How Trump Will Cave on the Biggest Stage: Rothkopf | The Daily Beast Podcast

We have our wannabe king going to their successor to the Emperor. What's going to happen. is that they're going to do just what has happened throughout history. There's something called the Great Kowtow, which is when these leaders come in and they have to bow to the. the emperor of China. And Trump's going to do a bunch of that in private meetings. This is what really worries people. Is he going to give a wink. and a nod and say, well, I don't really care so much about Taiwan or,

you know, help me out a little bit on Iran. and I'll help you out a little bit on Taiwan. Everybody knows Trump doesn't actually believe in anything that, you know, doesn't put money in his bank account or make him look better. And and those are the things I'd watch for coming out of any. trip of Trump anywhere. I'm cold. This is the Daily Beast podcast, and it's an enormous week for the leader of the free world, by whom I mean Donald Trump, because he's going on a trip to China.

Who better to discuss this with than a man who talks to, well, all sorts of connections in China himself, David Rothkopf. He can explain why the Chinese call Trump behind his back, comrade nation. builder, and he's not building the nation he should be building. And why? JD Vance is the equivalent of political hantavirus. Just before we get into it, please smash.

the subscription button wherever you get this podcast. We are independent media. and we love your support and we appreciate your support. All right. No time to waste. Big trip to China this week. David Rothkopf, let's get into it. David rothkopf. Joanna Coles If it's Monday, it must be Rothkopf. And on Wednesday this week, our leader, the great leader of the free world, Donald J.

Trump is going to China. He's going to China. You've written an excellent column on this. What's going to happen when he gets there? What are the Chinese planning for him? Well, I think he's going for two things. One is he's going to change the subject. He is so desperate to take the subject away from. Iran is plummeting poll numbers. You know, controversies over what color he's painting.

The reflecting pool in Washington. Nothing is going right for Donald Trump right now. So what he'd like to do is have some big scene on the world stage. where he feels like I am a statesman, and going to China. is one of those because he thinks she's in ping is, you know, the world leader whose approval matters the most because frankly, he is right. In fact, I think Donald Trump may be on this trip. the first time a US president has ever gone to China,

where the US president wasn't the most powerful man in the room. The Chinese president will be. But what he what he wants it. Well, it's you know, it is what it is. But what he wants is, you know, some kind of wins. You know, he does not want to fight with the Chinese. I know you know the New York Times today is story. They're both sides are ready to stand tough with each other.

That's because they're talking to people in both governments who are saying that. Right? They want to appear tough. But what Trump wants is some deals, and he's going to get the deals. the way he usually gets deals, which is to say he's. going to take a problem that he created and undo it. That's that's that's how he gets wins this time around. And and so, you know, he's created all these tariffs. and he'll say, well, we'll remove some of the tariffs in exchange. for the Chinese agreeing to buy a bunch of stuff,

which is, by the way, exactly what happened in his last term. And they didn't buy the stuff. They know that. they don't have to follow through and that these are nonbinding promises. And I don't know, he'll get some kind of deal on rare earth metals or something. And he'll say, look, it was fantastic. And there was a big dinner and there was a toast, and they loved me. And she Jinping put his arm around me. And so by association, I'm a great man because he's a great man.

And and if you know, that's what he wants. Well, this seems so typical of leaders when they get into trouble at home. that they go abroad looking for international validation, as if somehow that's going to impact American voters. But I do remember, and I'm just picking up on your point that the last time. you went to China, 2017, so nine years ago, he came back claiming that he had. won $250 billion worth of business, most of which didn't happen, or.

or the rest of which had actually already been agreed upon. So this is basically nine years on another PR exercise. Is that fair? Well, no, no, no, it's absolutely fair. First of all, second term presidents tend to do this. They they they realize that, you know, they're lame ducks. and they have less influence here. And so they travel more. They go around the world. But, you know, I point out in the article,

there's a long history of world leaders making their way. to China, the Middle Kingdom, because it was so important. And, you know, in this case, we have our wannabe king. going to their successor to the emperor. But but she's and Ping's the emperor. And what's going to happen is that they're going to do. just what has happened throughout history. There's something called the Great Kowtow,

which is when these leaders come in and they have to bow to the. to the emperor of China, and Trump's going to do a bunch of that. You just know that he is. And, and in private meetings, this is what really worries people. Is he going to give a wink. and a nod and say, well, I don't really care so much about Taiwan or, you know, help me out a little bit on Iran. and I'll help you out a little bit on Taiwan or whatever, you know. I mean, we nobody knows because everybody knows Trump doesn't.

actually believe in anything that, you know, doesn't put money in his bank account or make him look better. And and those are the things I'd watch for coming out of any trip of Trump. anywhere. So, David, when you say that he wants to do deals, to what extent. do you think he wants to come away with some personal grift here? Is this also about him getting Trump hotels, a chain of Trump hotels across various provinces?

Well, I don't know. You know, I'd look to see. whether his sons are with him on this trip or they go shortly after. You recall that when he went over to China in his first term, right before the trip, the Chinese granted a bunch of trademarks. and other kinds of benefits to evoke Trump's businesses. So they're used to sort of, you know, buttering Trump's bread a little bit. And, you know, I think that's what happens, you know, when these foreign leaders used to go.

to visit the emperor of China, they would bring presents for the emperor, but it was a tradition for the emperor of China. to give even bigger presents back, to show how powerful he was. And, well, you know. Sheesh. And ping is not the Emperor, at least in title. He's certainly got the authority of any emperor. I wouldn't be surprised if there's a little something. Something for a president and all this.

Well, I hope he gets more than the crystal football that Marco Rubio gave the Pope. To which the Pope looked nonplused and went, oh, okay. Wow. Because a crystal football small. It was a miniature one. It wasn't even a full size one. Seemed diminutive for the Pope, and I'm assuming that more will go to to China. But there's there's always there's always less than meets the eye to Marco Rubio. Well, we can come on to Marco Rubio in a moment,

but I wanted to to ask you. to expound on the paragraph in your column I found most interesting, which is actually that Donald Trump is the single person who's helped. China most in the last ten years, that actually his. What's the. word quarter rising of American foreign policy. has allowed China to expand in all sorts of ways.

Can you talk a little bit more about that? I'm thinking of the paragraph that begins. Furthermore, Trump has taken almost systematically steps. to have benefited China. He's promoted fossil fuels and at the same time. pushed up their prices, thus enabling China, the world leader in green technology, to cash in. He's turned away the best lines from our universities. He's cut scientific research, so China's increased theirs. He's directed dollars that could have been invested.

in American schools and the health of the US workforce, and siphoned them off to help America's billionaires. He's fostered trade wars. He's enabled China to step in and seize new markets. And he's made America look under bendable and China, amazingly, as if it's the most stable nation. Yeah, that's a good answer to your question. Well, there's nothing better than happening. There's nothing better than having your words read back to you, right?

Yeah. Right. Well, no, but I mean, I think that that's the point, right? In fact, you know, in China, there's a joke and it's the joke. extends back to the last term, but it continues to be used. where in Chinese, Trump. is often referred to as comrade nation builder. And it's sort of righ. Chinese humor that he's not building the US as a nation. He's helping to build China as a nation. And almost every decision Trump makes, you know, this Iran war,

you know, distracts us. We're using weapons that we've had in the Indo-Pacific. We're moving them to this part of the world. where you're spending billions of dollars. We're sending the message to the world that we are not. a reliable partner, that we're a rogue state. China is seen by all the countries in the region, is. kind of a stabilizing influence that helps them. When he goes into a place like Venezuela, when he goes in and, and, you know, seeks to undermine the NATO alliance when he, you know,

pulls funding for the things that help America grow. You know, when he promotes division in the United States. between rich and poor or white and black or men and women, all of these things ultimately help. China's relative influence in the world. And and in a way that I would go a step further.

and say, Trump is behaving, you know, in this kind of boorish way, this emperor's new clothes way. of, of, of, of, you know, sort of trying to throw around his power. You know, there was this Atlantic article a week or so ago. saying Trump thinks of himself as a great man of history. And the Chinese, meanwhile, are learning how to be a different kind of superpower. than the US or a different kind of superpower than the Soviet Union was.

They're doing it low key. It's transactional. It's not ideological. They they unlike the Soviet Union, they want a global system. They just want to have more influence within it. And in every possible way. Under Trump, they've gained. in every possible way. And and they know that. They know that the longer Trump is in office, the better it's going to be for them, relatively speaking.

And, you know, they they honestly, I don't think anybody in China and I go to China periodically. I talk to Chinese leaders, I talk to Chinese diplomats, I talk to journalists. in China all the time I've been to China, I don't know, 20 times in my life. And I have to say, you know, they had no idea. that Donald Trump was going to assess, assist them in kind of rocketing forward, as they have in the course of the past few years.

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I mean, when you talk to your Chinese diplomat friends, when you talk to people close to the top of the China. leadership ladder, what do they make of Trump? Well, you know, it's it's it's real interesting. I remember going to China in. 2015, 2016. And I remember going once speaking at the Shanghai Institute. of International Affairs, and everybody leaned forward.

who's going to win the election? And I said, oh, well, Hillary Clinton will definitely win the election. This is you know, I'm an expert. I knew that that would happen. But but, but but then they were like, well, what would happen if Trump won the election? And I was like, well, you know, he doesn't know. He's you know, he's never served in high public office before. He is less public service experience than anybody. who has ever been elected president. He has no foreign policy experience and so on.

And they said back then, and a lot of people said it to me. in that initial period, but he's rich. and and being rich carries a lot of weight lifted in China. because it's assumed that because he's rich, he's smart. You know, they felt the same way about Elon. Elon Musk's mother is kind of a big celebrity there. You know they like richness. You know the you know the the the wishing the thing that they wish each other. at Chinese New Year is, you know, may you get rich.

And and that's, that's, you know, that colored their view. But over time, they came to realize that. Trump was a kind of a buffoon. And and they started to make fun of him. in this comrade nation builder thing started a long time ago. You know, he's another nickname he has is the king of knowing, you know, which because he's, you know, he's always saying, I know everything.

You know, he's the king of knowing what a great name for him. Yeah. Well, you know, there's these, you know, and then in Chinese, that's Dong Wang Wong. But, you know, he's he's known as tariff beauty. He's known, you know, when all these memes come up. in Chinese social media, which is, of course, super advanced, and the Chinese government, which, you know,

censors some social. media, is not so quick to censor. comments about Trump, although they may be this week. But, you know, you know, when Trump did that prayer circle. and everybody got around him and, you know, put put their hands on him, it instantly became a meme because it was so kooky. And they thought, you know, this this was this is this is so kooky. And so, David,

if you're Shin Ping and you're expecting Trump. to turn up on Wednesday, what is your are you flattering him? Are you are you being passive aggressive, as the British. would be and sort of laughing behind his back? What is how will they. show their I guess it's. sort of faux regard for his power, knowing that they think he's a buffoon.

I think what they won't show that they. they will be formally very respectful of him. They will host banquets, they will. take him on tours, they will give him gifts. They will have high level meetings. They will do photo ops. If Trump or somebody in Trump's orbit pushes on them. Hard as US visitors have in the past on Taiwan.

or on Tibet, or on. the rights of Christians in China, or on what's going on in Xinjiang province. with the Uyghurs or those kind of things, they will push back, but I don't think they expect much of that. I think if if there is, you know, any nudging from Trump, they expect him to say, hey, could you cut it out with helping the Iranians? And they will say, well, we think, you know, this is an illegal war.

And and they, you know, they've become very, very self-confident. And and what happens is when people challenge them, they just simply say, no, they shut it down. And. You know, this. this has happened multiple times. in the past, even a few weeks with other visitors coming by. And, and.

the China is more confident. right now in its global leadership role and its strength and its leaders. There has been I, you know, in centuries, I think and, you know, it's worth remembering. And, you know, the I don't want to make two big a historical detour, but. China was the largest economy. in the world for all of world history.

Until 1835. or so, when the Industrial Revolution gave. countries in Europe, beginning with the UK, a leg up, and it took about. 150 years for the Industrial Revolution to catch up to China. But once it did, once China had the technology, it was only a matter of time before it would assume again. the role of largest economy. And, and and that's, you know, that's.

where we are, that's this inflection point in history that we're at. And it you know, it seems we talk about Trump all the time, but it's not really about Trump. It's about much bigger historical trends. So you mentioned that this will distract. attention obviously from Iran. What's happening in the Strait of Hormuz? What's happening. Where are we? Who's who's shooting at who? Well, you know, at any given moment, anybody could be shooting at anybody else.

What happened over the weekend was that the Iranians. submitted their response to US peace proposals, or whatever you would call the US proposals, and the Chinese. The Iranian response was essentially, you know, to lay out their positions again. And Trump saw this and he blew up and he said, this is an unacceptable response because they're not going. to give up their enriched uranium.

They are not going to send it out of Iran. He is not going to get a deal on the Iranian Iranian. uranium, say that five times fast is not going to get it. He's not going to get a deal on that. That is better than the deal we had in 2015 with the JCPoA. And that's. Which stands for Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. And, and and so, you know, he's desperate to say,

I got a better deal than Obama and he's not going to get it. And that's why, you know, for him, his. last best hope is to change the subject and hope something else happens. But how can he change the subject? I understand in in domestic affairs he can change the subject. He he can say things aren't happening, but we know that. all is not being dispersed across the world. I'm sitting here in Europe every day.

The papers are full of the increase in energy prices and the fact that people. are going to have to take their summer holidays in the UK. because airlines are going to be unreliable. because of the price and availability of jet fuel. This is not something that you don't even have summer in the UK, right? So that's how bad it is. That's how bad it is. So exactly. So he can't hide from the energy shock.

that has rippled throughout the globe because of the Strait of Hormuz. So when people say, he's going to ignore it or he's going to say it's over. He can't. I mean, he can say it's over, but people know it's not over. because they are experiencing the consequences. Yeah. And I think that's why, you know, as I as I said before, I think the most. likely outcome is, is, is to move the goalposts on a regular basis. So, you know, you say, okay, well let's have a framework agreement.

And then they agree to a framework agreement, which is a predicate to a preliminary agreement. The preliminary agreement doesn't deal with some of the tough issues. Those will be dealt with in phases and phase one. And how do I know this? Well, because that's what happened in Gaza. We came you know, there was going to be a 22 point plan, and we came up with an agreement to discuss the plan. And I think we've done one of the 22 points.

or two of the 22 points and the hard things like getting Hamas. to disarm themselves, that's not happening. But we created a process and we hid behind the process. That's the most likely outcome here, that we create a process. We hide behind the process. We slowly pull some of the ships out of the area, but. we remain in a heightened state of awareness. There are flare ups on a periodic basis, and, you know, it's managed as we go.

now, by the way, also over the weekend, both. Bibi Netanyahu and Donald Trump at different times said. there are things, you know, that suggest that the fighting will continue. And so I just think what we're going to end up with. is a very sloppy situation. And Trump will come up. with some way to tone it down a little bit, I think, by the way.

Here's another. This is just one of my own little it's not quite a conspiracy theory. It's just a theory. Okay. But I've been talking to some people around town and people are like, you know, you know, the Daily Beast, other people that write articles. Well, Marco Rubio is on the way up and JD Vance is on the way down. And that does seem to be true. But but the question is whether that's a prize for Marco, because I think what happens is Trump says, okay, Marco, you are our Iran man.

No, you know, you know which, by the way, if you're the secretary of state. and the national security adviser as he is, that's what it should be. But but what I'm saying is, I think Trump will push the responsibility down. That's another thing that he does. Might he start a war with Cuba? Sure. You know, there are reports now of activity in and around Cuba, intelligence gathering activity by the US that is absolutely identical.

to the activity that preceded us going into Venezuela. So go to China, go to Cuba, do a tax cut, have a UFC fight on the South Lawn of the white House, have a big birthday party when Trump turns 80. and some UFO files. Yeah, yeah. By the way, yeah, I didn't I mean that was a nothing burger but nothing burger. Right.

But but everything. But why was it released. Why was you know, I mean, you know what the release. Epstein file every two days, I don't know, have Melania make another movie. They will come up with stuff to try to distract from this because. And this is really what we should lose sight of. It's one of the biggest fuck ups ever by a president. It's not the biggest. The Iraq war, there were 600,000 people who were killed in the Iraq War,

and that shouldn't have happened. Vietnam was pretty bad, you know, that we've we've we've had our share of screw ups. But just in terms of the recklessness and, and, and mismanagement of this, it's it's epic. I mean, it is really a clown show. And they're not able to get out of it because there's there's nobody. competent involved. And Trump's expectations are completely unrealistic.

It's so interesting being in Europe because people keep saying to me. Oh, thank goodness for Marco Rubio, because Marco Rubio, the only standard they have for him is that he can speak fluently. So they understand. that Donald Trump is sort of challenged and goes off on his weave. And he's 80 and he's got chronic venous insufficiency, and his hands. are swollen and his fetus wohlen and everything about him is swollen. But they they assume that somehow. Marco Rubio not every not everything but go on.

But they assume that Marco Rubio is somehow running the show. because he's coherent and can string a sentence together. They believe that JD Vance is a puppet of Peter Thiel. and the sort of crazy, right, Catholic Silicon Valley guys. But Marco Rubio is a guy. They feel they recognize that he seems to speak normally. He's a neo con. They understand that obviously because of the Bush era. And I keep saying, I think to your point, Donald.

Trump is setting him up for failure in the way that he's setting JD. Vance up for failure because he doesn't want anybody to follow him. And and certainly he sort of suggesting. that Cuba will be Marco Rubio's next move. Right. Well, I'm sure Marco Rubio is pushing for that. But I do think your point is a really, you know, essential point, right? Marco Rubio talks a smooth game. He was a senator for a while.

But in the course of being in the Trump administration, he's given up every value. he had, including thinking Trump was a danger to the Republic. when he was running for president against him. But now, you know, I mean, he has done thing after thing after thing, which is Trumpian and a dangerous. And so he may talk a smooth game, but, you know, this is the guy who shut down USAID. And, you know, the Lancet has predicted that 14 million people will die. as a result of it, that not be inconvenience.

will die between now and the end of this decade. as a result of this thing that Marco Rubio has overseen, Marco. Rubio is gutting the State Department in the middle of this war. They have shut down the parts of the State Department that managed nuclear issues. They have, you know, gutted parts of the State Department. They fired 200 diplomats last week. He backs Trump on all of Trump's craziness. And, you know, I think, you know, Europeans of all people ought to be able.

to understand that being able to speak. in coherent sentences is often. a, you know, a cover for people with really. You know, lignin intentions and or incompetence. I mean, you know, you're in the UK right now. Keir Starmer can speak in sentences. Right? But he's a terrible prime minister.

And the country just gave him a big kick in the butt. Yeah it's interesting I mean it's a little bit. like watching someone being bullied in the playground. I mean, he got a landslide victory. for labor after 14 years of conservative rule. And yet it was called the Loveless landslide because nobody likes him. As we're recording this, he's actually addressing his party to see whether or not.

he will have their continued support for the next three years. He's a smart prime minister, and he may not be Churchill, but, you know, neither was Churchill, right? He got turfed out as soon as the war was over. And, and and, you know, he had had plenty of patches. of not being super successful. The British populace is fickle, but I think there's something bigger. going on there, which is super interesting to should be to Americans. And that is that, you know, there have been these political parties.

in the UK for 150 years, the Tories and the Labor Party as ultimately became an annoyance. known as and in the most recent round of elections, who dominated it. the Reform Party, the Green Party, the Liberal Democratic Party. and the two traditional parties fell behind like they did in France. And I think that there is a question about what is the shelf life of traditional. political parties if they don't adapt, and why is that relevant to Americans?

Will de you know, I mean, the Republican Party and the Democratic Party, the Republicans threw in with MAGA this bunch of lunatics. And once Trump goes, I don't know that there's going to be anything left there. There's no real leadership. And and the Democrats have not been particularly. great in their response to that. And so, you know, I think there is a, you know, a yearning and I don't know if it's going to come. outside of these parties or new factions within these parties, but there sure is a.

yearning for change in the United States and just new blood, new voices, new ideas. And. You know, I, I, I suspect that's going to come from somewhere. in the center left this time around, and I certainly hope that it does. But but we have the same hunger. Europe has the same hunger that we need political leaders.

to start talking about the future, start talking about a world being remade by AI. Start talking about a world in which China, as a leader, start. talking about a world in which the jobs we thought we would have. for the rest of our lives we won't have, or the university educations. we thought would benefit our kids are not going to benefit our kids. You know, they want people to deal with these real issues. And, and, and right now, political parties everywhere are falling real short. Well, and I think also, it's fair to say one of the lessons from the British.

election is that people want politicians who don't talk in jargon. They want people who talk in theory as it is, which we know. is one of the reasons. that Trump, especially first time round, was so popular that in theory, he just said the stuff that a lot of people were thinking but didn't dare say. And Nigel Farage, who's the Trump light character here, has that ability to to speak as if he's standing next to you in the pub.

And, you know, I was looking through some of the comments that he's made. recently because we were describing him in another podcast as a drinker. And in fact, someone had said to me, is he a drinker? Because he's always photographed with a pint of beer in his hand, as if he's down at the party and you just want to go up and have a beer with him. Which, of course, we remember people saying they felt they wanted to do with George Bush. And he said, I'm a boozer, but I'm not an alcoholic. And just the word boozer sort of makes you feel like, oh, he's a guy.

that likes a couple of beers. I like a couple of beers. Why not? Anyway, he's got some alarming policies. He's very much Trump light. He's spent a lot of time with Donald Trump. He just got 5 million pounds that was given to him. in a sort of Trump like move from one of his supporters. That was in theory for his security. And it was a gift, so he doesn't have to pay tax on it, which has caused people some raised eyebrows, but it didn't stop them voting for him. It feels very Trumpian.

Anyway, let's figure out it is. It is very trumpeted. The amazing thing is that Farage was behind Brexit, which was the stupidest collective decision that any country. has made in the past 50 years other than electing Donald Trump. And and you know, it's it somehow he is still managed. to stick around with, by the way, the help of some Russian oligarchs. A little bit of a nudge here because the Russians like to do this.

with, as they did with Maria La Penn and France, and as they've done with some of these other parties. they did with former Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary. And isn't it nice because Peter Magyar was inaugurated over the weekend, that we can say former Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, and as they're trying to do. here in the U.S., despite his help from JD. Vance at that rally the week of the election, Viktor Orban, you know, I mean, enough, JD Vance, you know, the.

it was is is the kiss of death politically the Pope he was the kiss of death. for the pope, who died the day after meeting him and now Viktor Orban. He does not have the touch of luck about him. He is not an Irish leprechaun. JD Vance is political hantavirus. Yes. He is listed to hand the virus. That's brilliant. That's exactly what JD Vance is. You're just like, no, no, keep him away from me.

No no, no. Yeah. You know, by the way, I don't know if you you do. sometimes manage to get to watch SNL while you're over there. And this weekend, Matt Damon was it was it was pretty good. But in Weekend Update, there was a scene where they. had Donald Trump on camera saying, don't worry about hantavirus. There's only 1 or 2 Americans affected. We have it under control. And then they cut brilliantly.

to the exact same statement from Trump in 2020, in March of 2020 or February 2020, saying don't worry about Covid. There's only one person who is a victim. We have it under control, almost the exact same words, and it was absolutely chilling. And it was I, you know, to me it was a good reminder. You know, this Trump, a billion people died under Trump because he mismanaged it. All the estimates are that 2000 400,000 of his people.

wouldn't have died if Donald Trump had managed this thing properly. And somehow we forget that. And I'm afraid the way. we're going to be reminded is, you know, pandemic number two, last week, you talked about the fact that you thought we'd been in a collective. sort of almost depression for the last ten years. because we went from Trump to Covid to Joe Biden. It's true. It's true. Right. And back to Trump. We also talked last week about it being this sort of reality show and him.

going around his cabinet table, and each character seemed worse than the last. And now, of course, we discover Sean Duffy, the transport secretary, former Fox News host, has been making his own reality show. And I can't help wondering, David, if that is going to put him in the crosshairs with Donald Trump. This is a man with nine children. He's taken two of them and his wife on a. cross-country tour, and this is what he's been doing.

And there was an incredible quote that said, yeah, I've been doing this show, but I've managed to find some hours during the day to do some work. Hello. You're the transport secretary. You are the Transport secretary. That's just. I mean, this is a it's such a clown show and it's easy. to get distracted by it because it is like the cast of a reality show. And the only thing is, like, you know, this is like, you know, a Jersey shore, and you're trying to figure out.

which one of them is Snooki, which one of them is the situation, you know, and, and, and and, you know, you know, Cash. Patel has his branded bottles of bourbon, and you can't even believe. this craziness that he's like, you know, guy who's, like, known as a party. And he's he's handing out these things. And, you know, you've got Pete. Hegseth meeting with his pastor, talking about how,

you know, you know, only white men can solve problems. And, and, and, and Trump was put here by God and you've got, you know, one by one each one of these people, JD. Vance is killing popes and and this, you know, the education secretary is trying to shut the education department down, and the health secretary is cutting the penis off of raccoons. And it's like, what? Who who's writing this script? Well, like the labor secretary who and I think we might have mentioned.

this last time, but to me, it's just such a, such a sort of warning. of why you would never want to work for Donald Trump, that you're forced. to fawn over him in the most humiliating. and depressing way, and still you get fired. Lori Chavez dreamer who who says, oh, Mr. President, in a cabinet? You know, in the televised cabinet meeting. I do hope you like the banner of your beautiful face.

on the outside of the Department of Labor, because I think she was the first to do it. And just Scott Beasant, who's given. his whole tone of voice, is, you know, let them eat cake. Although, you know, he comes up with these absurd statements like, you know, I mean, whenever he speaks, I see a guy with a monocle and, and, you know, you know, like saying, well, perhaps you can't afford, you know, black caviar, but you can have, you know, salmon Row instead and, and, and, and.

and you had Kevin Hassett, the president's chief economic. adviser on television a couple of days ago going well. The economy is great. because people are spending more on their credit cards right now. And you're like, what? Yeah. That's great. You know, they're building up debt. But literally everywhere you look in this cabinet. is a character from a dark comedy. I mean, I think if you had Armando Iannucci,

who invented Veep and In the Loop and Death of Stalin, if you had him in the United States right now, he'd have a nervous breakdown. There's just too much satire to deal with. Well, David, on that note, too much satire to deal with. We've actually got the UK has got its own SNL. It started about a month ago and it's proving very popular. So I'm very curious. Final question to you, because next time we'll be speaking on Monday, we can review and post mortem the trip to China.

Will there be an extensive parade. that Donald will want to replicate for his own birthday parade? We remember last year when he reamed out Pete Hegseth. for the somewhat shambolic. birthday parade where, you know, soldiers were sort of jogging past Trump. Various people sitting with Trump were yawning, a couple were photographed asleep. It wasn't quite the goose stepping.

that I think he'd envisaged in DC. Do we think they will give him tips for how to have a big birthday parade? I don't know if they will, but I'm afraid he'll pay attention to other things like that. Last week they condemned two defense ministers to death. They they did give them suspended sentences. But Trump is going to go, oh yeah, I like that. I, I could I could put former cabinet members,

current cabinet members into jail or condemned them to death. You know, he loves that stuff. They he loves that with Kim Jong UN in North Korea. And I'm sure he will be sitting there taking pointers from XI Jinping. It's just not it's not the kind of stuff we may want him to be taking pointers on. Well, we can leave Todd Blanche to carry out those orders. Exactly. David, we will discuss the China trip next Monday.

Thank you very much for your insight as ever. I know you spend a lot of time with people thinking about China, and your column is really worth reading and sobering. in terms of how Donald Trump has just handed over on a platter. So much to the Chinese, all while talking up a big game. which is full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. Oh, nice. Nice. It's Macbeth.

It is Macbeth. Life is a tale full of sound and fury. A life is a tale told by an idiot. Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. And actually one of one of the best characters of all. A character who just killed and killed and killed to support his own ambition. Supported by actually his wife encouraged him. He was like on the fence and his wife encouraged him to do the killing. I saw a great production of Macbeth here in Washington, Ralph Fiennes.

oh yes, it was really, really good. Just a year or two ago. Well, there you go. There you go. Well, it's always the wife's fault, isn't it? It's always the. Well, in the case of Macbeth. In the case of Macbeth, it is the wife's fault. In my case, as I do this analysis of China. My wife speaks Chinese. She goes to China four times a year. She runs a cultural exchange program with the Chinese.

And I benefit immensely from the knowledge she gives me about China. So I will help, you know, it'll help. inform whatever I write for you and what we talk about next week. Excellent. All right. Well, I will look forward to discussing the China trip with you next week. David Rothkopf, many thanks. Thanks to you. So there you have it. JD Vance as political hunter virus Marco Rubio running around.

But is he being set up for a fall by Donald Trump? What comes after Iran? Is it Cuba? Well, we'll be back next week with David to debrief on the China trip. And let's keep an eye on who Trump takes with him. Does he take his family with him? Does he take Jared and Steve Wyckoff? Does he take Marco Rubio? Does he take JD Vance? I can't wait to see. I'll be back tomorrow with Inside Trump's head. 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. Thanks to our production team, Ryan Murray, Rachel Pace, Heather Pissarro, Neil Rosenhaus.