were just furious about RFK Jr.

and his place now in public life, and particularly and obviously his anti-science beliefs, his anti-vax beliefs. And I caught some of the hearing as we were coming in. And it's projected that there will be 6,000 cases of measles this year because of what he's done

and because of the skepticism he's sown around the MMR vaccine and his determination to link it, despite any evidence, to autism. And when he was asked about this, he said, well, it's worse in Mexico. It's worse in Mexico.

All around the world, there are outbreaks of measles, which is not true in companies that have vaccination.

Well, he's famously famous in this properly in the Trump administration for his willingness to say anything.

So he just makes stuff up?

Anything at any time. Strangely, unlike Donald Trump who says this thing and you think, okay, well that's not true. RFK Jr., I always want to point out, still junior at the age of 72, does sound authoritative. And you think, oh.

You think he sounds authoritative? I don't think so at all. I think he sounds like, as you're always saying, he has a crack back voice.

Well, he does that. But he is, he has, his whole persona is to, is to present himself like a serious policy wonk. And as it happens, he is not serious. And as it happens, he just makes all this stuff up. So it's a policy wonk, it's actually fascinating.

It's a policy wonk who says things that have no basis in policy.

Did you know that JFK Jr. left him a quarter of a million dollars in his will? They were very close.

No, I'm sure that they were. They were, you know, very close in age. They were both the... Well, they were cousins. Yes. Right? Yeah. I mean, yeah. I mean, the whole family was very close.

So yeah. Well, not according to this new book that's come out. And he had no money.

So Jackie Kennedy tried to keep her kids away from Ethel Kennedy's kids, and so did the Shrivers, because they understood that the Skakel line was more rambunctious, more risk-taking. And of course, RFK Jr. has two brothers who died. Michael, who skis into a tree during a game of football, after he split with his wife, because it turns out he's been having an affair with a babysitter

from her age of 14. And David, his younger brother, who died of a drug overdose.

Right. And of course, RFK Jr. has been, you know, a famous drug addict from when he was in high school.

Great. And has abused all sorts of women and opportunities. And what's fascinating about the book, and we talk about this on the interview on the Daily Beast podcast, for people who are interested, is his constant disappointment with himself, which is recorded in the diaries. And that's what makes the book interesting, that you have the author's narration of what's happening to him, and then you have these quite devastating diary entries

where he's feeling guilty, depressed, he's praying, he's trying to get back on the right track and then falls off the right track. It's basically the diary of an addict constantly falling off the wagon. And his addictions vary throughout the book. Well that's what

makes it interesting. And we should come back to which is the the central point which we should not lose sight of is that the man is running for the president for the presidency. Right well that what that was the thing when the

author mentioned that that triggered everybody online who was watching to just be like, oh my God, absolutely not.

And it's what we have said.

All along.

We've been saying for the better part of 100 episodes that this is among the people looking to, who see themselves in the model of Donald Trump is RFK Jr.

Well, I think next week we should talk about the people that think they're going to succeed Donald Trump and we should include him in that group and do a deeper dive into him because he undoubtedly thinks of it as his destiny. And that's what people said to him ever,

ever since his father died.

Well, actually, it's a strange thing because he has avoided that destiny for a very long time. Again, he's 72 years old. And he has not really emerged as a political presence until two years ago when he was 70. So this is a notable reinvention at a grand old age.

Well, there's nothing wrong with reinvention at a grand old age. I'm all for that. I'm all for that.

But, you know, I mean, he couldn't, you know, and it's interesting, and I'd be interested if in this, if in this book it gets to that, what caused this moment? You know, having spent his entire adult life, 50 years of avoiding his destiny, avoiding these expectations.

I don't think he thought he was avoiding them. I think he thought he was just failing at finding the right opportunity. I think money drove him towards it.

Now, and I don't know, again, if this is in this book, but it is a pivotal moment that I know of when Steve Bannon and Roger Stone came to him and said, you should run for president. So this was a MAGA setup.

It was a MAGA setup. Why?

They thought that he would run for president in for the Democratic nomination. He would undermine Joe Biden, show Joe Biden's weakness. As a Kennedy, he would invariably get significant numbers that would be large enough to say, for the Republicans to say,

even the Democrats don't want Joe Biden. Now, the problem was that he liked this so much that then he turned around and said, I'm gonna run as an, I wanna keep running. I'm gonna run as an I want to keep running. I'm going to run as an independent and then started to draw Republican voters to.

I which is when Trump then cajoled him to come on board.

And this is this is the first time this year that he was testifying before before Congress. And he seemed to be kind of trying to back away from Mr. Anti-vax. But I'm not sure he can. I mean, I think that he has so vividly claimed that space because he seems truly, frankly, to be anti-vax. I mean, he would, given the opportunity,

he'd take your children's vaccinations away. And I think people know that and they see that, and I think that is sticking to the Republican Party in a way that they did not foresee and will be an issue in November, which is why I think actually they're gonna get rid of him

sooner rather than later.

And of course his own children were vaccinated. And when people were questioning him at the hearings today, he was just saying, no, that's misinformation, that's misinformation.

You can do the voice if you'd like.

No, that's misinformation, that's misinformation. That's misinformation. That's not right. You can do the voice if you'd like. No, that's misinformation. That's misinformation. I'm not mocking him for the fact that he's actually got an illness. I'm mocking him because he's a fool.

Yeah, and he doesn't, let me repeat this. He doesn't have an illness. The illness is that he smoked a lot of crack.

He shouldn't be in the job that he is in.

Well, but he should be because he fits in perfectly with this cast of boobs and...

I would say, Mr. President, this is the finest cabinet I've ever seen. All right, what if it turns out that Pope Leo loves publicity as much as Donald Trump? He's gone off on his African tour.

Yeah, let's not even go there yet because right now he's not a publicity seeker. We've spent, he's been the Pope for over a year, a year, and been quiescent. I mean, he's been obviously tending to Vatican politics, has not spoken out.

So now we see at this moment, he is, and it's defined by a certain degree of urgency. The war is, the United States is not only waging a vicious war threatening the end of this particular civilization, if not all civilization, but also doing it in the name of Jesus Christ.

So right at this moment, he's chosen to take issue, formal issue with that, which would seem to be something the Pope would take issue of. And he's not backing down. And of course, that has, he's engaged the President of the United States and other member, and the the President of the United States

and other members, and the Vice President of the United States in trying to, he's forcing them to justify themselves. And in Trump fashion, of course, he has now made the Pope, the first American Pope, his direct enemy, which can't seem to be the smartest move in the whole world.

Well, having first said that he made the Pope and that the Pope wouldn't have his job if it wasn't because of Donald Trump.

It's just amazing. One of Trump's enemies along the way, and there have been so many, was Jeff Zucker who ran CNN. And he would, this is, Trump would call me up, this is multiple times, to specifically say that Jeff Zucker was a sleazeball, etc. But Jeff Zucker only had his job because of Donald Trump. And then he would go through some long convoluted thing because at a dinner he had sat next to somebody and…

Well, didn't he, he was in charge at NBC when they did The Apprentice, wasn't he?

Yes, yes, yes. And he, I mean, Jeff Zucker was, yes, Jeff Zucker bought The Apprentice. Actually Jeff Zucker is probably responsible for this situation that we're in right now. But at any rate, at CNN he clearly turned against Donald Trump and then Donald Trump turned against Jeff Zucker and then would go through this thing. I sat next to so and so at a dinner and I told him that they should get Jeff Zucker to run CNN and that's get Jeff Zucker to run CNN

and that's why Jeff Zucker got that job. So this is similarly, the Pope is the Pope because Donald Trump sat next to, I don't know, God.

Of course he sat next, well he is God actually, he is God, he's been dressing up as God and obviously putting out AI memes this week. J.D. Vance has also been lecturing the Catholic Church on what they're doing wrong. I've got some quotes from him here. He says that the Pope was wrong to say that the disciples of Christ are never on the side of those who once wielded the sword and today drop bombs.

And then he says, was God on the side of the Americans who liberated France from the Nazis, Mr. Vance said, after referring to the Pope's comment. I certainly think the

answer is yes. No, I mean, J.D. Vance now is he is obviously this is not so much directed against the Pope and J.D. Vance has a new book coming out on his conversion to Catholicism. But this is at the behest of his boss. So he's caught between the two bosses.

He's caught between God and God, God and the representative of God.

And and I'm and I'm sure Trump called him up and said, you're a Catholic. You know, that Catholic thing that you got. I need you. I need you to go lecture the other, the real Catholic. You're the a Catholic. You know that Catholic thing that you got? I need you. I need you to go lecture the other, the real Catholic. You're the fake Catholic. This is the real Catholic. But let's make this work for it. Well, Pope Leo responded, woe to those who manipulate religion. This is his response just this morning. Yeah, this is his response this morning he's on tour of African countries he's on a tour of Africa. Woe to those who manipulate

religion and the very name of God for their own military economic and political gain dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth. Filth. Could be that the Pope saves us all. Filth. Stormy Daniels. Is that a Stormy Daniels reference you think? I don't know. Is it a Stormy Daniels reference? I mean can Trump get out of this mess? Well, I think let's look at it in a broader sense. This mess is he is at the nadir of his presidency. Everything is going wrong.

His numbers are terrible. All of his key policies have come back to bite him in the ass. From tariffs to immigration, to the cruelty of his immigration policies, to the war, there is nothing going right for him at this point. He's looking at midterms in which he will be, which he is, I think everyone believes they will be devastating.

The only question is how devastating. And so what is he gonna do? What is he gonna do? How is he gonna get out of this? I mean, there's only two ways to get out of this, which is the Trump way to double down, or the other way

which is to recast your policies and trying to find some better ground, some middle ground, which he has never done before.

Do you think it's actually possible he could stop the midterm elections? I know he's he's been sowing doubt.

No, I don't. I don't think I'm not one of those those those people. That's not how life does not. In life does work occasionally that that way, but usually when you anticipate it working that way, it pretty safely does not. What he will try to do is interfere with the elections

and sow doubt about the elections and game the system to his benefit. As Viktor Orban, his brother in Hungary, tried to do unsuccessfully. And I think what we are, the position that we're in is that the movement against Trump is so strong, so large, and growing so quickly that it doesn't matter what he does. He is going to be overwhelmed.

I hope you're right. I hope people turn up at the polls.

I hope I'm right too.

Well, you said it with great confidence.

I mean, even Prime Minister Maloney in… Well, you have the whole world at this point, which is another kind of red flag for Donald Trump. The world, which has really spent the past year and a half trying to placate him and manage him and flatter him and just hope against hope he isn't going to do the worst possible thing, has now, is now really on a kind of systematic basis turning against him.

And Hungarians are obviously turning against him. But the Italians, you know, the Italian prime minister who has been a right wing, you know, the Italian Prime Minister, who has been a right wing, you know, a formal, again, brother in right wing arms, has also now turned against him. The Canadians, of course, they're separating their landmass from ours. But Maloney is particularly interesting

because when she came over in October, Trump put his arm around her and said, you're really beautiful, do you mind if I call you beautiful? You're so beautiful. And now she's, I mean, she's got facing elections next year and is clearly feeling anxious.

You know that picture? She's relatively diminutive and he's that hulking, I mean.

I know, he looks like he's going to crush her at any minute. But she's now dropped him and says she doesn't want war, won't support him because she's got elections at home and the war is incredibly unpopular in Italy. Yeah, no, the Hungarians, the Italians, the Canadians, the French, Macron is like… The Spanish, even the British. Yeah, I haven't quite seen the British really. Well, the British didn't allow him use of the air bases at the beginning of the war. Well, now they're

offering to help him with the Strait of Hormuz. Yeah, and that's squeamish British way. Squeamish? You know, it's like. You know, doing it, but not doing it. Come on, come on.

Passive aggressive. Yeah. Sort of passive aggressive way. Well, whatever he he's you say is a nadir. I think he could go lower.

Well, let's think he could go lower. I mean, we're at the nadir now, but does this go, I mean, it goes in one of two directions.

All right, so what he is gonna do is try and build himself an arch. And his arch is getting bigger and bigger. And it was going to be a little bigger than the Arc de Triomphe, and now it's gonna be a lot bigger than the Arc de Triomphe,

which is going to block the view from the Lincoln Memorial to Arlington Cemetery. And it's going to be, I think, at least a third larger than the Arc de Triomphe. In fact, I think we might have a picture of what it's supposed to look like. And it started modest.

No, no, I mean, it's No, no, this is extraordinary. Actually my wife has been now after me to go to take the kids to do our formal family trip to Washington before the city is… Is Trumpified. Is Trumpified and transformed.

Well, the White House has already been transformed, right? It's just taken the East Wing down, demolished at night.

Yes, I mean, and we ain't seen nothing yet because when that ballroom, which do we think, do we think yes for the ballroom, no for the ballroom?

Well, the National Arts Commission has said it can go ahead, but it's still facing a court order. His National Arts Commission. Yeah, that he put his people on. But it's still in the courts. It's still embroiled in whether or not

it can go ahead without congressional approval.

I think the courts gave a temporary go ahead that they can continue work at this point. So that was.

Which I think is readdressed tomorrow,

right? April 17. Yeah, I don't know. But yeah, I mean, this, this goes goes back and forth. And I think in his mind, inside Trump's head, he sees this as one of the measures of, of whether he he will be whether his presidency will be successful.

As whether or not he builds the ballroom and he builds the arch to celebrate himself. I mean, the arch was, there was supposed to be an arch go up to celebrate the 250th anniversary of July the 4th, but it doesn't feel like they're gonna get it up in time.

We hope not.

Well, it's only two months to go. Can you imagine the anxiety that Pete Hegseth must be feeling right now because he's got to organize the birthday parade and it's got to be better than the last one, which was shambolic. And people sitting with Trump were falling asleep at it.

It was very hot day, admittedly, but people were falling asleep. it. It was a very hot day, admittedly, but people were falling asleep and the military was sort of deliberately running out of order. I mean, it was the opposite of the Chinese style parades where they even select soldiers because they are the same height. I mean, this is not going to match that.

Well, we also have this July 4th anniversary coming up for, that was his birthday parade,

right?

Yeah, his birthday is…

This is now the… 250th anniversary.

Right. This is now the... 250th anniversary.

Right. So actually we should get into that and figure out what's going on because he is going to use that. That will become a political tool looking toward the midterms.

We know that he's admired the Chinese parades and the military theater that Xi Jinping puts on, and he wants the same here, and we seem unable to do that. Hopefully the military is sort of unwilling and passive aggressive as Pete Hegseth puts it together.

Yeah, but the thing that I would be concerned about is him owning this symbolic moment. And I mean, clearly, he does own it at this point. So what is he going to do with it? I mean, besides a parade, there is all kinds of messaging that he can attach to this.

Yeah, well, it's strange how important events fall to certain presidents. So he gets the 250th anniversary of America. Liz Truss, who was British Prime Minister for 44 days, less famously than the head of a lettuce managed to survive,

got to preside over the Queen's funeral. So maybe these anniversaries are in fact much less important than we think they are.

Okay, I think that you just convinced me. Let's not worry about that.

Okay, all right, we're not gonna worry about that. Who cares, who cares? Except that after the last-

It's our anniversary.

It's our anniversary, but except after the last... It's our anniversary. It's our anniversary, but except after the last birthday parade, Hegseth was reamed out by the president.

Well, I... another... yeah, no, I think it's... I think it's... that's a logical outcome. Hegseth doesn't survive. Hegseth is not going to survive. Matter of fact, he's being pushed out, and it just occurs to me. So he's being pushed out in front. He's now he was he's

out there this morning as the face of the war because somebody's going to have to pay for this.

Right. And it's going to be him. And he sort of knows it, which is why he looks.

Which is why he has extreme discomfort. Yeah, no. And why he's lecturing the press, because he's going to blame the press for giving him bad press, which is going to cause the president to fire him.

Right, of course. Yeah. Hexeth will be fired.

Took us an hour to figure that out.

Yeah, that but sometimes that's what it takes. Takes what it takes. All right. So we have two limericks. One of the great pleasures actually of doing this podcast is the limericks and the poems that come in

and the artwork. We got sent this beautiful mug to celebrate which has got many things inscribed on it. Noble democratic ideas, freedom of speech, American, and then some more negative things. So it's got American values on one side

and then it's got Trumpian values on another. Anyway, this was sent to us from Lisa Orr, who does Lisa Orr Pottery, but it's actually rather beautiful. So I'm going to put it here to celebrate. Thank you, Lisa, appreciate it.

I'm gonna read an email from-

It's kind of has a Henry VIII sort of cast to it.

Yeah, it does a bit. It does a bit. It's enormous and it feels regal. I'm gonna read the first one. You can read Garf reads, okay? So this is from Nicholas Rocheford.

A very bald man and a woman so white, podcast for the hundredth time tonight. The owl and the pussycat have taken to the air and found a global audience there. Thank you for that, Nicholas. I like that.

And actually we do have a global audience with people in Sydney, we have lots of people in Canada, in Germany, in the UK.

Hungary, Italy, Canada, France. We're leading the international anti-Trump movement.

I hope so. Okay, are you going to read Garfreid?

I would be delighted. When the night mine went sluicing its say through a dream feed of fragments at play came a flicker of throne, half remembered, half known, and a state slipping softly to sway.

Well, I thought it should be an estate slipping softly away.

But that's not what it says.

No, I know, but.

Did we transcribe this wrong? I think we must have transcribed this wrong.

It's possible we transcribed it wrong. Anyway, Garfield, if we did, I'm sorry.

In a state slipping softly away. But I like this, in a state slipping softly to sway.

Okay, we have one more story which we haven't discussed, and actually which has gone underreported, which is that Trump has sequestered the plane that Corey Lewandowski and Christine Noem so enjoyed when she was Secretary of Homeland Security.

So enjoyed.

So enjoyed, and he's given it to Melania. Our correspondent Tom Latcham managed to get photos, not photos of generically what this thing looked like, but the actual photos of their bedroom and the actual plane that we're putting up here. But this is a full jet.

It's got a shower. It's a Boeing 737. So this is not your regular Gulfstream or Falcon. It's a 737. And it's got a proper standup shower in it and a big bed. And I'm told that her

Kristi Noem's team referred to it as shagtastic.

So and Melania is getting the Melania is getting the plane.

Well, I guess Trump. Well, we know that Melania is getting the plane that's been reported. What hasn't been seen before are these actual photos of inside inside the plane, that's been reported. What hasn't been seen before are these actual photos of inside the plane, and actually they've got one of those, what do they call those, pillow tops. They've got a pillow top on the bed to make it soft,

because we wouldn't want them to be sleeping on a hard mattress. Anyway, in much the same way that Trump accepted a plane from the Qataris, Melania's office is accepting a plane

from Department of Homeland Security. from the Qataris, Melania's office is accepting a plane

from Department of Homeland Security. Where did this plane come from?

From Christy Noem and Corey Landaster from the Department of Homeland Security.

So the Homeland Security Secretary has always had a...

I don't know, but it belonged, well, it came from that department and it's costing 54 the cost of the DHS buying it for the White House was actually a hundred and eight million.

108 million dollars. Okay well the Melania story continues. Do we have an update on your case? Same where there were a decision any day today, tomorrow, next month, a month after that. Right. I call my lawyers and they say, you know, these decisions take a long time. They're in the hands of the judge.

The judge, the judge, the judge has all power here. No deadlines. And if you were a Trump appointed judge, would you want to rush?

I would want to think very carefully about that decision.

Yes.

Michael, happy anniversary.

Happy anniversary.

A hundred more to come, I hope.

A hundred more to come, is that it? Actually, it could be more than a hundred.

Yeah.

There's two and a half years to go here.

Well, someone made you a cake.

Did you make it?

Oh, these are double-sided. That's excellent. I did not make this. I did not make this cake. Oh, these are double-sided. That's excellent. I did not make this. I did not make this cake. But I thought we should have a cake to celebrate 100 episodes.

Because when we started, we didn't know that we were going to be going this long. But now we're committed for the journey.

Smells delicious.

Smells terrible.

It smells delicious.

Smells like sugar. What's wrong with sugar? It's, it's, what's this, that unctuous smell of...

I think we should send a piece to Pete Hegser. We should send a piece to all the cabinet.

Yeah, okay. Why don't we just send them each a whole cake? I'm gonna, you know, go full curmudgeon on this cake.

I can't wait to do the next 100 episodes with you, Michael. If you have been, thank you for joining us. Don't forget to subscribe and why don't you thank our production team?

Ryan, who delivered the cake. Devin, Rachel, Heather, and Neil. Thank you so much for 100 episodes. Not for this cake, but for 100 episodes.

So the good news is we have so many Be Beast tier members now. There are too many names to read out There are too many names to read out and we really appreciate your support.