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Ryan Reynolds
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Michael Wolff
would not leak this. So who leaked it? This is an easy answer.
Joanna Weiss
Donald Trump leaks it.
Michael Wolff
Of course. He has a method here and the method is now more attention on me. The assassination theme has worked very well for Donald Trump and I think that he wants people to know he's the target. I'm the main target. He is at the lowest point in his political career. So what this man needs is distraction. His proxy plane being hidden in a food truck, all of this. People are gonna shoot him out of the sky. He's number one. This is great for Trump.
Joanna Weiss
Michael, Joanna. Happy anniversary.
Michael Wolff
This is our 25th anniversary as husband and wife.
Joanna Weiss
It's our one year anniversary for Inside Trump's head. We started having no idea what we were going to talk about. And in fact, our producer Ryan went back and listened to our first episode, which was 45 minutes of talking about one subject and he didn't like it. He didn't like it. He was rude about it. He said, oh, it was very much a pilot was his dismissive tone. But we figured out by the numbers. 9,000 minutes, 70,000 comments. Thank you. Please keep them coming. 18 cardigans, 37 t shirts and 12 blazers later, we're still going for new people joining us, just remind me what
Michael Wolff
we're doing here, how we got into this. I've written four books about, about Donald Trump. In the first administration, I spent almost seven months inside the White House. And that's another story for another time how that happened. But we represent a particular point of view about how to talk about Donald Trump and the effort is not to talk about him as most of the media does from the outside looking at him as a fairly typical political creature and political phenomenon. We look at this from, try to do this from the inside, that what goes on in this government is atypical in every way because it all comes out of one man's head. What he's thinking, what he's feeling, what he doesn't know. So he has to cover up by pretending that he knows. And everyone around him is forced to not only listen to him, but absolutely do what he wants. Because you cannot disagree with him. You can't really even talk to him because he doesn't listen. I mean, this is a departure in every way from what we understand American politics and American democracy to be about. It is just one singular guy. And this is not an argument to say that he's a would be dictator or a would be despot or any of these things. Actually, it's something else to say that he is wholly unique. He is not like anyone you or anyone you know has known. And understanding what that is in what that does to the nature of government and the nature of politics and the nature of the future of this country is what we're trying to get at and trying to get at from understanding what motivates this guy.
Joanna Weiss
And I am the chief content officer of the Daily Beast. My background's as a journalist. What we do at the Daily Beast is chronicle the crazy in the White House. Which leads us perfectly to this insane story about Trump and doing a whole David Blaine. Now you see me, now you don't. Which plane am I on? It's like those three cups and you have to guess which one Donald Trump is under. And they're always moving them around. And you're like, I think it's that one. No, it's this one. And don't forget to like and subscribe so much to discuss Air Force One. The fact that this, in fact, you knew about this and you knew that this was something that the president did. AOCs eggs.
Ryan Reynolds
No.
Michael Wolff
Which is, you know, I have to note this. Why don't people just read my books?
Joanna Weiss
I know. Well, I'm gonna read part of your book out loud to remind people. This happened during the campaign and Natalie Hart was involved, so stay tuned for that. Darlene Graham, it turns out, probably didn't vote for Donald Trump. She becomes more interesting as a candidate, more interesting by the day, because we know that she gave money to people that wanted to leave open the option of abortion in North Carolina or possibly South Carolina. South Carolina, right? Yes, South Carolina, because the former Governor Mark Sanford is going to give her a run for her money in the Senate race. Anyway, so the plane. AOC's eggs. Trump saying that he took his children for their vaccination appointments. All three of them. All three kids, for their vaccination appointments. And he says that he split The MMR vaccine up.
Michael Wolff
Yeah, well, let's get to this. Let's not dissect this right now.
Joanna Weiss
I'm laying out a menu for people.
Michael Wolff
Yes, let's give it its own segment because this is totally preposterous.
Joanna Weiss
Totally preposterous.
Ryan Reynolds
Hey, it's Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile. Now, I was looking for fun ways to tell you that Mint's offer of unlimited Premium Wireless for $15 a month is back. So I thought it would be fun if we made $15 bills, but it turns out that's very illegal. So there goes my big idea for the commercial. Give it a try@mintmobile.com Switch upfront payment
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Joanna Weiss
All right, but what is also preposterous is this idea of filling Air Force One with your staff and your press, sending it off into the sky as a decoy while you are smuggled out of a food truck into a completely different plane and appearing David Blaine, like all jazz hands when you land in London, saying, oh, that was a great journey. And no one, no one, the entire White House press was any the wiser that he'd been on a completely different plane.
Michael Wolff
So this is both a kind of COVID up by the President and the White House and the Secret Service. And yet once again, the White House press corps missing the story.
Joanna Weiss
Totally missing the story. I mean, the craziest. They literally were on the plane and they must have thought, why isn't the President coming back to talk to us? Because he always goes back to talk to them because he loves it, he wants them, he loves to insult them. He knows that will be the next story. But I guess my other question too is Washington Post got this story, which by the way, has hugely improved since Will Lewis left, interestingly.
Michael Wolff
Well, let's set the story for that. The Washington Post, which is owned by Jeff Bezos a year ago. A year ago. Plus he brought in an editor by the name of Will Lewis, a British editor.
Joanna Weiss
Well, CEO. He brought him in as CEO.
Michael Wolff
A CEO, but to run the place. And, and that was a year, more than a year of, of chaos within the Washington Post and Will Lewis, by, by many estimations, destroying the paper.
Joanna Weiss
Right. I think he came in a couple of years ago and then left. Was fired at the beginning of this year. Right.
Michael Wolff
Yes. The timeline escapes me, but he was the Last. The last. No one is running the Washington. This is the interesting point. No one is really running the Washington Post now. And without anyone running the paper, it's gotten great.
Joanna Weiss
Yeah, I mean, you know, well, and why Will Lewis is interesting is because he was. He was a Murdoch guy who was alleged to have deleted 30 million emails from the servers at News International, the headquarters of Murdoch's British newspapers, the Times, the Sun, then the News of the World to protect the company against the phone hacking scandal.
Michael Wolff
So in apparatchik, a suck up always about who he's reporting to, who his boss is. And I think you can probably see very clearly that he was running the newsroom as a reflection of what he thought Jeff Bezos wanted. So whether Jeff Bezos wanted it or not, he was that interesting thing in which the guy on top may want something, but it's then carried out to an extreme by the suck ups around him, in this case, Will Lewis. And when that person is removed, well, Jeff Bezos may continue to want what he wants, but the people there, nobody's the point person for giving it to him. So the organization can go on and in a relatively unfettered way until Jeff Bezos says, this is not what I want. And then he has to hire some other apparatchik and suck up to enforce his desires. But in the time when there is not such a person, it's a brief renaissance.
Joanna Weiss
Anyway, as media people, we've immediately digressed to the media story, which is not the story here, except that the Washington Post broke this story of Trump being smuggled via a food cart into a different container.
Michael Wolff
A food container, really? It's not, I imagine there was not a food cart. You think the stewardesses are going down
Joanna Weiss
chicken, fish or Trump?
Michael Wolff
With Trump? Well, it's one of those big containers that come, that comes up and then, and then they take the food out.
Joanna Weiss
That would be really depressed if you were served Trump for lunch, but open the foil pouch and there he is. Okay, this has gone down an absurdist route. The point is this. You actually wrote about this in all or Nothing. Can I.
Michael Wolff
Well, before, before, before we get to that. Okay, get. I think we. Let's continue the Washington Post theme. Who leaked this?
Joanna Weiss
Right. Who leaked the story that Air Force One was full of journalists and staff and sent off as a target while Trump was safely.
Michael Wolff
Let me give a further background here that this has happened before, which, which we will discuss. No one knows about it and no one knows about most of the things that the Secret Service does for a very good Reason these are all security precautions. When people begin to know about, if people know about them, then they're no longer part of the security protocol, are no longer a safe part. So people don't know about this. The Secret Service certainly would not leak this. So who leaked it? This is an easy answer.
Joanna Weiss
Donald Trump leaked it, of course. How can he keep anything secret?
Michael Wolff
Well, it's not just that he has a method here and the method is now more attention on me. And also there's a theme here, the assassination theme, and has worked very well for Donald Trump. And I think that he wants people to know he's the target. I'm the main target.
Joanna Weiss
I'm the guy number one in the world. Nobody's ever seen anything like it. I'm the biggest target. And also totally worked for him. After Butler, Pennsylvania, do you remember Elon coming out and saying, I didn't really think much of the guy, but then after that I was all in. So many people were all in.
Michael Wolff
This was reported by the Washington Post first and then picked up by the New York Times and other news organizations as though this was a unique, a scandal even. And all they had to do was read my.
Joanna Weiss
Read your book. So I'm going to read your book. Where it turns out we discover, spoiler alert, this has happened before. All right, so this is we're picking up just after the Butler, Pennsylvania assassination attempt where Thomas Matthew Crooks is the white youth who attempts to kill him, comes very close and is then very quickly dispensed of by the Secret Service. So this is Trump you're talking about. He was being singled out as a historic figure and an agent of history with unknown forces trying to stop him. Thomas Crooks, the first would be assassin, had been using encrypted platforms based in Belgium, Germany and New Zealand. Evidence repeated by people in the Trump camp of something larger than a lone figure. Foreign adversaries is the description Trump darkly used. We just don't know if these guys are speaking to foreign adversaries. I hear they might be the Iranians probably, but possibly Ukraine. In his conversations, the plot on his life, his legal difficulties, the scheme to replace Joe Biden, all easily ran together. Portents of the case he would make if he lost or of the investigations to come if he won. Meanwhile, following the first attempt and now with redoubled fervour, security had been overhauled and upgraded. More evidence to him of plots in progress. Trump Force One had become the decoy plane, his staff and guests available to be shot out of the sky. With Trump himself on a secret flight.
Michael Wolff
And this happened several times. And either as a function of the Secret Service getting reports of whatever significance or. And also Trump kind of starting to like this. And so it would be, it was very clear there would be a proxy plane with press on it, with some staff on it, and then Trump would be on another plane. And in at least one instance there was a meltdown. And actually this is why I came to know about this, because Natalie Harp was put on the proxy plane. Natalie Harp, as we have discussed many times before, is Trump's constant companion, his 32 year old constant companion. Effectively one of his main advisors at this point, the person who does all of his or a significant amount of his social media and who is really his primary gatekeeper.
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Joanna Weiss
So Natalie Harp, who's clutching, I mean, she walks around with four phones, two computers, an enormous backpack, right?
Michael Wolff
And she is always, she is the
Ryan Reynolds
person,
Michael Wolff
no, no question. The person who spends the most time with him, connected to him, really.
Joanna Weiss
And at one point, and she's also known as the human printer because she figured out a way of driving around on a golf course after him on the golf course.
Michael Wolff
Well, that was, that was her. That's how she came to her position of prominence with Donald Trump. She carried the printer when he was on the golf course. She would print out emails and good news emails, fawning articles and then delivered, deliver them to him at each hole.
Joanna Weiss
And at one point she, I think spent the summer sleeping in the locker room at Bedminster to be close to him.
Michael Wolff
Reported by Michael Wolff.
Joanna Weiss
Reported by Michael Wolff there. Indeed. So Natalie Harp.
Michael Wolff
So she was, she was put on the proxy plane and had a. Just, just went crazy and got everyone involved with this and in fact then was moved on to the Trump plane because then Trump found out. She may raise such a ruckus that Trump found out, or this arrived Somebody had to tell Trump, we can't go anywhere. And then she was moved over to Trump's from the proxy plane to Trump's airplane.
Joanna Weiss
Do we know if Natalie Hart was also smuggled in the food truck on this most recent plane?
Michael Wolff
That's what's new in this story. The subterfuge here of how you actually get on a secret plane, which hadn't crossed my mind, that actually when you get on a plane, people see you get on the plane.
Joanna Weiss
Oh, and also when you're that famous, I mean, this may be why he's been wearing that strange new hair. Cause some days he wears it, other days he doesn't. So perhaps it was some kind of disguise that he's been playing with. Or perhaps they put him in some kind of gray coat as if he was working on the food truck.
Michael Wolff
But now, the interesting question would be, is for the press, how does the press feel to know that they are the decoy, they are being set up to be shot out of the sky?
Joanna Weiss
Well, I shouldn't think they feel very pleased about it. I mean, he said, didn't he, Famously, if I go, you go. At one point, when someone asks him about being a target, when he comes back to talk to the press and he goes, well, if I go, you go. It turns out not to be true.
Michael Wolff
Not to be true.
Joanna Weiss
Yet another presidential lie.
Michael Wolff
Now, of course, there's a larger context here, which is this is the protocols. The Secret Service does everything to protect the President of the United States. The Secret Service is not there to protect the press. Should not be actually there to protect the press. It is all about how you keep this one guy safe. And in fact, were something to happen to the proxy plane, were the plane to be shot out, I guess we would be at war anyway, and that would be an extraordinary event, and no one would feel sorry for reporters.
Joanna Weiss
Well, but it's also the White House staff, right, that the staff traveling with him, that support staff, were also on the old Air Force One, because the other thing that was going on.
Michael Wolff
Well, not Natalie Harpe.
Joanna Weiss
Well, we don't know where.
Michael Wolff
We don't know fairly.
Joanna Weiss
We know where Natalie Harp was. But there's a sort of double bluff here. Because.
Michael Wolff
Although I can guess.
Joanna Weiss
Okay, so you think she was with him in the food truck.
Michael Wolff
She's resourceful.
Joanna Weiss
Interesting. Well, perhaps we can figure out where was Natalie Harp. But there's also a double bluff here. Cause you've got Grift Force One, the plane that Qatar has given him that he flies over to the NATO summit. In which then Secret Service say, well, this isn't good enough. It's not high quality enough. It's not secure enough, especially with the latest threats. So we're going to put you on the old Air Force One, which is secure enough, but we're not actually going
Michael Wolff
to put you on the old because
Joanna Weiss
it's not secure enough, it turns out. So we're going to put you on another little plane, which probably isn't secure at all, but nevertheless, it's a different plane. So it'll throw your adversaries off or adversaries of
Michael Wolff
totally. And then we can digress again to the Qatari plane, because before our eyes, and we should watch this, he is trying to steal that plane. He is going to steal that plane.
Joanna Weiss
Well, I think he told us he stealing.
Michael Wolff
Yeah, well, it's all this stuff about the library. And it was going to be on display. It was going to be an exhibit at the library. What he's going to do. And I think we should keep coming back to this. He is looking to set up so all this thing about third term. He's gonna, you know, Willy Woolly, that's a diversion. What he's going to do is set up a separate White House at Mar A Lago. When he leaves, he's funding it by all these corporations he's now extorting money from. And he's gonna have this big plane, the Qatar Air Force One.
Joanna Weiss
So this is the money that we talked about last week. Meredith o' Rourke has raised his Princess of Darkness, as he refers to her, she's raised $800 million largely by shaking down companies.
Michael Wolff
Right. And she will continue to shake, and this will be billions by the time this administration is over. And that will be part of the nut that finances this pretender White House in Mar A Lago.
Joanna Weiss
Okay, well, I'm glad that that's going to fund him because Truth Social, his business is not going to fund him. It lost 200, I think, $38 million.
Michael Wolff
Well, that's not the, I mean, it's been losing money, of course. Of course, all along. And, but the interesting thing is that the, the relatively small universe of people who have been on Truth Social are fleeing a sinking ship.
Joanna Weiss
They're dwindling.
Michael Wolff
So, I mean, so this began as a social network of one and will return to a social network of one. But it's an interesting kind of reverse network effect. I mean, the technology business is based on this idea of the network effect. You build a network and then it expands exponentially. So this is going in the opposite direction. And it's a kind of. I mean, it's a kind of its own tracking pole, in a sense.
Joanna Weiss
Well, what I find when I'm on it, and I know you're not on it, but I am. I get ads for knives and I get ads for assault weapons. Air Force One. Trump leaks it because he wants the attention. He wants everybody to know.
Michael Wolff
Well, also it's a, you know, remember, we're in the middle of this. He is at the lowest point in his political career. The polls are at the lowest point in his political career. Nothing is going right. He's stuck in the middle of a war that he promised not to get into, got into, can't get out of. So what this man needs is distraction. What is another story that, what's a headline that is, that takes away from all the other headlines and his proxy plane being hidden in a food truck. All of this. People are gonna shoot him out of the sky. He's number one. This is great for Trump. Evening. Buyer's remorse. Buy a new car. I'll be moving in. Let's get started.
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Ryan Reynolds
You what?
Michael Wolff
Yeah, great price.
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Joanna Weiss
So there's no.
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Michael Wolff
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Joanna Weiss
well, it's also Trump and the Iranians, right? Because the Iranians have got him in an absolute chokehold. They've said, no, no, no, you know, you want the straight of Hormuz opened, here is a list of things we want from you, all of which are, frankly, unacceptable. All of which the administration said they wouldn't give them. And he's, as you say, completely between a rock and a hard place. And now he's just diverting with, well, I beat you over here. I avoided your, you know, your targeting me when I was in Turkey. It's a very small win for him, I think.
Michael Wolff
And this is. Yeah, I mean, a couple of days distraction, but, you know, a couple of days distraction here, a couple of days distraction there, it adds up to real distraction.
Joanna Weiss
Right? And we've only got, what have we got? 80 odd days until the election. So if he can just keep.
Michael Wolff
No. And he's just looking. It's what it's always Trump, triangular looking for. What is the thing that he can. That he can distract people with what is the thing that he can point to. What is the thing that sets up someone else to be the fall guy.
Joanna Weiss
We saw that a couple of people have left the White House. Dave Warrington left to be replaced by Will Scarf as the White House general counsel. Kathy Rumler's old job when she was there. I think he's also leaving a sinking ship.
Ryan Reynolds
Right?
Michael Wolff
Yes. I mean, I think that's. I mean, we're gonna see more of that people leaving because the midterms are coming up, and then you have to get a new job. I mean, at the end of this, in 2028, where are you gonna be? Or maybe Dave Warrington is running for president.
Joanna Weiss
I don't think so, but I don't think so. I'm sure he's going to make some money. White House general counsel can make a lot of money going into a big white shoe law firm.
Michael Wolff
Yeah, no, absolutely. So that's not. But in the idea of him firing people, in other words. I mean, I mean, I think that's. Yes. So that would be a way to distract, put blame on other people. But that would be from Trump's. That's people, someone the media, us, telling him what to do. And he's not going to do. He doesn't want to do. Often quite refuses to do, even though it's the smart thing to do, but because he's being told to do it, he doesn't do it.
Joanna Weiss
But he may need to find someone to blame for the war because the war is going to be bad for the midterms.
Michael Wolff
Yeah, I don't know. I mean, I'm stumped here. I'm stumped. Like, he's stumped. He doesn't know what to do.
Joanna Weiss
Okay.
Michael Wolff
So, you know, I mean, he's in. I mean, let's. The, The. In the most basic terms, the Iranians won't do what he wants. They won't open the Strait of Hormuz, and we do not have enough ammunition to make them. I mean, that is it. He's run out of bullets, quite literally.
Joanna Weiss
It's a crazy story. And then when he screamed at Pete Hegseth at Camp David, Pete Hexa blamed Steven Feinberg, his number two, for not telling Trump that we'd run out of munitions.
Michael Wolff
So anyway, we're always looking. What is the thing always in Trump's mind? It's in the muddle of his mind. He's always grasping for that one thing that might change people just redirect people's attention, suddenly define A new enemy. And he tried this weekend.
Ryan Reynolds
So
Michael Wolff
on Sunday morning, AOC gave an interview. Who is the leader in the polls, the Democratic polls for the Democratic nomination for president. 36 years old. So she's one year over the minimum to possibly be the president. And can we just have a moment
Joanna Weiss
and let that sink in?
Michael Wolff
Yes, you can have any moments you want.
Joanna Weiss
I mean, it's just such a, such a.
Michael Wolff
You mean what's sinking in now that she's 36 years old?
Joanna Weiss
Well, all of it. That she's 36 years old. That she's never created a job in her life. That she's incredibly, she's become incredibly good at talking to crowds, that she's pulled Bernie Sanders in as a sort of security blanket. So when they go on their oligarchy tour on their private planes across America, she gets the benefit of his. Well, I don't. What is his, his broa sphere.
Michael Wolff
I mean, I think that that's, that that's minimizing what she has accomplished. I mean, the entire rise of the Democratic Socialists of America is essentially on her back. It's her project. She is certainly the spear here and I think it's a remarkable accomplishment. I think she's actually rather remarkable. She's articulate.
Joanna Weiss
No, no, I'm not saying she's not remarkable. I'm just saying it's remarkable that we're at this moment in America where she could be the leading candidate for, you know, the President, the Democratic President.
Michael Wolff
I mean, look at the, look at, I mean, we've had Donald Trump.
Joanna Weiss
I know, I know.
Michael Wolff
We've had Joe Biden.
Joanna Weiss
How did we get here? How did we get here, Michael?
Michael Wolff
Well, I don't know. It may not be a bad position to be here. She's young, she's smart, she's energetic, and
Joanna Weiss
you know where else she is? She's inside Trump's head.
Michael Wolff
Yes. And so at any rate, on Sunday morning she went on the Sunday, Sunday programs and said, or one of the Sunday programs, I think the ABC program, and said that she was freezing her eggs. 36 year old woman, she's not married and she's planning ahead. Trump is electrified, gets on the phone and at least one of these conversations that I am privy to and says this is his opening statement. She's getting her eggs frozen. And then the person he's speaking to says, who's getting her eggs frozen? And he says, Hillary is getting her eggs frozen. He says, Hillary, Yes. So this person who's getting this is completely confused from the get go. Now algebraically, More confused.
Joanna Weiss
Right. And then did Trump realize what he'd said? Because didn't the person say, well that's impossible?
Michael Wolff
No. Well then, then remember because it's Trump and he always repeats the last thing that he said. Then he said it again. Hillary is getting her eggs frozen. At any rate, this finally comes clear who is getting not 78 year old Hillary, but 36 year old AOC. And then, and you can see that this is a thing, that this is maybe, maybe he has. It's like taking the knee, that he's hoping to have identified a cultural moment, a political, cultural intersection which will galvanize, I don't know, the MAGA base. And at that point in this conversation he connects the freezing your eggs to birthright citizenship. So I don't know. Is then the question, can you deport an egg?
Joanna Weiss
Can you deport an egg?
Michael Wolff
This is also, and I think it is, you know, that this is, he is really searching. This is a thing, you know, he's got to find something. He is now working without an issue, without a, you know, and issues really are not his thing. It's really without a piece of language, a connection.
Joanna Weiss
Well, and also it's an odd one to choose because a more and more women are freezing their eggs. Costco now offers the drugs to freeze your eggs. Right. So this is not something that's complete. I mean, yes, it's expensive, but it's now becoming within range for people who want to start a family.
Michael Wolff
No, I think every, every, every family in America knows someone. Every person in America likely has some family member who has fertility issues, I think.
Joanna Weiss
Right?
Michael Wolff
No, no, no, this is fertility questions or this is, Yeah, I mean, I think this is, you know, an 80 year old man saying eggs, a woman's eggs with everybody else saying, oh my God, this is just, you know, this
Joanna Weiss
is just what women do these days,
Michael Wolff
life as it is.
Joanna Weiss
But it also indicates she's probably thinking of running for 20, 20, 28.
Ryan Reynolds
Well,
Joanna Weiss
it's an insurance policy to put on one side of a. If she doesn't.
Michael Wolff
No, I think she's clearly, I mean that actually that's the more, the more complex thing and I wonder how Americans would react to that. I'm freezing my eggs so that I can run for president and then have a child after the presidency. Well, if she were to, I don't
Joanna Weiss
know, a pregnant president, we haven't had that before. We haven't had a woman president. We've definitely not had a pregnant president.
Michael Wolff
One of the things I think that we can assume about AOC is that she has made the political calculations here.
Joanna Weiss
I'm sure she has. Anyway, I wish you well. And also, it's a much more effective procedure than it used to be. It used to be incredibly expensive.
Michael Wolff
The operation here, by the way, is. It's not that he's so brilliant at this, is that he tries out so many things and then.
Joanna Weiss
Some stick. Yeah, okay, some stick. So is his claim that he took his children to have their vaccinations likely to stick?
Michael Wolff
Well, let's do.
Joanna Weiss
So let's go back and explain what was happening here.
Michael Wolff
Right, so that happened yesterday, that he gave this presser a press conference about vaccines and specifically the MMR vaccine, mumps,
Joanna Weiss
measles and rubella vaccine, which children get very early on. And it's three shots in one.
Ryan Reynolds
Right.
Michael Wolff
So it's one shot.
Joanna Weiss
Can I just say, for people listening in, I mean, we have a lot of listeners in Europe, we have a lot of listeners in New Zealand, in Australia. You must. I'm sure you cannot believe this conversation that is going on, that the President of the United States is saying that he feels some vaccines should be delayed.
Michael Wolff
MMR vaccine. That one vaccine, I believe, is 50 years old, 55 years old, the MMR. My older children have certainly had that, and my older children are basically my age now, so.
Joanna Weiss
Your older children are basically your age now? What are you saying?
Michael Wolff
My older children are old? They cross a line in which they're basically adults. Yeah, I mean, they're more than adults. They're my age. This has become a. It's a foundation of childhood health that, that these three key vaccines are given at the same time. Therefore, it increases the likelihood that you're going to get them, that you're not going, you know, the other way, which is Trump is suggesting now, is that you should come back three different. So you just set up hurdles, which is what he's trying to do, so that you don't get these vaccines. Now, why would he do that? Well, because he's in a desperate race at this point. I mean, he is trying to hold on to the MAGA base. If he can't turn out the MAGA base in the midterms, it will be a blue sweep. He'll lose the Senate on that basis.
Joanna Weiss
But the dismantling of a base, basic pillar of public health, I mean, you cannot believe he is trying to do this. I find it unfathomable. It's like saying to people, and I'm expecting to do this. Stop washing your hands. Don't wash your hands in Fact, you know, washing your hands is bad for you. Washing your hands is one of the, you know, the basic, the basic points of hygiene.
Michael Wolff
Well, I will, I will assure you that if he could say, don't wash your hands and keep the Senate, he would say, don't wash your hands.
Joanna Weiss
Yeah, no, I'm sure he would. I'm excited.
Michael Wolff
I mean, this is all, this is just a base and cynical political calculation, and he's in a. And he has not been an anti vax guy.
Joanna Weiss
I know. I mean, he's been until recently.
Michael Wolff
He's been, at best, ambivalent about that.
Joanna Weiss
Well, it's really. Since COVID Right. It was the sort of backing off from Operation Walk Speed, his one achievement of Trump one. And then understanding that RFK had whipped up a base around this.
Michael Wolff
Yeah, no, no. Prior to Covid, I think vaccines had never even crossed his mind. And he's a kind of a health, I mean, you know, very health conscious, you know, germaphobe kind of guy.
Joanna Weiss
Well, he says he is, but then you discover that he slept with Stormy Daniels. Right, well. And you said, you know, didn't use a condom with. I always think it's funny when people say, oh, I'm a germaphobe, and then you discover they have sex without a condom.
Ryan Reynolds
Right.
Michael Wolff
But nevertheless, that was, that's the conceit. And there was, I mean, I'm sure vaccines. It didn't, it just didn't cross his. Why would Donald Trump be concerned about vaccines?
Joanna Weiss
But how can we have an American presidency sitting in the Oval Office saying, you shouldn't give a vaccine that has been, you know, a pillar of public health for the last 55 years. And then he gives this nonsense where he says, I took my children to their vaccine appointments with my wife and we broke up the mmr. So they each had one singly. No one can refute this. His wife is dead and buried on his golf course. I'm sure the doctor's no longer alive and the kids won't know. I mean, according to Ivana's, she did all the child raising and basically presented to the children to him.
Michael Wolff
The idea that Donald Trump ever accompanied a child to a pediatrician is preposterous.
Joanna Weiss
Right? I mean, it's.
Michael Wolff
It just. It doesn't. No, this is the. I was just gonna say this was the worst kind of cynical behavior, but it's clearly not. I mean, it's clearly done this. Done this again and again and again. This is what he does. And it is a measure at this point of his desperation
Joanna Weiss
What I don't understand is why would he think that maga, the MAGA base, would want their children to go unvaccinated? Why does he think they would like to lose their children to measles or whooping cough or, you know, bring back mumps?
Michael Wolff
Well, I mean, he. For a very good reason. I mean, that is. That position, particularly in the MAGA base, the evangelical MAGA base polls very high. I mean, that's all that he's looking at right now. This is. I got to bring those people out. Those people are going to be the margin of victory or defeat in key races.
Joanna Weiss
Well, at some point, everybody's going to know someone whose child has had measles
Michael Wolff
and been deadly ill. Well, not before the midterm election. If he's going to get Ken Paxton elected, he needs the anti vax, MAGA evangelical crowd.
Joanna Weiss
Ken Paxton. Oh, you mean the impeached Attorney General in Texas.
Michael Wolff
I mean the impeached Attorney General in Texas who is divorcing his wife now with accusations of his own efforts to match Wilt Chamberlain's record. And on top of that, with questions flying about, how did the Attorney General of the state of Texas, who makes, you know, I don't know, 100,000, 200 something. Yes, yes. Amass millions in property.
Joanna Weiss
Mm. I wonder how. I wonder how. Still. I spoke to someone last week who has been running an enormous business in Texas, and he said the Democrats were deluded if they thought James Talarico was gonna win. He said, even though Ken Paxton is a horrible, horrible man, he's likely to win.
Michael Wolff
Well, I always find that you have terrible sources. So we're going to see if that is. If that is the case, because I am optimistic about. About James Tallaripi, about the Texas race. And as a measure of that, I would say Trump's sudden, sudden fervor about the mmr. He doesn't even know what the MMR class is.
Joanna Weiss
Of course he doesn't. And of course, he didn't accompany his wife to his children's pediatrician appointment. So another person that may or may not hold a Senate seat in her hands, Darlene Graham, the sister of Lindsey Graham, your former source, the hawk, the
Michael Wolff
wild hawk, who is everyone's famous source,
Joanna Weiss
everybody's famous source, who famously said on the eve of the bombing, or I think, actually a couple of days into the bombing, that Trump was like Roosevelt and that Bibi was like Churchill and that this was. Trump was the best wartime president ever.
Michael Wolff
He said that out of the front of the mouth and out of the Sides of his mouth. He said other things. And the interesting thing about Darlene Graham, and I know a whole bunch of people who have tried to talk to her because it's like she's replacing her brother. Then people assume, well, she'll be the source. She's not talking to anybody, which is probably reasonably good politics.
Joanna Weiss
But does she have much to say at this point?
Michael Wolff
She probably has nothing to say, but. And if she talked, she probably would say what she's not supposed to say, because it appears that Darlene Graham is the candidate of Donald Trump. He's the person who appears to have talked her into running for her brother's Senate seat.
Joanna Weiss
Although let us not forget that Donald Trump endorsed both people who were running for governor of South Carolina when it became clear that his candidate wasn't going to win. Endorse the other one.
Michael Wolff
Yes. This candidate, Darlene Graham, appears not to have voted for Donald Trump.
Joanna Weiss
So did she vote for Joe Biden or did she just not show up?
Michael Wolff
It appears that she did not vote in either 2016 or 2024.
Joanna Weiss
Did she vote for her brother?
Michael Wolff
She may not even have voted for her brother.
Joanna Weiss
Well, she said very clearly she's not. She doesn't really have any opinions on foreign affairs.
Michael Wolff
She may be a liberal.
Joanna Weiss
Darlene Graham may be a liberal. Well, she said that she wants to focus on domestic issues. Right. We know that she's interested in public health. I think she's an optician and. Well, she's the person that. Well, my point is.
Michael Wolff
Opticians are liberals.
Joanna Weiss
No, my point is she's the person saying, is it better on the. Is it better this way or this way?
Michael Wolff
No, no, no, that's an opt. The optician is the person who grinds the glass to make the lens.
Joanna Weiss
Oh, really? I thought an optician was the person that did the eye test, too.
Michael Wolff
That's the optometrist.
Joanna Weiss
Oh, goodness, it's so complicated.
Michael Wolff
Well, who does it in your country?
Joanna Weiss
This is my country, Michael. This is my country. So is she the person that helps
Michael Wolff
you have convinced me or Donald Trump of.
Joanna Weiss
That has. Is she the person that helps you select frames?
Michael Wolff
Yes.
Joanna Weiss
Okay, so what would she think of your frames?
Michael Wolff
I don't know. Maybe. I have no idea.
Joanna Weiss
Well, it's.
Michael Wolff
What do you think of my frames?
Joanna Weiss
I like your frames. I like your frames. And we've had this conversation because of the Trump hair and how he chose it as a feature. It's very distinguishing feature. And you made the point, which several of you commented on actually, that Joe Biden was translucent. You couldn't actually see.
Michael Wolff
All he had to do was get a pair of dark glasses. Cary Grant.
Joanna Weiss
Well, and as I pointed out, he always had his aviators. That was his distinguishing feature. But he didn't wear them all the time. And as you pointed out, they're very light frames. You wanted him to wear thick, black Joe 90 glasses. He would have looked very different.
Michael Wolff
Yeah, no, he would have won. We wouldn't be in this mess but for a set of dark frames.
Joanna Weiss
Is that true, though? Is that true? So, Darlene Graham. Trump may well withdraw his endorsement of her, but for now, she's got it.
Michael Wolff
The primary that she's running in, which is today, so there'll be a result tonight, tomorrow, and the likelihood is that she will not get over 50%. So then there will be a runoff, and then. Actually, I think the likelihood is that she'll probably be defeated.
Joanna Weiss
Well, we can talk about it on Thursday. I mean, super interesting for Darlene Graham, especially if she hasn't voted for Donald Trump.
Michael Wolff
But it would really be interesting if she won and then she turned out to be a liberal. A Trojan horse.
Joanna Weiss
A liberal optician.
Michael Wolff
Trojan horse. Optician Graham. Fantastic. And then with the Senate majority in the balance, then she could become a Democrat.
Joanna Weiss
Wow, that is interesting. What do you think is gonna happen with Susan Collins and Maine? Do you think she's gonna pull through?
Michael Wolff
I do not.
Joanna Weiss
Oh, so you think Troy Jackson's gonna win?
Michael Wolff
I do. I may change that opinion, but at this point, I think she's got a problem.
Joanna Weiss
Well, she was clearly trying.
Michael Wolff
I mean, she's had a problem, but I think it's getting worse. And I think every indication from Trump is the sense that they know it's getting worse.
Joanna Weiss
Interesting. Very interesting. So we have some poems. The first one is from someone called MZ Coffee 123. The judges have blocked the ballroom They've probably sealed their own doom they're on the side of right. Trump will continue to fight While the people get nothing but gloom.
Michael Wolff
More gloom, more gloom.
Joanna Weiss
I know I missed out more because I wanted to give it a slightly better rhythm. Sorry, I was editing as I went there. Okay, now we've got another one from Edits, who is a regular contributor of Limerick's. Of the myriad threats that beset us, who'd have thought the only one that would get us wouldn't be proud boys or Oath keepers or even aging Soviet sleepers, but just a humble bag of crispy green lettuce?
Michael Wolff
Okay, that's gotta be the winner.
Joanna Weiss
I think that is the winner. But there's One more. And obviously that was referring to Cyclospora, which is seven times higher than it normally is at this time of year. Thanks, fda. There once was a fellow named Trump whose coiffure acquired a new bump. Was it wig? Was it glue? An extension or two? Only his hairdresser knows about that clump. That's from JF5336. I'm very curious about the names that people choose for themselves online. When I go on our premiere editions and lots of our viewers and listeners are chatting away, I've got to know some of their kind of strange names. Like there's Jock McFrosty from Canada. There's Hippie Artist 1. There's a whole range of. Of interesting names. And then obviously there's Garfried and there's edits. And, you know, people pick. I guess maybe they're old nicknames or whatever.
Michael Wolff
I don't know.
Joanna Weiss
You're just my.
Michael Wolff
I mean, mine. Yeah. I'm Michael Wolff, nyc. It seems like. Are these people trying to hide their identities? Are they trying to augment their identities?
Joanna Weiss
I'm not sure. You can tell us. You can tell us, but if you have been, thank you.
Michael Wolff
And are these identities specifically for YouTube? Do these go across other platforms?
Joanna Weiss
No, I think they're specifically for YouTube.
Michael Wolff
What's your YouTube handle?
Joanna Weiss
My YouTube handle is beastjoanna.
Michael Wolff
Well, that's odd, too.
Joanna Weiss
Is it odd? It's fairly straightforward. You should be Beast Michael. I'm gonna get Beast Michael for you. I don't wanna be Beast Michael. I wanna be Michael Wolfe, nyc. Okay. Okay. All right. I just wanted to indicate who I'm from.
Michael Wolff
Beast Joanna.
Joanna Weiss
Beast Joanna, if you have been, thank you for putting up with us. Thank you for joining us. And don't forget to subscribe.
Michael Wolff
People ask me what you're like. I say, she's a beast.
Joanna Weiss
Okay. Do you say that?
Michael Wolff
No, but I'm going to from now on.
Joanna Weiss
Okay. Lordy, Lorty, how much more of this? How much more of this?
Michael Wolff
Well, that's an interesting thing. How much more do we do with this for another year, another year after? And what do we do if this goes on after he's no longer the President of the United States?
Joanna Weiss
Well, I think we know it will. I mean, you've just painted a picture where he takes the money he's raised. He takes Grift Force One, the Qatari plane, he sets up essentially an alternative administration in Mar A Lago and cleaves the base to him.
Michael Wolff
Yeah, I think that that is true. So you mean we're gonna be doing this until he dies?
Joanna Weiss
Until he goes to mar a lago in the sky?
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Yeah.
Joanna Weiss
Until he goes to that great patio in the sky where he can dance to his heart's content. YMCA dies, Trump dies.
Michael Wolff
Okay, I guess we gotta be on the scene for that.
Joanna Weiss
But first, the midterms. 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 Bee Beast Tier members now, there are too many names to read out. And we really appreciate your support.
Ryan Reynolds
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Host: Joanna Weiss (Chief Content Officer, The Daily Beast)
Guest: Michael Wolff (Author, Trump chronicler)
Release Date: August 12, 2026
This episode dives deep into a recent headline: the story of former President Donald Trump's secretive plane switch, involving decoy flights and covert operations to avoid potential threats following an assassination attempt. Joanna Weiss and Michael Wolff explore the larger themes of Trump’s obsession with attention, chaos in the media, declining trust in institutional politics, and the peculiar inner workings of the Trump White House. The tone is lively, sharp, and often wry, with the duo blending serious political analysis with surreal anecdotes and the occasional inside joke.
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Incisive, irreverent, and packed with insider knowledge, this episode peels back the layers of both the surreal and strategic machinations within Trump’s world—and the ways the media and the public become unwitting participants in his ongoing spectacle.
Trump, Air Force One, leak, Secret Service, decoy, Washington Post, Will Lewis, Natalie Harp, Mar-a-Lago, Truth Social, vaccines, AOC, Senate races, Darlene Graham, media chaos, distraction politics
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