How Trump’s War Exposes His Lost Grip on Reality

Summary

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Podcast Summary: How Trump’s War Exposes His Lost Grip on Reality

The Daily Beast Podcast, March 8, 2026
Host: Joanna Coles
Main Guest: Michael Wolff (implied “A”)

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Overview

This episode delves into Donald Trump’s response to the ongoing war with Iran during his second term, focusing on his increasingly erratic leadership style, his isolation from both allies and advisors, and the fallout within his administration. Hosts Joanna Coles and Michael Wolff dissect Trump’s rhetoric (especially on Truth Social), examine the broader implications of recent political firings, and reflect on the fractured state of both the U.S. government and the wider MAGA movement.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Trump’s Deteriorating Rhetoric and Disconnection from Reality

• Language as Performance:

  • Trump’s war messaging is “unpresidential, incoherent, the language of an ignoramus… It comes out of his mouth… in a rush of self-justification, of need, of fear, of aggression” (A, 00:00, repeated at 11:31).
  • The hosts repeatedly compare Trump’s language to war movies; he seems to be “living in his own movie” (A, 00:37).

• Truth Social as Theater:

  • “He is the only person on Truth Social. So it’s surprising how little response it gets… but it just gives you a clue as to what kind of movie he thinks he’s in.” (B, 01:02)
  • His posts serve both self-soothing and “grift” (A, 01:46; 02:17).

• Delusional Victory Claims:

  • Trump (via Truth Social): "Iran, which is being beat to hell, has apologized and surrendered..." (B reading Trump, 02:17)
  • The hosts highlight the childish and fantastical quality of these claims, with B likening it to a student history exercise (03:23).

• Unconditional Surrender – Fantasy over Reality:

  • “Has there been an unconditional surrender since Germany and Japan in the Second World War?” (A, 05:37)
  • The world is left to scramble to interpret Trump’s pronouncements which “are not related to reality,” just to his own headspace.

2. Consequences of Trump’s Style—Isolation and Disarray

• Advisor and Ally Alienation:

  • No “axis of allies”: “He didn’t bother to build an axis of allies… he went in, obviously under pressure from Israel.” (B, 04:58)
  • Foreign criticism—Spain and the UK push back, no support from major allies.

• Seeking Validation:

  • Trump reportedly made multiple calls to journalists like Jonathan Karl and Dana Bash, seemingly seeking reassurance about his handling of the war (B, 12:22).
  • “He wants Jonathan to tell him how impressive the war was.” (B, 12:35)

• Vacuum of Meaning:

  • Neither Trump nor reporters have the “language” for the surreal situation: “It creates this sort of paralysis. We don’t know what’s going on, but we can’t acknowledge that we don’t know.” (A, 14:02)

3. The Administration’s Tumult: Kristi Noem’s Firing

• The Fall of Kristi Noem:

  • Noem, Secretary for Homeland Security, was fired—possibly for blaming Trump over a $200 million ad campaign that glorified herself (B, 17:48; 18:11; 19:11).
  • Her affair with Corey Lewandowski (influence peddler and "puppet master") is discussed. The hosts argue the media hesitated too long in stating what was already widely known (A, 20:07; 22:22).

• First Domino to Fall?

  • “Is Kristi Noem the first domino? ...In my experience, when he starts to do something, he continues.” (A, 26:10)
  • Speculation on next potential firings: Pam Bondi (re: Epstein mishandling), possibly RFK Jr. ("anti-vax stuff just doesn't play"), or Dr. Mehmet Oz as a replacement (B, 27:34; 28:30).

4. MAGA Fractures and Political Tensions

• Midterms Looming:

  • Trump and Republicans are worried about midterm losses, impeachment, and waning power (B, 30:30).
  • Mike Pence predicts Trump impeachment; hosts joke about third impeachment as a possible “record” (B, 30:30).

• Movement Splits:

  • Marjorie Taylor Greene pushes for Tucker Carlson’s 2028 run; Tucker and Trump are now at odds over the war, with Carlson becoming “the leading isolationist and anti-Israel voice” (A, 31:33; 32:02).

• Cabinet Drama:

  • Tulsi Gabbard’s reduced profile and role in contesting the 2020 election in Georgia; hints her ambition has quieted for now (B/A, 29:26–29:56).

5. Trump’s Persona, Health, and Public Perception

• Physical Decline:

  • Observations on Trump’s appearance: “that nasty rash… his swollen legs, his chronic venous insufficiency which leads to the cankles.” (B, 36:07)
  • Noted that his unique hair coloring and makeup attempt to conceal but could cause further problems (B, 36:26–39:13).

• Self-Awareness:

  • Trump’s famous “favorite book” answer (“All Quiet on the Western Front”) cited as evidence that he’s performing the role of a “war president” without reading or strategy (A, 06:47; 07:54).

6. Policy Chaos—Tariffs, Economy, and Public Mood

• Economic Woes:

  • Latest jobs report: “lost 92,000 jobs, unemployment hovering around 4%... this is more bad news” (B, 34:34; A, 34:57)
  • “I can’t think, actually, at this point of anything that is going well for Donald Trump. The polls are terrible... could lose the Senate.” (A, 35:53)

• Tariffs Debacle:

  • Trump’s broad, inconsistent tariff policies have driven many small businesses under and led to protracted lawsuits (B, 39:14)
  • Supreme Court rulings have rejected Trump’s actions on tariffs but created confusion on what happens to already-paid tariffs (A/B, 40:00–41:23)
  • “Tariff is not going to rebound to his credit.” (A, 41:23)

7. Comparisons with Past Presidents and Democratic Response

• Obama’s Recent Speech:
  • Obama at Jesse Jackson’s memorial: “Every day you wake up to things you just didn’t think were possible... Some Americans count more than others and some don’t even count at all. Everywhere we see greed and bigotry being celebrated…” (Obama, read by B, 42:24)
  • “He had to wait for someone to die to say this”—hosts criticize Obama’s passivity in current politics (A, 43:15).

8. Gender, Power, and Scandal

• Disillusionment with Female Power:
  • Reflection on how female cabinet members like Kristi Noem haven’t been “kinder, gentler”—“equality is a bit more complicated than we realized” (B, 50:50)
  • Discussion of affairs, conflicts of interest—and how, despite “times up,” women in power still replicate the reckless behavior of men (A/B, 50:25–51:16).

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Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

“It’s unpresidential, it’s incoherent. It’s the language of an ignoramus. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about… The world is spinning out of control because Donald Trump. Because it’s run by an ignoramus who lives in his own movie.”
— Michael (A), 00:00 & 14:02

“We are many more weeks into whatever this… what do we call this? The Trump era, the second Trump era? The era where we have all been sucked like some enormous vacuum tube inside Trump’s head, which is where we go three times a week.”
— Joanna (B), 00:46

“He keeps having to ramp up the rhetorical language… this call for unconditional surrender… echoed around the world with everybody pausing and blinking and saying, well, what does that possibly mean?”
— Michael (A), 05:37

“He wants Jonathan to tell him how impressive the war was.”
— Joanna (B), 12:35

“It creates this sort of paralysis… the world is spinning out of control because Donald Trump, because it’s run by an ignoramus who lives in his own movie, but we can’t really say that.”
— Michael (A), 14:02

“Kristi Noem riding on a horse with a cowboy hat… a quarter of a Billion dollars on an ad campaign, largely for herself. No wonder she’s lost her job. … Trump hates it when anyone makes money off him.”
— Joanna (B), 19:11/45:21

"And is Kristi Noem the first domino? In my experience, when he starts to do something, he continues to do something."
— Michael (A), 26:10

“He’s not going to fire someone for the error they have made. He’ll fire them for something else.”
— Michael (A), 27:46

“Every day you wake up to things you just didn’t think were possible… greed and bigotry being celebrated and bullying and mockery masquerading as strength…”
— Barack Obama (read by Joanna), 42:24

“Equality is a bit more complicated than we realized… politics makes horrifying people. Well, men or women.”
— A & B, 51:04–51:16

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Timestamps for Critical Segments

• Trump’s deluded war messaging: 00:00–04:58
• Truth Social as a solo performance/grift: 01:02 & 01:46
• Analysis of “unconditional surrender” rhetoric: 05:37–09:17
• Journalist outreach & validation-seeking: 12:22–13:06
• Firing of Kristi Noem and admin dominoes: 17:48–27:27
• Speculation on MAGA split and 2028 (Greene/Carlson): 31:33–34:36
• Economic/Jobs crisis: 34:36–36:07
• Physical decline observations (rashes/hair): 36:07–39:13
• Tariff/legal business woes: 39:14–41:23
• Obama’s eulogy and Democratic response: 41:23–44:19
• Reflections on gender, power, and scandals: 50:25–51:16

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Conclusion

This episode paints a picture of an administration adrift, led by a president increasingly isolated, immature in rhetoric, and disconnected from reality—presiding over economic malaise, strategic confusion, and inner-circle backstabbing. Trump’s penchant for self-mythologizing, his lack of strategic vision, and his need for constant validation are highlighted as central to the nation’s malaise. Joanna and Michael dissect the implications of administration shakeups and foreshadow more turmoil to come, all while lamenting the inability—of both media and political class—to fully address or contain the dysfunction.

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Transcript

[A]

It's not just. It's unpresidential, it's incoherent. It's the language of an ignoramus. He doesn't know what he's talking about. It's just, it comes, it comes out of his mouth and on either out of his mouth or onto the page in a rush of self justification, of need, of fear, of aggression. We don't know what's going on, but we can't acknowledge that we don't know what's going on. We can't. The world is spinning out of control because Donald Trump. Because it's run by an ignoramus who lives in his own movie.

[B]

Michael, we are one week in.

[A]

Joanna, you mean we're one week into the war in Iran. We are many more weeks into whatever this, whatever we call this, what do we call this? The Trump era, the second Trump era,

[B]

the era where we have all been sucked like some enormous vacuum tube inside Trump's head, which is where we go three times a week. And I thought I might start by reading Donald J. Trump's Truth Social post this morning, which he fired off at 6:11. And as you're always pointing out, he is the only person on Truth Social. So it's surprising how little response it gets on Truth Social. But of course it gets picked up by the media and spread everywhere else. But it just gives you a clue as to who is writing his script. Obviously he's writing his script, but it gives you a clue as to what kind of movie he thinks he's in.

[A]

Let me. Before you do that. Cause I think that's a point that we should keep coming back to this Truth Social thing because this too, too is a bit of grift. Nobody else is on this but him. And he uses the power of the presidency to maintain the value of Truth Social. So he, that's these, these posts which no one reads because no one is on Truth Social yet establish its multi billion dollar value.

[B]

Yeah, yeah. All right, so here's his post that he fired off at 6:11 this morning. Iran, which is being beat to hell, has apologized and surrendered to its Middle east neighbors and promised that it will not shoot at them anymore. I mean, what is he in? Is he in a western movie where people are shooting at each other, which is being beat to hell? I mean, what kind of language is that? Especially for the president. And then he says it is the first time that Iran has ever lost in thousands of years to surrounding Middle Eastern countries. And they have said, thank you, President Trump. I have said, you're welcome. Iran is no longer the bully of the Middle East. They are instead the loser of the Middle East. I mean, this is literally like a child. You remember in those exercises in history or geography, and they would say, imagine you are the president of a country, you're at war. How are you going to communicate with people? Let's all write an essay expressing that.

[A]

I never had that assignment, but.

[B]

Well, we had that assignment in history, in England.

[A]

Probably because of Churchill.

[B]

No, I think it was because of the royal family. So we were always being asked to imagine letters written from King Charles I before he was about to be executed, that kind of thing.

[A]

But I think that this is what you see there. First thing, there are two things. He must have woken up with some paroxysm of doubt and concern and probably a sense that his heroic role has been that no one is quite appreciating it. But also this is to convince himself that is what is going on there. And he seized on this kind of. There was a, A, a strange reach out from the Iranians to their, to their, to the neighbor Arab states and saying, you know, you know, we're bombing you. And actually they didn't say, they didn't really apologize and they didn't really say, we're going to stop. We're. I mean, they, their actual rationale was very clear. It's unfortunate that we have to bomb you, but because you are a staging ground to bomb us, we are going to continue to bomb you. So he is reinterpreting this as, again, his victory.

[B]

Well, and there was the billionaire in Dubai who came out and said, what are you doing? Why did, to Trump challenging Trump. And we've now seen the Spanish leader has challenged Trump. Britain wouldn't let him use UK air bases. So this sense in which Trump, this is not, you know, he didn't bother to build an axis of allies. He went in, obviously under pressure from Israel. But this idea that they have said, thank you, Mr. President, I have said, you're welcome, as if it's some kind of ordinary transaction. It's just, it's.

[A]

Well, he keeps having to ramp up the rhetorical language here. So, so yesterday we got to this, which echoed around the world, this call for unconditional surrender with virtually everybody pausing and blinking and saying, well, what does that possibly mean? And of course, in a world where you're going to be defeated at the gas pumps before they run out of bombs, there is no unconditional surrender. In fact, unconditional surrender. Has there been an unconditional surrender? Since Germany and Japan in the Second World War. So he very much is in a war movie. It's a war movie. He's the hero of this, of this movie. He's kind of echoing language from war movies,

[B]

which is, I think, probably where all his references come from, because we know he hasn't read a book on war. He's not someone who's sitting down and reading the histories. He's not studying the histories. He won't take the information from advisors. Maybe he's watched some, say the least.

[A]

Yes, I mean, he has. What? And just let me. This is one of my favorite Trump moments. I'm sitting with Trump and I ask him the question that all. And this is while he was campaigning in 2016, that all presidential aspirants are asked at some point, what's your favorite book? And when I asked this, I could see it in his face.

[B]

Okay, you got me a look of panic.

[A]

Well, not so much panic. It was like, okay, you got me. And usually the answer to that, the default answer to that is the Bible. And I'm sure that didn't cross his mind, because has he ever even looked at a Bible, a Trump Bible?

[B]

He may have looked at a Trump Bible to check that the paper was cheap enough and the drawings were good,

[A]

the illustrations someone did, but I'm sure not him. But at that point, there was a few beats, and then he said it came from somewhere in him. He said, all quiet on the Western Front.

[B]

Really?

[A]

Yes. And I'm sure that that was a, you know, that was on. On his high school reading, which he probably didn't read, but he, he remembered the title. But it is interesting that that was a war book. And he, and you know, he is in that generation, which, frankly, alas, I am not too far from, of having grown up in the aftermath of the Second World War, of having all culture basically shaped by that. So here we are, back to that. Unconditional surrender and which the world, I mean, one of the interesting things is the world has to react to that. I mean, there is no mechanism for not taking him seriously, except everybody, of course, knows that this does not mean anything other than the scramble to interpret it, which no one seems successful to have successfully done. What does this mean, unconditional surrender? I mean, the mullahs are going to line up and hand him their swords or whatever the appropriate metaphor would be here. No, and that's. It's not, that's not related to reality. It's only related to the language that he. That he uses.

[B]

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[A]

Well, it's not just, it's unpresidential, it's incoherent. And I mean, it's the language of an ignoramus. So I think we're so far from being removed from presidential. I mean, he doesn't know what he's talking about. It's just, it comes out of his mouth and on either out of his mouth or onto the page in, in a rush of self justification, of need, of fear, of, of aggression. You know, nothing, nothing is actually really related to meaning. It's all related to what he is feeling. So, I mean, that's a big dichotomy there.

[B]

Well, and you say, oh, he's doing this sort of as a self soothing mechanism that he woke up in a paroxysm of anxiety about this. And another tell for that is that he's been calling journalists to talk about the war. So he called, I think Jonathan Karl from ABC three times, including one 20 minute call in the middle of the afternoon where really he wanted Jonathan to tell him how impressive the war was. He called Dana Bash from CNN to discuss it. Just this sense of needing reassurance from people that he's doing the right thing and not having any panel of advisors around him to give him that.

[A]

Yeah, you know, I mean, the other thing is, which is, oh, and this is not just in this instance, but in so many instances that nobody else. I mean, he doesn't have the language to express what the policies and the strategies that he wants carried out because he has no policies and he has no strategies. But equally, the rest of the world does not have the language to characterize this strangeness, this lack of meaning functionally. So everybody is caught in a vacuum. I mean, every, every news outlet today or yesterday and today is analyzing the nature of unconditional surrender, even though everyone knows unconditional surrender uttered by Donald Trump is meaningless.

[B]

Right.

[A]

So the gap here between, between him, him, his inability to express any plans and actual, any real meaningful point of view and everybody else's inability to characterize that lack of ability to meaningfully express himself has gotten sort of everybody, it creates this sort of paralysis. We don't know what's going on, but we can't acknowledge that we don't know what's going on. The world is spinning out of control because Donald Trump, because it's run by an ignoramus who lives in his own movie, but we can't really say that

[B]

well, and he's supported by people who are trying to live in that movie with him. Although I will say every now and then you catch sight of Dan Cain, who's running the military operations. His face, I thought at the press conference he gave with Pete Hegseth earlier this week had sort of crumpled in on itself. Hegseth himself, you know, with his arms flapping because they don't quite close against his side, I mean, seem to be delivering a sort of high school gym coach rah rah speech before you take on a team that you think might be a bit more complicated to beat than you'd planned for. And now you've got Trump saying that he doesn't have the yips. A strange expression, an expression that he

[A]

uses all the time. And apparently I've had to try to interpret this. It's a golf expression.

[B]

Oh, it's a golf expression, right. Cause I was like, what on earth does this mean? But what he doesn't have, apparently, is the yips about boots on the ground, which suggests he's mulling the idea of sending American troops to Iran, something he vowed not to do. Something that we know will be very bad with his MAGA base because he promised America first.

[A]

He's not going to do that. This is just him. This is just more posturing on his part. But the yips. I remember there was a.

[B]

What does the yips mean?

[A]

During his trial in New York, there was a moment in which he dressed down Todd Blanch, now the number two in the Justice Department, then his personal lawyer by saying, you know, when you go out there, you got the yips. You can't have the yips. I don't want you to have the yips out there. He must have repeated the word yips 20 times in the course of 90 seconds.

[B]

I'm just looking it up now. The yips. It's a strange sporting condition where an athlete suddenly loses the ability to perform a routine skill.

[A]

Exactly.

[B]

Something Donald Trump is very familiar with.

[A]

I suspect he relates it to the putt. When you do the. When you're on the green and you're far enough from the hole to have to pay attention, to have to focus, and then you get nervous and you miss the pub.

[B]

Well, of course, he brings in a golfing expression for sending in American troops. So the other thing that wasn't going well for him, as we know, was Minneapolis. I mean, nobody's talking about it anymore, except that it has ended up claiming the scalp of Kristi Noem, the secretary for Homeland Security this week, who on Thursday was fired as she was just about to go out and speak to a police conference.

[A]

You know, but it's. No, she did go out and speak. Speak. I mean, that was the funny thing, that he fired her without enough warning. So actually she was speaking. I think she may not have known that she was fired as she spoke.

[B]

I think she got the call she was fired just before she went out on stage. And she went out on stage anyway. Cause the show must go on for Christine Ohm. The show must go on, you know,

[A]

but the interesting thing is that she was not hoisted for Minneapolis.

[B]

I know, you're right. I knew you were going to Say that.

[A]

Which would have been interesting because that would have been a way to. An interesting way for him to have communicated. Yeah, okay, that's a problem. And somebody has to take responsibility for that. But he didn't do that because, again, he doesn't want someone to take responsibility, doesn't want any acknowledgement that anything has actually happened that shouldn't have happened. Anything under his watch is in error. That never happens. So he fired her instead. Really? Because I think the consensus is because she blamed him for $200 million, a $200 million ad spend which glorified Kristi Noem instead of, I assume, Donald Trump.

[B]

Yes. I mean, this is Kristi Noem riding on a horse with a cowboy hat on. Across the. Well, across the prairies of South Dakota where she was once governor. I think it was cumulative. Right. So there's been many, many grumblings about her. Obviously, there was the two terrible deaths, the shootings in Minneapolis of Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Goode. There's been the language and the determination to put herself central. So her fear, filming videos of herself against prisoners, against. Well, you know, with the Coast Guard constantly cost dressing for the agencies that she's in charge of. There was the affair with Corey Lewandowski, which was Washington's biggest open secret. We had a story in the Daily Beast of Corey taking the trash out from her apartment.

[A]

Wait, can we. I'd like to go to that for a minute, too, because I think that that's. That's one of those media moments that's indicative of a lot about the Trump administration, of these things that everyone knows. I mean, these glaring, stupefying things that are going on. And yet they are kind of cast. We, the media, not me. But the media cast them in a. And in always in a somewhat. Somewhat ambiguous light when they're not ambiguous at all.

[B]

Well, I think you have to do that for legal reasons, because you don't

[A]

have to do that for legal reasons. That's totally ridiculous.

[B]

Well, Christine Noma's denied that she's having an affair with Kathleen. It doesn't matter.

[A]

Everybody knew she's having an affair. And it is now open season on this. But it took a damn long time for this to come out and for everyone to be willing to say this in a. In a declaratory way.

[B]

Well, what's interesting about it is it's an unusual situation. They're both married. They're both still married. They both denied they were having an affair. Brian spelled with a Y, B, R, Y, O, N, nome, Christy's husband, Mr. Gnome. Mr. Gnome.

[A]

Mr. Gnome to you.

[B]

Unfortunate name. Mr. To know, is sitting behind her at the committee, at the Judiciary Oversight Committee hearing. Exits the room when there is a scene, which I have never seen before, actually, where a female congresswoman. How do I pronounce her name? Karm Lager Dover from California, asks Kristi Noem, another woman, did you have sexual relations with Corey Lewandowski? I have never seen that before. A woman congresswoman asking a woman secretary, did she have sex with an employee? I mean, that's a new glass ceiling smashed. Thanks, Christine.

[A]

But let's not complicate that with the employee, because it's actually much more egregious. I mean, first thing, Corey Lewandowski is not an employee. He's a. He's a consultant to her. But more to the point, he's a significant power player in the Trump orbit, one of the most significant power players. So you have. I mean, the truth is she probably has that job because of Corey Lewandowski.

[B]

Well, don't we think that he lobbied for her to have that job?

[A]

Well, that's why I'm saying she has that job because of. Because of him, because he got.

[B]

He.

[A]

He is managing her. You know, he's not the employee, actually, in some way, she's the. She's the employee or the client or what. What. Whatever. But. But clearly there is a host of conflicts of interest within the Trump orbit contained within this relationship. And, you know, and. And the fact that this has been couched in such a, you know, only in terms of rumors, which are then discounted, formally discounted, seems. Seems like just. Just another. Well, certainly another way to bury the lead, but also another point of. Of, I might say, irresponsible discretion on the part of the media.

[B]

Hmm. Interesting. Well, Mr. Noem was sitting behind his wife during the hearings. He slips out for the moment, where she's asked about sex. So who knows if he got a tip off that that question was coming and just didn't want to be there for that. But some of his relatives talked to the New York Post and said that the reason he stayed with her, they acknowledged the affair. The reason that he stayed with her is because he realized 20 years ago, and I can barely say this with a straight face, that he had a calling from God to support Christie in whatever she chose to do, which is why he supported her as she became governor and then supported her in this somewhat louche lifestyle, shall we say, with Corey Lewandowski. Anyway, who knows if he'll continue supporting her. Perhaps he will. He's a believer in marriage.

[A]

Who knows if Corey Lewandowski will continue to support?

[B]

Well, he may move on to pastures new.

[A]

And he has moved on through many, many women in the Trump orbit.

[B]

Yes, he has. And he may think that Christie has now outlived her usefulness now that she no longer has a cabinet position, though she does have some sort of trumped up new job. Can you remember what it is about the Supreme Shield?

[A]

I never heard something about a shield.

[B]

It's, it's a shield for the Western Hemisphere. And they're having their first meeting today in Florida. It's really a grouping of the Latin American countries. So of course, Uruguay, Paraguay are there. You know, Ecuador's there. They've all, you know, they've all turned up to support President Trump in this new initiative, which is also giving a job to Kristi Noem. But of course, the two biggest economies aren't there, Brazil and Mexico. So echoes of the Board of Peace where smaller countries turn up and the bigger countries decide that this is yet again a vain, glorious moment for Donald Trump.

[A]

The Board of Peace, which we will never meet again.

[B]

Which we think we'll never meet again. Yeah. He's collected $5 billion for the entry fees for the founding members. We will never hear from it again. And they've all been bombed since they came. That's the most extraordinary thing. They come, they pay their dues, they, and then this week's surprise, they get bombed by Iran. That was not part of the Board of Peace.

[A]

So the, the larger question that I'd like to keep, keep in mind is, is Kristi Noem the first domino, in other words, in other words, he has, nobody has been fired. We're, we're, you know, more than a year into this administration. The last time around, it was a revolving door almost from the second week. But everybody has held in place every nincompoop. It doesn't matter what they do, however foolish they look, however they have displayed their incompetence, doesn't matter. He's overlooked it, been and seems happy to overlook, look it, not irritated at all by his, by his. I'm trying to advocate, to call this the moronocracy. And he's presided over it in a very kind of genial way. But now this first one goes. And in my experience, when he starts to do something, he continues to do, do something.

[B]

So who would be, who would you expect to be the next domino, if indeed your theory is right?

[A]

Pam Bondi, probably, I think, you know, you know, the Epstein thing is totally mishandled.

[B]

The Epstein files.

[A]

But again, he doesn't do this. He. He never fire.

[B]

He.

[A]

He's not going to fire someone for the, for the error that they have made. He'll fire. He'll fire them for something, something else. But I think there's. And I think, you know, I think RFK Jr. Is on thin ice here. I mean, I think that they've, that they've, that they've really tested this internally and found out that the vax, the anti vax stuff just doesn't play. It's going to kill them. And so he's been. They're starting to push out the most extreme of the anti vaxxers who RFK has hired. And he's been told, concentrate on food. Food is your message. No more anti vax.

[B]

Whenever I see RFK Jr. There's always standing behind him. Dr. Mehmet Oz, he of the wonderful line that the problem with people in Pennsylvania was they just didn't eat enough crudite. I mean, it's such a great line. He could have just said vegetables. But no, he insisted on saying crudite because those are the vegetables that Dr. Oz eats and, you know, they're beautifully sliced and served. Anyway, with his magnificent head of hair and I suspect a little bit of GLP1 use, I think he could easily replace RFK Jr. He's good on television. He's an actual doctor. If you had a heart problem at one point, you would have wanted him to operate on you. And he's hanging around even though he knows a lot of what RFK Jr is saying is nonsense. So that would be my prediction. If they get rid of him. What about Tulsi Gabbard? We have predicted for some time now that Tulsi Gabbard might be the first.

[A]

She's done what you have to do. Put her head down. We hardly hear from her anymore. You know, in the first half of the first year, she was out there to make up very, very clearly, to make a name for herself. And now Tulsi who?

[B]

Tulsi who. Except that she did pop up in Fulton county organizing the raid in Georgia on the election.

[A]

Of course, he sent her down there. What's his favorite topic? Of all topics, Literally, of all Topics.

[B]

He won 2020. The election's going to be cheated.

[A]

And also the coming midterms. You know, that is, of all the crises before him, this is the biggest crisis, the midterm elections. And the only hope he has of prevailing, and it is a fast fading hope, is to put his thumb on the scale.

[B]

Right. And he addressed Republicans on Tuesday saying that they really needed to win the midterms because he was confident he would be impeached. And then Mike Pence, giving an interview to Caitlin Collins this week, said that he thought that Trump would be impeached, too. So he probably doesn't want to be impeached three times because that would be a record that might stick in his head.

[A]

But why not?

[B]

Why not? Why not?

[A]

Not only why not, but. But it would be. The Democrats have made this mistake so many times. Let them make it again.

[B]

Yeah, well, we'll see.

[A]

I mean, that's the only thing. That's what we have to look forward. We can, we can, we can address this down the line, but what we have to look forward to in the midterms is the Democrats winning and fucking up again.

[B]

Deep breath. I'm taking a very deep breath. So Marjorie Taylor Greene is looking beyond the midterms to 2028. And she has put her thumb on the scale for the candidate she wants, who is,

[A]

you know, someone I've, who's career and political aspirations. I have been had up front of a front seat watching, which is Tucker Carlson.

[B]

Tucker Carlson. Tucker Carlson, who has really made it clear that he is against this war. He thinks it's a terrible mistake. Trump has said that that's because Tucker doesn't really understand the war. He's not bright enough to understand the war. But they appear to be at loggerheads

[A]

over this one, you know, and I think that they will continue to be. I mean, also, Tucker has moved very much to the, to the, to the right, and I would say to the anti Semitic right in blaming all of the world's problems on Israel. I mean, he's been, I mean, he's become, I would say, the leading isolationist voice and the leading anti Israel voice.

[B]

When I think she said it, I got the sense that Marjorie Taylor Greene would like to be his vice president.

[A]

Well, I think Marjorie Taylor Greene would like a job probably of, of, of any kind. Yeah. I mean, I mean, you know, I mean, she's, I mean, suddenly Marjorie Taylor Greene has become. Become for, for many Democrats and, and liberals, a. They have an amount of sympathy for her, which is crazy because she's crazy toxic. I mean, she may have broken with Trump, but frankly, I think she makes Trump look much better than he deserves to look.

[B]

No, she makes him look slightly more normal.

[A]

But the Tucker thing, I think the Tucker thing is a variable that we should keep our eye on, that everybody should keep their Eye on. I mean, he has wanted to before 2024. I mean, I sat with him often and discussed his political ambitions, and they were clearly there. I mean, clearly he was. He was in the 2024 race, configuring where his opportunity might be. And if it had been a DeSantis thing, he might actually have stepped in. I mean, he detested DeSantis, and only because in that shift that suddenly Trump, who looked weak going after the, after the 2022 midterms, suddenly bounced back to life. And then Tucker realized that that wasn't going to happen. But very much. This is very much on his mind.

[B]

Right. That's incredibly interesting to think about as the MAGA base splits over the war and also as prices go up at the pumps, as we've talked about. And we had a jobs report this week that showed America had lost 92,000 jobs and unemployment is now hovering around 4%.

[A]

And that was unexpected. I mean, everybody went, you know, we were actually supposed to add. The expectation was that jobs would be. Would have been added. So this is more bad news. And I think we are at this, in a broader sense at what we should start to at least begin to think maybe could be an inflection point. And I hesitate here because I cannot tell you how many inflection points against Donald Trump I have thought we had arrived at. But eventually the broken clock is going to be right. And, And I think this could be one of those things. I can't think actually at this point of anything that is going well for Donald Trump. I mean, the polls, the polls are terrible. Terrible. I mean. I mean, I mean, a real indication that not only could they lose, not only will they lose the House, but they could lose the Senate.

[B]

Right. And he's not looking well, We've discussed before that nasty rash he's got on the back of the neck, which really does look unpleasant, and is clearly rubbing against his shirt collar, his swollen legs, his chronic venous insufficiency which leads to the cankles.

[A]

I wonder if a rash has ever taken down a political figure.

[B]

Very possibly. I mean, it's deeply unsightly. I mean, as we know, he doesn't care that he looks odd because he knows that it's how people remember him. And his hair, also, someone different is doing his hair at the moment. Cause at one point he stopped coloring it. This is the stuff I obsessed about. He stopped coloring it. And it went sort of almost translucent. It went a sort of very light shade of gray. Then it went a slight shade. Shade of purple. Which suggests that he was using some kind of navy shampoo on it, which those of us with blonde hair or silver hair do. And now I noticed there was the golden tint back to it. So I'm not quite sure who's paying attention to his hair. It may be a collection of people. Maybe Melania used to do it.

[A]

It isn't a collection of people. I mean, he's traditionally very protective about that. Sometimes a person will be admitted into his cosmetic circle, but that person has to be highly trusted. This is not a committee thing because you're not allowed to talk about it, really. His appearance is his appearance. And matter of fact, the only record I know of him talking about his appearance to anyone is a conversation he had with Stormy Daniels.

[B]

What? And what can you remind us of the conversation?

[A]

Yeah, no, it was. It. It was. It was great. He actually seemed kind of un. Both self aware and unselfconscious about it, which is to say he said, you know, I look this way because. Because, you know, I always. I always had good hair. And then, and then I started to get older and, you know, I wanted to keep it. And then it started to look, you know, maybe a little funny. But then people remembered me for it, and that was how I stuck out in the crowd.

[B]

Well, our Beast contributor and very good columnist Nell Scovell and I swap daily photos of his hair and discuss which shampoo we think he's using. And we spend a lot of time analyzing the color. Well, when I say a lot of time, let's keep this in perspective. But it's definitely gone from translucent to faintly purple to grey to orange over the last few weeks. So something's going on there. Nasty rash. And I'm concerned that they tried to apply makeup to a rash, which you really shouldn't do when it's flaking and when there's an open sore on it like that. Cause that could lead to impetigo, which could definitely bring him down. A neck of impetigo is not what you want if you're a wartime president.

[A]

Dr. Coles.

[B]

Dr. Coles is in the House. And then the other thing that I think people are not paying nearly enough attention to, and it's super boring, but actually it's incredibly important for small and large businesses alike is the tariffs. The tariffs, which have put a lot of small businesses basically out of business. And larger businesses are trying to figure out, do we file for a refund? Is this going to take three years? Is there any pull point? Will it just take up legal fees? This is A real issue for people. And as we know, the Supreme Court knocked back Donald Trump's decision to apply tariffs when and where he wanted, but they didn't sort out the tariffs that have already been paid.

[A]

No. Well, there'll be a lot. I mean, I mean, Donald Trump, I mean, Trump has basically said, I'm not giving the money back. So that's going to mean litigation for, for years to come. But, but I do think, I mean, I don't think it is boring. And I think it is one of those, those, those kind of seminal things that, that, that, that many people or many people have, have internalized and understand that this was a catastrophe. It was a catastrophe that didn't have to happen again. It was one of those things that has no meaning. What does he mean? There's an unconditional surrender somewhere, too. We're going to tariff nations we don't like back into the Stone Age, and then the day later, we're going to reverse all of that. So I think that this is the tariff policy across the first year of this administration, culminating in the Supreme Court's rejection of it, is going to be one of those things that he's going into the midterm with. And the word tariff is not going to rebound to his, to his credit.

[B]

No, it's not. It's not. And it's a real thing that real businesses across the country are having to deal with, big and small. Your friend Barack Obama, who you chided for, for not saying enough about this, received an enormous cheer when he stood up to speak at the memorial for Jesse Jackson. And in fact, once he got into

[A]

the podium, pretty easy audience.

[B]

No, very easy audience. And of course, he was sitting between the Clintons and the Bidens, though again without Michelle. So he looked weirdly lonely. And it's odd to me how much

[A]

you want to talk about that marriage. No.

[B]

Well, let's talk about that marriage. What do you know about that marriage? I know nothing about that marriage, except that increasingly you see them not together. Okay, well, interestingly, she wasn't at the memorial service for Jesse Jackson. Obama gets up to speak and everybody starts chanting, four more years. Four more years. And he silences them by saying, actually, I believe in the Constitution, so that's not going to happen. More roars, more cheers. And then I was going to read out a little bit of what he said, because you're just reminded of a president who's slightly more eloquent than the current president. And he says every day you wake up to things you just didn't think were possible. Each day we're told by those in high office to fear each other and to turn on each other. And that some Americans count more than others and that some don't even count at all. Everywhere we see greed and bigotry being celebrated and bullying and mockery masquerading as strength. We see science and expertise denigrated, while ignorance, dishonesty, and cruelty and corruption are reaping untold rewards.

[A]

He had to wait for someone to die to say this. Come on. Come on, man. You know, I mean, you are the. You remain the titular head of the Democratic Party, whether you want to be or not. You are. You are the only voice. What are you doing with it? Going to funerals, you know. Yeah, great. But, you know, there's. Every day out here. We're out here every day. Or three. Three times a week.

[B]

We are. We are out here every day. We are out here every day. Well, that was your point.

[A]

I mean, I find this incredibly cowardly, irresistible.

[B]

Too little, too late. Well, it was the point you made about Thom Tillis, too, who's retiring, which is why he was after. Which is why he was able in the hearing to go after Kristi Noem, frankly, as effectively as he did.

[A]

Yeah, I just, you know, now is the time. Come on.

[B]

I mean, well, maybe they're saving it all for the midterms.

[A]

Well, the midterms are now.

[B]

Midterms are now. Fair. Fair. And I did think John Kennedy from Louisiana, I think on Thursday, I said he was from Tennessee, and I was wrong.

[A]

Your boyfriend.

[B]

My boyfriend, because I love his voice, led Kristi Noem very skillfully to drink a poison that she didn't realize she was drinking. When he said, did the president approve this $220 million ad campaign? And she was forced to say yes. And that was the moment that her fate was sealed. Mr. Kennedy, I salute you.

[A]

Such an incredible boob. I mean, you just. I mean, she stumbles through everything she says. She really has no rationalization for what she's doing or what she's done. She has no reason for being in effect except a $200 million advertising campaign, which she is the star of.

[B]

It really is a breathtaking amount of money. I mean, if it was a $20 million campaign, that would still feel a lot. But a quarter of a billion dollars on an ad campaign, which is basically her riding on a horse, looking fabulous, and then someone leaked some behind the scenes pictures where she's bending down from the horse and having her makeup touched up and everything. A quarter of a Billion dollars on an ad campaign, largely for herself. No wonder she's lost her job. It's an astonishing sum, again, just to remind people, a quarter of a billion. Billion. I mean, remember Kamala Harris got in trouble for spending $1.3 billion for her entire presidential campaign. And this is a quarter of a billion dollars. And of course, we know that Trump hates it. He hates it when anyone makes money off him.

[A]

Well, she got it. But just to point out, she got in trouble for spending that money and losing.

[B]

Well, that's true. That's true. But my point is about the scale of the advertising campaign that Kristi Noem, who was already in the job, I mean, to spend a fifth of what Kamala spent is my point.

[A]

Yeah, no, I mean, and I know

[B]

the,

[A]

I know that the rationalization for this, the Corey Lewandowski rationalization, is that this is the way, way you were going to keep immigrants out of the country and to create this kind of publicly inhospitable environment, which really, it was, it was, you know, Kristi Noem threatening immigrants.

[B]

Well, Senator John Kennedy from Louisiana knew what was going on, called her on it, and she got fired the next day. So progress of a sort. And is it the first domino? Who knows? We'll be back on Tuesday to discuss. In fact, we should discuss on Tuesday, Laurie Chavez de Remer. I think that's how you pronounce her name.

[A]

Well, we would have to. Yes, we would have to practice.

[B]

We'd have to practice Laurie Chavez de Rehmer, who's the Secretary of Labour, who's also caught up in her own torrid machinations at the Labor Department. And I think she was the first to unfurl an enormous portrait of Trump on the outside of the building. But it may not yet save her. You didn't mention her in the dominoes that might fall, but she might also be a domino.

[A]

I couldn't pronounce the name.

[B]

Well, I haven't got the name down right either. I'm sure we'll hear from lots of people who somewhat depressingly are. Commentators have been saying that your books which are higgledy piggledy are because you read them, whereas my books are gimmick books and not real books. And actually, that's not true. They are real books. And I would just like to point

[A]

out, if you have to say it. Well, I don't know.

[B]

I'm just pointing out that these books. Actually, this is my book, Love Rules, which was out in English. Then I've got the Japanese version. Then I've Got the Polish version. And then I think I've got another language in there. That's what those books are. So I'm just pointing that out. They are actually real books. Real books. What I have written myself, Governor,

[A]

sort of.

[B]

Yes, yes, I have. And then the other books are books that I've read.

[A]

Or a ghostwriter perhaps.

[B]

I did have a very good ghostwriter called Liz Welch, who was fantastic. Liz, if you're listening, Big thank you. Very, very good, very good, very helpful ghost writer.

[A]

Nevertheless, what else are we doing on Tuesday? Oh, because the Labor Secretary has a, has a, A romantic issue, right?

[B]

Well, she has, I'm not sure if romance is the right word, but she's developed close relations with a member of her, her body team, you know, bodyguards.

[A]

You know, it's kind of interesting thing that across the Trump orbit you have these kinds of issues which go largely unremarked on. I mean, should we go to RFK Jr and his torrid cyber affair?

[B]

Well, we could do though. That's had a lot of attention. But it's interesting that the two women

[A]

said it has a lot of attention but no effect. Everybody gets away with it.

[B]

I mean, until they don't. Until they don't get away with it. I mean, Christy Noem's not gotten away with it because ultimately Corey was her puppet master and he pulled the strings too hard.

[A]

Yeah, but she's not faulted for having an affair with in which represents a complicated conflict of interest. That's not what she did here. She's not being hoisted for that at all.

[B]

No, it is what she did, but she's not being hoisted for it. Yeah. And what's interesting is that, you know, in the era of times up, there was this great dream that when women finally got to these places in government and finally had cabinet positions, they would be more risk averse than men. They would be more responsible that they would not do things like this. And it turns out.

[A]

Kinder, gentler.

[B]

Yeah, they'd be kinder, gentler. They'd be best, in fact, just to pinch the first Lady's statement. They would be best in these roles. And it turns out that actually equality is a bit more complicated than we

[A]

realized or that politics is more complicated or the politics makes horrifying people. Well, men or women.

[B]

Well. And we know where politics is very complicated at the moment and that is in the uk, which is where you're about to go.

[A]

I am and I will be on Tuesday. I will speak to you from London.

[B]

Will you be speaking from the posh hotel you always stay at.

[A]

I will be speaking from the posh hotel I stay at.

[B]

Well, I hope that you get a chance to talk to some politicians while you're there and get the view from.

[A]

Oh, I will.

[B]

Across the pond.

[A]

You can count on it.

[B]

Okay. It sounds like someone's come in to pull you away. I'm expecting a shepherd's crook to come around your neck and pull you out of there.

[A]

I have to go like this, you know.

[B]

Okay. All right. Well, before we do, would you like to remind people to join the Bee Beast tier of Daily Beast membership? Click on the box below. Wow. There's someone really coming in and out.

[A]

What are you doing?

[B]

It's Saturday morning. What's going on? What's going on? It's all good. It's all good. It's Saturday morning. Subscribe to the Daily Beast, where you can get up to date information about what the hell is going on. You can also go on Substack and subscribe to Michael's column called Howl and my column called Primal Scream. So the good news is we have so many beebeast tier members now, there are too many names to read out. And we really appreciate your support. Thanks to our production team. Devon Rogerino, Ryan Murray, Rachel Passer, Heather Passaro, Neil Rosenhaus.