This Is The Proof Angry Trump, 80, Is Unraveling | The Daily Beast Podcast

Is Trump unraveling? I think it's very hard to argue that he is not unraveling. If we go back to the Labor Day weekend, dozens and dozens and dozens. of unhinged social media posting, his family were not around him. And we've rolled into this Trump-a-palooza. This MAGA-Fyre Fest. Two speeches, not one. It's impossible to see that this is anything. other than a revelation of character an unraveling and opening. up of Trump in a way that we have not seen before. This is different. The anger is at the surface.

The crazy is of the surface and the desertion of his own party as well. There was nothing for Republicans at the Republican meeting in Dallas. It was all for Trump. I'm Joanna Coles. This is the Daily Beast podcast who is here with me in the studio. Fantastic to be back. I will say, Hugh Dougherty, it's so good to have you back in the studio. Joanna, thank you for being back. Executive editor of The Daily Beast knows everything going on in the news.

So today, obviously we're going to be talking about Trump a palooza. We're going to be talking about was Trump really there at 911 when he said he was? Of course not. Oh, we're doing spoilers now. We're going to be doing we're going to be talking about him. Lunch thing. Lunch after Rachel Scott, the reporter at ABC, and Stephanie Grisham, his former press spokesman, saying. she recognized that face, I think so does everybody that works around him.

And of course, we're going to be examining the pledge. I pledge, I pledge to talk about Trumper palooza. with Hugh Doherty in a way that, well, what should we pledge do, Huey? Well, I tell you what, Your Honor. If you are watching, you could pledge to hit the subscribe button. and join our community. Very good. Yes. Will you pledge to join the beast community? Smash our subscription button wherever you get your podcast. Apple, Spotify, YouTube, wherever.

We are here to dissect Trump. We're going to lay him out like one of those frogs. that people dissected in the biology class, where you sort of. take it to part an unpeeled the the visceral of the frog, I think. What was Donald Trump doing at Trump of palooza? Why did he need a two day conference to celebrate himself when he is. the lowest polled president in the history in there?

Nobody's ever seen anything like it. Where do we begin? Huey. How bad is it? And how bad was Trump a palooza? Well, our reporters, Farrah Thomson and Sarah. Your waist were at Trumper palooza. They were there. Woods of other reporters were there. I think we can safely say who was not there. Quite a lot of people. Donald Trump spoke twice at this. He calls it a convention. It is it a convention? It's a hard. It's hard to see if it was a convention because there's never been.

one like this before. It wasn't ahead of a presidential election when you have a convention, but he called it that. So let's go with that. And he said it was packed to the rafters, unfortunately. So your wife's was up in the rafters. and she's got she had a pretty good view of what was going on. And if you're watching on YouTube, you can see it now. Right. Just take a look at Sarah's video showing you actually how many people were there. Because television is so deceptive, it can focus on a group of people.

that are corralled. I mean, you see this in concerts. that they often corral people to sort of dance in the mosh pit. And then you look around and everybody's just sitting there, stony face. This was a sort of, as you say, mini conference. It was really a self celebration for Donald Trump. Make it all about him. Because when is it about anybody else? And it fell pretty flat. Yeah. There's no doubt. It felt like it was two days. He spoke on both days.

Lee Greenwood who viewers I would be surprised to learn, is only 83. So a youngster in terms of Trumpian. relative youngster, of course sang. And a lot of Trump people got up and spoke, among them RFK Jr. Who said he didn't expect to ever be a Republican convention. even though he was at the last one. So perhaps short memory. Short memory that one remembered, right? Brain worm remembered. And it's all that sniffing stuff off Doyle.

about PSC. And then we, you. know, we we saw we saw a lot of, a lot of low energy performance from a lot of people. JD Vance spoke and those who are in the Republican bottle. just saying this morning. This was great. JD Vance really nailed that. He is absolutely the person to succeed Donald Trump. as the as the as the candidate. Did you say contest? Were you about to say contestant contests.

Contestant. Which is the right word? It was kind of like it was a it was a bit of a game show. And one of the. things that Cereal Wise discovered was that when you go to a concert, you get merch. The merch was half price. On the second day, the merch was half price. So tell me about that. What was the what? I mean, what even is the merch at something like a Trump Appaloosa? Obviously lots of very shiny things. Lots of gold. There was a gold Mercedes parked outside, of course.

Mercedes, of course not. This Mercedes we checked. Not made in the United States. Oh, dear. Did Mercedes know there was no way. this this did not leave the factory in this color? Absolutely. Guaranteed. The the inside. You could buy, Texas themed hats with Trump hats with Trump 20, 28, jackets, with Trump's name on his back and that sort of, you know, sort of your style rodeo.

Right. Sort of between rodeo and sequins or trucks that a trucker, trucker jackets. There were some trucker jackets and, and yeah, it was, it was half price, a lot of half price on the second day. So was it being tariffs in fact. Well that's a good point. That's a good point right. Because they were being sent in from China or Vietnam or whatever. These are made right. That's true. But maybe nobody was buying them. So they had been sent. I think it was it was a simple that, you know, they needed an economic.

stimulus. Did we give Farah and Sarah our correspondents who were there? Did we give them a an expensive budget to buy some merch for the office? I feel like we should have one of those gold jackets. I have to say that we were we were fiscally responsible. Unlike unlike the Trump administration, we do not do deficit financing at the Daily Beast, right? So we didn't actually do that. I will check if they bought some for themselves. They were both both well-dressed people.

And if they are, we will ask them to parade in it for future edition. Well, who doesn't need a trucker jacket? Honestly, it's all very odd. And I noticed that James Talarico had taken Trump's name. We had a story about this and the beast this morning, and he, Donald Trump, is calling James Talarico, the Democratic Senate candidate, standing up Trumps candidate, Ken Paxton, who will come back to in a minute. because Trump managed to insult his own indoor see.

But Trump calls James Talarico a freak out, and James has taken that very smartly and turned it into a nickname for himself. He's owning it, which is a smart he's he's merging it. He's selling t shirts, so that people can proclaim that they, too, are tower freaks. Yeah. And of course, he's ahead in the polls in Texas and some polls in Texas. The polls are tied up. Texas had been deep red. It had been MAGA. People had really believed that it was very, very hard.

for Democrat to even approach the idea of winning in Texas. But the Titus turned and we have that. We have to thank for that. Ken Paxton and Ken Paxton managed to be insulted by Trump not once, but twice, and smiled throughout the whole if it was marvelous. I mean, this is what Trump does. He manages to humiliate his own most loyal stewards. because ultimately he despises them, I think for being loyal to him. because he knows he's not worthy. It was notable that it was almost a bit of of both nights.

The bits of Trump's speech that Trump seemed to enjoy most were attacking. Ken Paxton in his home state, where he is maybe tied up in, you know, maybe. within the margin of error, maybe behind in significant number of polls. He's running out. He's run out of money he spent at all beating John Cornyn. And he has in James Tower recall, as I guess we have to call him. He hasn't. Talarico. What is clearer from middle school candidate. And then he gets Donald Trump saying I don't like how he speaks.

I don't like how he dresses. But please do me a favor and go and vote for him. I mean is that what you want on your ads right. I mean absolutely, you don't want that if you're Ken Paxton. Although Trump has amazingly dug into his 400 million stash. that he's been raising right to give Ken Paxton. $10 million because he understands that the race is tight and Paxton might lose. And that would be bad for Trump, because, of course, Trump Bank.

backed Paxton, who was sold this guy. Exactly. Even John Cornyn, who'd been disloyal to him. And Paxton was impeached as attorney general. And and both parties in. Texas said this is the one of the worst politicians we've ever had. And and. Yeah. And the scandals just follow them around. You know, his wife divorced him on biblical grounds. He has attacked a Tory, causing that Tariq, who hates Jesus and of course, has you have interviewed him.

on the Daily Beast podcast interview. This is a guy who went to seminary. And on the other side, Paxton, who who cheated on his wife. serially and is no cheating on the people of Texas, right? I mean, he's he's been accused of all sorts of financial shenanigans. He's also, you know, said that Toriko hates Texas and Heat's America. spent July the 4th, and Ken Paxton spent July the 4th in London,

which I believe is where America was declaring independence from. So there we are. But, you know, Donald Trump got a lot of amusement. out of having a goal at Ken Paxton, at Trump Appaloosa. And. I know, as you say, on his own territory in Dallas, but the thing that really brought Trump to life, we discussed. just at the top of the show was their play pledge. Okay, can we show for those of you. who didn't watch Trump of Palooza and why would you watch it? We watched it so you didn't have to.

Let's show the pledge. Please raise your right hand. I pledge. to the greatest president. in the history of the United States. that loves us so much. he can't even breathe. That I will go out with my family, my friends. I'll do it anyway.

I don't care if I'm registered or not. I'm going to try and cheat like hell like they do. He's gonna. He's asking people to pledge. Oh, sorry. Can I take my hand down? You can take your hand down. He's asking people to pledge to cheat. Like hell. Yes. To cheat like hell. Yeah, well, at least he's open about it. We should say, by the way. Mike Johnson, the speaker, had his hand up. Mike Johnson on January had his hand up. Were during the touring the during the during the pledge.

He was standing with his hand up. Of course he was this someone else had their hand up. Mike Johnson's jacket because Mike Johnson is like one of those fella. What do they call ventriloquists kind of puppet? He just says whatever Trump wants him to say. Mate, Johnson has tremendous power. Actually, on January the 3rd, he will be the speaker until January the 3rd. If it's a blue wave, Hakeem Jeffries should become the speaker.

But the whole Congress has to be seated by the outgoing speaker, and he has to hand over the gavel in position of, you know, in the manner of civility. We've seen that before. These things are not actually guaranteed. There are things there are things that can be done. by an outgoing Congress that can make it messy and difficult. And there it was, standing up as a man said, I want you to pledge to cheat. It's a bit it was clearly I'm using to this crowd. Right. And also, when you heard them repeating back,

I pledge to what is it the greatest president of the world has ever known? Whatever. The greatest president of the United States of America. You I don't think anybody was actually saying the words. It sounded like they were all going, well, nobody actually wants to pledge that. And I think. probably a lot of people in that crowd take the Pledge of Allegiance seriously. It's it's actually it's a weirdly it's a weird thing. for a Republican president to make fun of the Pledge of Allegiance. Yes. And this is this is a party that has dined out on not people.

not taking the pledge on people not standing for the flag and people, you know, the the on people not. showing the outward signs of loving America. And in fact, that was one of the themes of this whole event before. Trump had his joke pledge. And if it was a joke, it was a joke. But he was he was making a joke about the pledge. after two days of this America, they're the party that is dangerous.

The other party that. despises the Constitution, the other party that despises what? Unite us. That's their message going into this election. And then he gets up and he makes a joke. out of the Pledge of Allegiance, which they are. You know, they are frankly obsessed by having. recited at any opportunity in this performative fashion. And again, none of this, none of Trump. a palooza was a great message for anybody who was there to take home.

to their district, to their state and say, vote for me, I was there. Look how great it was. There. There's no doubt this this will pop up on Democratic attack ads. It will pop up that they were there. There's already been Democrats pointing out. that's clever about well, where was it? Where was the candidate? Abdullah said when we were about to talk about in a different context. and was pointing out on CNN that he was in Michigan, but his his rival, Mike Rogers was in Dallas.

And this is going to be a theme. You were there. Here's what happened. You were there. Luke, did you have your hand up in the air. for this pledge is going to pop up at local television debates. and television ads that people are being bombarded with already. It's given Democrats a lot of material. Right. So another person speaking, there was someone who used to hate. Donald Trump, who was an opponent when they were running for president. I'm talking about the Texas senator, Ted Cruz. So you're not cutting this,

but a lot of people, a lot of people ran against him. It was because the vice president said he was like Hitler. But yes, Ted Cruz, was. I think most people and I think I'm with Fara and Sarah said that, that. that Ted Cruz got actually a very warm reception. He wasn't Texas. So, you know, this isn't his native, although he's often. he's not his native states from Canada, but. Well, I was going to say and not and he's not always in Texas, actually. I mean, the time I had the big floods, he was in Greece.

I mean, this is not. I mean, there was another moment. when he was in Cancun, when there was a disaster in Texas. So we knew that it was safe in Texas because he was there. Right? Right. Okay. That was yeah. Good news, good news. The people of text, you know, you know, you're going to be okay. And he he was he did get he got a warm reception. And but in the course of it. we had another example of something that while people might go, oh, this is flippant or whatever is actually pretty chilling and well,

and it's particularly chilling, I think, just to to preface it. with the fact that it was a year since Charlie Kirk had been shot. Yes, exactly. This was this was on on the day that Republicans. had come together and talked about the dangers of political violence. And this clip suggests something rather different. Right. Let's play it. When he says he wants to seize. the means of production, he means it.

When Abdul al-Said says. he has a, quote, obligation to comply with Sharia law, he means it. And when James Talarico says. he wants to dismantle capitalism, he means it. So that's the sort of ominous. the voice, the sole voice in the crowd there. Although he got support from people when he said he should be shot.

I mean, again, we just said on the day. on the anniversary of Charlie Kirk actually being shot, but what is Ted Cruz doing here? Well, I will say we don't we do not know. if Ted Cruz could hear what was being shouted from the floor. It's a it's a big event. It's a big event space. This is a big number of people there, but it's a big event space. It is possible that he could not hear. What we haven't heard afterwards from him is a condemnation.

But we didn't hear. Was that that person who shouted this. absolutely twisted, attack on these three Democrats? We didn't hear that that person had been removed. In fact, we asked and we were told, oh, we knew nothing about that, right? So it doesn't appear that any action was taken. And this again, this is the group that demands. that, you know, that Democrats are flayed. for the views of one extreme streamer,

Hassan Piker, that we've all heard about, honestly, who has even watched. But we've all heard about that. And sure, this guy has said some abhorrent things. This person who shouted he should be shot. was explicitly demanding the death of three three Democrats. Two of them, notably, are not white and nothing has happened. This person has not been the pardon or he not been phoned. The Secret Service haven't gone after him and we've got to see at what point.

is it possible that the Republican Party just didn't notice? We're well past that point. So overall, was this a win for Trump? I mean, Fox News covered it slavishly. Yes. The other networks, not so much. So the numbers are not good. The ratings for the first night, I'm sure that Fox News didn't get a bump out of it. So the neat, the. same number of people tuned in to Fox that would normally tune in. So.

you might see that it's a failure. I'm going to offer a slightly contrarian. view, and I'm not one of those like, oh, I'm going to be a contrarian normally. But the fact that nobody really noticed. might actually be the win because it wasn't good. Right? It wasn't good at all. The big pledge was this $5,000 bribe for everybody. That has kind of resonated a bit. But nobody believes it.

And then, you know, people. threatening political violence, people making pledges to cheat. And when we come onto it, the revelation. of how many people were actually there, none of that looks good for Trump. And the fact that hasn't really been watched, that it wasn't on the networks, that it's not resonating through social media. Google, which shows the trends that people are googling. Not many people are googling about this. So overall, the fact that hasn't made an impact.

maybe not entirely a failure. in a very strange, very strange way that is very contrary intake. And I admit I could be wrong. Don't follow me for analysis. Well, it's intriguing. And also on Wednesday, of course, there was the bombing. by Iran of American planes, eight. F-15s just taken out. Was the war much of a theme? No, there was there was absolutely an attempt to avoid talking about the war.

That it came up very glancing, known again. But there was a real determination, not to mention this occasional mentions. about standing up and about victory and about things like that. But the the real detail and nitty gritty? Absolutely not. One thing that's worth was noting. We're talking about this on September the 11th, 25 years ago. You know, we sort of started this cycle of forever wars, and it was very notable. that previous Republican conventions had paid tribute to the troops,

had paid tribute to those who went to serve. And this really wasn't mentioned because, let's be honest, it's bad news. This is news bad. It's bad news for Donald Trump that this war cannot be ended. It's. getting worse. Although he's revisited the war in his speech at the Pentagon. So we know that he was, he was both. basically frozen out of the New York. memorial service where the previous presidents were all gathered.

So you had George W Bush, you had the Clintons, you had Obama, and you had Joe Biden. Wonder if Donald Trump looks at them and thinks it's the Presidents Club, and they're all hanging out without me, and now they are laughing at me. because I've done this thing of starting a war. that I said I wouldn't do, and now I can't get out of it. And now even my closest allies, Marco Rubio, Secretary of State, and Pete Hegseth and JD Vance, obviously the vice president,

have let it slip that they think it's going to go on till the end of my term. Well, you know, everybody, everybody who has watched those. very moving commemorations don't don't at ground Zero for many years, I've noted that one of the points is it's not about the politicians, it's not about, the politics. It's about the names of those who died. And it is always every year it is tremendously moving to just hear. those names being read from a all the way through. And,

you know, Donald Trump. wasn't going to be allowed to make a speech. He has denied reports that he demanded to make a speech. But he hasn't denied that he wanted to make a speech. Well, and he made his speech. He said it right, went to the right. He went to the penalty. Yeah. He was I mean, he was honestly pretty low energy. It appears that after his speech, he in fact was spotted peering to doze off.

and he was reading off the tale of prompter, which he never does. well, and he weirdly referred to the date. of atrocities, a date that is etched on everybody's memory. He referred to as 20 or 1. We will always remember the victims and the families of September 11th, 2001. Very famous date unfortunately. Right.

Instead of 2000, because he was reading, he wasn't prepared. Well, he'd obviously not read it before either. And he kept veering off very clearly, veering off. with his sort of visceral descriptions of what happened and how if you were. related to someone who died in 911, you could listen to that. and not be appalled by him trying to cheapen the drama of it. And then, as I say, he appeared to doze off at the end. as they were reading out the names of the dead at the Pentagon. Well, I'm sure he found it very tedious, because it's not about him. It's not about him.

And this is this is, you know, this is a day. that is not about anybody here that is still alive. It's about those who died and those who were bereaved. Right. And those who ran to, who ran to, to help. And many of them are now suffering as well. None of that. None of that relates to the world of Donald Trump. Right. Just we know and I'm not going to crawl inside his head with that. Michael Wolff. But there has never been a moment in all of Trump's time as president.

in which that that empathetic, I feel your pain. role of the president has been one that he could adopt. Well, he did have one score, which is that his wife turned up and sat next to him. I was wondering if Natalie Harp would be sitting next to him, the human printer. She had some late minute printouts, some new means. Yeah, some new memes. Yes, but you actually had a rare showing. As we know, we've been chronicling Melania's presence. We've been auditing her time as first lady, and it turns out. she's the least visible first lady of the century.

We're recording this on Friday morning, and she was at the Pentagon. ceremony with him. She was at the Pentagon. She she she did not speak. But I know not not at all surprising. That's the first public appearance that she has made this month. She also had a private appearance in the week. And, we're feeling slightly from September. the 11th year, but I think it's worth recording. It was a surreal occasion.

She spoke in the Rose garden to the white House Historical Association, and she spoke about the value of design and legacy and. the irony that she was standing. where her husband had concrete to do for Jackie Kennedy, who was garden one a few hundred yards from where. her husband had destroyed the east wing, and just just behind where. where the Rose garden is, is the portico which he has adorned.

with pictures of former presidents, and covered in gold. And then you can. it's just beside the Oval Office, which, of course, is now bedecked in. so much gold that it's it's a miracle it hasn't collapsed under its own weight. And she lectured on the importance of design and beauty. So very strange. I would like to discuss the value of design. I mean, it's so peculiar. Nobody was alerted to this in advance.

There were no reporters there. They put a short video on social media. I think even her team must have realized that. I mean, come on, it's beyond somewhere beyond parody, right? You go to the white House, your your husband is desiccated and talk. about beauty and design. Well, perhaps she likes the new helipad. She may be a fan of the new helmet pads. Right. Because she thinks quickly. Well, I was going to say. And also, she's the one that has to walk across the lawn in those very high. stilettos, you know, good job Melania, because that's quite hard.

It's an honor. It's an unsettling role of the first lady to wear heels on the lawn. Selina's a no. Retired and now retired and now retired. So, yeah. And in fact, one of Trump's reasons, he. said, for paving over the Paradise of Jackie. O's Rose garden was that ladies couldn't stand in their heels. Yes, they were puncturing the lawn with their stilettos. I guess Democrats probably were, you know, wedges because they're more.

Birkenstocks. Birkenstock really old ones. Not not the new trendy ones are original, but the original. The original Birkenstock, yes. Oh, dear. We're falling for memes. We're falling for tropes. We're falling for cliches. What I think might become a meme on the Democrats for the Democrats, though, is what happened at the end of Trumper palooza. The empty seats. And we have some pretty remarkable video. Okay, let's let's show it.

for a seat. That's why last night I said, please don't get up. and go to the bathroom to sit, because the fake people, they're fake, horrible, horrible human beings. Not all, not all. You have some fine journalists. Not too many will be honest. It's just what you want to see when you're boasting. that it's filled to the rafters. It's filled to the rafters. Except it's not. There's an entire tier that is completely empty. And they're selling merch at half price. Yes.

So what happened after Trump ranted about empty seats? Well, he left, obviously. And he he was flying back to flying back to D.C. and he stopped on, you know, on the way and the way onto his grift. Force won. The gold coin was waiting, fueled up, ready to go. The one that the emergence, the one that. shoot him off. Yes and no. Emergency chutes came off this time. No catering trucks were at hand.

Could there have been a better metaphor for him on his way to Trump a palooza. than the emergency chute suddenly being triggered on his right? Grift force needed? Was a lot of Republicans going down the chute, right? No, it was a fantastic metaphor. But he he stopped to take questions from the press, and he looked. Just be honest. He looked all sweaty. He looked the shareholder. Well, he's also had a week of bad hair. Yes, because when he was going out with the emergency chute.

in the background, he also stopped to do an impromptu press conference. It was very windy. His flap of hair flew up and you could see the scalp. I think you could see the scars from the scalp reduction that Jeffrey. Epstein told Michael Wolff Donald Trump had had. And then you could see this kind of weird construction where he's got. bits of hair here that are then attached to the other bits. It's all very odd, but it was very. Yes, normally he keeps that stuff hidden. Yes.

It was very much on display. It was as if The Wizard of Oz had been revealed. And he was bald. He's bald after the Wizard of Bald? Yeah, the Wizard of bald. Yeah. That has not real people. Just in case it's not real. And although someone's, there was a very funny meme of someone saying they'd seen it breathing. And I think I've seen it walking around. Central Park on its own early in the morning. So. yeah, yeah, because it's. going to be sitting on his scalp all day anyway.

We die. We digress. But he stops for an impromptu, stops. for an impromptu press conference, and he takes a couple of questions. And then he is asked by Rachel Scott of ABC news, I put these $5,000 checks and we have got the we have got the clip. It's almost a reward for the people having to put up with Biden's policy. Yeah, and not you. You also offered check refund checks. and that didn't happen with the president on Iran network. And you're the worst cut.

Wow. Not you, not you. And then the way he pushes his face, you can see people are intimidated by him. Michael Wolff talks a lot. about how Trump uses his physicality, which is obviously shrinking now. And he's sort of curving over. But you could see it there. And then Stephanie Grisham, which that we mentioned earlier, are Exit Out tweeted out, oh, I know that face. I know that face. We we rarely get such an obvious, incisive look into what is going on.

inside the psych and the lunge, the way that he moves forward. If you're if you're listening on Apple or on Spotify or podcasts, what we saw with Trump is that he literally lunges forward. towards Rachel Scott. He's slightly taller, I think, than Rachel Scott. Despite, as you say, he's shrinking. He was he was a reasonably large man. He was not quite as tall as he said he was, but he was still he's still a big. well, he's six two, right. He's probably six two and he's wide. He says he's weighed.

I think realistically looking at it, he's now below six foot. We've seen pictures of him with people who are genuinely six foot. We saw him, you know, we've seen him with pictures of people who are six foot. two, clearly not because of the people whose six foot he's slightly under. I think he's on his way down. His past is clearly an issue. Right. But he lunged towards her and he's growling. Might be the word the way that he's saying it. Not you, not you. And Rachel. Scott is not the first target of this sort of thing, not the first woman.

to be targeted, but he actually has very specific history with her. That they have. I was going to say they have clashed. They have not clashed. He has gone after her for the way that for, for questions. that are completely legitimate that he doesn't like, started. at the National Association for Black Journalists in 2024. when he was campaigning and he he uncorked you. I think we were probably all remember this extraordinary tirade against,

Kamala Harris, seeing I didn't know she was black. She just I just discovered she was black. Is she black? Her as she ended incredibly offensive and Rachel Scott quite rightly called him. up, called him out and that and asked him what he meant. And he left the stage early and afterwards, the NAB, the National Association of Black Journalists, said that she had received. death threats which were clearly from his followers. Right. But that is not put her off. She has been able to keep going after him. She asked him in the Oval Office about the deaths of 18 service.

members in his war in Iran, and he described it as small potatoes. And he again she challenged him. And how's that small potatoes? And again, this you know, this prompted an angry response. But this is without doubt this, I think, the physicality of this anger. We are seeing something more disinhibited, I would guess, as probably a way. to look at it. Is Trump unraveling? I think it's very hard to argue that he is not unraveling.

I think, yes, we have seen evidence this week that suggests he's unraveling. We saw. if we go back to the Labor Day weekend. Dozens and dozens and dozens. of unhinged social media posting, we I know you've discussed them with with Michael Wolff. We've talked about them with David Rothkopf. The one that jumps. So, of course, is him in a in an animation attacking Mark Carney,

the Canadian prime minister with a hockey, hockey stick. Are there are other ones. one spot in international incident because he wanted to take over Iceland. and there was just this this series of things. He was obviously up, up late. He was, you know, he was posting untruths social late at night. His family were not around him, rather notably over this Labor Day weekend. And we've rolled into this Trump trumpet palooza, this MAGA fire fest, two speeches, not one are,

you know, the sort of this very public going after Rachel. Rachel Scott, which is atrocious. And then this morning, falling asleep during the names, I think it's it's. impossible to see that this is anything other than a revelation of character. and unraveling and opening up of Trump. in a way that we have not seen before. Not even during the appalling mishandling of Covid, when it was clear. that his administration then was teetering on the brink,

not even after January 6th, when people deserve to. Tim, this is this is different. This is much more public. The anger is at the surface, the crazy is at the surface, and the desertion of his own party as well. There was nothing for Republicans at the Republican meeting in Dallas. It was all for Trump. So, Hugh, let's take a pledge at the Daily Beast that we will continue. to cover Donald Trump, with neither fear nor favor.

Thank you very much. I always feel guilty. tearing you away from the newsroom, because I know there is so much to do. There is a lot to do. Other things I'll just say on the Daily Beast, IWWW the Daily beast.com right now. We're covering other news for Donald Trump, which is not great. The economy which I, he, he has got problems with and we're covering that in depth. And we're also covering the commemorations of September the 11th.

And one of the things worth seeing is that the. the contrast I think we've seen in between Donald Trump, Boeing asleep at the Pentagon and those four living ex-presidents, being. there is probably the moment that I think we should all right on as we go forward. Yeah. And I would just say I was down in downtown. I mean, I lived downtown, but I was right down inside. I last night having dinner at a couple of restaurants, actually a double dinner. last night, and just thought to myself what an extraordinary job. the city has done in rebuilding that whole area.

And it's vibrant. It's an art center. The memorial is a huge tourist attraction now. And, you know, 25 years ago, when we were both here, it wasn't possible to think about. how the city would be rebuilt and how people would survive. We all really thought that this was some some crushing ball, right? Next blow to New York City. And it turns out that. New York City is bigger than any one particular terrorist event.

Let's hope anyway. And it was sort of thrilling to be downtown knowing that. actually, 25 years on, the city is more vibrant than ever. I think, you know, maybe, maybe we should all reflect on that, that, you know, what we saw this week at this Dallas event was dark. And what we saw with this attack on Rachel Scott was dark. Maybe we can reflect that. there is the possibility of resilience and redemption here, too.

Huey. Profound words for a Friday morning. It's time to get back to the newsroom. Thank you for joining us. If you have. Don't forget to subscribe to The Daily Beast and a big. thank you to our production team John Romero, Ryan Murray, Rachel Pastor, Heather Passaro, and Neil Rosenhaus. And I will be back tomorrow inside Trump's head, with Michael Wolff. poking around to see what is left inside. that strange, cavernous space.

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