Why Trump's In The Deepest Hole of His Life: Guru | The Daily Beast Podcast

He has dug himself into the deepest hole of his life. I mean, he was better off with his bankrupt casinos. in Atlantic City than he is with this war in Iran. He's such a literal dimwit. Donald Trump has done more to elevate the strategic position of Iran. than anybody in modern Iranian history. Donald Trump, in one of the great ironies of foreign policy cluster, has actually given the Iranians.

more strategic leverage than had they gotten a bomb and detonated. He is weakening the US. and weakening our alliances day in and day out while they do nothing. Donald Trump is the atom bomb Iran wanted. I'm Joanna Coles. This is the Daily Beast podcast. Thank you for joining us. And I'm going to warn you ahead of time, we had some technical difficulties today. So you will see my background change. That was to do with chasing the internet.

because there were storms where I was staying last night anyway. No technical difficulties for David Rothkopf. And we really get into a fascinating conversation where. he thinks that Trump is now America's worst enemy. and that impaling around with our former enemies like North Korea. Trump is doing something really weird and he can't figure out what it is. So we discuss South Korea, North Korea, Oman, Iran.

What is that weird, bulky thing that Trump now has underneath his pants? We could all see it when he walked out of the rally this weekend. And Jon Ossoff raising the subject of Natalie Harp. and Trump flying around in his plane while everybody else. is watching the prices go up at the pump. And are the families complaining about conditions on the USS Lincoln? Are they lying, as Trump says they are?

Are they actually in close contact with their family members. who serve on the ship and reporting back accurately that food has mold in it, that morale is low and that mental health is even lower? Well, we're going to get into it today, as always, with David Rothkopf, who's got a point of view, a very strong point of view. And if you haven't. Don't forget to subscribe to The Daily Beast. We love your support. Share this episode with a friend. And don't forget to press the bell icon,

which notifies you every time we drop a new episode. Okay, let's get into it with David Rothkopf. David Rothkopf. Joanna Coles. The world is on fire. Never mind. We are here to be the firemen. and spray water all over the current stories. We're going to be talking about Iran. We're going to be talking about South Korea.

We're going to be talking about what John Ossoff said about Natalie Harp. That was an interesting moment in what is going to be. a very interesting midterm election, as we know. And David Rothkopf, you've got you've got all the knowledge at your fingertips. It's very exciting to talk to you. I have to say, of all the things that happened. this weekend, and there were crazy things that happened this weekend. The thing that I find most amazing and, you know, it's like the number three story in some pages.

And number five is what Donald Trump did. with regard to Korea, Donald Trump like here. Let's let's roll back the tape. Kim Jong un is one of the world's worst leaders, a dictator. He's actually had members of his family killed with anti-aircraft guns. He's the most repressive regime on the planet Earth. And so, you know, you would think we would be a little wary of getting too close to him.

And even Donald Trump in his first term talked about, you know, that he's going. to have the fire and fury of the US and we're going to go to war. And he was saber rattling like, well, guess what? Over the weekend, Donald Trump said, you know, Kim Jong UN is respectful to me. And so I don't want to support South Korea in our war games, which are crucial to the defense of South Korea, crucial to the defense. of Japan, crucial to all of America's interests in the Pacific. I'm not going to do that because Kim Jong UN is respectful to me.

The idea that Trump has switched. sides in the Korean conflict. You know, think of all the people who died in Korea fighting against having this happen. And and it's just like, oh, yeah, that's another thing he did. That's, that's that was Saturday afternoon or whatever the hell it was. It's crazy. That was the first part of Saturday afternoon. Why is he doing this, David? And also, isn't he making the mistake that almost all leaders inevitably make,

which is in their second term, they're bored. with what's going on at home, so they start looking to express. their grandeur overseas and they start meddling. First of all, most leaders have a problem in their second term. And, you know, knock wood. It's the problem he's going to have in a couple of months, right? Because if the midterm election goes against him. and he can't get anything done at home, he has a lot more autonomy.

as a maker of foreign policy than he does as a maker of domestic policy. And that's when they get on the plane. and they go around and they do their farewell tour and it's, you know, Frank Sinatra singing My Way or whatever is your favorite farewell tour. because, you know, it's like people saying, oh, you were a great president and so forth. But the problem here is that's not why he's doing this. And he even hinted at why he was doing this, which is he doesn't like the way. South Korea wouldn't support him and the illegal war with Iran.

And so this, this betrayal of the United States, this betrayal of our ally, this putting U.S. troops at risk, this putting Japan at risk, this incredibly reckless move. is yet another cost of this illegal war. Like high gas prices, high diesel prices, high food prices, instability in the region, inability running out of all the weapons we've got,

you know, inability to support Ukraine, etc., etc., etc. this war, the costs of this half year. long war are just piling up daily. And this is one of them. The US Korea relationship is collateral. damage in the US Iran war. Well, one of the other costs is that now having to remove or well, they're having to take out an aircraft carrier, the USS Washington, and have it replaced the USS Lincoln.

because it's been at sea now for I think, what is it, 255 days? It's the longest deployment ever. Understandably, the families of the sailors on board are say, wait a minute. This is enough. We're hearing from the sailors on board that the food is terrible. There are mental health issues. They don't know when they're going to get off this ship. And more importantly, they don't understand the mission.

No one understands what they are doing there, because this was a war that Donald Trump promised would never happen. There would be no wars with foreign countries, is what he was elected on, and there would be no forever wars. He promised that this would be a bombing mission into Iran, that Iran would capitulate within 4 or 5 weeks. Six months in Iran appears to have Donald Trump. and unfortunately, the United States in a headlock. Well, they do and and you know,

the US, you know, knew that this would happen. People in the US knew this would happen. But Trump wasn't paying attention. What's happened on the USS Abraham Lincoln is appalling. There was a suicide attempt. The food is moldy. The toilets are not working. Women who are sailors cannot get feminine hygiene products on the ship. And that the Navy is now in this massive cover up. where they've sent the head of Centcom there. And he said, oh, it's not as bad as it at all sounds, but I think the core of it,

the crux of why this is bad, was captured in Trump's comment about it. Because they went to Trump. and they said, you know, how do you the families don't like this? And he said, that's not true. I mean, he was he just lied because he does. That's what Roy Cohn taught him to do. But then, you know, he said this other thing, you know, when he was asked whether they've been deployed. too long and he said, no, they haven't been deployed long enough. And other, you know, in the right wing, you know,

you know, infosphere that's out there. They've they've all been saying the same kind of a thing. But you know, it ignores the fact. Right. Donald Trump was the guy who, you know, went to memorial services for US. soldiers who died in France and said they were suckers and losers. Donald Trump was the guy who made fun. of the sacrifices of Senator John McCain.

Donald Trump was a draft dodger. Donald Trump doesn't care about the soldiers. He thinks people get drafted or go into the army into a low level are suckers. And he thinks generals who don't agree with them should be fired. And so, you know, you have this combined. with this unbelievable case. If nothing else happened in this administration, Trump and Hedges, that should be impeached for the mismanagement that's going on.

at the Department of Defense, because here we are. And we talked about the career element of this, the Abraham Lincoln element of this, the food prices, the oil prices. But we haven't talked about the fact. that we've depleted some of our most valuable munitions, that we need to defend ourselves, that we need to defend our allies. that should be going to Ukraine to help us consolidate the biggest victory. we could ever have had against our worst enemy. that should be available to us in case of flare ups.

The reason Trump can't follow through on his crazy. threats against Iran is he doesn't have the weapons. Why? Because Pete Hegseth didn't manage the Defense Department properly, because they didn't manage the level of their stockpiles properly. And if you then add to it, you know, firing qualified generals and admirals. because their women are firing them because they're black, or getting rid of books that talk about achievements.

of people of color in the military, in the libraries, or, you know, forcing them to. sort of into religious services that, you know, you know, are tied to sort of, Pete Haig says, weird religious beliefs. This is the biggest scandal of mismanagement. in the history of the United States military. And that's saying something because we've made some big mistakes over time. But what could ever have possessed the Senate to confirm?

Pete has to be the secretary of defense. Slash war slash now forever wars. This is a man who twice was run out of veteran affairs. organizations by his own staff for allegations of intoxication. on the job and mismanagement and financial mismanagement. How could anybody have expected him to do this apart from Donald Trump?

And why did those senators around Donald Trump. approve him when they knew he wasn't competent? Because we have a zombie Senate, right? The Senate, the Donald Trump. or MAGA or some, you know, microbe. We're not aware of his eating the brains of the Senate, and they don't make independent decisions. Donald Trump came in and he said, one thing is the most important thing to me,

and that's loyalty. And if you are not loyal to me, and if you do not. allow me to pick a cabinet that's loyal to me, I will destroy you. And he was very canny about how he went about saying. he would do that, because very early in this administration, he did a few things where he went after law firms and, and, and, and other kinds of businesses and said, I'm going to sue you.

I'm going to attack you for having people on board who are not loyal. And what does that do? That means that if you're leaving the Senate, right. If you're Cassidy or you're Tillis and you're leaving the Senate, you want to get a job. You think, Holy mackerel, Donald Trump could call up those places. and say, you're not going to get federal funding if you hire Cassidy, you're not going to get contracts from us if you hire Tillis. And so he became he had this tool, which is like a mafia enforcement tool,

where he was saying, you can't make money outside the government. unless you go along with me inside the government. And if you go along with me inside the government, we are entering a new golden age of corruption, where I will pardon everybody and I will make all this money. And, you know, we had again one of these reports over the weekend, Donald Trump, $2.2 billion made in 2025. for him off of the presidency.

Just pure corruption, right? Of which 1.4 billion was crypto. And over the weekend he slipped in this little thing, which is this pernicious, crazy story where World Liberty Financial, his crypto company, was made into a bank. And who is it run by? It's run by Zach, the son of Steve Wycoff, his special envoy, an old real estate buddy from New York.

But but all that. What does it do? It. It kicks the corruption into overdrive. It puts the United States government in the position where it has to guarantee. and protect the assets of this thing. It really, I mean, as bad as 2 trillion. or $2 billion in 2025 sounds. I predict right now, 2026, they'll make more, 2027, they'll make more.

And however corrupt they've been in year one, year. two will be more, year three will be more, and your four will be more. Here's something most people don't realize. There are companies called data brokers making billions by. Collecting and selling your personal information your address, phone number, family members, even details about your income. And it's not just about junk mail. That information fuels scam calls, phishing emails, and identity theft, all without you ever knowing who's buying and selling your data.

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And I am definitely not one of those to take control of your privacy. To get an exclusive 60% off an annual incognito plan, go to incognito. or click. the link in the episode description box. Well, we. Should also remember that one of the people that stood up against Texas, or at least one of the senators who claimed she had anxieties about him. being confirmed as secretary of defense, slash.

war slash forever Wars, was Joni Ernst because Joni Ernst said. that she had been sexually abused when she was in the military. There were allegations of sexual abuse against Pete. We remember that Pete, his mother, his own mother, wrote a note to him which became public saying. that he was an abuser of women and then sometime later decided. she wasn't going to run again. So she's leaving the Senate altogether, right.

But the the way this zombie Senate works is the way the Mafia works. And it's like, you stay in line or you're going to pay a price. And her divorce is like the horse's head and the bed. And The Godfather, you know, where it's like, you know, this is a warning. You want more of this? And and it works for all of them. And the tragedy is that there is not a single Republican. in the United States Congress who has any courage,

with the possible. exception of a couple of people who quit, like Massie. Thomas Massie from Kentucky. Right. But even in his case, you know, he he he backed a lot of terrible policies. Right. But but but he's the exception out of, you know, nearly what 300 people. And it's, it's it's what allows Trump to do what he's doing.

And it is what allows Seth to stay there. And it's why they're terrified of the midterm elections. Because if the majority in the Senate changes, if the majority in the House. changes, there will be investigations into World Liberty Financial. There will be investigations into mismanagement of the defense budget. There will be investigations into whether or not Don. Jr and Eric are making money on defense contracts or with costs. Kids are making money or let mix kids or making money.

Who's making money off of all of this kind of stuff? And they're terrified of that because they realize, even if Trump could. pardon everybody, as this stuff gets out in the open, it's going to make them toxic. to deal with, particularly if there's a prospect that in 2028, a Democratic president comes in and then the really upsets Creek. Well, and as Todd Blanche just got confirmed last week, when can only imagine that his inbox is now going to be a series of subpoenas. that just come in one after another after the midterms?

Yeah. I mean, part of what we're going to see from. Blanche is going to be his being under siege, possibly from Democrats, if it gets that far, because it's very clear for what he said. on the Sunday shows that he feels he's the president's lawyer. And he said that the president would never ask him to do anything. that was inappropriate or untoward, which, of course, we know is a lie. That's all the president's asked them to do. And he, you know, made it quite clear that he was going to ignore the promises.

he made to the Senate, because one of the things that he said to the Senate was that this fund is dead. But then he said on the Sunday shows, but if somebody wants to sue us, you know, we can always work out a deal with them separately, which was, of course, their work around all along. So Todd Blanche is going to be the president's hit man. He's going to go after his enemies. He's going to obstruct justice on Epstein. He is going to, you know, hand out.

cash to some of the president's, you know, supporters. And, you know, when a push comes to shove, he's going to have a big role to play. On fiddling with the elections because, as he said, he would go to the court and he would try to get the court. to give him the voting rolls that he hasn't gotten in 22 cases. So, you know, Blanche, Blanche is every bit as bad as we expected.

I think he's going to be worse than Pam Bondi. And it's it's, you know, it's we're moving to full mafia government right now. Full mafia government. Okay. So close observers of this podcast will notice my background has only changed. And that's because we had technical difficulties. I'm actually staying with friends for the weekend. There was a storm and it's impacted the Wi-Fi. Anyway. Big thanks to David and to Rachel who's producing this episode for their patience.

and also yours in figuring out what's going on with Joanna's background. When you are wearing that outfit that you described on a separate podcast. that gets so much thought. It really made me feel bad because, like, I just put on a shirt and do the podcast. I like your summer outfit very much. I like the short sleeve shirt. David. It looks good. The only reason I started putting my combos of t. shirts and blazers on Instagram was that people ask me about them.

David, I don't know if they ask about your shirts. And so I thought, I'll just I'll explain it because if. you're doing as many poor casts as I am, you need a lot of different combinations. I was trying to work out if I have 18 t shirts and 12 blazers, there is some wag out there who will be able to figure out how many combinations. I think the combinations probably infinite. Well, you know, I do as many podcasts as you do over at the DSR network, but for me it's just trying to make sure that the sweatshirt I'm wearing doesn't.

have a stain on it. I dress up for your podcast. Good. Well, we appreciate it. You know, and I also watch your podcast, you know, and I saw that you were doing. a thing over the weekend with your friend Michael Wolff about the question. he gets the most, which was does the president wear a diaper? And since then we've had video of the president that sure. looks like he's wearing a diaper, doesn't it? Yes. I mean, well, it would be a very stiff diaper. I mean, this has caused a ton of speculation this weekend because the.

the president came out to address a sort of rally, and very clearly. he had some sort of contraption on the back side under tucked. under the back side of his pants, sort of hovering over his butt. And so who knows? Who knows what it is? Is it a Brazilian? But lift is it? I mean, it looked too hard to be an adult diaper. I mean. I don't think it's an adult diaper in this particular.

He may he may be wearing an adult diaper, and I and I and I have to say, I did listen to the discussion and and your friend Michael was a little bit. dismissive of, you know, does Trump smell bad? There's a lot of people who say smells bad. And so, you know, who knows what he's doing in his pants. But to be fair, because we don't want to fall for the lowest tropes on online, Michael said there was no evidence his wearing a diaper. No, no there's not. There's just a number of people who were in his presence, Adam.

Kinzinger and others who are credible, who did bring this up. But having said that, let us move on from that. The thing in his in his back could be a medical device. You think it could be a radical device? What? Administering shocks to keep him awake? Yeah, yeah, it's Natalie. harp has a little, you know, like a little. And it's just like. Right. And every time he slumps forward, now you'll see him, but. Right. What else could it be, though?

Could it be something that would be administering a drug? I mean, it's hard to know. Is it an audio visual thing? It could be some sort of weird big microphone for a rather. unsophisticated rally. It could be. It could be. There are a lot of reports. that he farts constantly in the meetings, and it could be a fart suppressor. I don't know what it. Is, David. This is all getting a bit lavatory. I know, I know. It's unprecedented. It's unprecedented. Well, look, I'm sorry, you're from England. I'm from new Jersey.

I can't help it. But the point is, I think it's probably something medical. I think Donald Trump is probably getting. drugs administered to him all day long, every day. But if you ever heard of a drug that administered into your ass, I mean, it would be such a weird. I don't know that it's administered in his ass. I think that there could be a. tube or something that goes someplace else in his body. So it's like an intravenous drug, and that's the pack of whatever the drug is.

Look, ladies and gentlemen, my grandfather was a doctor. That doesn't qualify me to make this judgment. However, it did not look like a diaper. It looked like there was a box or something underneath his pants. And you know, why would he have a box under his pants? You know, it contained the nuclear codes. Let us come face this president is Donald Trump. Who knows what it could be? Well who knows? You know, there's always a curveball.

You know, having said that, you know, we've had other news since then over the weekend. You know, first, as we started out, he he decided we were going to. side with North Korea. And then if you thought that was not enough, you know, which was throwing. two allies under the bus, South Korea and Japan, really with that earlier today, he said that. if Oman continues to discuss with Iran a deal.

for how to run the Strait of Hormuz, that we're going to bomb. the hell out of Oman, and I would just point out to everybody else, Oman is also a friend of ours, you know, so he is just. I mean, every single day Donald Trump is lashing out, not at our enemies, who he treats with kid gloves, but at our friends. And we know that we can't bomb the hell out of him on. because we don't have very many bombs left. He's been running down, as you pointed out earlier, are America's munitions.

So actually we can't afford to do that. And Oman, in fact, as you say, is an ally and a lot of ships are trying to use. the Amani Coast to edge their way out of the Strait of Hormuz. And there are a lot of there are a lot of reports out of the Gulf. that say our golf allies. don't know what to believe, don't know who to trust, are very uneasy.

And and as a natural consequence of that. are sort of taking things under their own advisement. Right. And Neil Moniz, you know, they are right there. at the mouth of the Strait of Hormuz and they've got to work it out. And so cutting a deal with the Iranians make some sense with them. And but, you know, it's this is part of Trump. literally, systematically destroying. every single alliance that we've got.

And it leaves the door open for China, who at this moment seems much more stable than the states. And let us not forget that, you know, a month ago we were discussing the. the American business going into Saudi to help them build nuclear facilities. Well, and you know, who knows that may continue depending on who pays, who what. Right. Because that's the way Trump works.

It's all very transactional. But sometimes I think and I was actually thinking I was going. to write a column for, for you guys on this a little later today. We're covering Trump under the wrong lens because we cover Trump in terms. of politics and policy and Washington process. We don't cover Trump like he's a foreign enemy attacking the United States. And yet think of the damage he's done to the Department of Defense, to our weapons stockpiles, to the leadership in the Department.

of Defense, to the intelligence community, shutting down parts of it. that protect us from our enemies to the law enforcement community. With cash Patel shutting down the parts of it that protect our enemies. to our economy, blowing up the deficit, weakening the dollar. to our ability to do research and development, to our ability. to defend ourselves against pandemics, to our ability to use. soft power in the world, which was, you know, through USAID was a big tool.

And there's a story today on how the current outbreak of Ebola. in Africa is the fastest spreading outbreak of Ebola. there ever was to our institutions, to democracy in the United States. If you took Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Mao, Satan. and Vladimir Putin together and said, if you launched a war.

on the United States, how much damage could you do? None of them would ever dream that they could destroy our institutions, destroy our military, destroy our intelligence community, destroy. our credibility, destroy our alliances, destroy our economy, and do it as rapidly as Trump has done in this second term. And that's why I think sort of the lens for Trump. And, you know, in in 2016, I wrote a.

editorial for. Foreign Policy magazine, and in 2017, I wrote one for The Washington Post. in which I said, Donald Trump is the biggest threat this country faces. And people were like, oh, melodramatic Democrat, take a cold shower. It's not going to be that way. Well, here's the reality. No enemy we have has ever done as much damage as he's done. No enemy. We have whatever dream they could achieve, what he's done. And sometimes I think what we need to cover the Trump administration is a war.

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and after you purchase they'll ask you where you heard about them. Please support our show and tell them we sent you. That's a really interesting perspective. I was talking to someone on Tuesday who has a lot of access. to the intelligence services, and we were discussing Trump as target number one. Of the double word target in the world, double one. And she was making the point that actually, the Iranians.

are thrilled to have Trump there, because to your point, he's doing more damage to the US than anyone could have imagined. David, you're a student of of foreign affairs, and as we often boast about you. You were an editor of Foreign Policy. You've worked in administrations. How are the Iranians. using Trump's weakness against America? They know that the prices are high at the pumps.

They know that he's vulnerable politically. They know that they're able. to keep him in this headlock, which we talked about earlier. How are they playing this. understanding what's coming for him in November? Well, there are reports. There was a story over the weekend in the Wall Street Journal. that that that is one such report that says that the hard liners. in the Iranian government have said, you know, something I'm translating from.

the the far say I'm kidding, but it's, you know, sort of what their point is. You know something? We hold the cards. It's the opposite of what Trump said. We can go as long as we want. He can't squeeze this anymore. He's actually used up his weapons. Everything we do in the Persian Gulf to slow things down actually. raises prices, which puts his Republican Party under the gun. His alliances are falling apart. What's a rush? Why go so fast? We can slow walk this whole thing, and every single day.

it's going to squeeze Trump and you'll know it's squeezing Trump. Because Trump will get up in the morning and put out a tweet saying, they're not squeezing me. I'm squeezing them, you know, because he's so he's. such a literal dimwit and he will just try to deny it. But the reality is, of course, that. right now they have all the cards. Donald Trump has done more to elevate the.

strategic position of Iran. than any member of the Khamenei family, either of the ayatollahs, the former leader or the current leader. than anybody in modern Iranian history. It Donald Trump. In one of the great kind of ironies of. foreign policy cluster fuckery. has, has, has actually.

given the Iranians more strategic leverage. than had they gotten a bomb and detonated it. because of the Gulf, because of the economics, because they don't have to have the bomb, because they don't. have to endure those costs, because he is weakening the US. and weakening our alliances day in and day out while they do nothing. Donald Trump is the atom bomb Iran wanted. Wow. Well, that's an interesting and analysis.

And I read that piece to in the journal and it said that the Iranian Revolutionary. Guard are basically expecting more onslaughts. and that they're preparing the country for that, and they actually assume that there is much more to come. And that the bombing campaign, you know, six months ago that started on February. the 28th was a sort of appetizer for the entrees to come. And yet it seems unlikely there's an entree.

because we've got nothing left to serve them well. And the reality is, I mean, you look at the controversy. we were talking about earlier with the USS Abraham Lincoln. and the other ships that are out there, contrary to what you might hear from Exxon. or some of these other stooges that the administration rolls. out, morale in the US military is at an all time low. They know we failed at this war. They know we're out of weapons. They know they are being mistreated. They know the president doesn't give a shit about them.

But the president raises money for the Department of Defense. Does he spend it on them, on Veterans administration, on schools, for soldiers, on higher salaries? Heck no. He spends it on Trump class battleships, which we don't need, a. golden dome, which will cost $100 billion, which won't work. He spends it on things to grant ice himself, and he thinks the rest of the Army and the Navy and the Air Force.

and the Marine Corps and the Coast Guard could go screw themselves. And and so the idea that somehow he would go. and launch some major initiative, some major war without weapons, without morale, without allies, without budget, in the middle of an election here is so ludicrous. But of course, the Iranians are taking advantage of it. And I can only imagine what Kim Jong UN is thinking as he says, yeah, we're not going to go and we're not going to you no work. as closely as we have in the past with our South Korean allies.

But if they don't understand what they're doing. on the aircraft carrier, then it also makes it. Well, it also impacts morale. Well, of course it does. But, you know, this is a problem that has plagued the United States. We have always, since the end of World War two, had the biggest military, the biggest budget, the biggest airplanes, the biggest bombs, the biggest missiles, and everything else. But we're also a rich, comfortable country. And as a consequence, every time a president says, well, here's.

the thing, we're going to go fight a war. and it will require some sacrifice from you Americans. The American people say, how about not, you know, the American people don't have the will to go and fight a war. And that's in justified circumstances. This war, is it legal? It has been mishandled. It has been bungled, is going terribly. And if Donald Trump were to, you know, get on TV tomorrow night and say, I believe that. we should put troops on the ground and we will lose thousands of Americans.

in the country would go wild. It would it would it would, you know, no Republicans would win in November. You know, it would it would it would be the end. And he knows it. He knows he's got no wiggle room here. He has dug himself into the deepest hole of his life. I mean, he he was better off with his bankrupt. casinos in Atlantic City than he is with this war in Iran.

And yet there he was, David, with George Washington, walking through his new ballroom. I mean, again, using AI, I'm assuming. that Natalie Harp, his human printer, and his AI machine, produced this one, but it's an image of Donald. Trump with George Washington, and he's showing him the ballroom. And it appears as if George Washington approves of the ballroom. No, it said on top of it, it said, I want to thank George.

for his suggestions for the ballroom, but I thought, you know, and Natalie Harp. was very sensitive, obviously, to Donald Trump's preoccupation with size. And you could see that six foot 2.5in. George Washington was considerably smaller. than Donald Trump, who these days is around 511. So, you know, they put him up next to him and all. There's another one of the two of them on horseback. Trump is big, Washington is small.

But having said all of that, you know, Trump said something today about the ballroom, which resonates and is so ironic given everything else that we've said. But Trump said that he believes anybody who poses. the ballroom is disloyal to the United States of America. And it's like, say what, dude, you're you're loyal. to Kim Jong-Un, to Vladimir Putin, to World Liberty. Financial, to your sons profiting from the Defense Department.

But you don't like our soldiers. You don't like our country. You don't much like our allies. And the measure you want to offer up of of loyalty. It's not serving the country. It's whether or not you're for this unnecessary $900. million eyesore of a ballroom. Cuckoo. Absolutely cuckoo. David, you're missing the point. He now no longer says it's a ballroom. He says it's actually a military zone, that it's a security.

It's for security. He's going to have a drone station on the top of it. There's a bunker underneath should he need to go and repair. from anybody attacking him. And there's a military grade hospital. So initially it was a ballroom. That's what he was raising money from, from his friends in, in Silicon Valley. who all came rushing forward. Apple gave money, Amazon gave money, you name, it gave money. And now, of course, it turns out it's a military installation.

and it's needed for the security of the United States. Yeah. And there's of course, two reasons for that. One reason is that he thought and thinks that he can pay. for it through military budgets, and two, that he knows that presidents. have more latitude on national security than on anything else. And so that if he says it's military, people can't argue with it. And even in some of the court decisions that we've seen so far, the courts are saying, well, whatever you want to do under the ground, that's military, go ahead and do that.

But what you can't do is build this ballroom above the ground. as part of the white House complex without going through certain processes. There's another interesting fact about this, though. And again, it sort of fallen between the cracks. Presidents are supposed to be civilians. The white House is supposed to be a civilian bastion. The idea of militarizing the white House is something.

that would have gotten any prior president run out of town. It's the kind of idea that Republicans would have attacked. Barack Obama or Joe Biden or Bill Clinton or anybody else for trying to do. because they would say, well, you know, we have separation. of the roles these, you know, in the government, blah, blah, blah. And Trump has just blind to that. His absolutely bind to that. He will do anything he can say anything he has to. to advance his personal vanity projects.

Okay. So talking about security, it turns out that Susie Wiles. has for the second time appears to have had an imposter. The new British prime Minister, Andy Burnham, received texts from someone purporting to be Susie Wiles. It appeared that it was coming. from Tuesday Wiles phone, which has been hacked before. But it soon transpired that in fact, it was not Susie Wiles. Or perhaps Susie Wiles is going rogue because she's just had enough.

Yes, she's making prank. calls in the middle of the night from the white House. Andy, are you there? Andy. Why wouldn't you make prank calls at this point? I mean, everybody assumes that she will leave as we in the run. up to the midterms, right? That people assume that she's not going to stay post November. The in the run up are right or right after. Right. But but around the midterms the speculation is that Susie.

Wiles will have had enough that she's lasted almost two years, which is pretty long for a chief of staff with Donald Trump. We saw Caroline Levitt, his press secretary, is leaving, and we saw David Warrington, the white House chief counsel, is leaving. So chief legal counsel is leaving. So it feels like the rats are leaving a sinking ship. The plenty of them are going to leave. Plenty of them are going to leave. because they know what would wait in store for them. If Democrats take over and there's investigations.

and they won't be able to get anything done, and that's. that's when the ketchup is really going to start flying around the Oval Office. Right? If you know, if the Trump goes, well, I want to do this and I want to do that. And then they say, well, sorry, Mr. President, the Democrats won't pay for it and he'll just start. throwing ketchup bottles or whatever it is that he does when he melts down. And I think nobody wants, you know, I think as bad a job as you can. think, nobody wanted to be an aide to Donald Trump before, but they did it because they thought they could enrich themselves.

Now to being an aide for Donald Trump in his declining years in the white House. I mean, it I mean, that's a terrible job. Well, it's something that Jon Ossoff, the Democratic senator from Georgia, sort of zoomed in on this week in one of his rallies. I'm assuming that you saw the delicious clip where he refers to Natalie. He calls out the servicemen on the USS Lincoln who've been there for ages.

and yet are still endeavoring to deliver excellent service. I think of all the Democrats out there. John Ossoff. right now has as close to perfect pitch as any of them. He's young. What is he, 39 years old? He is winning. in all the polls in a red state. He's already won once in a red state.

He knows how to speak really clearly, but he has no hesitation about tweaking the president as he did with. He just wants to go and fly around in his Qatari bribe jet with Natalie, you know, and but, you know, he's also the one who coined the phrase or popularized the phrase. The Epstein class, which managed to, in one concise move, connect. Epstein scandal, Trump.

and sleaze with oligarchy, billionaires, impunity, and a society that serves the few at the expense of the many. So he took this one thing. It wasn't just a little slur. He turned it into a whole campaign position. And I think he is very, very talented. And although he says I'm not interested in running for president, I think, you know, there is a real desire for new voices, and.

there's a real sense that some of the other. Democratic leaders who are kind of old school don't get it, won't be able to put up a fight, don't speak as clearly as he does. And so, you know, if there's going to be a changing of the guard, he's. going to be one of the candidates that people look at closely. Well, I'm sorry we've had technical. Difficulties today.

Thank you for sticking with us. If you managed to get to the end. Big thanks to David Rothkopf. We love his perspective. Turns out he thinks Trump is America's worst enemy. What an indictment of a president. Anyway, if you have been, thank you for joining us. Don't forget to share this episode with a friend. If you haven't subscribed to The Daily Beast yet, what's holding you back? Come on, just press that subscription button. And Michael Wolff would reassure you that you must press the bell.

so you get notified every time we drop a new episode. I'll be back tomorrow with Michael for another episode of Inside Trump's Head. But for now, big thanks to our production team Ryan Murray, John Romero, Rachel Passer, Heather Passaro and Neil Rosenhaus. So the good news is we have so many BBC tier members now. There are too many names to read out and we really appreciate your support.