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, 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. And 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 every airing that we start with. You say the world is on fire. Because it is. It is on fire. Keeps, 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, extra videos of yourself? No, but it does. I don't get notice a notice that when, when the episodes are up, what does it do? Well, I didn't know you didn't get a notice for that. And sorry about that. Well, anyway, just see. you haven't hit the hit the, hit the button.

That probably means. No, no, I have hit the button. I am a subscriber, and I'm Connie. 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 I mean, we do this because this is what we do. We're journalists. And and it's kind of fascinating to be talking about this.

on a extremely regular basis. But then the other thing is, and which I'm not sure we really appreciate or, or register that the effect this is could. this does have on people, this could have that there is. I hesitate to say, a. movement because that seems too grandiose. But 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. I 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 or whatever, which is what it normally do. And 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 one. One might have said before we began this project, you. Well, I should have done right. Of course, of course. And I have a modicum 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 also. Also, we don't really feel that anybody is I mean, I it has been so confusing.

for everyone across the board, everyone. to find a way to talk about Donald Trump because the president in the United States. inexplicably and, and 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 in some abnormal, extraordinary. abnormal, conflicted, confused, fantastical way. Well, and it's a government of one and it's. increasingly becoming a world of one that 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 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 any more 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, with people and, and some of the top comments get hundreds.

and hundreds of likes and comments and many threads, because people are so concerned about what's happening. Not it's just worth also also saying that the age of cable. television has passed and I you know, I was not entirely aware of this. I mean, the rumors of its demise. I think you wrote a book about it this year that it was happening. But it has happened. And and this is I mean, this is a firsthand experience with it.

Our audiences are bigger than CNN audiences. They're bigger than mass or whatever it's called now. Audiences, I think Fox's are still somewhat bigger than we are. Yeah, Fox is a bigger. But on Saturday, our podcast on Saturday got 2 million views. No, no, it's it's, you know, it happened. Cable disappeared. All right. So enough talking about ourselves and let's talk about hackers.

Hackers? Hackers. 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 hackers came on at 8:00, which I would think. is quite early for hackers, 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 Kane. 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 all 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, you know what that and that, that 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, I mean, 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 so super and then it has its own own life, which we don't really understand until. until months or years later. that this is a this is a complete catastrophe. Right. And Hegseth 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 expected? Well, 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 Echo. 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. his preacher at today's press conference. In fact, it was from 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 Hegseth was the formerly. not only a television person, but a drunk. And now he's drunk. So nationality? Well, maybe Christianity has helped pull him out of his alcoholic slump, where he was frequently carried out of work events because he couldn't stand. And I can I continue to I mean, this is he. has put this out that he is no longer he no longer drinks. Well, didn't he say to Joni Ernst when she was pretending that. she was actually nervous about him becoming the Secretary of Defense War,

that she needed to know that he was going to stop drinking? Yes, I'm going to stop drinking today. Yeah. So, I'm going to stop eating sugar today. But so he 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 that's interesting, because I would have said yesterday. that we were in a new phase of the war.

and 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. You know, we got it under control. They're going to 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 going to say we want mission accomplished. But then then Hager is out this morning falling back on the old script.

We're going to 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 he's, I mean, next. to the two people who are actually running the military operations. Well, he looks like a like, like a weekend television host. So we are at we are at a new stage in this war, and. 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 where we're stuck. So now we are blockading the 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 of, of of who can stand it longer?

Because we can't I mean, I mean, to to close this down. to the to effectively, 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, watch the, you know, those little numbers go up that give you a 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, he, you know, we have an electric car. It just goes away. That fact that that feature of life suddenly disappears.

He charges at home. 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 it. Elon Musk, it was it Elon Musk organized embarrassed. And now we have a little thing right in there. You just plug it in and. it's and no more gasoline station. It's magic. It's just magic. All right. So hex that this repeatedly urged Iran to choose wisely.

That's what he said. Choose wisely. I mean I wonder if the Iranians watching this press conference. know. Well, I think they're watching and snickering. I hope I mean, that because it's 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. So I mean, you know, well, that's the that's this is this other thing. Everybody else is the new, the, the new norm of war.

Everybody is an adversary that, that, an unexpected adversary. I mean, the Russians go into Ukraine and what happens there are still there. What are we under for? Yeah, yeah, we are farmers anyway. And nobody, nobody can move. Everybody is 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. Will carry on watching it obviously, because we have no choice. And I mean, so it's 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, no more, no more.

The other, public airing. of, of the of the Trump. minions was RFK Jr on Capitol Hill. This morning. Oh. I'm sorry. That's terrible. I shouldn't mock his voice, but it's very hard. not to mock his voice because he's just appalling. And, you know, and I was I was looking and looking at this and. and I realized that when you see him now and this is a, this is a major problem.

for the, 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, 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 Junior The Fall and Rise.

And I've never had so many, comments that were just furious about RFK junior in 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 6000. cases of measles this year because of what he's done.

and because of the skepticism who've sown around the MMR vaccine. and his determination to to link it despite any evidence to 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. and in, in, in this properly in the Trump.

administration for his willingness to say anything. So he just makes stuff up anything and at any time, strangely unlike Donald Trump who says this thing and you think, okay, well, that's 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, too.

I think he sounds like, as you're always saying, he has a crack. All right, well, he does that, but but he is he has. his whole persona is to. is to present himself like a serious policy wonk. And as it happens, he as it happens, he is not serious. And as it happens, he he. this is 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 junior left him quarter of $1 million in his will? They were very close. You know, I'm sure that they were they were, you know, very close in age. They were both the, well, they were cousins. Yeah. Right. Yeah. I mean, yeah, I mean, the whole family was, was very close, so. Yeah. Well, not according to this new book that's come out, but,

and he had no money. So Jackie Kennedy tried to keep her kids away from Ethel Kennedy kids. So did the Shriver's, 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 the 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, from when he was in high school, right. And has abused all sorts of women and opportunities and, 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 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 and his addictions vary throughout the book. Well, that's what makes it interesting. I mean, and we should come back to I, 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 was. that was the thing when the author mentioned that. that triggered everybody online who was watching to just be like, oh my God. Absolutely. You know, and it's what we have said.

all along, we've been saying for the better part of 100 episodes. that that this is, among among the people looking to, 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 we've said to him ever.

Well, actually, it's actually it's a it's a it's a strange thing. because he has avoided that destiny for a very long time. Again, he's 72 years old. And he did not has not really emerged. as a political presence until two years ago when he was 70. So this is a, you know, it's a it's. a notable reinvention at a grand old age. Well, there's nothing wrong with reinvention.

I took around old age. I'm all for that. But, you know what 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? This moment, you know, having spent his entire adult, 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 to now. No, I don't know. Again, if this is if this is in this book, but it is it is a pivotal moment. that I know of when, when Steve Bannon and Roger Stone. came to him and said, you should run for president. So this this was a a Maga setup. It was a Maga setup. Why.

they thought that he would run for president, in for the for the Democratic nomination. He would undermine Joe Biden's show, Joe Biden's weakness as a Kennedy. He would he would invariably get significant. a numbers, a numbers that were would be large enough to say. for the Republicans to say even the Democrats don't want Joe Biden now. Now, the problem was that he liked this so much that then he turned around.

and said and said, oh no, I'm going to 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, and 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, and he was he seemed to be kind of. trying to back away from, 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 given the opportunity, he'd. take your children's vaccinations away. And I think I think people know that and they see that. And I think that is sticking. to the 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 going to 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. I'm not mocking him for the fact that he's actually got an illness, mocking.

him because he's a fool. And he thought, let me repeat this. He doesn't have an illness. The illness is is that he. He smoked a lot of crack. He shouldn't be in the job that he is. Well, but he should be, because he fits in perfectly with this, with this cast of of boobs and, And I would say, Mr. President, this is the finest cabinet I've ever seen.

All right, what if it turns out the Pope. Leo loves publicity as much as Donald Trump? Well, let's African. Yeah, let's not even go go there yet, because right now he's not a publicity seeker. We've spent he's been the pope for for over a year or a year, and been been, quiescent.

I mean, he's been, obviously tending to. Vatican politics has not spoken out. So now now we see at this moment he is. and it's defined by a certain degree of urgency. The war is, the 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, he's he's engaged the president, the United States. and other member and the vice president of the United States. in trying to in he's forcing them to justify themselves and.

and in Trump fashion, of course, he has. now made the pope 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 would not have his job if it wasn't, if it wasn't because of Donald Trump, it's, you know, it's just it's amazing. Just send out, you know, one of one.

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

and well, 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. 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 they should get Jeff Zucker, to run CNN. And that's why 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. The problem, of course, is that now, well, he is God. Actually, he is God. He's been dressing up as God and obviously putting out. I mean, this week, JD 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 JD Vance now it is. He is. Obviously, this is not so much directed against the Pope, and JD Vance has.

a new book coming out on his conversion called Communion 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 in and I'm sure Trump called them up and said, you're a Catholic. You know that Catholic thing that you God, 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 for.

Well, Pope Leo responded, woe to those who manipulate. This is. This is the the 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?

Yeah, filth. You know, could be that the Pope. saves this filth. Stormy. Daniels that a Stormy Daniels Ray, reference. You think? I don't know, is that a Stormy Daniels reference? I mean, can Trump get out of this mess? Well, I think let's look at it in a in a broader sense, Trump. Trump is 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 a from tariffs to, to immigration to the to the cruelty. of his immigration policies to the war. There is nothing going right for him at this, this point. He's looking at midterms in which he will be, which he is, I think.

I think everyone believes they will be devastating. The only question is how devastating? And, and so what is he going to do? What is he going to do? How is he going to get out of this? I mean, there's only two ways to get out of this, which is which. is the Trump way to, to double down or, or the other way, which is, which is to recast your policies.

and try to find some, some better, 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 doubts. 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 my life does work occasionally.

Not that way. But, usually when you anticipate it working. that way, it's pretty safely does not. What he will try to do is interfere with the elections. and sow doubt about the elections. And, and game the system to his benefit. As Viktor Orban, his, his. his, his brother in Hungary tried to do, unsuccessfully.

And I think what we are the, 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 mean, I hope I'm right too. Well, you said it with great confidence. I mean, even, Prime Minister Meloni,

in well, you have the whole world at this point, which is another, another, another kind of, red flag for, 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, you know, and just just hope against hope. He isn't going to do the worst possible thing has now is now really on a,

on a kind of systematic basis, turning against him. Hungarians are obviously obviously. turning against him, but the Italians, you know, the prime, the Italian prime minister who has been a right wing, my, you know, you know, a, a formal again. brother in right wing arms has also now turned against him. The Canadians, of course, they're. they're, you know, they're separating their land mass from, from ours.

But the Bologna is particularly interesting because when she came over, in October, Trump put his arm around her and said, you really beautiful. Do you mind if I call you beautiful? You say beautiful. And now she's, I mean, the she's got facing. elections next year and is clearly feeling angry. Yes. You know that picture? She's relatively, relatively diminutive and he's that hulking. I mean, I know he looks like he's going to crush her at any minute,

but but she's 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 popular, unpopular in Italy, you know, the Hungarians, the Italians, the Canadians, the the French. Macron is like the Spanish, the British. You know, 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.

and that squeamish British way squeamish. You know, it's like, you know, doing it but not doing it. Come on. Passive aggressive sort of passive aggressive way. Well, whatever he he's you say is that is 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's going to 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 going to 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.

It's it's it's actually actually my, my, my wife has been now after me. to go to take the kid to do our formal family trip to Washington. before the city is it's, it's Trump is Trump ified 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, 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 ball. Well, the the National Arts Commission. has said it can go ahead, but it's still facing a court order. Is national. Yeah. That he. Yeah. That he put his people on. But it's still, in the courts. It's still embroiled in whether or not it had without congressional approval. I think the, the, the courts gave a, a temporary go ahead that they can continue work at this point.

So that was which I think is readdress tomorrow, right? April 17th. 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 a 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 going to 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. and the the military was sort of deliberately running out of order. I mean, it was the opposite of the 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 the this,

this at this July 4th anniversary. coming up for that was his birthday parade. Right. Well, yeah. His birthday. This is this is now the, the 250th anniversary. Right. So, I 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 and that.

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 he puts it together. Yeah. But and the mean, the, the, the thing that I would be concerned. about is, is him owning this symbolic moment. And I mean, clearly, clearly, he does own it at this, at this, this point.

So what is he going to do with it? I mean, besides, besides the 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 of America. Liz Truss, who was British prime minister for 44 days, less famously than that of, of a lettuce, managed to survive.

Got to preside over the Queen's funeral. So. So maybe these anniversaries are, in fact, much less important than we. than we think now. Okay, I think that that's that you just convinced me. Let's not worry about that, okay? All right. We're not going to worry about that. Who cares? Who cares? Except that after the last our anniversary, it's our anniversary. But except after the last birthday parade, Hegseth was reamed out by the. Well, I on another.

Yeah. No, I think it's. I think it's a 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 is 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 that's why. 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, well, that's all right. Our to figure that. Yeah, that's. But sometimes that's what it takes. Takes what it takes. All right. So we have two, limericks. One of the, 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 all, and then some more negative things. So it's got it isn't. 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. or who does Lisa or Pottery, but it's actually rather beautiful. So I'm going to put it here to celebrate. Thank you Lisa. Appreciate it.

I'm going to read an email. that's kind of a has a Henry the eighth sort of. cast to it. Yeah, it does, it does, but it's it's enormous and it feels regal. I'm going to read the first Limerick you can read Garth reads. Okay. So this is from Nicholas Rochford, a very bold 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 and Germany and the UK, Hungary, Italy, Canada, France. We're leading the international anti-Trump movement. So, okay, are you going to read? Go for it. I would be delighted when the night mein when slew has seen it's, say. through a dream feed of fragments at play. came a flicker of throne.

Half remembered half noon. and the state slipping softly to sway. Well, I would it should be an. a an estate slipping softly away. But that's not what it says. No, I know, but did we, did we transcribe. this right, I think I think we must have transcribed this wrong. Possible. We transcribed it wrong anyway. God forbid if we did, Blueprint 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 which actually which has gone underreported, which is that. Trump has sequestered the plane that Corey Lewandowski and Kristi. Noem so enjoyed when she was secretary of Homeland Security, enjoyed so enjoyed. And he's given it to Melania. Our correspondent Tom Lach managed. to get photos, not photos of generically. what this thing looked like, but the actual photos of, of the bedroom.

and 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 stand up shower in it and a big bed. And I'm told that her. Kristi names team referred to it as shag tastic.

So and Melania is getting 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. 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 Melania's office is accepting a plane. From where? Homeland security. Where did this plane come from? From Kristi Noem. And so the from the Department of Homeland Security. So the the, the Homeland Security secretary has. has always had a I don't know, but it belonged. Well, it came from that department and it's. costing 50 for the cost of the DHS.

Buying it for the white House was actually 108. million. $108 million. Okay. Well, the Melania story, continues. Do we have an update on your case? Same word. 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. Yet. And if you were a Trump appointed judge, would you want to rush to? I would want to think very carefully about that decision. Michael. Happy anniversary. at the anniversary. 100 more to come. I have more. One more to come is that it actually could be more than 100.

Yeah. We have 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. 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 just that unctuous smell of. I think we should send a piece to Pete Hegseth. We should send a piece to all the cabinet. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Why don't we just send them each a whole cake? I'm going to, 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 beast tier members now. There are too many names to read out and we really appreciate your support.