I Know Who Trump's Going to Fire Next: Wolff | Inside Trump's Head

The interesting thing is that he has spent more than a year, that there's been more than a year of stability. Well, and I was going to ask you, Suzy Wiles is supposed to be. one of the people that has ensured that. Yeah. No, I think that that's that's a fair understanding. And I know that one of the things that when she came in and she told Trump. that among her priorities here is to run a stable white House, I think it's just a pervasive sense of, of, of this fact dissatisfaction.

Who can I blame? I don't think it really relates to any one issue. I think it relates to two things are bad. Somebody needs to be blamed other than me. Need Donald Trump. So I'm going to fire somebody. Michael. Joanna. Oh, big news, big news, big news. Well, what you'd been predicting last week,

I think Pam Bondi has been fired. Another one down. So go on. Another one down. What do you. Many, many to go. Many to go. So I mean, we really. I've been I've been here before and this is Trump's go to move when things. when he feels things are out of control he fires somebody. Now the interesting. So the interesting thing is not that he is firing someone.

And last week I last week fired Kristi Noem. Now he's firing Pam Bondi. Others to come. The interesting thing is that he has spent more than a year. that there's been more than a year of stability. Well, and I was going to ask you, Suzy Wilds is supposed to be. one of the people that has ensured that. Yeah. No, I think that that's that's a fair understanding. And I know that one of the things that when she came in and she said, told Trump that, among her priorities.

here is to run a stable white House, which is to say. that that. revolving door of the first administration looked bad, had a bad effect. That was the chaos that, Trump one became known for. So, so she said, and she got a relative commitment. to the extent that you can get any commitment from, from, from Donald. Trump, that she would be able to,

she would. she would be able to keep the staff in place. and keep cabinet officers in place, too. So the executive branch would be her department to effectively manage. So Susie Wiles, as we know, last month announced. that the president announced on her behalf that she had breast cancer. She's being treated for breast cancer. We don't quite know what stage it's at. Do we think that she is less involved?

She's I'm I'm I'm hearing that she's that she's somewhat less present. Yes. So is he firing people while she's out of the office? Is that what's going on here? Yeah, I would say I would say yes. I mean, I wouldn't, I, I wouldn't set it up that she runs out to get. whatever treatment she's getting and then and then done. And then he fires somebody. But that sense of her always being there. of, of him having to somewhat look to her for,

you know, I'm, I'm going to do this and then she's not there. So I just think it's that has created part. of a new environment along with the fact. And I think this is the bigger headline. I think the, the, the, the arc of history. is beginning to bend to the downfall of Donald Trump. So the inflection point has happened. Nothing is going right for him. Everything is going wrong for him.

This is I don't think, in in a probably. probably the war represents the inflection point. I don't think he can recover here. Also, he is going in very shortly into into his formal lame duck period. Plus we are approaching the midterms, which are going to be a catastrophe. He he can't, you know, all of these these these efforts, the voting that this that you know, to try to, you know, the, the, the initiative in the, in, in the various states.

to reapportionment, the elector all of that is not going well. He's going to lose. It is finally I mean, at this, at this, this point. And I've been I've been watching doing this for for more than ten years now. It is going south. So in his go to move in that case is starting to fire people, which is going to increase the chaos, which is. going to increase the, the.

the how deeply south this is going. Okay. So why Pam Bondi now? Was it because the two of them walked out. yesterday together from the Supreme Court? I don't think that that has anything to do with. I mean, she would have had relatively little to do. with to do with this. This was a case that the administration had decided to bring. He obviously wanted to bring this and this case.

I mean, he I'm sure I'm sure was told that he would lose this case. I mean, it is possible, of course, that Pam Bondi said. we're going to win this case. And then but I doubt that she did that. We're going to talk about birthright citizenship. and the whole case, and this is storming out in a minute. So is it really the Epstein files her mishandling? No, I don't think I think it's just a pervasive sense of. of of this fact dissatisfaction. Who can I blame? I don't think it really relates to any one issue.

I think it relates to two things are bad. Somebody needs to be blamed other than me, me, Donald Trump. So I'm going to fire somebody and and I don't think I mean, I mean Kristi Noem last week Pam Bondi this this week, Tulsi Gabbard next week, RFK Jr the week after Howard. Nick inevitably coming up. I'd forgotten them. You know, it's it's this is just a set of a now a set of dominoes.

So he goes to this is a go to move. And he was held in check from that move for the first year. Plus for I think I think a lot of reasons, including Susie Wiles. But now we're back in the he's back in the he's back. he's back in those sort of control seat. And what does Pam Bondi do at this point? She can't have been this. This can't have been wholly unexpected, because certainly.

you've been predicting it. A lot of people have been saying at some point she's vulnerable. What does she do? Does she go into private practice? I mean, it's what everybody who who who leaves leaves government. There usually is a whole wealth of moneymaking opportunities, boring jobs. Jobs that you don't want. But you you do them because you make money. Now, in the first Trump administration, people, people. left the administration and no one wanted to hire them.

You were you were kind of tainted by Donald Trump. Is it different now? I think it probably has been somewhat different. But on the other hand, if the. arc of history is bending in the direction that I think it is bending, then it could get it could get dicey for all of these people. So she could either go to could go and work for Paul Weiss. I mean, Paul Weiss that bent the knee. Unfortunately quickly.

She can't I mean, she can't go to Paul White's. I mean, she can't go to a. liberal law firm, which is already I mean, Paul Weiss is already riven. by all kinds of, kinds of discontent. You know, I mean, if you're if you're a big law firm, you know, the thing that you most probably have to do, most of all, it's not really even about keeping your partners happy. It's keeping your associates happy. Because if they run, then there's no one to do the work. because the partners don't do the work. So, so that would they can't, that's not going to happen.

But I mean, obviously there are law firms that she, that she, that she could go to is, are there corporations. that she could go to to represent, you know, tech companies. Yeah, possibly. Possibly. But I just have the feeling. that things that the, the climate is about ready to change. So she goes to Dancing With the stars. like Sean Spicer did his first press spokesperson. Bingo. Right. Yeah. Pam Bondi, you better get your dancing shoes on and limber up.

Just a reminder, if you are watching this episode. and you're enjoying it, please share it with a friend. We're independent media and we've finally got to 600,000 subscribers. Thank you very much and crossed the line. We've crossed the line. I think we crossed the line yesterday. Or perhaps it's about we're about to cross the line. But anyway, we're right there. But we are independent media, so we appreciate. when these describer numbers, they, they, they unsubscribe and then you fall back. below the line that might happen to you, but it hasn't happened to us yet.

And we've got our 100th episode two weeks today. and we can't decide how to celebrate it. Is that when you're in Venice? No, I'll be here. Okay, good. So if you have any thoughts of how to celebrate it, we would be up for it. And when we embarked on this journey last August, we had no idea. quite how bad things were going to get. Not on the podcast, but in the world know. And we had no idea that we would be able to do this, over. and over again together, actually, or at least at least I was,

I was a little, little what you would do you be leery of that? Well, here we are. Great. Thank you very much. Well, here we are. We've also got tons of stuff to talk about. That crazy speech that that Trump gave last night, the strange timbre of the attorney general's. voice as he's presenting to Scotus and Trump walking out. What else have we got? The the the broom. Oh. Mr. gnome. Mr. gnome.

I mean, where to even begin to start with learning. But we will be talking, obviously, about learning. And, they've closed the ballroom down the ballroom construction. Sorry. Shalom. Paramus. Not a good week. So it's been it for the moment. They they've they've closed when we should. We should start. It would be an interesting pool. I actually, I'm sure one of these betting pools you can put money. Okay, I'll show you. Will there be a ballroom before Trump leaves office? Oh, that's a great.

We should start that immediate. Maybe that's how we should celebrate our hundredth. We should open a kind of regular account at Calcio. What's the other one? That I know nothing about this. I've never placed a bet in my life. Anyway. Did you see the speech last night when Trump addressed the nation? What was Passover last night? So I was at a Seder. But I did see it this morning. I woke up to it. Okay, that voice, when you wake up to it and it's, it's it's kind of worse than.

an alarm waking up to the alarm. I thought his voice was subdued last night, actually. Well, you know, I was I was thinking, I thought this was an unusual speech. I thought that he probably did not want to give it, I thought that he was had been, you know, cajoled into doing it. And then I thought, I know the the speech his speechwriter who, who,

who gets very little attention is a guy by the name of Ross Worthington. Perfectly, perfectly nice guy. I wouldn't say the top of the class, but, but a nice guy. who's been doing this for a long time, since the first administration, and and I, I think about what that would be to have to be Donald Trump. speechwriter a because he doesn't, you know, he deviates. So it really doesn't matter what what you say. And then you have to supply the words that Donald Trump would say.

So imagine that. I mean, this is, you know, so I say not to top of the class, but a reasonable, completely normal type person. And then he has to get into the head, as we do of of this, of this utterly inarticulate. sub verbal male, sub verbal. He's not really in his head, though, is he?

Is he in his mouth? Because I feel like there's often stuff coming out of Trump's mouth. that doesn't really connect with any part of a brain. Well, that's part of this. Part of the part of the struggle. Yes. I mean, I should have counted and I meant to count, and then I realize I have more important things to do. But the number of times. he said never seen anything like it, never seen anything like it. And then there was a strange phrase of he took over a dead end, crippled cut job. I did the hottest country. You can't. I'm banning you from doing.

You're not allowed to ban those Trump people. It wrote in and said, you're not allowed to ban me. I'm trying like, give him they like your Trump imitation. Well, they they appreciate that. I'm not trying to give him the benefit. of a British accent, a normal British accent. So I do it with an add a noise or a British accent. Could you maybe give him a Cockney accent? No, I don't think I could do that. That would be strange, but. but the overuse of no one's seen anything like it. I took over a crippled and dead country and made it the hottest country.

The attack on Barack Hussein Obama for his deal with Iran. It all felt desperate. Straits. Yeah. No, it it it did I felt I mean, he's in this position. I mean I mean we've said we said in the beginning of this, we said he was going to declare victory and get out. And that's what he tried to do last night to declare victory. What we didn't anticipate and what he didn't anticipate. is that he couldn't get out.

So, you know, so it's it's. that it's that kind of thing which we've discussed. before this the split screen. reality of how Trump operates. and in which in which he usually because he's. because he's an actor, because he's can command attention, because he is because he. he just he he just loves the screen. He usually prevails in the split screen.

So during the campaign, the split screen was. there were foreign criminal indictments against him and. which had never happened before in the history of almost any politician. And but then in the other other screen, it was Donald Trump. outside of the courtroom saying, you know, the judges are scum. and the prosecutors are scum, and the Democrats and everybody was scum. And he actually somehow won in that split screen battle.

That was who you paid attention to. That was if not, if not, the argument, the the narrative that was so, unexpected. Shocking, compelling. And, you know, the court grind that on like that. And so they lost that. But in this split screen which you have, you have Trump saying, we've won, we've achieved all of our goals.

You know, they're all dead. Whatever. And then that other split screen where you have the Iranians. still firing missiles, closing the Strait of Hormuz. And so nobody has any, any, any oil. And even though they've all been killed, somehow the government is still. is still functioning and not only functioning, but able to repress any kind of uprising. that Donald Trump had previously promised would certainly occur. Right. He said last night that they'd shot 45,000 protesters,

which was a higher number than we've heard. They may well have them. We don't know. But I thought that was interesting. Well, yeah, I mean, I mean, that that would be it. I, I hesitate to say it may be true because every number out of Donald Trump's. mouth is always not true and always exaggerated. But in this case, it might actually be true. Certainly people you talk to who have inside knowledge of Iran. say it's much higher than the sort of 7 to 10,000 that was initially thought.

So, the the question, what was his goal last night? I mean, I mean, again, this is kind of. normalizing it to assume he had a goal, other than a kind of irritation. that that the perception is that the war is not going well, that this is a forever. war, that the MAGA people are annoyed that. Democrats are, are, are on him.

Other Republicans are beginning to complain and the. and the economy could go into the crapper because because of this. So he he is that was channeling his this is what I heard. that was channeling his annoyance at everybody else's annoyance essentially. And and always saying, why don't you, you know, I mean, any objection to anything he does. makes him cranky.

So do you think someone has said to him, look, you never sold this war. to the American people? At the beginning of it, they woke up on Saturday to hear that we were bombing Iran. You need to get on top of this and go out and talk to people. and make it look like it's a proper thing. No, no, nobody. I mean, anybody would have said that to any other president. No one would have said that to Donald Trump. So this would be this would be they, they they would.

have, would have said, you know, people want to hear you. You know, if you go out there, and talk about things that will really, you know, I mean, people will will, will really respond to that. They respond to you. Right? They respond to you. They need to see that President. So it's all about you would have pitch this on. the greatness of Donald Trump, not the failures. of Donald Trump, to get him out in front of the camera last night. Right, because it was short for Donald Trump.

I mean, we saw him at the state of the Union, and that was one hour, 47 minutes. And I sort of, you know, I was sort of sitting there last night. bracing for impact of, of a long speech, but it was pretty short as it was, whatever, 15 minutes. I, I think it was 20 minutes. But it's just is, is, kind of shocking, actually. Yeah. It mean to get Donald Donald Trump off the stage in 20 minutes. is a major accomplishment. I mean, it's almost a signal, I think that something is going wrong.

Interesting. So. Right. So it was a short speech. His voice seemed weak to me. There wasn't the usual range. He didn't look like he was enjoying himself. at the state of the Union, which is the last big speech. He looked like he was having a great time, and he did that thing. where he turns his head to the crowd and you can hear him listening and judging. what to say next and when to go off script. There was none of that last night. I think that he must suspect that, that he doesn't know what's going to happen here.

Right. And so actually, what we saw was a little bit of panic last night. Yeah. No parading as an address. And I think even he must understand that as you use. sort of all of the, the, the initial goals are now are now folding into. So much less. it must. he must I mean, I'm always hesitant to say what he must understand about reality, but even he must understand.

that you've, you've you've taken the, the, you have taken the, the essential, nuclear material issues off the table, the central issue right off the table, the central issue of regime change essentially off the table. The central issue now of the. of the of the Strait of Hormuz off the table. I mean, is there anything left on the table?

Well, I thought the way he talked about the Strait of Hormuz reminded. me, actually, of how he talked about women. You can grab them by the pussy. Just take the Strait of Hormuz. Just take it. It'll open for you. And you're like, oh, that's how you had sex with people. And in this particular kind is like, you take it, you take it. Just take it. You know, as if, as if there's no ownership of anything. And he doesn't understand. I mean, that that was essentially his attitude about regime change here. You can take it.

It's your country. You can grab it. This is to the people of the Iranian, the protesters. Yes. Of the 45,000 who have been killed, so a a again, you know, in just. from the inside Trump's head stand standpoint, it is waging war is a set of declarations. It is not a complex strategic problem to be solved.

So, and and now he's frustrated that. his set of declarations means are essentially meaningless. Right. And instead of declarations have gotten into him into a mess. which he doesn't know how to get out of. And the thing I resent about him, as we now have as he set up. essentially a David and Goliath struggle with Iran, is that he makes me. want to root against him with all this, which means that I'm essentially.

rooting against America, which I don't want to do. I mean, it's a complicated situation when a president like this. goes into another country because you don't want to root for Iran, nobody wants to root for Iran. It's a horrible regime, regardless of who's running it at the moment. And nobody seems to know. I mean, it's just I mean, because because. you also don't want to want to, root. for incompetence and you don't want to root for,

for, for a bully and you don't want to root for, I mean, all of us forget, like, this American situation. Yeah. And I've obvious I mean, I mean, you could root for, I mean, high gas prices. I mean, his rationale last, last night. was that this eliminating the, the. the Iranian leadership is worth the economic pain. And that actually may well be true, but, but to make the, the,

the case for that, I mean, first you have to do it with a certain degree. I mean, there that that also has to represent plan. and strategy and competence and, and a certain degree of faith. that this is all going to be achieved and that this is not all hit. or miss and maybe and nobody knows what they're talking about. And another forever war and,

well, and our allies have ganged up against us. I mean, what he's managed to do. is Canada, Europe, they're all sort of anti the US in this. They're not coming to the table to help. What's you know he's saying summon up some delayed courage and get in there. Take the straight. And essentially what he's ended up doing. is put the Strait of Hormuz in play in a way that it wasn't before. So he's actually complicated the situation and done nothing for the US. and use billions of dollars, which Magu assumed was going to be spent on America,

you know, on the infrastructure, on schools, on health care, on all the things. America needs, you know, in the the language to. I was I mean, he literally used the, the, the language of, about the Stone age. You know, so this was we've talked about this, this, this before that there was that moment. in time that postwar post-World War Two America.

when we had, we had a military capability. and a weapons capability, nuclear arms that nobody else had. And the and the generals and the generals. at that moment in history were famous troglodytes. I mean, not very bright men who were not very educated. except, you know, just in their singular military focus. And it was and and the generals. and the right wing where, where their,

their language was bombed them back into the Stone age. Right. Always bomb them back into the Stone age. And then what we found in really from the Vietnam War on was that it was. that that bomb them back into the Stone. age did not achieve what that theoretically meant. It actually, it actually just created a greater and greater. asymmetric situation, which redound did not to our benefit.

And just a point on the language, the way he says the word dead, dead. He he really enjoys it in the way that you hear a sort of five year old child. when they're pretending to shoot their parent. or pretending to shoot their friend, and they're like, bang, bang, you're dead. There's a there's a, a. strangely unsophisticated sort of relish. She seems to take in using the word relish. and describing how we've we've killed the,

the regime, and then we've killed the people under the regime. There's the the insistence of the child. You're dead. You have to lie to her death. Yeah. And anyway, it's. You're not playing fair. Lie down. Anyway, he was not having a good day yesterday. Although the more we go inside his head, the more I wonder if it doesn't really. matter if it's a good day or a bad day, as long as he gets attention. So yesterday he goes the first time a sitting president has gone to sit.

to hear arguments at the Supreme Court. Obviously, the argument yesterday was over birthright citizenship, the 14th amendment whereby someone who is born here. is entitled to American citizenship, which is one of his things that he thinks, you know, people are coming here for tourist citizenship. and just let's, let's let's clarify the context here. This has not been I mean, first thing, it's crystal. clear within the constitution of the United States.

So there's not a lot of dispute about about this. I mean, the best you might argue is that there are some. minor marginal nutcase right wing dispute. about this from, from, from every other point of view. That's what it says. The Constitution says, where are you born? Here. Okay. You're a citizen. So this is a dispute that he has created, right? And it's one of those disputes that he has that he's created, even though.

even though a he's wrong and even though everyone else. will, will come, will will agree that he's wrong. So this is going to get him nowhere. So why did he do this? I and I don't think you can you can. reach any other conclusion but that it's performative. Yeah. And that's the reason for showing up at the Supreme Court. All part of this, this performance.

I am, I have. I have come to power and this is I mean, this is. this is. how he came to power, by taking this hard, hard core anti-immigration line. That's what I represent. There's nothing else, really. I don't have any other ideas. This is. This is the fundamental idea. So I just have to keep. Keep being out front of that. Everything that I do has to represent that,

not that I have to accomplish anything. Not that I have to build a wall, which I never built. Not that I have to, and not that I have to get rid of. birthright citizenship, which I'm not going to be able to do. It's just a series of performative identification with this issue. Right. And for very specifically for his MAGA base, the story of immigrants. coming here to have a child, then they can stay here. And he did it on. He signed the executive order on his very first day.

And then he becomes the first sitting. president to turn up in the Supreme Court. And interestingly, three of his. three justices he put in Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett. all take issue with, with his lawyer. And we have to have a moment on this. Now before we get to that, let me just because I think that was during.

the campaign in in which several issues. directly related to Donald Trump came before the court. And in some the court was favorable to him. On others the court was not favorable to him. But in, in several of those situations he kept threatening. to go in, sit in the court, and and he was always. all of the people around him were like, this is a bad idea. I mean, there's no message that is going to be received.

by these justices, except that he's they're trying to intimidate them. Right. This is not a and he was idea. He wasn't president land was he wasn't. No, he was he wasn't the president. But he might be well become the president. And, you know, I mean essentially. to the, to the same, the same effect. Don't go there. That's the message. I mean, you know, you know, this is a precarious. the Supreme Court justices are like any other justices.

They are they are reading the room. And, and that would be not not a positive thing for them to read. that the president of the United States or someone who might well be. the president of the United States, was there in a face off with them. So, so he went in yesterday. And again, I can only see that as this is not a smart thing for him to do. If he was really serious about this, about wanting the court to rule in his favor.

So he was just there. This is just, again, performative. Well, and also perhaps, I mean, he's a man that likes to pit everybody against each other, right? So he's trying to pit European countries against each other. He tries to pit JD Vance and Marco Rubio against each other. Anybody around him, he likes to try and pit against each other. so that no one is united. What felt like what was going on yesterday was.

the nine justices felt united in this. I mean, I wouldn't be at all surprised if it comes down. And it's a unanimous decision. And he was there for 90 minutes, sort of sitting on the front row of the public gallery. He wasn't sitting with the friends of the lawyers. or the friends of the justices, and it felt like they must have. I mean, listening to it felt like they must have got some strength. from being united in that they were not going to be intimidated. They must have had a conversation about it beforehand,

and they certainly didn't sound intimidated. Who did sound intimidate? It was John Sauer, the attorney general, and his or the Solicitor General. He has a voice that is just like Robert Kennedy. Junior's voice. I'm going to defend Sauer here. Most lawyers are not lawyers as they would appear on television. I mean, they're not Perry Mason. Yes, most lawyers are kind of stumble bones.

I mean, they don't. This is a kind of a myth that lawyers go into court. It's a television myth. Lawyers go into court, and they, and they, and they can't get it to them. And it's it's really kind of shocking, you know, who goes in front of the Supreme Court and doesn't stumble, around Robbie Kaplan. And you know why? Because she practices, and that's why she's won a case. So, I mean, yes, I mean, I mean, let's just play a clip. because I'm going to defend my position here. Let's play a clip of John Sauer at the Supreme Court yesterday.

Here's, here's here's the facts about it. I think it's striking. Media reported as early as 2015 that based on Chinese media reports, there are 500. 500 birth tourism companies in the People's Republic of China whose. business is to bring people here to give birth and return to to that nation. Having said all that, you do agree. that that has no impact on the legal analysis before us? I think it's, I quote Justice Scalia said in his Hamdan dissent.

where they had. where like their interpretation has these implications that could not possibly. have been approved by the 19th century framers of this amendment. I think that, shows that they made a mess. Their interpretation has made a mess of the provision. Well, it certainly wasn't a problem in the 19th century. No, but of course, we're in a new world now, as you pointed out, you. where 8 billion people are one plane ride away from having a a child is a U.S. citizen. Well, it's a new world. It's the same Constitution. I mean, sort of sounds like you're imitation of Donald Trump.

No, it doesn't. It sounds just like RFK junior. I, I disagree with that, but, and I thought, know, I think it sounds like RFK to you now. I think it's a sort of sympathetic voice. I was I was immediately, my heart was warming to this guy. You are being sarcastic. I, I'm not I think it's fine. Lawyers are. This is what they are before. Before courts. They're not like Donald Trump wants them to be.

I mean, this is. And but I remember during the campaign and and, sour who who was. who was not the solicitor general, but he was the main appeals lawyer. So he was the guy arguing, one of the guys who argued. before the Supreme Court and the Trump, the Trump staffers who. who were the on hand and Trump was not, but they, they were like, oh my God, it's really good. that Trump was not here to see so or because he was, because he was terrible.

Terrible, I wonder I mean, Trump stormed out yesterday. We actually had a reporter there and he stormed out. And actually, there's a wonderful picture, which I think we might be able to show. by the courtroom artist of Trump leaving. And so I remember you saying, as you were following the court cases. and going to court before Trump had become president again. for the second time, how he would ream his lawyers out.

And I could only imagine how he either cooled or yelled at how terrible it was. Sour. Yes. I mean, yeah, have pity on the guy. But the storming out two is also performance, of course. And they have they. during the during the various the various trials during the Kim campaign. or the various courtroom appearances, that would always be a set piece. When am I going to go out? How am I going to go out? How am I going to look?

Who should talk to me when I go out? Well, it's and it's it's perfectly real reality television. I mean, actually, it made me wish that the Supreme Court was televised. I don't understand why it's not televised at this point. We should have transparency into it. And so listening to it is and also it's hard to tell it's not televised. Well, I think it should be done less things that are televised the better to me. Why? I think it just distorts everything. It's it's I mean, I don't think anything.

has ever benefited by being televised. Well, it's true that American business hasn't. benefited from The Apprentice being televised. But it was pretty the whole thing was pretty interesting. And then, of course. Well, I have a gift for you. I have a gift for you, for our next subject matter, which is just going to require me bending down and picking up the gift. I think this will give you a clue. I'm just going to leave them here as to what we're going to talk about next, because we need some merriment and distraction and hilarity.

in, in our, in our understanding of learning. Did you know what you know? And I'm still not sure, but I really feel sorry for this guy. But tell me your understanding of of learning. Wow. I want to hear it in detail. I was going to I was the editor of cosmopolitan, and I hadn't come across learning. But learning is where you take a balloon. A man takes a balloon. Of course it. Of course it's a man sticks it up his sweater, pretends it's a breast.

and fiddles with these things and pretends they're nipples. Which, according to an interview that we had today. with one of the only fans, girls that Brian Noam did this with. It's a sort of submissive action and. brand name. Was looking to be submissive with these, with these women, and I can't help wondering if it's a reaction to the OV. Well, I'm just laughing.

Because I'm still not exactly seeing this. Well, did you not see the pictures of him? Yeah. No, no, I did, I did, but I'm not seeing the whole interactions. here of of you do. the interactions. I think you should try this. It's about how does anybody get this in yours? Well, that's what I'm thinking. It seems it's. No. Yeah. I mean, who I mean, I wrote about this for Substack at my last. I mean, also, these are very large. I mean, are they're smaller. What? Well, I was the they only fans camgirl for those of you.

who don't know what on earth we're talking about. Christine, I don't know what on earth we're talking about. Okay, well, Christine Gnome's husband, Christine, I mean, will remember. is the recently fired head of homeland secretary, head of Homeland security in. Why was she fired? Because she'd spent a quarter of $1 billion on an ad campaign. Featuring. Who? Herself, in front of the backdrop of granite. cheekbones, which is Mount Rushmore and.

and many other reasons that she was fired. Minneapolis. I, I, I, you know, her complete incompetence, her open affair. with her aide. I mean, they both denied Corey Lewandowski. I don't know what came first. Corey Lewandowski or the Luneng. But her husband was revealed to have spent at least $25,000, with OnlyFans, where he was inserting. balloons up his, up his t shirt.

and wearing very tight pants and then having a conversation. He's an insurance salesman in somewhere. in North Dakota, South Dakota, actually, which is where she was governor. South Dakota. And yeah, he's an insurance guy. And, Sean McCree for The New York Times did a piece where he went out to talk. to a local people who didn't believe it and said they grown up with him. He was a local boy. This must be I. It doesn't seem like it was. I.

Yeah. And, well, apparently many, many people are, using only fans and. Well, lots of people are using only. I think it's a subculture of only fans, but but the thing I find really odd. is that according to the interview we have with, I think she was called. Don't Interlochen. I'm not going to play with that, or with twiddling the ties. as if they were nipples, and as if he was getting feeling from them anyway. Who knew? Who knew?

But it sheds a different light on, Department of Homeland Security. And the truth is, none of this would matter. You do what you want to do. You do you in your private life. Except that it opens her to blackmail. And she was the head of Homeland Security, whose job is to be responsible for every single American safety. That seems completely ridiculous to me. And I think it's ridiculous. You can't blackmail a narcissist. Possible. So if the only fans here.

I mean, she's look at. If this is the least of her problems, you know, a husband with balloons. I mean, she's got Corey Lewandowski. I mean, she's having this this for a long time. I mean, this has been going on for years now. Openly without regard. She's having an affair with her. With with her aide. This the this is and he's not only an aide, he's he's. someone who has been has a very close relationship with the administration,

with a very close relationship with Donald Trump. Is hated by other people in the administration. I mean, how could she. that anyone with. with in a scintilla of political regard, would have, would realize this is gonna end in tears, right? So. Right. So the idea that she would be worried that anyone could blackmail.

her, blackmail her, the the the the woman is out there. living a, a, I I'm, I don't even have the language for the preposterous ness of of, of of Christie known so that she would worry about someone, someone discovering some indiscretion around her. Everything is an indiscretion. Well, I, I was, I mean, did she, I mean, I wonder if she knew.

She said. And the family said, well, they issued a statement. saying that they were completely distressed. They had no idea. And I was like, did you did you notice them, you know, did you not want to say to Brian, the insurance salesman, there seems to be a lot of helium and there's quite a lot of party. supplies in the garage. Are we entertaining again? I'm sure the first thing. First thing? What does he think about Corey Lewandowski then? Corey, what does Corey I'm sure Corey Lewandowski knew about this. And anyway it's it's but again even the idea of blackmail.

sets this up in some kind of traditional political reality. Forget about it. So these people are so they don't care I don't care. So do you think the FBI knew about it? Can surely they're supposed to do background checks on everything and. You know, well, the FBI had to the FBI where everybody's been fired. Kash Patel, has Patel's own Gmail.

Was that by the Iranians? Right. So. So again, it's awful because it makes you want to root against the foolishness. of America. And we never want to root against America. But this is it's just been a really astonishing week. You think you can't get any worse and it but then but it is actually this in. in the more the more telling thing is not the balloons. but the more telling thing is Corey Lewandowski who is now being investigated. Right. And and what's he being investigated for?

You know, I mean, he's essentially being investigated. For what? How he used the, the Department of Homeland Security to further his interest. So, I mean, there is another thing, and it's a it's a kind of. I mean, it's a it's a theme that I don't think has been, has been, has been addressed in a systematic way, although we see aspects of it. all of the time. Beginning, of course, with, with Elon Musk in the, in the administration.

And it is all of these tech guys. I mean, the entire tech industry has seen the Trump. White House as an invitation. I mean, let's and an invitation for grift, an invitation to to. how can we have get our products adopted by the federal government. And let's go. There's a this is this is significant.

The federal government, the federal the United States government is now. the biggest buyer of information technologies. by factors, I don't know, 100, I mean, over overwhelmingly. So it actually is. if you have a tech company, you're supplying information technology. And if the federal government is not your client. You're it's going to be you probably won't make it.

So the entire technology. industry is now the, the entire the, the point of it is how do you, how do you, how do you get the federal government to adopt your products. And if you don't, you're screwed. If you do, your fathomless rich. So you've suddenly created a situation of enormous grift. I mean, that's your your focus and.

and with the Trump administration, which is open. for business, you know, that everybody is in there. Everybody, everybody in the tech industry. has their person inside the Trump orbit. Essentially hawking their products. So that's why they were all standing in his inauguration. You know, they're to pay homage to Donald Trump. There are definitely all sorts of administrative and bureaucratic hoops.

you have to jump through to get your products into the government system. Almost in in many instances, almost insurmountable hoops, unless someone navigates you around them. Right. So that presumably was also why. there was such a big deal around the anthropic issues. A couple of weeks ago. when Pete Higgs, I said, well, we're not going to use anthropic anymore. Anthropic? Well, like, well, you can't have us for limitless use.

We are going to tell you what you can and you can't use our product for. And then OpenAI stepped in and Sam Altman of ours. said, well, you can use us to do whatever you want, but understand how important this this is. And I mean, that's the the key things. This is existential. I mean, you are in business if the federal government is your client, if you were a supplier to the federal government, you are out of business. If you if you can't accomplish that.

So all of these, these these companies, you're raising $500. million in, in venture capital, that is against one outcome. You're going to be able to get a deal with the federal government. if you don't get that deal, that $500 million in. in and there's a good likelihood that goes down the drain. Well, and there's a whole group of people who get introducing fees. and get commissions for these contracts getting put into that, of course,

I mean, that is a monstrous ecosystem. because there is so much money at stake here. I mean, I mean, and it kind of goes in even a bigger way. The entire. the economy, the United States economy is dependent on the tech industry. The tech industry is dependent on the United government. Yeah, yeah. And I think, I think. we have a kind of a pyramid scheme here that is really probably quite dangerous. Yeah. And I think I told you I was speaking to a founder,

a big software founder in the Valley a couple of weeks ago. And I, you know, we were talking about the war and he said, nobody's paying any attention. to the war. Everything's on fire. We're all inventing the future. It's all about AI. This is a fantastic time for us. It was just a complete. disconnect from what felt like what's going on everywhere else. Yeah. In the, in the, and there's a disconnect. in all of this discussion about about the invention of, of. AI because on one hand, that's just a technological marvel.

On the other hand, that technological marvel or who gets to profit. off that technological marvel is all depending on, on on who manages to sell it to the federal government. Right. Okay. Well, we should talk more about this. because it's a really sort of fascinating and under, explored subject. I think, also another, setback for Trump. Not only did he have to address the nation about a war he didn't want,

not only did he storm out of, the Supreme Court, possibly performatively, but what else happened to him this week? What got stops this week? Passion projects of yours. You love this subject. The East room, the east wing got sort of. You know, I totally again in the in the Trump world, all of this stuff. You forget about this, right? Yeah. No. So the, the, the ballroom, the ballroom, has,

it has been momentarily kiboshed momentarily. Right. Shall, promise. You know, if you want to write to him to give him your commiserations. Welcome. Shalom, shalom, Shalom. It's info at s bar. Amos bar grammys.com. If you want to say sorry that your project has been halted for now. So we are going to do this. We're we're we're, we're setting up a betting pool on. whether or not there's a ballroom before Trump exits office.

or maybe he'll stay in office and figure out. how to stay in office just to get the ballroom built. I mean, I, I think we should not underestimate. how important this ballroom becomes to Donald Trump. This is Donald Trump, this is his legacy. You know, other other presidents think in terms of a legacy, a historical legacy. What have I accomplished? What have I how have I changed the political structure of the country?

How have I changed the zeitgeist? I don't think that's true for Donald Trump. For him, the legacy is the ballroom. It's the ballroom. And I can't help having a sense of schadenfreude to that. He's now literally living in a demolition site. I mean, it is such a mess because, as we know, he tore it down basically. overnight under the cover of darkness, which is what you've said he always did.

He did that with a building on on Fifth Avenue. That's what he does. He moves at night. He's a man of the night. And and now that doesn't mean stopped. And there's another aspect of of this. And we should come back to this. What Donald Trump can't accept. cannot temperamentally. physically is no right. He can't. And it goes further than that. Anybody who does accept no is a Trump.

That is the Donald Trump. theory of the game. So what the judge said in this case was that. they're stopping the project because it's not allowed to go ahead. without congressional approval. Donald Trump. then said. there's never been congressional approval for anything to do with the white House. before, which is complete nonsense. It's completely standard to have congressional approval. I think he thought he was going to skirt around it. by not having public funds used, because, as we know, he's.

raised the 400 million that he says it's going to take from American companies. But this is actually very interesting because it now appears. that Congress doesn't want to help him on this. Well, what will happen on this? He will appeal this decision. So it is not unlikely at all that he will. He will get to Trump judges who will, who will, who will give him the authorization to go forward with this.

And then they that that decision then will be appealed. So this is a typical Trump situation of who can outlast someone else. and who can outmaneuver somebody else within within the courtroom. and within the and within the the structure of judges. who are essentially, you know, on his payroll. I'm not. sure there are many judges who want to give the go ahead for this, because I think there is a fairly united sense.

that this is a preposterous addition to the white House. Well, I think I mean, I like your optimism here, but, I'm not sure that I would count on it. Now, there is, however, I would say that the thing that is somewhat. in the favor of, of, all right, thinking people is that is that, is that as the as the, as the end of the. as he becomes more of a lame duck.

Then I think, I think people don't have to bend the knee so much. Judges don't have to bend the knee so much. And then also just the time frame to build this is going to be. is going to be limited. And no. And I do think nobody wants to stick the next guy with this project. Well and do you remember he made shalom promise. I think he had to give. some sort of public statement recently because they were terrified. he would be the second architect. to walk away from this project, which is now swell.

Yeah. No, he gave in 90,000ft a New York Times interview. And they they pushed the administration, really pushed him out there. to do to do this because because of fears that he was not committed. Right. So the well in his career might well get sunk by. it might be farewell Shalom bromance Inc. Because let's. just remind people it's 90,000ft², which will be almost three times the size of the existing white House. So we might reach a point where Donald Trump leaves office.

and there is still just a pile of rubble there. You know, my my wife has been after me. to take the kids to Washington. to see Washington before it is. it is remade in Donald Trump's image. Yeah. It's a very good idea. You should you should do that. But it's possible it doesn't get remade in his image. And it's always been a metaphor for him. Right. The tears down the east wing under the cover of darkness.

He's going to build this, you know, very glitzy ballroom. But but in the even better metaphor. is he leaves the white House and there is no East Wing. that he's ripped it down and, well, we're unable to build his ballroom. Well, we're setting that up that that, that bad guy was setting the bash up. So. Well, who knows what we'll have happen by Saturday when we're back. I mean, many, many things. I mean,

I'd quite like to know a little bit more about Luneng. Apparently, it's where. That's where people get excited by rubbing. That's your your assignment balloons. Okay. Rubbing balloons or popping balloons. So I hadn't heard it before. Okay. If you have been thank you for joining us. Don't forget, as I said at the top, we're independent media, so we appreciate you subscribing to The Daily Beast.

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