This Is Trump's Most Jaw-Dropping Putin Scandal | The Daily Beast Podcast

Donald Trump is the king. He's not the president. He does not behave like a president. He believes that all decisions flow from him. All benefits flow to him. Everything is about him and it's about his family. Here we are in 2026 with Don Jr., which is paid for in large part. by a crony of Vladimir Putin’s, paid for by Russian money. That whole world which is tied into MMA, boxing, corruption, Russia, oligarchs. and it's all tied together in this one story and it's so useful.

because it reminds us the routes to this corruption run. incredibly deep. I'm Joanna Coles, this is the Daily Beast podcast. If it's Monday, it must be David Rothkopf. And I must remind you, please subscribe to the Daily. Beast podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Apple, Spotify, YouTube. Because it really helps us have these independent conversations.

We're independent media and well, we need your support. Let's get into it. With David Rothkopf. So much to discuss. Is Natalie the first lady? Now come on. Seriously, is she because she was there greeting the Irish over the weekend. on Trump's visit to Doon Bag, who paid for Don Junior's wedding? Well, it turns out it was a Russian gentleman, and you can just see him in the background in the photo.

And of course, AI, are we all about to die? David Rothkopf has the answers. Let's get into it. David Rothkopf is with us. Hi, Joanna. David, I've been thinking. Should we start pacing this podcast? Should we put this podcast? What if 10% of the people listening. or watching this podcast, something happens to them. Something happens.

David, should we be pacing? I think we should be pacing. Well, that's because you're a sensible person. But, you know, when they're worries, like there's a 10% chance that the world will be destroyed by AI. The president says, I'm Bert, let's keep going. So let's not pace it. Let's go for it. Let's, let's let's invite global destruction. Well, before we have global destruction, I would like to get to the end of. this podcast. And there are there's a menu of things I would like to discuss. Not least is Natalie Harp, the new First Lady in effect,

Don Juniors wedding on some Bahamas. Is that the right behaving islands that turn out. to have been paid for by a close chum of Vladimir Putin? I want to talk about the drone footage of the ballroom, which not only looks like it's going to dwarf. the white House, it looks like it's going to dwarf Snow White. I mean, this is going to dwarf Disney.

It's so enormous. Of course we can talk about the end of civilization. Why wouldn't we? We're doing a podcast after all. And who's going to save us? David, is there a note of hoping at the end of this podcast? There might be. There might be. Cool. I can't wait to hear about all that. And let's hear it for Vertigo and Goose style, which is the narrow mouthed whorl snail.

that is holding up Donald Trump's efforts to extend the ballroom. at his dune bag facilities where he spent the weekend. Did you follow the president's trip, David? I suspect you did. Of course. They followed the president's trip. It's always great to see the president out getting some exercise, interacting with people in different countries, blowing up U.S. foreign policy, hanging out with his pal Natalie. It's it was a it was a full weekend of Trump being so Trumpy.

Go on. Well, I mean, you know, I mean, I, you know, but let me start at the high end. You know, he did go and say that, you know, he wanted to see. Ireland reunited, which I thought was kind of interesting. and contrary to UK policy for a long, long time. He did, you know, take a lot of questions, which he gave really weird answers to on a whole range. of things that we'll talk about later, including AI and so forth.

And he did bring Natalie along with him, and then he attacked Melania. It's I don't know, has he ever done this before in his past? Well, let's let's get a clip of that before we come on to his idea of a. of a united Ireland, literally up. uprooting the last 100 years of intense diplomatic negotiations. between Ireland and Britain, more than more than 100 years. But let's first get in to his domestic arrangements.

My wife is here. My wife is here in spirit. She's watching right now. She said, say hello because she is very friendly with these two people. I said, well, why don't you come with me? I said, she said, well, it's a seven hour trip. Maybe I'm not that friendly. I said, put on you. and said, put on a Make America Great Again hat and come on, let's go. Oh, so he says, my wife is here, but she isn't here. Then he quickly corrects himself and says she's here in spirit.

It looked to me like that was a husband. whining about his wife not being with him. And then, of course, cut to this clip. And there we have Natalie Harp, the president's special assistant, with his family shaking hands as if she were the first lady. Is Natalie Harp, the new first lady? I know, first of all, I don't think Trump does.

You know what? I heard that first clip where he said, my wife is here. The thing that struck me is I don't think he knew. You know, I'm like, I think he's just confused generally all the time. Oh, you don't think he knows where he is? So he's like, I don't think he's here. It's like I'm giving my speech. My wife is, oh no, my wife isn't here. Well, maybe my other wife is here. Well, you know their wives. Let me make a joke about it. I'll move on. And and and it was just, you know, it was really. It was really Trumpy and weirdness.

The reality is, it's hard for him. There has never been a president who is actually married to somebody. whose wife was less involved in his business than Melania's. You know, there have been president I mean, Grover Cleveland. wasn't married at first, and he had his daughter act as first lady. But but in this particular case, the president has a wife. She just is absent without leave. She's not showing up. And and so, you know, he's got to deal with that.

It's it's a little bit weird, particularly since this was not you know, I mean, he called it a diplomatic trip, which is just a rip. off of the American people because it wasn't a diplomatic trip. It was a trip to one of his golf courses, and he stuck some diplomacy onto it. But that's why his family was there. That's why Don Jr was standing next to him. greeting these government officials, which is weird in and of itself. And we'll get to that a little bit later also.

But then, of course, Natalie is playing an increasingly public role, and particularly if you take it in the context of the conversations. you've had on other products here at the Daily Beast. You know, when she, you know, was put on to the other plane, it alienated. some people in the white House. When she approached the president at his Formula One rally, it alienated some other people, including parently Melania.

And yet, is he moving away from Natalie, or is he embracing her and pulling her closer to the center? And I think the answer from this weekend is she's moving closer to the center, she's moving closer to the center, and he's explaining that his actual wife. didn't want to come, so therefore he's justified in leaning into Natalie. I think I thought it looked like he was, laying the ground. for public sympathy for him. He's always like the what does he care about.

other than public said he felt totally fine. So. So what do we think? You're right. He was there for a golf tournament at Dune. Big one of his facilities, which he's frantically trying to expand. He bought it, of course, as he buys most of his properties when it was in financial difficulties. And hurrah for as I said, the narrow mouth will snail. because it's endangered by his efforts to extend facilities at Dune Bake. So I'm sure he was going to probably encourage people to just get on.

And who cares about the snail? The snail is defiant. He could relocate the snails to RFK Jr's brain, where they would feel very comfortable having. They would fit right into to the worm tracks there. Exactly. You've. probably heard us talk about One Skin before for their best selling. skin care, but now they're bringing that same breakthrough longevity. science to their scalp serum OS one hair.

Whether it's stress, hormonal shifts, or just getting older, hair changes can happen to everyone. And that's exactly why one skin built OS one hair. It's a daily serum powered by the proprietary OS one peptide. that actually works on the scalp, where how health begins to nourish it. from the root so your hair looks and feels better over time. Many hair treatments can leave your scalp irritated or greasy, and others require a prescription, making them hard to access,

and they can have some pretty unpleasant side effects. OS one hair is different. It's drug free, so you can use it alone or alongside any other hair. treatment without the irritation and it's water based, so you can actually use it every day without disrupting your normal routine. Born from over ten years of longevity research, One skin's OS one peptide. is engineered to support your hair to look visibly fuller and thicker at any age.

For a limited time, try one skin with 15% off using Code Beast. at one skin.com/beast that's 15% off one skin.com with code beast, and after you purchase, they'll ask you where you heard about them. Please support our show and tell them we sent you. What did we think about his suggestion. that you know that the last 150 years of earnest diplomacy.

to get a separated Ireland as an actual Ireland, and then Northern Ireland attached to the UK, what do we think about his efforts to rebuild Ireland? Well, again, what did that? Was that anything other than him thinking, why aren't they both the same country? This makes no sense. It's a little lump of the UK. Well, you know, when he says stuff like that, we analyze it like, is this a foreign policy initiative that he's discussed.

with his National Security Council, but he doesn't really have one of those. So probably not. Is this a foreign policy initiative he's discussed with his advisers? Well, he doesn't listen to his advisers, so probably not. Was this something corrupt because he's the most corrupt president. ever in history? Well, I'm not sure how this plays into the corruption. So sometimes you've got to come to a different conclusion with Trump, and it's hard to do because of the corruption. and the malevolence and all that other stuff. Sometimes you have to remember he's an idiot,

and in this particular case, he's just an idiot. He's just doesn't it, you know, he just doesn't know what history is. He doesn't know what's right or wrong to say. He doesn't listen to advisors. And he's like, well, they speak funny and they speak funny, so maybe they should all be speaking funny together. And, and. it's, you know, I mean, and that's, that's, you know, because we are really in the shoot from the lip phase of the Trump presidency.

Oh, shoot from the lip. That's good. Shoot from the lip. Well, he's losing all the the inhibitions that, you know, having a more functioning brain might have given it. where you stop and you say, is this the right thing to say? He doesn't care anymore. He doesn't care. And, and, and between not caring and not knowing the difference between. right and wrong. and not knowing any facts, then you end up with this kind of nonsense. Well, what he's also done is created this sort of amorphous,

semiofficial, official social, these trips that are to his own properties, as you say, paid for by public money. I'm sure that the American taxpayer. paid for the flight over on grift Force one. Don junior was there. The kids were all there as if it was a sort of family trip with grandpa. And of course, Don junior is in the news this morning.

You sent us a fascinating piece from ProPublica. I mean, you know, a really worth reading about. how Don Junior's wedding was, in fact, paid for by a friend of Putin's. Well, yeah, let's let's break that into two pieces. One very brief. One is a little bit longer. The brief piece is this Donald Trump is the king. He's not the president. He does not behave like a president. He does not take the counsel of advisers. He does not take the counsel of the Congress.

He does not believe in the Constitution of the United States. He is not motivated by the interests of anything other than himself. He believes that all decisions flow from him. All benefits flow to him. Everything is about him and it's about his family. And so, you know, traveling around with his family is what a king might do. And I'm sure you know, there, you know, there were seats. on the Katari plane that he got that says, you know, son of the emir, you know,

I mean, it's it's like or son of the Sheik or whatever it would have said. And he's he's just used to living in that world. The Don junior story in ProPublica, though, is much, much, much deeper and more profound. And I really enjoy people to read it because here, here. you have this super rich guy. who's made hundreds of millions of dollars just in the past couple of years, cashing in onto his father's presidency, having a wedding in the Bahamas,

which is paid for in large part by a crony of. Vladimir. Putin's, is paid for by Russian money. He rented the island. He paid for the fireworks. What? Donald John Junior doesn't need to pay for that. You know, a couple of things on this. One is Trump didn't go to this wedding. I now believe, having read this story, that somebody said, you can't go to this wedding, you can't go to a wedding that's paid for by the Kremlin.

This will cause you more problems than you need to have. So first of all, I think that's that's an element of this thing. But secondly, there is in all of this. a a kind of a glimpse into the deeper, corrupt inner core. of Trump and Trumpism because this Russian, and let's just say it. a few times here, because Trump doesn't like us to say Russia. Russia. Russia. Right.

But this just reminds us that with Trump, it's. not Russia, Russia, Russia, it's Russia, Russia. Russia. Russia. Russia. Russia. Russia. Russia. Russia. Russia. Russia. Russia. Russia. Russia. It's always Russia. It's always been Russia. And when did it start being Russia? 40 years ago, when Trump started to realize. that he could build big buildings in New York City. and fill them with people who would never take the apartments, but who were buying the apartments in order to launder their money.

And there are many instances of Trump welcoming, you know, Russian investments in his various buildings. or getting Russian financing for his buildings. because they were being used essentially as money laundering engines for foreigners. who wanted to have their cash someplace they could get at it, if they couldn't get on the cash that they had in their own governments. But it goes even deeper than this, because this Russian guy is a boxing guy.

He's the head of the International Boxing Federation, and he's really into boxing. and some of the other things associated with it, like gambling. Well, who else is into that? Don Jr, Don Junior is investing in things like prediction markets. Don Junior is investing in, you know, is very into the whole MMA thing. Who else is into it. Don Senior was this something new. Know the very very origin roots of Donald Trump.

Go back to Roy Cohn, his lawyer mentor. who was indicted multiple times for all sorts of crimes. associated with boxing promotion, whose father was a boxing promoter. When Donald Trump, Donald Trump went to Atlantic City, he decided the only way he could make money is by dealing with boxing promoters. Don King Jr, being a very, very shady guy who he got in bed. with and in fact helped him get involved in politics.

The two of them gave money to Al Sharpton very, very early on in order to build sort of goodwill in this whole thing. But Donald Trump was involved in boxing, just as today that has morphed into MMA. And the big thing on the South Lawn and is support for sports gambling. and his support for, what's going on with prediction markets. And it all goes back into the core,

the corrupt heart of who is Donald Trump. And there is a guy, you know, you read ProPublica. The very origin of all of this stuff is a reporter. who worked for a place called The Village Voice. I don't think it exists anymore. And the reporter was a guy named Wayne Barrett. And early on in the 80s and 90s Wayne Barrett started. writing about Donald Trump, and he started writing about Trump and Roy Cohn. He started writing about Trump and boxing. and how the sort of semi criminal under element of this whole thing.

really suited Donald Trump's views of power and money. He started writing about Trump and the Russians, and here we are in 2026. with Don Jr, having a wedding underwritten. by a boxing promoter who's pals with the Kremlin. And all of it says we've come no distance on the inner world of Donald Trump. This is who he is. This is why he celebrated July 4th. with an MMA event on the South Lawn of the white House.

This is when the war started in Iran. Where was he? He was with Marco Rubio at an MMA event in Miami. This is how his son Barron is so into the Tates. And that whole world, which is tied into MMA. and boxing and corruption and Russia and oligarchs, and it's all tied together in this one story, and it's so useful. because it reminds us that the the roots to.

this run incredibly deep. The new. season is always a good excuse to upgrade your routine. And if you've been thinking about giving your hair or skin a little more. attention, I restore is worth a look. The Iris store A leat combines lasers and LEDs to deliver red light therapy. across the scalp, while the Illumina face mask uses red, infrared and blue light. And what's particularly interesting about the Illumina is.

that you can use all three wavelengths simultaneously. Both are designed to be easy to work into your routine at home. The elite can be worn while you're working, reading, or relaxing. Relaxing, and the cordless Illumina masks takes just ten minutes. a few times a week. And right now. I restore is offering some huge discounts on their red light therapy devices. You can save on customer favorites like the Iris store, Elite helmet, and the Illumina Face Mask.

Just head to restore.com and use code Daily Beast. That's Daily Beast at Iris store.com. Please support our show and tell them we sent you give you a hair and skin. the upgrade they deserve so you can feel confident and refreshed. Well, it's also interesting that this weekend he said, you know, he lectured. Vladimir Zelenskyy saying whatever you do, don't go after diesel.

You can't go after diesel facilities in Russia. You know, go after another target. What do we know about Umar Lev? Who is the guy who paid for. most of Don Juniors wedding? I mean, that wasn't always his name, was it? According to the story, he had a name change. Yeah. Originally his name was JD Vance. But then somebody. No, no, no, he like JD Vance. He changed his name and he got closer and closer with the Kremlin.

And he got, you know, various concessions from the Kremlin. And that turned into this boxing promotion thing. And it started with boxing. promotion in Russia, and then it extended to boxing promotion internationally. And he became the head of the International Boxing Promotion group. But the key is you don't get in Vladimir. Putin's Russia to get the concessions, to get the business, to become the oligarch. Unless you're doing work for Vladimir Putin and nobody who's as close.

as this guy is to Vladimir Putin is doing it purely, for, you know, business reasons, because Putin is constantly asking them for favors. And this is the thing, you know, when people say, oh, Russia, Trump, the Trump's not a Russian agent. He doesn't have to be there. All these people who are influencing them, him. who are working on behalf of the Kremlin, including. Don junior, including the NRA,

including many of the donors in the Republican Party. And this is just one more example of how Russian influence touches them. And then, of course, the fact that they ask for Russian help in the election, twice, not not once. The fact that he's looking, you know, that look at look at his record on Russia, as you say. What is he doing with Ukraine? Whatever he may say about Zelensky, he cut the aid that we had to Ukraine. He has never liked aid to Ukraine.

He got impeached once for withholding aid to Ukraine. And now he's telling the Ukrainians, don't attack the Russians. It's as bad for the world, when in fact, of course, the Russians are the ones who attacked Ukraine. The Russians are the aggressors, the Russians are the war criminals, and the Ukrainians are just defending themselves. So if you're right, and the reason that Donald Trump senior. didn't attend his son's wedding, let's just repeat that, that the father doesn't attend his son's wedding.

Second wedding. So maybe he thinks. Well, I was at the first. I was at the first because he's been advised you cannot do this. This would look terrible for you. Although he doesn't really seem to care about anything looking terrible for him. Why do you think? Or perhaps they did, and Don junior chose to ignore it. But why wouldn't someone advised on junior not to do this? Well, I mean, first of all, Don junior is not a government employee. But secondly, somebody probably did advise him not to do this.

You know, Don Jr is a defense contractor for the United States. He's owning shares in companies that are defense contractors for the United States. I would think this would raise big red flags if I were a Democrat. And I were looking into, areas to investigate if they won the House. or the Senate or both in November, I would say, well, gee, shouldn't we look into the fact that Don Jr is providing drone technology.

and other technologies to the Department of Defense and. is flying around with the president going to diplomatic meetings? But he's also in bed with this Russian oligarch. who is in bed with Vladimir Putin. That's the kind of thing you would think that would be looked into. Now, of course, in a normal government, somebody in the Defense Department would have read or raised a red flag. The inspector general would have raised a red flag. The white House counsel would have raised a red flag. The attorney general would have raised red flag.

And of course, in this government, the job of all of those people is to. enable Trump and to enable Trump's family to be as corrupt as they want to be. It's such a depressing scenario. Well, shout out to Justin Elliott, Brett Murphy, Joshua Kaplan, and Alex Mirsky for for the piece in ProPublica. And as you say, really worth reading. It just uncovers the depth to which the Trumps are in bed with the Russians. And perhaps it explains why Donald Senior.

didn't end up going to his son's wedding. Yeah. You know, the other thing, though, that I would say here is, and it's just an interesting footnote, is that Donald Trump's level of growth and evolution as a person is zero. The Donald Trump you got in the 80s. and the 90s and the arts and the teens and the it's the same guy. He's interested in the same things. He behaves the same way with women. He violates, you know, standards and behavior in the same way.

He's just as vulgar. He's just as caught up in the same kind. of demimonde underworld as he has been the whole time. If you lived in New York City, as I did in the 1980s, and you saw Donald Trump with Roy Cohn and Don King. and building these buildings with the Russians coming in, who were back. then not viewed as oligarchs, but just kind of Russian mob.

And you said, well, what kind of president would he be? He would be this he would be exactly this. Well, he would be that with possibly a lair of frontotemporal dementia. Well, yeah. And the fact is that Natalie Harp wasn't born at the time, so she doesn't know. All right, so, David, another of his extraordinary things. And again, it goes back to his, his buildings in the 80s is the ballroom. Drone footage this weekend started circulating.

Can we show some, please? So just look at this thing. Well, what's that little building next to it? That's the white House? Yes. What is it? I mean, Donald Trump is determined. to leave his thumbprint footprint, but but but look at this. This building is twice as big as the white House, right? Which we've always known. We've always known that the ballroom and the sort of bunker, it's 90,000ft².

The white House is 45,000ft², so it's literally twice the size. But when you actually begin to see it taking shape like that, it's still shocking. Well, first of all, from a historic preservation point of view. And of course, he ignored all of that stuff. It's an atrocity, okay? He he is he is violating. He is vandalizing. He is debasing. a symbol of the United States of America, the white House.

Then on top of all of that, you know, using. that grotesque structure. as a vehicle for corruption. because a lot of the money that is being donated to that structure. is coming from people who want government favors, and so they give a certain amount of money and they get contracts. And we now have cases where this has actually been the case. Then on top of that,

he's using it as yet another vehicle to destroy the budget deficit, because only some money is coming from these outside sources. Maybe half $1 billion is coming from the taxpayer. for everything under the ground, and it's all illegal. So this is, you know, in some respects, the the white House ballroom. is the perfect monument to Trump. It's big. It's ugly. It doesn't belong there. It's in bad taste. It's illegal, it's corrupt.

It's destroying the budget. It's undermining American traditions. And, you know, the big question, and I really think it's a big question, is does the next president leave it there? What do they do? What do they do with this thing. Do they get rid of it. That would cost a lot of money and be considered wasteful? Do they change its purpose that, you know, so that it becomes a place. where we, you know, focus on I don't know. Public social needs, like, you know, health care or something like that.

I don't. I don't know what they're going to do with it, but right now, what we know is that there is going to be, whether we like it or not, this big, ugly. blot on Washington, right next to the white House for a long time. And it's going to remind us of how far astray. we went during this really, really dark period in our history. But we should ask listeners and viewers actually to write in.

and suggest things for the next president to do with it. I mean, you could turn it into a library. I'm trying to think of the thing that would be the most untrue. I mean, you would, you know, fill it with books because obviously he hasn't read one. Or you could make it a historical, a presidential historical library. And I guess you refuse to call it Trump, right? He will call it the Trump Ballroom. We'll all know it's the Trump Ballroom, but you have to rename it something more neutral.

Yeah, I have a suggestion. May I make my suggestion? Please make your suggestion. Yes. I think it should be called the Barack Hussein Obama. Center for diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Oh, very good, very good. You know, and I think we should use it to promote programs. that promote American diversity as a source of its strength, possibly. including new programs to attract new immigrants to the United States.

Our producer is nodding fervently here, and he's giving a thumbs up. He likes that idea very much. John Romero yes, if you're listening. or if you're watching this podcast, please write in because it's a real. it really is a it's going to be a contentious issue. Do you leave it there? Do you repurpose it? Do you take it down? And of course, we don't know yet whether or not it will continue. I mean, the other possibility is there's a court order that says, no, you have to halt, and it sits there, you know, open to the.

whether you already know what he's going to do if that happens. And you know how we know because of another story on your list, just skip ahead to your Kennedy Center story. Go on. Yep. Go on. Because because, you know, Trump handles. bad news the way any mafia boss handles bad news. And when the court said you can't do what you want with the Kennedy Center, he started defunding it, winding it down, attacking it.

And now we've gotten this week to the stage of. it would be a pity if anything happened. to this little art center of yours, buddy. You know, it's the mobster coming in. And what they're saying is, if they don't allow Trump's. name to be put on this, they won't be able to raise money for it. Therefore, it will go bankrupt because it's in bankrupt state already. It must be shut down.

And because, you know, it's in such terrible shape it can't be occupied. And so they come up with means within the sort of rough ambit of power. that they do have to fuck things up if they don't go the way they want. Well, Mary Trump, Donald Trump's niece, who is I know both a friend of the DSR, the Deep State radio network that you run, and she's a friend of our Daily. Beast podcast, and a frequent guest has always made. the point that Trump is a nihilist and that if he can't have something,

he would rather destroy it, then have anybody else have it. She thinks he's going to do it with. with America, and he's starting off with the Kennedy Center. But talking about destroying. what a freak out over the last few days about AI, total freak out from the founders. of the big AI Frontier Labs to Trump saying. whoever wins, AI wins again.

You know, I spent a lot of time in AI. We do a number of podcasts, and I've been working on AI related stuff. for much of my life. My dad worked on the early stages of AI stuff at Bell. Telephone Laboratories, so I've been immersed in this stuff. for a long time, and I will get to the AI specifics. But just to pick up on your last point, Donald Trump. should be called the doomsday president because Donald Trump. is not just the most corrupt president in our history.

Donald Trump is. not just the most incompetent president in our history. Donald Trump is not just perhaps the stupidest president in our history, but there are a number of areas in which Donald Trump. is embracing disaster that tied. directly to Mary's point about nihilism. You know, with regard to AI, what happened last week. was that a number of people in the field have said, you know, there is a greater.

than 10% chance that AI on its current trajectory will result. in the destruction of the planet Earth, that is end of human life on the planet. There's a score that they use in AI world called the P doom. There are a number of people within this industry who feel that. the likelihood of global catastrophe from AI is 10% or more. You know, if if all the astronomers in the world said. there's an asteroid heading.

for the planet Earth, and the likelihood that it would destroy the planet. Earth was greater than 10%, that's all we would be talking about, folks. We would be freaking out that there's a greater than 10% chance. that life is going to be ended by some asteroid. Well, all the people in this field have said this. And you know what Donald Trump said this weekend? Donald Trump said, I'm not worried about it. He said, I don't want to get involved. And, you know, you would say, well, that's a little bit crazy. That's a little bit maybe nihilistic, maybe stupid, but but it goes further.

because it's not the only area in which he is embracing doom. Look at this week we're going to remove the, regulations that stop. power companies from generating gases that are destroying our climate. He has done this over and over again with other areas. He has said climate change is not a real crisis. Well, climate scientists will tell you this is one of the biggest problems.

we face. What is he doing? Is he dealing with the problem or make it worse? He's making it worse. What about pandemics? A billion people died in a Covid pandemic, hundreds of thousands of them, according to scientists, based on bad policies of the Trump administration. And what is he doing with. regard to the threat of pandemics and epidemics and diseases? He's increasing the threat of pandemics and epidemics and diseases.

by fighting a war against science, by getting rid of vaccines and so forth. This week, we've learned he's embracing a new policy and nuclear weapons. And the new policy is to make them more usable, to get rid of the distinctions that exist between the use of nuclear. and conventional weapons to put more money into nuclear weapons. So take all of those things, take AI, take climate, take the pandemic, take nuclear weapons. In every one of these cases, where there is an existential consequence.

for all of us here on the planet, Donald Trump. is choosing to make things worse. That's why I call him the doomsday president, because he is inviting doomsday. And the psychological reason for that is precisely what Mary Trump says it is. He's a narcissist. And as far as he's concerned, once he stops existing, he doesn't care what happens to the rest of the world. Do you think he doesn't even care about his children or Natalie?

I mean, yeah, he doesn't care. Let's let's do this by deduction. Do you think he cares about Tiffany? No, I don't even think he knows Tiffany's day. So let's set Tiffany aside. Does he care about Avoca? I think he loved Ivanka, and she rejected him. She's the one great love who's turned him away. And she's off with Jared, so I don't think he cares about her as much anymore. Does he care about Don and Eric? Well, I don't know. Would you care about Don and Eric?

And then there's Barron. Barron has been taken away from it. Nobody knows where Barron is. Baron's being held by Melania in a basement someplace, so I. You know, the only young person he has any contact with is Natalie. Does he care about Natalie? Maybe. Would Natalie ever challenge him and say, you know, you're going to destroy the world, and I'm not going to have a future once you're gone? He'll go, well, you know, should you have a future once I'm going. So, you know, there is a lot of psychopathology.

at the core of all of this. And, you know, I mean, he didn't go to Don Jr's wedding, Biddy. Well, interestingly, Eric Trump, when asked if he knew who Umar. Kremlin was, said he'd never heard of him. I find that hard to believe. that you wouldn't know who was financing your brother's wedding. He's standing behind him in the fucking picture. Let go! Go look at the ProPublica picture, David. We have to have some hope. Him here. We can't.

The doomsday president. I totally take your your arguments for it. Is there no hope? I mean, we do have we're 50 days out from the midterms. Is it possible that the Democrats, despite themselves, will be able to seize back, seize back the House? Let me ease into that. Okay, first of all, I was at a dinner this weekend with a bunch of Democrats. You and your dinners. David, your dinner sounds so much fun. There was. It was.

I mean, they they usually are. But I got to tell you, this was a little bleak. These were people who know. And their sense was. it's it's not a sure. thing that we we get out of this with a democracy. That what Trump is doing to undermine the elections. in terms of whether it's mail order or sending troops in. or gerrymandering or. getting the Howard nick to track voting machines.

because they have foreign parts in them, or having Todd Blanche intervene. that while all of those things won't work. Some might work, and that the reality is with regard to the November elections, it's not whether or not we're going to have free and fair elections. To some degree we won't. The question is how free and fair elections these will be. and and how much he's going to be able to interfere. And this has led to a pretty bleak outlook with these people.

The ray of hope is that the, the the public outrage at a bad economy. and losing their health care benefits and another endless war and, you know, attacks on education and all the bad things. that are happening to them will lead to a wave election. And that in 2020, five seats in the House that are swing seats,

the Democrats will pick up ten, 15 or 20, and they'll pick up. the majority in the House. They might pick up enough to pick up a majority in the Senate. It's going to be close because, you know, at the end of the day, John Fetterman, that big boob will switch over to the Republican Party if needs be. Right. So it's it's it's going to be close. But that if the Democrats get into the House, they will be able to put their brakes on some of the worst stuff Trump is doing.

And then literally less than two months from today, Joanna, we are going to be in elections 2028. and election 2028 is already taking shape. And over this weekend we had a guy who's running for the Senate. in Georgia, John Ossoff, a young promising candidate, give a speech that I would encourage everybody to go listen to. because he really took it to Trump and he took it to the corruption.

And he said, we can't continue. And he said, we have to hold them accountable. And he said, what. the American people really are caring about is getting a government. that doesn't work for billionaires, but that works for them again. And he said it with such clarity that throughout. the Democratic Party, there is hope because he's not the only one. Hold that thought because we have a clip from John Ossoff rally. See, Georgia deserves so much better than Mike Collins, and America deserves. better than Donald Trump.

America deserves better. I can't help wondering if some of the panic around. AI is projection on Donald Trump. You say he's the doomsday president, but I wonder also. if there should be pacing of Donald Trump, if there should be a pausing. of Donald Trump, and that's what the midterms will be. I think that's a really smart observation. I did a podcast on our network. We do want an AI every week called Solar Consciousness with Alondra Nelson,

who ran a lot of these issues in the Biden White House. And she said that a lot of this freak out on. AI has many factors, one of which is fear of AI bubble, one of which is huge reaction across the country to data centers. But I think part of it is that Donald Trump makes doom seem possible. Donald Trump makes the worst case scenario seem possible. because every day we seem to be living through the worst case scenario.

But when you look at John Ossoff, this is a guy who, if he ran for president in 2028. and were inaugurated in January of 2029, I think you would be 41 years old. He is young, he is articulate, he is strong. He is from a red state. He is smart. He is listening to the people of Georgia.

He gets what the mood is in this country, which is the system is rigged. It's working for the rich. It needs to work for me. And he is part of this movement. That's not all progressive or, you know, ideologically fits into any particular bucket. because James Talarico in Texas is part of this movement. Mamdani is part of this movement, but so is Mikey. Sheryl, the governor of New Jersey, is a former, aviator.

Abdullah said in Michigan as part of this movement. But so is J.B. Pritzker, the billionaire governor of Illinois. There are a lot of people out there who are rising up listening to the people. saying the right things, and there is still a chance, there is still a chance that they won't be able to corrupt the election so much. that we get an outcome that reflects the will of the people, that the will of the people is no longer interested.

in what Trump has to offer, that they are seeking a change, and that between now and 2028, we can not only hold Trump accountable, but we can move toward that change with new leaders. And that, to me, is the real hope. And I frankly find us off an incredibly compelling candidate. Well, David, it's 50 days to go. So we will see what the American people say and whether or not. the mail in voting situation gets resolved is currently unclear.

There's a lot of chaos which Donald Trump has managed to so over. whether or not Mail-In votes are valid in certain states. And as we know, it's actually incredible. 30% of people vote by mail in ballot. So it's a lot of people, well, yes, it should be right people. We we should be a country. If we're really a democracy that is committed to making it easier. to vote, not harder to vote, we should be talking about how we can vote online.

As other countries have begun to do. But we're not doing that because the Republican Party. feels that if the majority speaks, they lose. And so they are on a war against making it easier to vote. Well, David, let's hope. we're here next Monday to have another podcast. And we haven't the world hasn't collapsed. We don't quite have a time frame for the end of civilization, although I think the is it Jacob Coxon who left anthropic and said,

you know, within ten years we might come hurtling to the end? But he did. And there are a lot of people. who say worse things, and there's some people who say better things. And frankly, the fact that all the people in the AI industry have then said, well, let us regulate it. You know, I honestly that's that's performative, right? The last people you want the world to regulate bank robberies are the bank. robbers. You know, we're a long way from getting.

how we manage this AI thing, but at least we're finally having a discussion about some of its real risks. Well, David, thank you for joining us. And I'm sure this is a subject we're going to be talking about for. for months to come. But if you have been, thank you for joining us. Leave us a comment and what you think about David. Suggestions for, well, for what we do with. the white House, the the ballroom, and indeed, do you believe that. AI is going to create a doomsday.

scenario and is Trump a doomsday president? If you have been. Thank you for watching. Don't forget to subscribe to The Daily Beast and a big thanks to our production. team John Romero, Ryan Murray, Rachel Heather, and Neil Rosenhaus. So the good news is we have so many b b tier members now. There are too many names to read out and we really appreciate your support.