Why Trump's Year From Hell Has Only Just Begun | The Daily Beast Podcast

That's the other thing that Trump saw. He saw death. He saw his own mortality. He realizes there is no future for him. The Republican Party, he looks in the eyes of Republicans, and he sees they know he's old. And there is going to come a moment. And I don't know when that moment is, because what Trump cares about more. than anything else, even more than money, is being relevant. And it's going to be really. And he's going to make this desperate play.

David Rothkopf is here with us in the studio, which is so exciting because normally you are on the Potomac in Pittsburgh. Very exciting for me, too, because I wanted to come and see the billionaires leaving Manhattan. Oh, yes. That's a thing people do now. Yeah. We were sitting on the way, sitting at the by the Lincoln Tunnel. waiting for Bill back to go. Come on, come on out. Go by with a U-Haul trailer. Where is he going, by the way? I'll go down to Mar-A-Lago. Yeah, West Palm Beach. Okay.

That's where they go. Where will Ellen be? Ellen? I don't know. I think he may buy France. Oh, he's in France. Now that he. Can buy a country in. The can with $1 trillion. You could get a pretty good sized country for $1 trillion. Where would you in the. In the Caribbean. I would, that's too downmarket for him. Right. So he wants Europe. Not okay with you? Yeah. No. You want something that's got a little history? Okay. Italy. Italy. Italy would do. Italy would. Just.

I mean, I don't know, you can get all of Italy, but he could get Sicily. Well, we had a huge response to your column. Why? The democratic triumph is only act one of Trump's end. Please explain. Please explain what's going on? What's happening? Well, I just think, I mean, there's a lot of things happening at once, and none of them are good for Trump, right? And so. the economy, you know, this was the big issue in the election. 61% of Republicans.

said Trump's doing a bad job with the economy. Well, is it going to get better or is it going to get worse? Yes. Go on. Well then that's you know, you know, if you talk to economists, they're worried about a bubble in the market, a. AI driven bubble or some other kind of bubble. Talk to people in the housing market. There's 500,000 more houses on the market than there are buyers right now. There's a real crisis in the housing market. Labor. This week we saw new data about job losses. at the worst levels in 20 years or something like that.

It's just getting worse. Inflation. The only thing Trump knows how to do is put on, tariffs and that's pushing up prices. So inflation is going to go up. To be fair. Is that the only thing Trump knows how. What. I mean come on it's a Gatsby party. He does. He can throw a party. No no no he does. And you know that's another part of this right. So on the one hand the economy's getting worse and worse. Meanwhile what's Trump doing? The Gatsby party in his mind.

You know he probably thinks he looks like Leonardo DiCaprio, right? You know no, no, there's some, like, something. Too modern a reference. It's got to be Robert Redford, the Robert Redford Mia Farrow version. I was pretty crappy Gatsby. Oh, come on, Robert Redford look fantastic in those screenplays. Oh my God. Amazing. My wife. My wife feels. You know, I wrote something for you. when Redford died because he was a friend of ours, right? And but he was a friend of ours and my wife, who's kind of oblivion. We she was like, oh, yeah. No, I know this guy is a nice guy.

You know, we're like, go and visit his house and stuff like that. And I said, have you ever seen any of his movies? And she was like, no. And so I said, well, let's watch the way we were. Let's watch The Natural. Let's watch. That's what's great today. Or out of Africa. And she she was like. Oh my God. Right. Well, to be fair, yeah. Well that was a few years ago. But I think that Trump's reference. is probably the Robert Redford version, not Leonardo DiCaprio.

Right. And, but but the most important thing about Trump's reference is he's. completely clueless to the fact that this book was written. about the soulless lives of the rich. who were celebrating while America was in the middle of a depression and suffering. Right, like. Careless. People. And that's the thing. You know, the great Trump is the theme or, you know, let the meat ballrooms because you've got a lousy economy for all of us. Let them eat. Ballrooms. Let me borrow well, the prices of health care going up.

And, you know, people are getting notices now. that the price of health care is going. Up, not just going up, but in some cases doubling or even tripling. Yeah. So, so really bad. Right. So what is our president doing? Well, he's got a Great Gatsby party that was just recently. He's torn down the white House to build a ballroom, which, you know, for. who who's going you're going to borrow where you might because your fancy. But but. I'm not going to get invite invited to the Trump. Ballroom.

Well you know, maybe somebody else on the place but but but. but the point is, he's building the Versailles Hall of Mirrors. What? People literally are not getting their food aid. So Americans are starving. And he's doing let them eat cake. Right. And then on top of that, he's he's gilded the Oval Office. It literally, literally looks like Liberace threw up in the place. Right? Everything is covered in gold.

He's even got, like, somebody's printing out, like, white sheets. Paper with gold tape on it. Taking the Oval Office. Do you think that was because he didn't know what it was? I think they're I think they're starting to put little notes around. Right. Which is what they advise you to do. And you have an elderly relative, right? You put post-it notes saying, this is the oven, don't touch. This is the fridge. Always close the door. Right. It helps people saying, this is J.D. Vance. Don't turn your back on him. Right.

You should have a huge post-it note on him, right? That's very good. And also, of course, he paved over Jackie Kennedy. Rose got paved over the rose garden. So people I would so ladies heels wouldn't. I don't raise some argument, but he's made it look like Mar-A-Lago. He's making everything look like Mar-A-Lago. while people are starving, you know, and it's crazy. And now, you know, you have this one other thing that happened this week. So if the ballroom wasn't enough and the gilded throne room wasn't enough,

and the $5 billion he and his family have grift it. in the course of this administration. And the $20 billion he sent to his friend in Argentina. Well, all of that, if that kind of largesse. among the billionaires wasn't enough, his right hand man from the beginning. of the administration, whether he likes it or not, in everybody's mind. Elon Musk just got $1 trillion deal, $1 trillion. And so, you know, to me, this is this is what Trump is going to be left with.

We know, you know, it's like if you if I ask you about the Tiananmen. Square uprising in China, you'll say, oh yeah, that was the guy in the tanks. There was one image that sticks in people's mind. You know, there's a meme, right? And and I think what with Trump is really let them eat ballrooms. He, he thinks that this is going to be a monument right? To his taste. And, and his ability as a builder. And everybody's going to look at this thing and go, yeah,

he was building a gold plated ballroom. for billionaires while we were starving. And my grandma had to move into the basement. because she couldn't get health care, and I couldn't get help from the VA because he fired everybody from the VA. And I couldn't get home for Thanksgiving because he had the longest. government shutdown in history, and they shut down the earth. And so this is it's the opposite of governance. It is kleptocracy, you know, writ large. And that's who Trump is right now.

And he can't get away from it. That's the message of the election, you know, because all these Republicans are kind of like, we better fix this. Well, you've got Marjorie Taylor Greene turning up on The View and telling people. that she's decided to be nice to people after a career of being vile. Well, I think. She's I mean, she's obviously. And the one thing she said, which I thought was interesting, was I go to the grocery store, which clearly Donald Trump doesn't do, and she sees prices are going up. So you can't tell people the prices are going down.

When they themselves go, they stand in the gas station and watch the little dial. with the gas prices. But they also know as a result that Trump is full of shit. And so example this week he says, oh well, prices are going down. Walmart announced their Thanksgiving basket and it's 25% cheaper. than it was under Biden. And you know, Walmart is a triple A company. He said while he was saying this, I'm not sure what exactly he meant by that, but I'm sure he's never, ever been in a Walmart.

But what he didn't say was that because prices have gone up so much, the basket that Walmart is talking about was 21 items. last year, and it's 15 items this year. What have they taken out? You know. I don't, but a lot of the items that were in the basket last year. that were kind of brand name, they're not Walmart brand items. They had to downsize it. And downgraded down quality it just so people could afford their Thanksgiving. And he thinks well people will buy this.

And and you know, here's the other thing, by the way. You know who's in who's living in Trump's head right now, weirdly. Zoran Mamdani because what does he start talking about yesterday. Affordability. Right I noticed that so he's take so he's looking at someone who he now. realizes as a winner. And he's trying to adopt his tactics. The story of his life is the story of his life. You know, I'm in Queens and I'm rich. Everybody said, like me. Oh, they don't, but maybe I need to move to Manhattan.

Oh, that's not enough. Maybe I need, you know, a trophy wife or maybe I need, you know, a jet or maybe I, you know, he's constantly trying to be to. to win some kind of approval that clearly he didn't get from his parents. So if you're Donald Trump, what are you thinking, given the results of Tuesday? Well, Do you think do you think he understands? He does. And there's a lot of talk about this within Republican circles. I know, and I know there's even talk about it in the white House.

They know that they're losing right now that, you know, there were. there were no on Tuesday, there were zero good results for the Republicans. Absolutely zero. And the first thing he said was we got to cheat more, you know. Right. Well, I didn't the first thing he said, I think it was, well, I wasn't on the ballot. Right. But that was that was part of it. Right. But then he's like, we've got to do voting reform or electoral reform, right? Which is what what what does that mean? Well, it means, Jeremy, no. Voting for by mail, gerrymandering, changing the laws, suing.

people, sending troops into the cities to scare people away from voting. And, you know, that's because he knows he can't win in a fair fight. And so. that's, you know, in some ways, you know, you've really put your finger on it. This is classic Trump. When things go wrong, his first reaction is not my fault, right. Because he has no character, can accept no responsibility. And then a second reaction is how can I cheat my way out of this? You know, how can it?

How can I, you know, find the, the con, the inner game. that's going to get me to win? Well, he's not going to, you know you know Texas goes and tries to gerrymander. California says we see you we raise you. You know Indiana does it, or Kansas or Missouri does it in Virginia. all of a sudden elects, you know, two thirds of its House of delegates are Democrats. And you have a Democratic governor, a Democrat lieutenant governor. And the first. Woman and that first woman woman in 400 plus. Years in a in a government that hates the guy.

Right. Well, but, you know, the there is a lot and there's a lot there to unpack. One of the things that really strikes me. is for the past year, we've been listening to pundits going, oh, the Democrats, you know, the big mistake they made was supporting trans people. And wokeness is terrible. But everybody got elected, you know, the centrist Democrats who got elected. and the progressive Democrats that got elected, like the mayor in New York, but also the mayor in Boston and the mayor in Detroit,

all of them embraced diversity, inclusion, all of you know that, Pete, the Republicans ran hard against them and said, oh, they want trans athletes, and they're going to operate on your kids in the school lunchroom and whatever. And it didn't work. Well because the successful ones ran on affordability. Right? They ran on the thing that matters to people, which is cost of living. They cared about what people cared. About, right? It's not a priority. Pronouns. Trans athletes are not a priority.

Right. But a lot of this is a priority. And there's all this bullshit like, you know, oh, you can't say trans or, you know, you can't be woke and that this is the problem. And, you know, the Atlantic. Can you read all these articles in the New York Times? And it's like, oh yeah, Democrats, they can't be woke. And they need to get hard core. And, you know, young men voted for Trump and, you know, they're assholes. And so what we need is more assholes. How do you get more assholes into the Democratic Party. Right. And true. Right. So true. Well, guess what happened. Not only did Abigail Spanberger and Mikie Sherrill.

and Zoran Mamdani get 80% of young women, they all got around 60, 65% of young men. Young men actually did the right thing. Maybe they're not all the assholes we thought they were. Or maybe you didn't have to treat them like that. Maybe. Maybe they didn't want to vote for Kamala. And two months. Oh, yeah. Or maybe they thought Joe Biden was out of touch or who knows what it was. You know, I think a lot of them just didn't show up.

because another thing you saw in new Jersey and in New York. and in California with prop 6050 is huge turnout. People cared. And, you know, a lot of the arguments are, well, we have to win Trump voters. in order to win. Well, that's not true, actually. You have to get Democrats out. You have to get people to vote. And the key people to vote are young people. And, you know, that's that's the other thing that Trump saw. He saw death. He saw his own mortality.

He realizes there is no future for him, the Republican Party, he looks in the eyes of Republicans and he sees they know he's old and dying. They know that he doesn't have enough. And that's why he keeps talking about, oh, run again or whatever. That's just to seem relevant. But but what does the Republican Party do? Because they've completely succumbed to him. The Republican Party is the Trump Party who even begins to think.

about a future for the Republican Party when they've been so. Well, certainly his current cabinet have been, you know, cheek by jowl with him. Well, I think they're going to regret that. You know, I think they're tainted by that. I think foreign leaders who said, oh, I'm going to bubble. Robert with Trump, but I'm going to be on trumpet. And then there's going to be. a new administration in Washington, and they're going to go. Oh, that hadn't been doing that. Well, a lot of them have been doing it. But I'm just saying I just think the chickens. are going to come home to roost for a lot of people,

you know, the Republican Party and the people who supported Trump, the people that look the other way, people that participated in the corruption, all these people. Well, Steve Bannon came out and said that they needed to. what was his expression, burn daylight, because otherwise he was worried they would all go to jail, including him. Is he taking that? What I mean is like, what is what is this burned daylight? I mean, Steve, I mean, the fact that he's still alive. Have you ever seen somebody who sweats more, looks.

more out of shape, looks dirtier at any given moment. I haven't spent a lot. For Stephen Trump, but. Okay, well, Stephen Chung is now on the fat drugs as Trump calls. Oh is he? Yes, he's that way. We have to finally get the reduction in the price of the fat drug. What so. Well, but it's I mean, Michael Wolf was making the point that the reason. Stephen Chung never made it to be white House press spokesperson. was that Trump doesn't respond to the fact that he's obese. No, he doesn't Trump. He only wants to hire attractive, you know, young blond women. And then Pete Hegseth, who's the equivalent, right.

And and an. American. Doll that Jabba the Hutt, you know, is the white House communications director and. Right. You know, he's. Didn't he single you out recently? You said that, but I didn't actually get the backstory. Well, he said you, less, but nobody. Is a nobody. Well, that's true. Nobody knows what my family thinks, but. Yeah, but, well, you know, fuck him. But the reality is. Yes, that that, they all. have a reckoning coming,

and I think they will try their best to cheat their way out of this. next election because they know. that if the Democrats win the House, it's over. Trump is over. He will be 80. He will not have a future in the party. He will not get anything passed in the government ever again. And there will be an investigation into everything, into the Qatar airplane, into the into. the repaving the rose garden, into the ballroom,

into, you know, every deal that the Trump family has, has made. So if you are a business and you've made a donation to the ball room, and we know that lots of businesses have from Apple to Google to Amazon, what are you thinking now, given the strength of the reaction on Tuesday? Somebody I hope if you've a good business and you've got some kind of diversity. of people left in your businesses saying to, folks, you know, this particular,

chapter in American history is going to come to an end, and we've got to be prepared that it may not only go another way, but that the retributive, nasty, greedy. Trump attitude is going to have burned some people. And and if we are seen as being too close to them, we're going to pay a price. So are you going to see a pulling back, do you think. do you think you're going to see less fawning in public? Typically you may see less fawning in public.

Typically, you know, Wall Street has always played this game the same way. because they want to be in control and frankly, they are in control, you know, but but but the is they give to both, you know, they have a group of people who give to one party, a group of people. give to another party. But Trump has demanded something extra of the big CEOs. Right. Which is they they gather around him, the cameras come in, which is unheard of. Normally these dinners are held in private and then they are expected to form.

I mean, we saw it with Tim Cook, we saw it with Bill gates. We know that Bill gates doesn't like Trump, but he was. Thank you so much for gathering us here together with you. I mean, this is Mark Carney, the Canadian prime minister likes Trump. No, he doesn't like Trump. You know, these European leaders that go in there. You know, I think Keir Starmer I. Know of course they're doing it because they know they. Just think that this works, you know with this guy. But I also think another thing is going to happen this year the, the, the, the, the foreign leader that's going to get the most traction with Trump.

is the one that stood up to him. And that's XI Jinping. XI Jinping said no, we got cards to play. You know, you want to play hardball with us, we'll play hardball with you. And Trump will work harder to get a deal done with him that with anybody else. Because Trump, you know, he's like, you know, the dog at the dog park and he's looking for the alpha dog. And he knows he's not the alpha dog. And so he's like sniffing everybody's butt. And he is coming to the conclusion.

that the butt that needs to be kissed after it's sniffed is she's in pain. That's political announcement. Okay. I just want you to know I know you watching technical. This is. Right. I've taught foreign policy at a university for 20 years. This is your Columbia background, not giving us the technical terms. and what what what does that look like in terms of tariffs? Well, the tariff thing is a complicated thing. And that's another thing that happened this week. The Supreme Court did these, hearings on the tariffs.

And it looked like. that five, six or even seven members of the court were skeptical. Right. And they've been calling them import to where? I'm not the chief justice was the one who said this is a tax. Yep. Which totally, you know, drives Trump crazy, although it's a tax. Right. But justice Barrett had her reasons for saying this law doesn't apply. And Justice Gorsuch had his constitutional concerns. Well, if all of those people fall in line and they pull rein.

in Trump a little bit, you know, this would create a kind of a big question like, well, if these aren't legal, how do you do the refunds? And, you know, and that's super complicated, but the white House has already indicated that if that happens, they're then going to try and do it a different way. And the reason is Trump really in his heart, believes. the tariffs create revenue for the United States from someplace else. Right. That he doesn't understand that the American people are paying.

Are paying. Them. It's an import tax on us. Right. And even the more expensive. Even his representative in the Supreme Court case, the solicitor. general, Sauer, said, well, the studies. we use show that 30 to 80% are paid by Americans, right? Well, the 30% study, that's baloney. Right? Right. The point is that two thirds or 80% or whatever paid by Americans, and the rest are paid by US. corporations that are passing it on in some kind of other way.

So we're the ones suffering from these things. Why doesn't Trump understand that? Why is he so dug in over tariffs? Are there issues where Trump feels that anybody who offers. a counter opinion is anti-Trump, and that therefore he can't? And and notice, the people I remember talking to, people had one of the books. I wrote on sort of how Trump foreign policy work and, you know, John Bolton and. Fiona Hill and all these people who were, you know, Vindman who are working, right.

What they learned, they can't bring up Russia. because he thinks anybody who brings up Russia. is bringing up Russia, Russia, Russia, and is accusing him of something. Right. And so they, you know, they just laid off the issue. And I think that's part of the issue that's going on. You know, he's got a bunch of first of all, I got rid of anybody who would, you know, give her a counter opinion. See surrounded himself with sycophants. Well and surrounded himself with people who have no political history themselves.

Right. I haven't worked in politics apart from Marco Rubio. Maybe. Yeah. But I mean. But but he did. Marco Rubio had his spine surgically removed, apparently, because, you know, he was once anti-Trump. And now he's like, whatever he says. Well, and JD Vance once called him the new Hitler. And here he is snuggled up. To about that, I mean, J.D. Vance, someday, you know, there'll be books and this will be like, you know, what do you call somebody who's got no character? And then you say, oh, JD Vance, JD Vance will become like a hillbilly.

Well, yeah. We hope. Yeah, that's a nice analogy, but but yeah. Yes. I mean. You know, there's this group of people, though, are not correcting him. There's another group, Stephen Miller, you know, Peter Navarro. or they're egging him on. and saying, oh yeah, yeah, play those tariffs on there buddy. That's great. This is strong. You know this is you're winning. And they you know they were even in the Supreme Court. They said this will produce $4 trillion in revenue. Not realizing of course that the Chief Justice will then say,

oh, so this is a revenue creation, that which is supposed to be left. to the Congress. Right. But, you know, this is one of those issues where he won't take no for an answer. And so he's stuck. All right. So one of the things we know. Trump is really good at doing is changing the conversation we've had. I think it's now up to up to 70 people killed in the Caribbean. Right. And occasionally in the Pacific. Right. He's and and you mentioned before we started talking,

there is an aircraft carrier on its way or its left the Mediterranean. And as far as we know, it's headed to the Caribbean. Yeah. The, the Gerald R Ford, nuclear aircraft carrier. We left the Mediterranean a couple days ago and and, you know, today, tomorrow, the next day is going to be off the coast of Venezuela. In fact, something like a seventh of the U.S. Navy's assets are going to be in the Caribbean. and poised to do something off of Venezuela.

Now, before we go further, I would like to remind you. that we're not actually at war with Venezuela. Venezuela does not actually pose a threat to the United States. Right. What what could the possible reason be? He says drugs. But actually the drug issue at the moment is fentanyl. They are producing. But they don't. First of all, they produce much more. Many drugs, right? They're way down the list in terms of that kind of thing. Secondly, the boats they're blowing up. can't even make it to the United States, right? You know, so. They have enough fuel. Right. And where are they going?

Well, who knows. But, you know, thirdly, if they wanted to, they could stop the boat, go to the people, say, hi, we're a destroyer. You don't want to, you know, you know, you know, you know, major us, ship and say, stop. And, you know, we're going to go on board and we're going to take your picture. and we're going to take a picture. of the drugs, and we're going to find out who you were. But they don't do that. Is it more effective as a deterrent just to blow them up? Well, I mean, sure, it's a deterrent. I mean, if you'd like, shot. every third person who walked into your apartment building,

fewer people are going to go to your apartment building. But no, no, but I think that that's, you know, it's they say it's a deterrent. You know, Stephen Miller, who is like a vampire. I don't know if you've watched. the depiction of him on South Park, but it's pretty good. You know, Stephen Miller is like, yeah, let's this'll really show those, those, those weaklings who picked on me in the lunchroom or whoever he's. whatever it is motivated him to do this. But, I don't know what the real motivation is. You know, there's a lot of oil in Venezuela.

You know, maybe he thinks he can, you know, put it in somebody, and then they'll do. one of these weird deals where they, like, give us some of the oil. Or maybe he's got some friend who thinks, I can make some money off of this. in some way, but for sure, it has nothing to do with U.S. national security, right? You know for sure. And that's why Trump is a little bit worried about, you know, some of the options he's being given. He's been presented with several options what to do in Venezuela, because if he sends troops into Venezuela and somebody actually gets killed,

then he's really going to have to justify. Well, and also he's now. starting to do things which the MAGA base don't want him to do. He talks about Marjorie Taylor Greene, but we know that they are America first. They don't want money going abroad. I don't know how they manage to square the circle sending $40 billion to Argentina. Well, they can't square the circle and so, you know, first, you know, for the first. eight months of. this year, seven months, there was no dissent.

Now there's a little Marjorie Taylor Greene dissent. Then Trump says we need to we need the nuclear option in the Senate. We need to get rid of the filibuster. And John Thune is definitely a go on, get along guy says, nope, we're not doing that. And on tariffs, you saw resolutions in the Senate in the past couple of weeks. blocking the tariffs on Brazil, blocking the tariffs in some of these countries as being wrong. So there's some people standing out on that. Clearly, there's some people who are off the reservation on Epstein.

and wanting to get those fired. Thomas Massie, right, and the three women, Nancy Mace, Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene. And then you've got someone like Vivek Ramaswamy, who's running for Ohio governor, saying, we need to worry. less about what's going on abroad and focus on affordability at home when. But but that's the point is, you know, you're going to have all this. So he's going to get a little. Crack. He's going to get resistance from his own team. Right. And that's but that's part of what I meant.

when I said he's staring death in the face. He's but his political mortality is right around the corner. And there is going to come a moment. And I don't know when that moment is, but there is going to come a moment. where the majority of people. in the Republican Party say he's a lame duck, who's next? So this is going to be devastating, because what Trump cares. about more than anything else, even more than money, is being relevant, and it's going to be really. and he's going to make this desperate play to say, no, I'm still relevant.

Right? Do your stories on me still. And and, you know, you remember Joe Biden, right? No, nobody remembers Joe Biden. Joe Biden was president earlier this year. Right? Oh that's incredible. If you think of it like that. So does this mean that Trump is going to be forced into saying he's running. for a third term and all and and enjoy all the sturm und drang around that? I think he's going to have people saying it. You know, he says he's going to do it. Then he says he's not going to do it.

Then he says, people say I should do it. And then the longer it's hanging out there, you know, it's just a desperate attempt to cling to relevance. It's, you know, it's it's the policy equivalent of a trophy wife. It makes him feel younger. All right. So final question. If you were to shortlist the people you thought. could take over from him, who would they be? Who is who's circling the hardest? First of all, they're the usual suspects, the ones that everybody talks about.

JD Vance, she's just so hungry for this. And so. So he. Will say anything to anybody that you know that they want to. Hear my wife to convert to Christianity. Yeah. That was nice. You know. And you know and she was just like, okay honey. Well whatever she wants the number one slot to. Right, right. Apparently, I mean, that's one of the analyzes that's out there. People are analyzing. Lucia Vance's motivations, but, you know, well, she. Wants to be second lady. Nobody. You want to be first lady.

Okay, fine. You know, Marco Rubio is Marco Rubio. You know, thinking it could be him. Sure. And Trump even refers to them, you know. Well, JD would be good. Marco would be good. So what does Pete Hexa think? It could be him. Well, he's stupid enough to think anything, right. So, you know, I mean, he he might, Are there. other people out there that met Sean Duffy. The hapless transport. Secretary? It's such an idiot, wasn't he?

I'm like survivor or something. I wasn't even like some he road rules or. Since he's another he was on the real was the. Real world. Yeah, it's a real horrible thing. But I. Real world had lots of fans. My guess is that you're going to get something different. For example, Brian Kemp, the governor of Georgia, he, is a Republican. He's from a red state. Nobody's going to say he's not a conservative, but he's had his problems with Trump.

And so he can say, well, I'm a different I'm change, you know, and what do Americans want? You know, they want change. You know. You know, Mamdani has changed. Mikie Sherrill is change. Abigail Spanberger is change. You know, Barack Obama was changed. Donald Trump was change. And I just think that there's. going to come a point, particularly if the midterm is really bad. for Trump, where people are going to say, well, maybe not. So MAGA. Does he lose the Senate as well as the House?

That's hard. Much, much harder to do. He might I mean, you know, you can see scenarios where Maine goes. one way or Alaska or some of these other places go, yeah, Joni Ernst successor, you know, maybe, but the winning the house, even with. the gerrymandering, is much more in reach. And that would put the brakes on Trump and. and I think there's going to be this thing there's going to be this introspection.

You know, Trump's having introspection. He's going, well, I don't know if I'll get into heaven, which we're depressed about that a lot. Right. So he'll. Go into Venezuela instead. Venezuela heaven, you know, some some some. a dark, a dash on this Black Sea, whatever. But who knows? But the Republican Party is face. It has to, you know, Trump's facing life after death. The Republican Party has to face life after Trump. So you're going to have to live with the insults. from the deputy White House press secretary, Anna Kelly.

Here's what she said. when we called her to get, reaction to your most recent column. This no name nerd has never served anything except his own checkbook. And no one except the lay of plagued Daily Beast cares what he has to say. about the decorated combat veterans secretary, Pete Hegseth, or warrior ethos. So you're a no name nerd. I would put that on your signature. Yeah, well, I frankly,

it's pretty close to true. It's not, you know, I mean, I have a name, but not it. You know, I've always felt my feelings for my niece in Washington. was that I was I was on the outer edge of the inner circle. What a previous white House secretary said about you. Of. Look, I mean, you know, I've been around for a while. I've been called a variety of things. Some of them have been very good. Some people have paid attention to what I've been saying, and when I agree with them, they tend to say nice things about me.

When I don't, they tend to levy attacks like this. This is, after all, the white House where you know, the response. You know, somebody asked them something. the other day about, you know, well, who said this? And their response was your mama. Yeah, right. I mean, these these are a bunch of real children. who are playing sandbox level games with communications. And I understand why they're defensive about Pete Headset. He's the least qualified secretary of defense in history, and he's an imbecile.

And you know, the, you know, being an imbecile. and not being qualified, these kind of things people hide. And he's he's decorated. the Department of War, as he calls it, with pictures of him and his wife. Well, yeah, but, you know, calling it the Department of War, that's like a little insecure, isn't it? You know, I mean, why are you doing that with the whole warrior ethos? You know, I think the the real telling thing is I. and I've done this talk to some generals and admirals.

Well, I see what they think. I think he. Called, you know, he gave a speech and they all came out of that room. and they said, oh my God, what are we going through here? This guy is an embarrassment to us, you know. You know, it was a couple of weeks later that the commander. of South Camp quit or got pushed. We don't know which because he didn't want to play these games with blowing up. speedboats in order to make Pete Hegseth feel like a warrior, you know, and and, you know, he and Trump.

and JD Vance, these people, this is a bunch of insecure men. Okay, stop, stop, stop. Because you've given us so much opium here. You've given everybody hope that there is a post-Trump future. And now we're now we're sinking low again. But. we're not tequila. We're telling the truth. The reason there is no post-Trump future is Trump's. a bad president, and he's a bad person. And he has surrounded himself with bad people.

who are promoting bad policies badly, and the American people who are super tolerant and super hopeful. are looking at all of this and going, this isn't working. And, you know, in the best of times, they're fickle. But in times like this, they want change. And that's why on Tuesday, Democrats won everything. And that's why next year Democrats are going to do very well. And that's why in 2028, Democrats are going to do very well.

And we're going to look back on this and we're going to say, oh my God, our long national nightmare is finally over. To draw Scott from stopping you right there, right there. Thank you very much for coming in and so much more fun to do this in person, isn't it? It's to insult me to my face. All right. If you have been, thank you for joining us. Don't forget to subscribe to the Daily Beast podcast. Leave us a comment. Your comments on David's thoughts, please.

And and. You can watch the Deep State Radio podcast that we do or on. YouTube. I was just going to say David has his own entire network. of deep state radio podcasts. Where we do 1517 podcast week. We do The New Republic. You hear that? 1517 podcasts. And and you know what? The thing that really distinguishes our guest. There are big name experts. There all but. It's not no not no name people but Deep State Radio and words matter.

and and that are the deep state. daily that we do and, and. you know, people can find them on YouTube. They can find them on Instagram, they can find them on TikTok, and they can go. and wherever they get podcasts, they can listen to the podcast there. And the last time I did one of your podcasts, a lot of them did good. So I'm that's, DSR. Right. That's how you sound. It does, deep State, the DSR network. So David Rothkopf, thank you. Support the Daily Beast. We're independent media.

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