Transcribe all your audio with Cockatoo

Blazing fast. Incredibly accurate. Try it free.

Start Transcribing Free

No credit card required

Why Trump Aide Is Thinking 25th Amendment: Wolff | Inside Trump's Head

Why Trump Aide Is Thinking 25th Amendment: Wolff | Inside Trump's Head

The Daily Beast

184 views
Watch
0:00

And they just had never seen this completely different Trump behavior and unexpected and what causes this. And with Muammar Dani, people in the White House said, great, this really gives us an enemy, you know, perfect enemy, left-wing, socialist, immigrant. It just fit every category that they needed until he comes to the White House and then and he becomes the model citizen for Donald Trump's new world.

0:30

What about the idea that somehow Trump is playing three-dimensional chess?

0:36

I'm glad you asked. This person who I was who was really just flabbergasted by the whole thing, said, he doesn't play 3D chess. He has one game and this wasn't it. And the implication here is that something had happened here. There was some really alarming mood swing.

1:00

β™ͺβ™ͺ

1:04

Michael. Joanna. People can't see, but I'm going to tell you anyway, you are wearing the most delightful plum colored pants.

1:13

Thank you.

1:14

Are they moleskin or are they cord or are they velvet?

1:17

They're corduroy.

1:18

Yeah, they look very good, very good. And your, this is nice too.

1:24

Appreciate it all. It's quite fancy, isn't it? It's nice and too. Appreciate it all.

1:25

It's quite fancy, isn't it? It's nice and soft. Is it cashmere?

1:28

It is.

1:29

Yeah, very nice. Okay, so what are you hearing inside the White House, inside Trump's office?

1:34

Well, you know, this was kind of, I mean, I had been puzzling about this Mamdani thing, as the whole world was puzzling about this. This is the press conference with Mam Donnie going down to DC. Yeah and with this love fest. I mean Trump doesn't have a love fest with anyone except himself. So it was like shocking. And so I spoke to some of the people, and particularly one person I speak to often

2:09

in the White House, and I would characterize this person as quite up close to what is going on. And I said, well, what was everybody's reaction to this? And he said, everybody's reaction was, what the fuck? Really? Yeah, and it was like Yeah, nobody expected that this was not the script. It was

2:32

completely out of the blue and then he added and concerning

2:38

Concerned why concerning because I feel like isn't it? I mean Trump's typical bullying that for the most part I always think of him as actually being quite nice to people's face. And then the minute they leave the room is horrible.

2:57

Right.

2:58

So the Oval Office is always the message that he wants to send. I am the dominant person. I'm the big guy. you're the small guy. I am angry and you're gonna take it. I am the president and you're not.

3:17

You're a lesser person.

3:19

This is right.

3:19

You're a lesser president. Yes.

3:21

I mean that's. I suppose you think of Zelensky and you think of the South African president taking the brunt of him. Yeah, I mean that's... I suppose you think of Zelensky and you think of the South African president taking the brunt of him.

3:25

Yeah. I mean virtually anybody he is sending that message and it's a message of dominance and submission except for this which was my son. And so I mean among the other things, so this person that I was speaking to said, this wasn't just losing the plot, this was like a different guy. The look in his eyes was crazy.

3:54

So the look in Trump's eyes as he's looking up to Mamdani.

3:57

Yes. I mean, they just had never seen this completely different Trump behavior and unexpected and what causes this. And with Mamdani, this person he has said only terrible things about, the person who even when Mamdani won, the people in the White House said, great, this really gives us an enemy, perfect enemy, left wing, socialist, you know, immigrant, it just fit every category that they needed until he comes to the White House

4:33

and then he becomes the model citizen for Donald Trump's new world.

4:39

What about the idea that somehow Trump is playing three-dimensional chess?

4:45

I'm glad you asked because this person who I was – who was really just flabbergasted by the whole thing said he doesn't play 3D chess. He has one game and this wasn't it. And you know, the implication here is that something had happened here there was some really alarming mood swing. Is it is it possible

5:14

he's had a stroke over the weekend? I mean well we had Dr. John Gartner on the podcast last week and he was saying that you know there are clear indications that

5:25

something has gone wrong. Well I know his leg. Well this would be I mean this this was certainly the suggestion and you know the point was the point this person was made and I think it's a it's a fundamental point about Trump is that he's always it stays in character which is of course what he does. What is his training? 14 years as a star of a hit reality television show, he is in character.

5:54

And this person, the view was that this was so weird that he's on the set, the cameras go on and suddenly he's playing an absolutely different part. And this person said, and this was, as you can see, I wrote this down, all of this down, because this was like riveting. So he says, literally, the only explanation was that the guy forgot who he is.

6:31

So weird, he says. And then he said, it gives you a 25th Amendment shiver.

6:38

Wow, the 25th Amendment being when you can remove the president because he's no longer in sound mental health, sound mental state.

6:50

So at any rate, we're just encapsulating that one moment. But the people around Trump saw that moment and they were, to say the least, startled.

99.9% Accurate90+ LanguagesInstant ResultsPrivate & Secure

Transcribe all your audio with Cockatoo

Get started free
7:03

And do we, is this, do we think because Mamdani is very charming, because they'd had a private meeting beforehand where Mamdani had paid homage? Or Trump appeared to be enjoying himself.

7:15

He appeared to really think that this young man was his other son. The suggestion is that this was so different. And Trump is so good at playing the role. But he clearly was not in that role, out of character, playing a different role. And the view of this person and people around Trump

7:41

was that they had no explanation for what was going on here. So we can invent an explanation. It could be a stroke, I mean it could be, what else could it be? I mean the idea that he might actually have liked Mum Donny is not plausible, first thing, because he doesn't really like anybody. And because he knows that's not the job here. The job is to be Donald Trump.

8:18

Remember, and it's fundamental, what role is he playing? He's playing the role of Donald Trump. And it's the apprentice. It's the guy, I'm the boss. I'm Trump and you're nothing.

8:32

Is it possible that he worries about New York because Melania is living here and he wants to make sure she's safe?

8:40

What do you think, Joanna?

8:42

I'm very curious to know what's going on to know what was going on inside Trump's head when he was with Mamdani. I thought there were...

8:52

I think the implication here is that something untoward was going on in his head. He had lost the plot.

9:01

So I had a couple of observations about the press conference which I watched a couple of times. One is that his chair was physically too low for the desk. So he looks like he's sitting in a child's chair and he's not quite high enough. Like you and I are both high at this desk. If you look at it, the desk comes up to here and he looks strangely small.

9:24

And Mamdani is unnaturally calm. So he just stands there, he holds his fourth finger and he just stands there and he's not doing the thing that Elon did, which is sort of twitching and jerking and Elon's child is picking his nose and wiping the booger on the desk

9:39

and Trump is looking horrified. Mamdani actually looks to be the powerful one in the room. And Trump just looks like, and then the sort of, you know, you don't have to answer that question. And the constant hand on his arm, like I'm doing to you, was noticeable.

9:55

No, everything was off about this. I mean, is it possible he was just really fatigued? Of course, I mean, there's many possibilities. But I think the clear signal that is being certainly sent by this person is that something was off.

10:19

Right.

10:20

And so we can speculate about what that might be. But the larger point is that Donald Trump never breaks character, is always in character. That is his strength as a politician, except for this moment when something went awry.

10:42

Maybe Marjorie Taylor Greene's resignation has really

10:46

gotten to him and he understands there's something bigger going on. It's quite possible that a lot of things have gotten to him. You know the interesting thing, I mean many people have observed this, that the presidency, certainly the first time around, really didn't affect him much. All other presidents, you can see their hair going gray. They look haggard.

11:11

They look like they've been, to say the least, working way too hard. That was never the case for Trump, partly because he wasn't working that hard. Gets up late, plays a lot of golf. Watches television to be fair and eats ice cream. Yes, watches television. I mean a

11:30

point that was always made is that his life in the White House was not appreciably different from his life in Trump Tower. Right. But maybe you know in this year and we're heading coming very close to the end of the first year of this this presidency this you know this has been a active year so

"Cockatoo has made my life as a documentary video producer much easier because I no longer have to transcribe interviews by hand."

β€” Peter, Los Angeles, United States

Want to transcribe your own content?

Get started free
11:53

well it's been a very active year and the last couple of weeks have been difficult because you have the shutdown you have the problem with the health care premiums which are doubling one of the reasons Marjorie Taylor Greene said she was quitting politics, because she could see the impact of it on her daughters who are going to have their

12:12

premiums double. No and actually that's a good point which we should note because I think it's central that he is now considering again completely out of character, extending the Obamacare subsidies.

12:28

Right. And what's clear is that the Republicans haven't come up with a substitute for Obamacare. And do you remember when he was campaigning, he said, oh, I have a concept for it. I've got some ideas.

12:39

Nothing's materialized. The Republicans haven't come up with anything that's better than Obamacare, even if Obamacare turns out to be pretty broken. Right and well

12:48

actually that has been sort of their saving grace. They couldn't come up with anything so they haven't changed Obamacare. But if the cost of Obamacare goes up people are going to feel that. I mean they were really going to feel that and they are going to blame it not on Obamacare.

13:05

No, they're going to blame it on Trump. So is it possible that he hasn't actually understood because he's not directly impacted by it that people's premiums are actually going to double and in some cases treble which means that people are going to go from paying say $800 a month to $1,600 or even up from $2,000 to $3,000 to $4,000 a month. This is real money and it's going to impact red states as well as blue.

13:34

It is. It's beyond real money.

13:37

It's real money.

13:38

It's a real, real money.

13:39

Right. It's going to mean a lot of people are going to go bankrupt.

13:41

It's not an incremental step up. Right. It's a

13:48

it's a bankrupting step up. It's a bankrupting step up and it's also bankrupting for a lot of Republican, you know, Congress people and senators. This is, I don't understand how the Republicans have baked this in and not thought it was bad for them.

14:05

Trump, needless to say, is not one of his gifts is not holding two contradictory ideas in his head at the same time. And his overriding point here is Obamacare bad. That is the thing. I mean, from the beginning of his political career, Obamacare

14:26

bad. And he certainly has not replaced Obamacare. He has not fixed Obamacare. He has not even given much thought to Obamacare except Obamacare bad. So coupling that with Obamacare bad, but a more expensive Obamacare bad for him is a complicated, it's a little more complicated than Trump is used to.

14:56

And especially because I do think the Democrats have been fairly strong in hammering out the message that this is because he's given a tax break to

15:05

billionaires, to the richest people in society. None of this is good and so I think maybe there's a broader issue. Does he realize and you know in saying Trump realizes anything is is you know you need a little kind of critical understanding of that. But does he sense in some more profound way than usual that actually things are going against him? That there's a whole political ecosystem that's, you know, if not, if not caving in on him, him sending up all

15:50

kinds of warning signs.

15:51

Right. Well, you've got the unanimous vote for the release of the Epstein files. You've got Marjorie Taylor Greene leaving and now other people saying that there's been this whole kind of anonymous campaign that other people, other Congress people are going to resign because the Republican Party is a shit show.

99.9% Accurate90+ LanguagesInstant ResultsPrivate & Secure

Transcribe all your audio with Cockatoo

Get started free
16:09

Even more fundamentally, you have a very, very difficult economy, which, you know, he fundamentally got elected in 2024 on that issue and he has not been able to in any meaningful way create any kind of... that has not been ameliorated and in fact you can argue

16:37

that it has only gotten worse. Well and also people aren't so stupid that when he says oh prices are going down, people are in the grocery store, they're on Amazon, they know that prices aren't going down. I mean, Marjorie Taylor Greene very effectively said, you're gaslighting us, stop gaslighting

16:54

us. Marjorie Taylor Greene.

16:57

I know, I can't believe I'm holding her up.

17:00

Yes, we'll get to that.

17:03

And then the other bad thing that's happened is of course the Comey verdict. You know, Lindsay Halligan, someone you have been pointing out is utterly incompetent ever since she came on the scene, has lost her case and the judge threw it out with, you know, complete disdain at how this was brought.

17:21

So a sense of the DOJ in chaos. Yeah I mean it's not only just the DOJ being in chaos because it has always kind of been, I mean since, you know, I mean that's the whole, I mean his whole point, I'm gonna take over the DOJ. Yes it's gonna be, it doesn't, the DOJ's function is not the DOJ function anymore, the DOJ function is to be my lawyers and to protect me. And what you now see in this is that the DOJ has a fool for a client, which is the President

17:58

of the United States. Right. And that, I mean, that is really the case here. Why did this happen? Because of him. And I'm sure the people in the DOJ, Pam Bondi, etc. are quite aware of that.

18:12

Well she must be furious because also she didn't even know that Lindsay Halligan

18:16

was going to file when she did. At least that's what she said she didn't. And let's go back to the Lindsay Halligan story. Lindsay Halligan was one of the women on his, on the campaign, in the campaign entourage who just happened, just the fluke circumstance of having a she looked and because he liked to say a line. Among one of the things about Trump is that he has a line. He repeats it until you want to shoot yourself.

18:57

And this line was, I may not have the best legal team, but I have the hottest. And then the phone would go up and there would be a picture of Lindsay Halligan and Alina Haba. And that was their entire reason for being. So fine.

19:18

He gets elected and she gets, you know, and there was a lot of discussion of what roles would Alina Haba get? You know, Alina Haba wanted to be the press secretary. No, no, everybody nixed her on that. Then she wanted to be the United Nations representative. No, no, no, no, no.

19:37

But then she became, Alina Haba became the prosecutor in New Jersey, because he put her into that.

19:44

So- Alina Haba became the prosecutor in New Jersey because he put her into that. I don't think she's been confirmed.

19:46

No, no, no, no, no, no, no. She's all, yes, yes. No, it's, they can't be confirmed, but he can put them in or he thinks he can put them in.

19:54

Right. Well, and interestingly, one of the technical reasons that the case was thrown out is because because Lindsay Halligan is the second, what is it, attorney to be put in.

20:05

She's not legitimately appointed.

20:10

Yeah, it's all, right, and it's just all it is is his, him, Donald Trump, superseding all procedures.

20:18

Well and it's also him playing at being president. You can do this in a television show, right? Because there's no consequences. But in real life, there are consequences. And there are other people judging you.

20:30

But even beyond that, so we take Lindsay Halligan, someone who knows nothing about practicing law.

20:38

But she was a runner up in Miss Colorado.

20:41

Yes. And she didn't really even have a job in the White House. She had kind of a, you know, a patronage job. So she is literally, and and I'm sure, I'm sure she is like, what happened? So she's like a pick, you know, she's like a dummy just put into this, into this, into this job. I feel I should be

21:04

defending her here, and yet I can't because she's been utterly incompetent.

21:08

And so she did a job, or she tried to do a job, which she couldn't do, which she was only doing because he ordered her to do it. And by the way, no one else would do it. And so it has come to its logical conclusion. A judge looked at this and said,

21:30

this is not only ridiculous, but this is absolutely absurd. Get rid of this.

21:37

Well, and now because of the statute of limitations, it looks like they can't bring charges against Comey again, because obviously they've appealed, the government's appealed, but it's actually run out of time. It's just an absolute mess. So does Trump mind? Is he just moving on? Is he screaming at people? Is he yelling at Pam Bondi? What do we

22:01

think is happening here? Screaming at people, yelling at Pam Bondi.

22:08

You know, in the Trump world,

22:11

in the Trump world is built on so much abuse playing of the legal system. This will, they will appeal on this. They will push this out. So what is he going to do here? He is going to push this out. So what is he going to do here? He is going to push this out as long as he can and he will, I suppose, manage to push it out for some time. And

22:34

continuing to cause problems for Comey and Letitia James, continuing to make them spend money. So this is all, whatever vengeance he can wreak, he will. And he will do this even if it holds him up to, you know, a deserved degree of mockery.

23:04

Right, so then the other thing that we've got going on is the Ukraine-Russia peace treaty, which at one point had 28 points to it. I don't know when, when did it happen that peace plans had 28 points to them? That seems to make no sense to me.

23:21

I mean, this seems to be also kind of an extraordinary story, which as far as I can tell, began with Trump wanting peace. And the only way to get peace in Ukraine is to do what the Russians want. So again, this is like holding one thought in his head, oh, I can peace. Peace comes if Russia stops attacking Ukraine. This is what they need to do that, which does not account for the fact that Ukraine will not do any of these things.

24:07

So how this could have come about in any appreciation of the difficulties in this situation, I don't know. That's staggering. but it did come about. Suddenly, there's a 28-point peace plan, which patently, the Ukrainians are not going to agree to. The Russians will agree to it, the Ukrainians will not agree to it.

24:39

Well, and I don't think the Europeans will agree to it either.

24:42

Nor the Europeans. So it is dead on the face of it. So why would this be proposed?

99.9% Accurate90+ LanguagesInstant ResultsPrivate & Secure

Transcribe all your audio with Cockatoo

Get started free
24:51

Why? Why?

24:52

I mean, this is politics. This is the most basic thing. Why would this even come about?

24:59

Well, and it also felt like the peace band was back together again, because our old friends Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner emerged as sort of central to this. Now obviously we know that Steve Witkoff is a special envoy to Russia and has been back and forth talking to Putin, though he can never seem to remember what he said to Putin. But Jared suddenly popped up again as we know that he was central to the peace deal for

25:22

the Middle East. We have to ask what Jared's game is here because there is always a Jared game.

25:29

There's always an angle for Jared.

25:31

And Jared is always the winner of the game. But nevertheless, so this deal is floated. It is leaked actually, but obvious, of course, it would be leaked. And then they have to, and Trump is defending this, not only defending this, but he's yelling at Zelensky, you know, you're going to get wiped, wiped the floor with you if you don't.

25:57

Right. And I remember that thing he said to him when he came over in February, you've got no cards. And he was repeating it again, saying, I told him, you've got no cards, you've got no cards. And he was repeating it again, saying, I told him, you've got no cards, you've got no cards. He's got loads of cards.

26:07

That's fine. And if you think about that, okay, maybe, maybe, I mean, as horrible as it would be, if Trump then said, we're out, you either agree to this or we are out of this, goodbye. And that at least would have been consistent.

26:29

But actually, none of that happened. And everybody was sent in to undo exactly what Trump had done. So we are now back to where we were before, apparently, with a peace plan that would be acceptable to Ukraine, but not acceptable to Russia.

26:50

So we've just... Nothing has happened here at all, except that we have shown once more that Donald Trump has no idea what he's doing, that the foundation here is just a foundation of incompetence. And I can't help but think, and the Comey thing plus Ukraine, you know, certainly sends the message that we are back to the first administration. We're back to the gang that couldn't shoot straight fundamentals of Donald Trump's way of governing.

27:33

And this whole year has kind of masked that just because things I think have happened so quickly and so outrageously or audaciously that everybody is kind of knocked back and has been, if not admiring in some amount of intimidated by, I would say,

28:02

the headlines, everyday's headlines.

28:04

Right, because it feels like things are happening and because they've happened with a velocity

28:08

that we're not used to. Exactly, so but now we're back to literally the first administration. The first administration was a bit of incompetence after a bit of incompetence. Everything was broken in some way. Whatever they did, they did not know how to do. And now we're rolling right back into this. You know, he can't.

28:37

Right, he can't indict his enemies.

28:38

Yes, he wants to indict his enemies, but he doesn't know how to do it. Yes, he wants peace, but no idea how to bring peace. And not only no idea, but in every effort is not just a failed one, but a ludicrous one.

28:55

And again, we get back to the fact that he is a television producer, and that these are sort of announcements which he makes, proclamations which he makes, but he can't do the complicated work of actually making them stick.

29:11

So he can announce, I'm going after James Comey, he's being indicted, James is being indicted, but then the indictments don't stick. He can pretend he's got a peace treaty underway, but nobody's agreeing to it.

"The accuracy (including various accents, including strong accents) and unlimited transcripts is what makes my heart sing."

β€” Donni, Queensland, Australia

Want to transcribe your own content?

Get started free
29:23

No, and I think that that's partly what has happened throughout the past year. It's been a whole set of announcements and headlines and now we're getting to the follow through and there is no follow through. There can be no follow through because it's all fucked up. Then this other thing which is to me is extraordinary. So you know, immigration is, is has been a winning issue for Trump, a fundamental issue, arguably,

29:52

why the thing that has most fueled his political career. So you have you have that winning issue a lot of people, you know, for better or worse saying yes. But then you send in these guys in black and face masks who won't identify themselves, who are on video literally every day dragging women and children away. So you've taken the issue that you are, that has always worked for you and you're squandering it, massively squandering it.

30:30

Well, and also taking people out of the workforce

30:33

that the workforce needs. Well, yes, on a general, on a larger economic basis, this is ridiculous and is going to backfire. But on that more particular emotional basis. A humane level. And immigration is fundamentally an emotional issue.

30:58

We feel that somehow it's wrong, and somehow immigration is destabilizing, and somehow it's out of control, which you can argue it is.

31:07

But then- Well, and certainly those images of the Southern border were alarming to everybody. And it was mystifying why the Biden administration wasn't able to deal with it.

31:16

Completely. So in the Trump column, firmly, until you take it out of the Trump column with all of these, you know, the black guys in masks. I mean they're not black, they're dressed in black. Right. No,

31:28

no, and they're deliberately designed to look scary and autocratic and yet it's backfired because once they're all over social media people are just appalled by it. And it's not who Americans think of themselves as being fundamentally. So the gang that couldn't shoot straight is is back in charge. So it was clear that Trump wanted to try and get a peace deal done by Thanksgiving that now longer that no

31:58

longer looks. It's all out it's literally anything that he said that was relevant to this peace deal,

32:10

Forget about it.

32:15

So what's he thinking? What's inside his head as he approaches Turkey Day?

32:19

Mush, apparently.

32:22

Is he going to be having Thanksgiving at Mar-a-Lago I'm assuming?

32:25

I'm assuming I'm assuming that will be it will not be a family affair. Yeah no I I think I mean my question is is he starting to realize that there are, that this is serious stuff? I mean, right now, you know, we haven't spoken for a while about the Republicans basically rejecting his plan to reapportion key states

33:02

in a way that would give him a likely win in the midterms. So that's an initiative that seems to have failed. So is he looking at losing the midterms? And if he loses the midterms, he's kind of lost. I mean, that means. It means he's got one more year left and he's already putting out lame-duck vibes. Yeah one more year till

33:35

the midterms. Yeah. Yes. Yeah well I think that it's, I mean he's gonna be crucified if there's a Democratic congress in a year from now.

33:48

And then there's Mark Kelly and Elissa Slotkin and the six Democrats that were all members of the services who put out a video reminding active members of the services not to do anything

34:02

Well you don't know what I was going to say. You're going to say they shouldn't have put out the video, aren't you? Yes. Yes. And actually, as I was, funny enough, I sort of agree with you on that.

34:16

I think obviously Trump overreacted as did Peter Hegsad. They're doing this is completely provocative. Yes, there's a technical point there that you're not supposed to, I mean, if the order is illegal, you shouldn't obey it. But the larger point, which is that people can't decide on an ad hoc basis what's, I mean, people, soldiers, people in the armed forces can't decide on an ad hoc basis what's, I mean, people, soldiers, people in the armed forces

34:47

can't decide on an ad hoc basis what is legal and not illegal. Only in the most egregious circumstance are you gonna come to that, can you make that kind of qualification. It's completely ridiculous. But having said that said that of course he overreacted

35:08

Yeah, well and that was what's interesting I thought finally the Democrats have begun to figure out how to get under his skin Because I thought the videos actually was slightly ridiculous, too But it turned out they worked and maybe that's what you have to do to have an impact if you're a Democrat. I

35:31

wonder about that though. I mean I think it's a safe assumption that everything that Democrats do is probably wrong. And in this case they've given him a given him a very credible argument. Now, yes, does he ruin his own argument by, I think he's shooting them or?

35:54

Well, he said, I mean, he basically said, execute them and John Gartner, who we had on, I mentioned earlier, said he's like the mad queen in Alice in Wonderland. He's like, off with their heads, off with their heads.

36:04

But that has often been effective for him. I mean, it's a very simple, you know, and remember the old Trump thing, you know, not to take him literal or whatever that was.

36:15

Right, take him-

36:16

And people don't take him literally.

36:18

Don't take him literally, but take him seriously.

36:20

But they understand what he's saying. In this instance he has a point and and they've been kind of at best facile about the whole thing.

36:32

His overreaction does suggest he's not the same Trump.

36:39

No, no, actually that suggests he is the same Trump. He always overreacts and to great effectiveness. He overreacts in such a consistent basis that he is, that he is, that that is, that that's figured into everybody's reaction to his reaction. And it doesn't seem like he's overreacting.

36:59

It seems like he's playing the character he is, Donald Trump.

37:03

Okay, that was quite meta, that response. I'm not sure I entirely followed it. But what are you doing for Thanksgiving? You know, making a turkey. Are you doing the cooking?

37:16

Of course, I always do the cooking.

37:17

Okay, do you know this year, I've always done the cooking, this year I'm having friends and to my absolute excitement, one of the friends called up and said, I'm having friends and to my absolute excitement, one of the friends called up and said, I'm having the whole thing catered and it will be delivered to your house on Thursday morning and I'm beside myself with excitement that I do not have to do all the cooking.

37:34

Yeah, yeah, I'm just thrilled.

37:36

It's gonna be an overcooked turkey.

37:38

I don't care, I won't have had to cook it. It's gonna be lukewarm sides. No it won't be lukewarm sides I will heat them in my oven. I can do all the heating up. Overheating, overheated. You're just scrooge. You're scrooge and you're coming early. I wish I could go to Mar-a-Lago for Thanksgiving. I just wish. I wish someone at Mar-a-Lago would invite Michael and I for a meal at Mar-a-Lago. I know you've already been there. Yes, I've done my Mar-a-Lago meal. What would Trump do if he saw you eating happily at Mar-a-Lago as the guest of one of his members?

38:12

You know that's a really good question because it could be that I would be you know the mum Donny of the moment. And you know and it is to your point about this you know, the mom Donny of the moment. And, you know, and it is to your point about about this, you know, when when I have been with with Trump, I he has always treated me very well and and actually, if he had any beef with me, then he would transfer it. So it's not you, it's my staff. Blamed me on his staff, and then I got forgiven in this. Or, you know, once I ran into him on the campaign trail

38:56

and it was a group of other people and he was coming by and he stopped and everybody was like this and pointed at me and said I Made that guy rich and then he went on which is why you can afford these fabulous cash

39:13

It is I owe it all to Donald Trump lovely plum cords All right so many many comments from from last week including a lots of people that liked my analogy to Robert Palmer's Addicted to Love video. They thought that the MAGA girls were like a different version of that.

39:31

Lots of, it turns out we've got lots of people who loved Robert Palmer. Johnny and Mary, I think it was. Johnny's always running around. Anyway, great song.

39:39

β™ͺβ™ͺ

39:43

Okay, questions for Ask Melania is your John Dyson, John Dyson bleak house legal situation goes on with Melania. Question for Melania and this is from Nora Page. Nora, thank you. Why did you wear that jacket that said, I don't really care, do you, after visiting kids in cages?

40:03

And whose idea was it to do that?

40:06

There may be a relevancy issue on that question but why not try?

40:13

Well was she signaling? I mean it might be interesting that she was trying to signal something. What was she signaling? Okay another question from Soby Skilinda. My question for Melania is, has Baron, this is a great question, has Baron ever spent any time in the sun at Mar-a-Lago? He sure maintains a ghostly Manhattan pallor.

40:36

I would like to say that not all Manhattan pallors are ghostly, but Baron does look oddly ghostly, as if he's never seen the sun.

40:46

I think that there's a larger question here which I think we will address about exactly where these people live.

40:52

Well, and where is Barron? He's supposed to have moved to DC, the NYU campus in DC. Why have we not seen any pictures of him?

40:59

I think we will get to the bottom of who lives where and with whom. Okay. Fundamental political question. Okay. Fundamental political question.

41:06

Okay. All right. Okay, this is from Grace Havilland. Ask Melania how she supported herself when she first came here on a visitor visa. Very good question.

41:25

Okay, and then this is, We will get to the bottom of this career in air quotes.

41:30

Okay, and then this is just a comment. It's not really a question, but it's from someone called Just Go There 72, which makes me think that it could be one of those foreign accounts that we've been learning about this week, which actually I think is one of the most disturbing stories that so much of political discourse going on on our social media platforms is actually

41:48

coming from abroad, as we know, Russia, China, various Eastern European countries. And it's not even human. These are bot accounts.

41:59

Anyway, I'm not sure if this is a bot or not from just got there. It sounds like a bot account. Trump is still competing with his deceased best friend. He was always insanely jealous of him and continues to covet Epstein's friends, women, charm, money and his ability to make people laugh. That feels to me like a weird comment.

42:20

I think that's from a bot. Just go there, 72. If you are a real person, identify yourself. Fair? Fair. We haven't even mentioned RFK Jr.'s love sonnet for various reasons because it's it's a bit sleazy. A bit sleazy? Yeah. I mean it's extraordinary. It was so weird. I mean extraordinary and also strangely he

42:50

seems to have spent some time thinking it through. I don't know what the

42:54

pentameter was I was trying to figure out is it actually a sonnet is it kind

42:59

of a limerick it sort of fell somewhere. I I am just, it's... You know, when I was, long ago, when I was following Bobby Kennedy around for when he was running Teddy Kennedy's campaign.

43:17

And this was in Alabama or Arkansas, if I'm right.

43:19

This was in Alabama. And there was a little entourage of reporters who were following him. And he would disappear. Just, you stop at a gasoline station, and there was a young girl working the pump.

43:40

Suddenly, RFK Jr. would be nowhere to be seen for 20 minutes. I leave you with

43:49

that thought. I'm fascinated as to whether or not there are lots of his sort of children out there that you know that the mother has said to him you are the son of RFK Jr. and the child's like my mother is insane.

44:06

This could never have happened. I think we should get into this.

44:11

We should get into it. All right. Well, in the meantime, are you going to buy either the ex-Digital Mistresses book, American Canto, or Cheryl Hines' book, whose name I can't remember. Oh, it's unscripted. Are you going to buy either of them?

44:25

Which one do you think's gonna be better written? What a publishing badger.

44:30

You know, I mean, I must say, I mean, whatever I might think about Olivia Nuzzi, I have thought that she's a good writer.

44:40

She is a good writer.

44:41

So I don't know. Now, I've seen some initial comment on the book which would not support that, but I'm open. Cheryl Hines, we can assume, is not going to be a work of literature.

"99% accuracy and it switches languages, even though you choose one before you transcribe. Upload β†’ Transcribe β†’ Download and repeat!"

β€” Ruben, Netherlands

Want to transcribe your own content?

Get started free
44:59

Okay, Michael, as always.

45:03

I'll see you before the holiday.

45:05

See you before the holiday.

45:07

And we have another, is that we have a holiday.

45:10

We have a holiday special.

45:11

We have a holiday special.

45:13

We stop for nothing.

45:14

We stop for nothing. And actually we have a theme which is Trump and greed. Well, it's really Trump and food.

45:23

Yeah, it's Trump and food. Yeah, it's Trump and food.

45:25

Right, it's Trump and food, but I think he's greedy around food. He seems a greedy person. I imagine he does.

45:35

I mean, we're gonna discuss, I think we should discuss actually what Trump, what's on Trump's mind when it comes to.

45:41

When he's eating.

45:42

Yeah, because it's so peculiar

45:45

okay well we'll get into it then all right so if you have been thank you for joining us please feel free to subscribe to this podcast leave us a comment and subscribe to the Daily Beast so you can stay on top of the madness that's going on right now and join our Be Beast tier of members where Michael can then read your name out. Michael here's the list of our Be Beast tier members. We could memorize them. We should memorize them except they keep growing.

46:14

Herbie, Andrew Mellor, I think Joanna says Mellor. I do I don't know why you put the emphasis on or. That feels all wrong. Fulvia Orlando, Loz Conde, Sandra Clark, M. Greiner, Bonzo,

46:35

Val Love Francisco, Bocock DC, Karen White, Heidi Riley, Connie Rutherford, Sharon Shipley, Andrea Hodel, Devin, Anna, and Jesse.

46:54

Without whom? Without whom?

46:58

We would have nothing to do on a Tuesday morning. We would have nothing to do on a Tuesday morning.

99.9% Accurate90+ LanguagesInstant ResultsPrivate & Secure

Transcribe all your audio with Cockatoo

Get started free
47:03

Thanks guys.

Get ultra fast and accurate AI transcription with Cockatoo

Get started free β†’

Cockatoo