This Is the Proof Trump Is in His Deathbed Confession Era

Summary

The Daily Beast Podcast — May 30, 2026

Episode: “This Is the Proof Trump Is in His Deathbed Confession Era”

Host: Joanna Coles
Guest: Jen Welch (Host of "I've Had It" podcast)
Theme: Unpacking Trump’s Cabinet, the culture of sycophancy, MAGA dysfunction, billionaire complicity, and Democratic Party strategy in Trump's America.

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Episode Overview

In this lively episode, Joanna Coles and returning guest Jen Welch dissect Trump’s current political era, which Welch coins as his “deathbed confession era”—a moment where Trump is brazenly saying the quiet parts out loud with flagrant displays of incompetence, brokenness, and sycophancy in his inner circle. The conversation swings from mocking the obsequiousness of Trump’s cabinet members, to the ongoing humiliation rituals, to the broader failures of America’s political and economic elites—including billionaires like Jeff Bezos—and ends with a fiery call for Democratic leadership to step up and fight for American democracy.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Sycophantic Trump Cabinet

• Welch’s Cabinet Table Awards

  • Marco Rubio is crowned as "the most sycophantic," with Jen noting, “He knows better … the fact that he's now as obsequious as he is, does that cancel everything he's done before? … Yes, I think we have to cancel everything they've done before.” (03:29)
  • Pete Hegseth is mocked as “not very smart,” despite his Princeton pedigree: “Even Ivy League schools can produce dipshits. And Pete Hegseth is a walking, breathing embodiment of that.” (04:32)

• Humiliation Rituals and ‘Breakable’ People

  • Welch references Ruth Ben-Ghiat’s scholarship on autocrats: “They pick people that are easy to break. They pick people intentionally that are obsequious.” (07:42)
  • Example: Marco Rubio dressed in a humiliating Nike outfit, mirroring a dictator’s prison garb, for a manufactured “humiliation ritual.” (08:16)

• Weaponized Loyalty

  • Cabinet members are sustained by public praise of Trump—one in six sentences, per Welch, is devoted to lauding Trump’s greatness: “What an indictment on the entire cabinet.” (05:59)
  • Welch: “This is the largest collection of broken people in our lifetime … untreated broken people on full display.” (09:30)

2. Trump’s Power, Pettiness, and Lack of Succession Planning

• Welch diagnoses Trump as “the most broken of all,” but also relishes his Machiavellian gamesmanship in undermining rivals, e.g., the “rat-fucking” of JD Vance:
  “My favorite thing happening right now… is the rat fucking of JD Vance… it is a rat fuck of epic proportions because nobody can do that right now.” (11:21)
• Trump is described as fundamentally unwilling to cede power or honestly support a successor: “Trump is a petty old queen and he will sabotage and rat Marco Rubio.” (15:26)

3. Billionaires, Obsequiousness, and the ‘Death Cult’ of the GOP

• Welch excoriates billionaire sycophancy: “There's never been a billionaire class against the having billions of dollars than this existing class… You get to have all this fuck you money and you're kissing Donald Trump's ass. What's the point of it?” (16:48)
• Discussion on Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez’s performative wealth and social climbing: “She had to buy her way into the Met Gala and it is so pathetic that she wants to be famous. And in her pursuit…they're now infamous.” (18:49)
• Contrasted with MacKenzie Scott’s philanthropy: “She’s what we think we would do if we had billions of dollars.” (19:36)

4. Systemic Corruption, Broken Institutions, and Trump’s ‘Confession Era’

• Welch argues, “He is dismantling everything that we held dear, institutions. The swamp that he talked about, he's installing a real swamp.” (22:54)
• Welch warns of Trump’s detachment: “He doesn't have any instinct that he needs to provide for the country… He believes the White House is his personally.” (24:02)
• On the normalization of sex crimes in MAGA: “The tolerance of sex crimes is a feature of MAGA…It's not a bug.” (26:10)
• The upcoming “pardon for Ghislaine [Maxwell]… is imminent.” (27:22)
• On the Epstein files: “Facts are pesty and they're persistent…maybe this news cycle he has [won], but a day of reckoning is coming…” (27:57)

5. Democratic Party: Frustration and a Call to Action

• Welch on Democratic underperformance: “Democrats could fuck up a wet dream…they lost to Trump twice. Right now it is a layup to play offense, yet they're always playing defense.” (31:11)
• Corporatists vs Progressives: “The moderates are saying they're moderates, but they're really corporatists…The Democratic Party should fight.” (32:54)
• Welch’s vision: daily recaps, relentless offense, “define anybody who takes corporate PAC money as a prostitute that takes money from a pimp.” (41:15)
• “The Republican Party is a death cult. It always has been, it always will be. The Democrats need to play offense and define it as such.” (42:19)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “This is the largest collection of broken people in our lifetime… If you went to a rehab facility with a triple diagnosis of a personality disorder, meth addiction, inner childhood trauma…all untreated broken people on full display.” – Jen Welch (09:30)
• “Trump is entering his deathbed confession era, so he's starting to say all the quiet parts out loud. He is. He's saying, I love hanging out with losers. He likes to be the, you know, the big dick in charge.” – Jen Welch (08:39)
• “Republicans are good at one thing. They're pathological liars. They lie all the time. They tell you wealth will trickle down. That's a lie. They tell you they support the troops. They don't.” – Jen Welch (36:50)
• “The Democrats could fuck up a wet dream.” – Jen Welch (31:11)
• “He will rat fuck whoever. Except for the only person I think he would give a full blessing to would be Ivanka, his favorite child.” – Jen Welch (15:36)
• On MacKenzie Scott vs. Lauren Sanchez: “She’s what we think we would do if we had billions of dollars.” (19:36)
• “If the Democrats wanted to, in my fantasy world, Joanna, they would say, here's what we're going to do. We're going to fire Ken Martin. We're going to put a fighter at the dnc…” – Jen Welch (41:15)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Cabinet Sycophancy & Humiliation Rituals: 02:28—09:30
• Trump’s Pettiness with JD Vance & Succession: 10:25—15:41
• Billionaire Complicity (Bezos, Sanchez): 15:41—21:55
• Trump’s Confession Era, Dismantling Institutions: 22:54—27:57
• The MAGA Movement and Sex Crimes Normalization: 26:10—27:22
• Democratic Party Dysfunction & Calls to Action: 30:30—42:19

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Tone and Dynamic

The discussion is irreverent, biting, and cathartic, channeling both disgust and humor in equal measure. Welch’s language is unfiltered—frequently profane but always pointed—and Joanna Coles plays the part of incisive, wry interviewer, prompting deeper rants and encouraging Welch’s (often viral) soundbites.

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Takeaways for Non-Listeners

• The Trump administration, as presented by Welch, is a showcase of intentionally broken, pliant individuals, perpetuating a culture of flattery and public humiliation orchestrated by Trump.
• Trump is described as both product and architect of this dysfunction, now openly embracing his pettiness and disregard for institutional norms or moral restraint.
• The billionaire class is ridiculed for their eager complicity, with Bezos and Sanchez singled out for their performative, empty displays of wealth and status.
• Welch’s core prescription for Democrats: cease playing defense, embrace progressive fighters, cut ties with corporate donors, and relentlessly expose GOP corruption, lies, and hypocrisies.
• The episode is a rallying cry for unapologetic resistance, directness, and political courage in the face of an emboldened, norm-shattering regime.

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Transcript

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[Jen Welch]

So good, you'll want to leave a voicemail about it. Sell your car today on Carvana. Pickup fees may apply. This is a feature of Dict of Autocrats. They pick people that are easy to break. They pick people intentionally that are obsequious. He says himself, I don't want to hang around with winners. I love hanging out with losers. And I say that Trump is entering his deathbed confession era, so he's starting to say all of the quiet parts out loud. This is the largest collection of broken people in our lifetime. These are all untreated broken people on full display. It's flagrant incompetence on full display, and I think Trump loves it.

[Joanna Nurr]

I'm Diana Coles. This is the Daily Beast podcast. My favorite moment from the Cabinet meeting yesterday was when the camera swooped over Treasury Secretary Scott Besant's shoulder and showed us his little handwritten motivational notes for the meeting, including the word resilience and his Operation Economic Fury. My operation is Operation Epic Gen Welsh. Today, the host of the I've had it podcast is here in the studio. We're going to catch up on who is the most sycophantic cabinet member of all and, well, everything else that Jen has opinions on. And she has a lot of them, so no time to waste. Press your subscription button so that you can support us in our quest to be one of the few strong, independent media companies left. And let's get into it. Jen Welsh. I'm so excited to see you. I'm so excited you're here in the studio. There's no one I'd rather talk to. I thought we could go round the cabinet table and you could tell me who you thought in yesterday's meeting was the most sycophantic.

[Jen Welch]

I think that is a great idea. But before we start, Joanna. And to Joanna's audience, I have this tic that happens sometimes where before I go into an interview or when I'm interviewing someone like Zoran Mamdani, I say to myself, it's Zoran Mamdani. Zoran Mamdani. Sam, sit down. And then I'm like, hey, Zoran Mamdani. And I completely mispronounce it right. Same thing happened when I interviewed Barack Obama. I was like, it's President Obama. It's President Obama. I'm nervous as shit, Joanna. And then I'm like, so Barack. And I'm like, I want to die. And then the last time you had

[Joanna Nurr]

me in here, he was fine with it, though, wasn't he? Of course he was. Yes, of course he was.

[Jen Welch]

And the last time I was here, I was like, it's Joanna, which I know we've been to dinner together, and then I have this tic where then all of a sudden, I'm calling you Joanne. So my apologies. I know it's Joanna.

[Joanna Nurr]

It's. I didn't do. You know, the interesting thing is I actually didn't notice. And then we got it resolved, so

[Jen Welch]

it's all good, Joanna. Thank you for having me. Okay, I have to go with Marco Rubio because he knows better.

[Joanna Nurr]

Does he know better?

[Jen Welch]

He used to.

[Joanna Nurr]

He used to. He used to know better. Yes, but the fact that he's now as obsequious as he is, does that mean. Does that cancel everything he's done before?

[Jen Welch]

Yes, I think we have to cancel everything they've done before. Right, because then it means he didn't believe in anything he had done before. He didn't believe in his stance that Vladimir Putin and Russia were not our friends. And now he's over in Alaska while Trump's standing on the red carpet with military leaders rolling out red carpet for Vladimir Putin and Trump standing there clapping like a seal. Marco Rubio looks starstruck when he meets him, and it's like American weakness. Marco Rubio is one of the weakest members of that administration because he's so breakable.

[Joanna Nurr]

He's so breakable. Okay, what about Pete Hegseth?

[Jen Welch]

Pete Hegseth is just not very smart.

[Joanna Nurr]

And yet he went to Princeton. How can he not be smart if he went to Princeton?

[Jen Welch]

A lot of the people in this administration are sadly, in an indictment on Ivy League. A lot of them are really well educated, But I think even Ivy League schools can produce dipshits. And Pete Hegseth is a walking, breathing embodiment of that. Maybe he's a good test taker. Maybe he's a responsible, studier, but critical thinker, great mind. He's none of these things. He's a Fox News narcissist that has inner child issues. He needs to go off and work on little Pete, right? Write letters to himself, to his Inner child with his non dominant hand and figure out what is so broken in him instead of acting out all of his brokenness onto the American public.

[Joanna Nurr]

What then? Talking about writing notes to himself. I'm always fascinated, you know, when the camera manages to get the notes they've been writing. Scott Besant notes resilience and then Operation Economic Fury with a little arrow by it. So he's writing himself notes so he knows what note to hit with the President.

[Jen Welch]

Yeah, I mean, you know, Scott Besant is one of these gay men that is carrying water for the patriarchy and he's going to be one of the first to drown. And of course he has a bank account that could choke a bull. And so that is, that parachutes him a lot.

[Joanna Nurr]

But what's he got like 600, 700 million? I think it's not quite a billionaire.

[Jen Welch]

Yeah, I mean he's got enough. I mean in a pinch he's going to be fine. Right. But it's fascinating to me how they have talking points. They have to praise the President. I think I saw a report is the New York Times or Washington Post analyzed all of the cabinet members speeches. One out of every six sentences is praising Donald Trump. I mean what an indictment on the entire cabinet that every six sentences. Can you imagine if we're podcasting. Joanna, that lipstick looks great on you.

[Joanna Nurr]

You could do that though. I would be fine if you did that.

[Jen Welch]

I need to atone for calling you Joanna.

[Joanna Nurr]

You do? You do. You need to attend. Dinner is on you next time.

[Jen Welch]

That's right.

[Fox News Announcer]

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[Joanna Nurr]

But what if you're in the room? I mean we've all been in corporate meetings like this where. Or you know, from your days in television, you know, from your days as an interior designer. The obsequiousness and watching other people being obsequious and them trying to out flatter each other, it just seems pathetic.

[Jen Welch]

It really is pathetic. Ruth Ben Guyot, she is a professor at nyu, a scholar on autocrats and she says this is a feature of dictators of autocrats. They pick people that are easy to break. They pick people intentionally that are obsequious.

[Joanna Nurr]

Okay, hold on. Easy to break? What does it mean, easy to break?

[Jen Welch]

So like look at Marco Rubio and the humiliation ritual that they do with him. Did you see where they recently had him on Air Force One in the same Nike outfit that Nicholas Maduro was wearing when they captured him?

[Joanna Nurr]

I did not see that.

[Jen Welch]

They put Marco Rubio in the same jumpsuit, right? And that Steven Chung that runs, right, the comms guy, he took a photograph of Lil Marco and posted it on the White House. Social media stuff, which is a humiliation ritual. They put him in those shoes that are too big for him, right?

[Joanna Nurr]

The Florsheim $148 shoes.

[Jen Welch]

Y. So these people are very easy to break. Like Kristi Noem, the fact that she had murdered her dog and nobody ever talks about the goat. Joanna, she also shot a goat, right? And then that is a sign for Trump that, oh, she's perfect for me. You know, he says himself, I don't want to hang around with winners. I don't want to hear somebody talk about how great they are. I love hanging out with losers. And I say that Trump is entering his death confession era. So he's starting to say all of the quiet parts out loud. He is. He's saying, I love hanging out with losers. He likes to be the, you know, the big dick in charge. He wants everybody to kiss his ass and they don't feel secondhand embarrassment or the cringiness of all of that.

[Joanna Nurr]

So. And why don't they? Why are they just glad to be in the room?

[Jen Welch]

Yes. I think these are. This is the largest collection of broken people in our lifetime. This is. You've never seen a group of such broken people before. This is like if you went to a rehab facility with a triple diagnosis of a personality disorder, meth addiction, inner childhood trauma, all of this.

[Joanna Nurr]

Gambling addicts, sex addicts, they're gambling with their futures.

[Jen Welch]

Yes. And you're sitting around in the circle, and I have experience with this. My husband is in recovery, and so I've been to a family week. And no disrespect to anybody who is struggling with addiction or anything, but these are all untreated broken people on full display. It's flagrant incompetence on full display. And I think Trump loves it.

[Joanna Nurr]

So is Trump the most broken of all?

[Jen Welch]

Yes and no. I mean, he's at the top of the food chain with all of the broken people. I mean, he doesn't bend for anybody every chance he can get. Like, my favorite thing happening right now, Joanna, is the rat fucking of JD Vance. It is my. I'm living for this.

[Joanna Nurr]

Okay, go on, go on. Tell me everything.

[Jen Welch]

Okay, so Donald Trump, he's not going to be thinking about succession. Autocrats and dictators do not think about this. J.D. vance is thinking about that. And the oligarchs that purchased J.D. vance, who I call the pimps and I call J.D. vance the hoe. And so they're thinking about succession. So Trump's like, JD Go over to Pakistan and negotiate peace deal. He knew that was going to face plant.

[Joanna Nurr]

Right. And it's a 21 hour flight.

[Jen Welch]

Go campaign with Viktor Orban. Go up there and get on stage with Viktor Orban. You're going to be the fraud czar.

[Joanna Nurr]

Right.

[Jen Welch]

He just said yesterday or the day before that if JD Does a good enough job being the fraud czar, he will get rid of the deficit. That is a rat fuck of epic proportions because nobody can do that right now.

[Joanna Nurr]

So is he doing that consciously to undermine J.D.

[Jen Welch]

vance? Yes.

[Joanna Nurr]

Right.

[Jen Welch]

I do. I think he's petty like that. I think he does stuff out of spite. J.D. vance thinks he's going to be the heir apparent. Trump didn't want J.D. vance to be his vice president, but the tech oligarch said, we'll support you if we can install him.

[Joanna Nurr]

So remind me who Trump wanted.

[Jen Welch]

I don't remember who he wanted.

[Joanna Nurr]

Doug Burgum was up at one point from North Dakota.

[Jen Welch]

Former, maybe.

[Joanna Nurr]

North Dakota. Right.

[Jen Welch]

I don't remember who he wanted. I know it wasn't. He didn't want Pence again, but I'm sure he wanted somebody, you know, a little bit, a little bit less controversial than Vance.

[Joanna Nurr]

I thought it was Don Jr. That pushed. Well, I guess Don Jr. And Peter Thiel and the, the tech guys pushed J.D. vance on him.

[Jen Welch]

Right. And so now I think next up is going to be the rat fucking and Marco Rubio.

[Joanna Nurr]

Hold on, hold on. Let me just finish with the rat fucking of J.D. vance. So is J.D. vance, though, is the reason he's been given. Well, he was given the Pakistan trip and then Viktor Orban. He's basically being punished by Trump. Right?

[Jen Welch]

Yes.

[Joanna Nurr]

Is that because he managed to get out that he was against the war in Iran?

[Jen Welch]

I think so. He was leaking that.

[Joanna Nurr]

Right.

[Jen Welch]

And he, Donald Trump doesn't like any disloyalty because you saw the escalation of the rat fuck right after it was leaked that JD Vance was the only mature adult voice in the room that said, I think it's a bad idea to go to Iran. And that's when it escalated. And don't forget JD Vance went to a Turning Point rally in Georgia where it was so poorly attended by tens of people that even Eric Kirk ditched him at the altar and didn't show up for this rally. So JD Vance has been going through quite a few things, but my favorite is the fraud czar and declaring that he is going to get rid of the deficit.

[Joanna Nurr]

Yeah, yeah.

[Jen Welch]

Trillions of dollars.

[Joanna Nurr]

So if you're J.D. vance, how do you play this out?

[Jen Welch]

Well, there's, I think, reporting in the last two or three days that he was not going to seek higher office, that J.D. vance is saying he's not going to run for president in 28. And so the cult takes their marching orders from Trump and J.D. vance. The. The Internet has done a great job naming J.D.

[Joanna Nurr]

vance.

[Jen Welch]

The couch situation. The eyeliner. China gave us a huge assist. Have you seen all of those videos that the Chinese made about J.D. vance? When he called Chinese workers peasants and they made these great videos of JD Vance applying lipstick and eyeliner.

[Joanna Nurr]

Right, right. And also the baby face.

[Jen Welch]

Yes, yes.

[Joanna Nurr]

Right. And so I missed. And this is partly because I've been away, as you know, I've been handling my mother's death. So I've missed a couple of things. I missed JD Vance saying he wasn't going to run for president in 2028.

[Jen Welch]

He didn't say that precisely, but there was reporting, I believe it was Politico, I might get the. The publication wrong. That J.D. vance would not. He was retreating from seeking higher office in 2028. And then that leaves Marco, which I have this theory that the Republican Party is going to say, let's get back to our roots. Let's get back to the Reagan of it all. And Marco Rubio is going to say, I was always a traditional Republican and the only reason I even agreed to be secret estate is so that I could keep an eye on everything. And they're going to try to do this whole rebranding and trot him out. But here's the thing. Trump is a petty old queen and he will sabotage and rat Marco Rubio. It's not like Trump is this big guy that's going to go, J.D. you take on the MAGA movement. We've started something great here. He doesn't have that in him. He's not a big enough guy to do that. He will rat fuck whoever. Except for the only person I think he would give a full blessing to would be Ivanka, his favorite child. That's just my theory.

[Joanna Nurr]

Where do you think he is with people like Howard Lutnig and Besant who've made a lot of money? I mean. Cause he admires them in A different way. Doesn't he, doesn't he love rich people?

[Jen Welch]

He loves rich people, but I think he's also jealous of rich people. I think these people are completely disposable at any minute. And they know this, which is why they humiliate themselves on national television at these cabinet meetings. They know if I do not say, Trump is so great, he has unleashed the golden age, all of this jet stream of bullshit. They know that he will pick them up and put him in the trash can. And so I don't think any of his relationships have any depth or any meaning other than you tell me how great I am, right? You get humiliated, even for one of the richest men on the planet. Let's talk about Jeff Bezos and the interview that he had recently where he said Trump was more mature and more measured in the second term and he

[Joanna Nurr]

had some good ideas.

[Jen Welch]

Objectively false. Objectively an idiotic, detached, obsequious statement. And then I'm like, there's never been a billionaire class against the having billions of dollars than this existing class of billionaires. When I used to hear this six or seven years ago, billionaires shouldn't exist. I didn't think that much of it, whatever. And they made their money. I get it now. There's something that happens when you exploit people that much. You become so broken that then you get to have all this fuck you money and you're kissing Donald Trump's ass. Like, what's the point of it, right?

[Joanna Nurr]

What's the point? The other thing I think is interesting about Jeff Bezos and I go back and forth on this because I can't live without Amazon, is the showing off of the money. There is something so antagonistic about showing off in the way that he and Lauren do. And that, do you remember the foam party? And you're like, and also if you are the second richest, third richest, who cares person in the world, why would you have that guest list to your wedding? You could have anybody. You could have Nobel winning scientists, you could have mathematicians, you could have astronauts, you could have the people that have changed humanity. And instead you go for reality television stars who've really contributed very little. Apart from skim, not bad. Skims is pretty good. But apart from skims have contributed very little. You have Leo DiCaprio who looks so embarrassed to be there, he's got a baseball cap over his face. He's trying not to be there, but also wanting to be there. And I just think, why wouldn't you reach higher?

[Jen Welch]

Because Lauren Sanchez Bezos, she likes To Thirst Trap. These are vapid people. It's not even that deep. Do we think he's even really good friends with the people on the guest list?

[Joanna Nurr]

No, of course not. They didn't know some of the people on the guest list. Right.

[Jen Welch]

She had to buy her way into the Met Gala and it is so pathetic that she wants to be famous. And in her pursuit of being famous, they're now infamous.

[Joanna Nurr]

Is her. Because you've probably met Lauren. I've met Lauren.

[Jen Welch]

I've never met her.

[Joanna Nurr]

She's actually very warm and funny and smart when you meet her in real life. And there's a big disconnect between that and the way she somehow appears as a kind of trophy bimbo of the highest order. And yet actually when you talk to her, she's funny, she's warm, she's clever, she's not like that. And I don't know why she's cultivating that image of someone. The sort of thong snapping nature of it all I just find odd.

[Jen Welch]

I think it's really odd. Especially when you contrast it with his ex wife, MacKenzie Scott Bezos, who is spending money hand over fist on lifting up the marginalized. She sent tens of millions of dollars to Mills on Wheels. Hasn't done one interview about it. She spent hundreds of millions in HBCUs. She's an incredible philanthropist. She's what we think we would do if we had billions of dollars.

[Joanna Nurr]

Do you think it's just. I can't believe we've now got into comparing Jeff Bezos wives. But there's something interesting about how much fun it looks like he and Lauren have. Even though they're screamingly showing off, which to me just feels like, why do you need to do this? Why do you need the attention? It's only going to be bad for you.

[Jen Welch]

I think, you know, the relationship started in an affair, so it started in very insecure footing. Right, right. So then the. I think it was the Enquirer. Didn't they publish?

[Joanna Nurr]

Right, National Enquirer published.

[Jen Welch]

Yeah, the text messages and.

[Joanna Nurr]

Well, I think it published a bit more than the text messages.

[Jen Welch]

Yeah. And it was, you know, I think that's embarrassing. She's the other woman. And as, as you know, you can meet people that in social settings are confident and warm and engaging, but it doesn't preclude them from being broken or toxic. And her behavior is objectively. It's just not even that deep. It's pick me thirst trap. I mean, she has this opportunity. This man has money. That's unfathomable. To stand up for, let's just say the LGBTQ community. What would this woman be wearing? I bet she has four or five gay men that help her throughout all the stuff that she goes to. And she and her husband are funding fascism, funding ice. It's repulsive. It's disgusting. And, yes, people on the one hand can be warm, engaging. I mean, clearly, she is. She scored a big fish. But at the same time, she's still broken. She's a broken thirst trap. Who has this moment right now, to me, I'm looking for people that have conviction. There was a guy who won a scholarship a couple nights ago.

[Joanna Nurr]

Oh, yes, the CBS scholar.

[Jen Welch]

And he stood up to cbs, a man who doesn't have any money. And he stood there and had conviction about Barry Wise and the Ellison family completely ripping up 60 minutes and throwing it into the trash. And he does this, but Lauren and Jeff Bezos can't. He gets on television and tells the world that Trump is mature and measured. I mean, it's the patronizing nature that they're treating the public with is so repulsive to me.

[Joanna Nurr]

Right. All right, so let's go back to the Cabinet table. Do you think, because four women have now left the Cabinet, three of them fired, in theory, Tulsi Gabbard resigning because of her husband's illness, do you think that's taken on a new frisson of danger for the people round the Cabinet table? Because three people have now been fired and one left under personal circumstances, but everybody said she was about to be fired.

[Jen Welch]

Yeah, I mean, it's hard to. I mean, I think when I think about Trump and what goes on with the Cabinet meetings, I just think rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, like the country is sinking. He is dismantling everything that we held dear, institutions. The swamp that he talked about, he's installing a real swamp. So, I don't know. I worry about who would replace these people, because I think they would be worse. But, yeah, I think we're really heading off a cliff.

[Joanna Nurr]

Trump said at that Cabinet meeting he doesn't care about the midterms. He's talking about the fact that Iran thinks they can wait him out. He backs Ken Paxton in a move that may well impact the Republicans losing the Senate, because John Cornyn, who's been there for the last three terms, looked like he would win again, possibly against James Tallarico, the Democratic candidate. Is Trump just now sailing off into the wind? I mean, are he and maga, have they just lost the plot at this point?

[Jen Welch]

Completely. I Mean, I think we see that Trump is finally doing what he wants to do. He did learn from Trump 1.0. Remember when Susan Collins, the senator from Maine, said, I think he's learned his lesson. He did learn his lesson. He learned how to get rid of guardrails. He learned how to kick out all the adults in the room. And we're in a very, very dangerous place right now. Anyone with him surrounding him, I don't think he gives a shit about the country. He believes the White House is his personally. He believes the treasury is his. He believes the attorney general, the acting attorney general, is his personal attorney, which he used to be. He doesn't have Todd Blanche. Yeah, Todd Blanche. He doesn't have any instinct that he needs to provide for the country. I do think it's good news because I have said he's in his deathbed confession era, so some truth starts to get out. And when he says, I don't care about the midterms, or we don't know why, but always the opposing party wins during the midterms. And nobody can explain it that to some extent, he's acknowledging that there is going to be a blue tsunami. But I'm very worried about red states because the governor, Governor Abbott, he will very easily send in whatever he needs to do, whether it's state troopers or whomever to just get ballots. And I'm very worried. I think Talarico could win for the first time. I think Texas could deliver a blue senator. But I'm worried about these Democratic governors, secretary of state, attorney generals, that are all Trump sycophants, not cheating for him, because we know he's gonna make the phone calls. We know that from Trump 1.0.

[Joanna Nurr]

Right.

[Jen Welch]

We know he'll do that.

[Joanna Nurr]

Right. And we saw Brad Rattenberger in Georgia, who held up when Trump said, I need 11. When he called him and said, I need 11,000 votes was like, Mr. President, that's not how it's done. Trump's sort of retribution and vindictiveness against people who stood against him seems to be playing out in the primaries, at

[Jen Welch]

least when you think about the moral collapse on display, broken, breakable people. Let's review. The tolerance of sex crimes is a feature of maga. It is a feature, not a bug. It seems to be a feature that if you're a member of the MAGA movement, you don't care about sex crimes against children, against women, so they sexually assault, and then Christians signal to get out of it. It is a feature that MAGA is the party of Sexual depravity.

[Joanna Nurr]

Well, and you saw yesterday, the Justice Department, the DOJ being set upon E. Jean Carroll.

[Jen Welch]

That is just. It's so classic that he would do that. And Eugene Carroll is phenomenal.

[Joanna Nurr]

Have you seen the movie? Have you seen the joke?

[Jen Welch]

I haven't seen it yet.

[Joanna Nurr]

So good.

[Jen Welch]

I can't wait to see it.

[Joanna Nurr]

It's so good. You must go and see it.

[Jen Welch]

I had her on our podcast and we streamed with her and the whole time we're streaming, about 20 minutes into the episode, I noticed she was kind of bouncing and I said, are you bouncing? She said, oh, yeah, I'm sitting on my exercise ball right now. She did the entire podcast sitting on an exercise ball to engage her core.

[Joanna Nurr]

Right.

[Jen Welch]

She is incredible.

[Joanna Nurr]

I'm not doing that. We should do that. I should be getting exercise balls for me and Michael Wolfe, actually. That's what I'm going to do.

[Jen Welch]

But she's incredible. But of course he's doing this and it's not going to stop. And now you have. Anybody who was a earnest government worker has been completely removed from the doj. And we have Todd Blanche, who had this private meeting with Ghislaine Maxwell in the pardon for Ghislaine. I think it's coming. It is imminent.

[Joanna Nurr]

So do you think there's so much less talk of Epstein now than there was, partly because of the Iran war, partly because of the economy, gas prices, et cetera? Has Trump won the Epstein files?

[Jen Welch]

You know, I maybe won this news cycle version of it, but then the Epstein files are pesty and facts are pesty and they're persistent and they're ongoing and there is trove after trove after trove of evidence of Donald Trump being in the epicenter of these. So maybe this new cycle he has. But a day of reckoning is coming for all of that, because you see this with the Epstein files time and time again. They ebb and flow constantly. So I'm sure that something else will drop again soon. That is another bombshell because we've only seen what they've allowed us to see.

[Carvana User]

Right.

[Joanna Nurr]

We still have another 3 million, right?

[Jen Welch]

Yes.

[Joanna Nurr]

Yeah. So June 14th, Trump's 80th birthday, Flag Day, 250 year celebration of America's existence. How will you be celebrating 250 years of America?

[Jen Welch]

I won't be. I know the horror. I. Patriotism has to be earned, you know, and when we see our government killing civilians in the street, zero investigations. The murderers that killed Renee Good and Alex Preddy, no investigation, no accountability put back out into this terrorist regime ice, we have this president who is using all of the good name, whatever good name America had for his own personal enrichment. You have a Democratic Party that is disjointed. Some of the Democrats play patty cake with the fascists. Some of them actually try to stand up and be an opposition party. I want to celebrate like the kid who got the scholarship who called out CBS like that. That's the America I like. Where we cheer for the underdog, where we shine a light on injustices, where we right wrongs. Right now we're celebrating the villains. There's nothing, it feels so anti American to celebrate the villain and all of the villains. Everybody in the White House, they're all dirty cops right now. So I don't want to celebrate some follow the noise. Bloomberg follows the money. Whether it's the funds fueling AI or crypto's, trillion dollar swings side to every story. Get the money side of the story. Subscribe [e-mail]

[Joanna Nurr]

shouldn't then the Democrats be setting up some kind of alternate celebration? How are the Democrats doing? I mean, my sort of deep anxiety when I'm lying awake at night thinking about this stuff is what if it's not enough to assume that people are fed up with drama? What if the Democrats actually can't pull this off? What if there is still too much of a civil war in the Democratic Party between the progressives and the moderates, that they're not as far ahead as we assume. This big assumption, oh, he's going to lose the House, he's going to maybe lose the Senate. What if that's not true?

[Jen Welch]

It would be devastating. But it wouldn't surprise me because the Democrats could fuck up a wet dream. It's unbelievable. You know, like they lost to Trump twice. Right now it is a layup to play offense, yet they're always playing defense. They are capitulating time and time again to right wing narratives. You have Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer who have these same pimps that pimp out maga. You find out that these people are taking money from Palantir, they're taking money from aipac. We're either an opposition party or we're not. And you cannot both be an opposition party. Plus take money from Big Tech who clearly wants Trump, from the Israel Lobby who clearly prefers Trump. Otherwise you're just controlled opposition. They need to buck up, they need to get serious. But the problem with the Democrats is, you know, like I saw the Democratic Twitter page posted, called Stephen Miller an ugly fuck and Then I was on X, unfortunately, yesterday, and people were like, the Democrats shouldn't do this. We're supposed to be bigger and better. And I thought, oh, Jesus Christ.

[Joanna Nurr]

Right?

[Jen Welch]

Stop it.

[Joanna Nurr]

Right?

[Jen Welch]

Stop it. Stop. Like, they called Stephen Miller an ugly fuck. He is objectively an ugly fuck. Might not be your cup of tea, but don't bicker about where the Democratic Party should be. The Democratic Party should fight. Moderates and leftists and progressives need to collaborate together to fight this. The problem that they, the progressive wing has with the moderates is the moderates are saying they're moderates, but they're really corporatists. And I think that's the problem. That's where the fracture and the fissure is.

[Joanna Nurr]

Go on, say more.

[Jen Welch]

So I think it's a difficult ask for the American public. The corporate Democrats want to tell you, vote blue no matter who. You have to support all of our candidates. But then they don't support Zoran Mamdani, they don't support Graham Plattner. And I think that they want a cult like base because it's easier to govern. Look at how easy it is for Trump to whip everybody into shape. And they treat us very patronizingly. I mean, when you find out that Hakeem Jeffries, Cory Booker and Chuck Schumer are taking money from some of the biggest donors of MAGA and the biggest funders of Trump, they have no credibility. None. And so I just. I think the Democratic Party needs to lean into all of the progressive politicians that they have. Bernie Sanders, Ro Khanna, aoc, The ones that are not compromised, that are incorruptible, that are not breakable and fight. And every day I cannot stand Andrew Cuomo. I cannot stand him. But do you remember during COVID he had those evening press conferences, right? I lived in Oklahoma at the time, right? I was craving a person to speak rationally insane. Because Trump's like, well, inject the bleach and do the light and the body, all this crazy shit, right? I watched it riveted every night because we needed it. The Democrats should do something like that every single night. We're going to review what happened today. The President did this and it was corrupt. And they could have a little panel and they should do it every single day and start playing offense. Because it's a layup to dismantle the corruption, the fraud, the supportive pedophilia, the support of investigating rape victims, all of this shit that they're doing. It should be a layup to dismantle them, but instead they capitulate to right wing framing. Always.

[Joanna Nurr]

Where would they do that? Like on YouTube or something?

[Jen Welch]

YouTube TV. I mean, wherever. I mean, I think they could very easily do it from the Capitol and stream it and then if, you know, you know how just our clips can go viral. I don't, I'm not versed on how they would do that, but I think they're preceding.

[Joanna Nurr]

No, no, but it's an interesting idea that there's a recap. At the end of the day, how much more money has Trump made himself from the taxpayer? I mean, this slush fund we haven't even talked about. Oh, my God, was the news of last week, this week? We've already moved on. Now it's all about the UFC erecting that octagon on the White House lawn. But I haven't asked you about the slush fund. He sues his own Justice Department or Treasury or whatever, and then appoints himself a $1.8 billion taxpayer funded slush fund.

[Jen Welch]

I think it's to do multiple things. Number one, it is to show the MAGA loyal that in 2026, in 2028, you can commit crimes, you can contest an election. You will get rich. This is your get out of jail free card plus lottery ticket. And he also. The amount was 1,776,000,000.

[Joanna Nurr]

Right.

[Jen Welch]

Okay, so 1776.

[Joanna Nurr]

Yeah.

[Jen Welch]

And I think that's a great thing for Democrats. Should be calling out the lies the Republican Party tells all the time. We're so good with the economy. Republicans completely wreck the economy every single chance they can get. We're so pro our military. No, you're not. You never, ever, ever fund soldier. Ever. 35% of all homeless people are veterans. How does the Republican Party treat homeless people? Like they're trash.

[Joanna Nurr]

Pete Hegseth ran two veteran affairs organizations and had to leave both under the shadow of incompetence, drunkenness, and God knows what else.

[Jen Welch]

Exactly. And the Democrats should be just hammering this shit. Republicans are good at one thing. They're pathological liars. They lie all the time. They tell you wealth will trickle down. That's a lie. They tell you they support the troops. They don't. They send them to war so all of their friends can make hundreds of millions of dollars off of these wars. Everybody with the whole Iran thing, everybody's getting rich except for the American taxpayer. All of the dirty cops running it. They're all getting rich. Witkoff, Kushner, Trump, all of the military industrial complex. The Democrats need to own this shit. And if they're like, well, what's a Walmart. Say, what the fuck are you so obsessed with genitalia? Then they need to shift to, why are the Republicans so consumed with gay sex? Why do they talk about gay people all the time? Why do they talk about trans people all the time? That's weird as shit. They need to play offense and they just don't fight. And I know that your listeners are hearing this like, yes, just fight. That's the. All the focus groups that come back, they want Democrats that aren't focus group tested. They want fighters. They want to see somebody fight, just like that kid that won the scholarship. It's simple stuff. But, God, the Democrats are so risk adverse.

[Joanna Nurr]

Well, I wonder if anybody. I wonder if any Democrats watching this think, oh, my God, that's a brilliant idea. We should be doing that every single night. Maybe you should host it in terms of just understanding what's actually going on. So how are you going to celebrate 250 years?

[Jen Welch]

I'm thinking about going to the UK, to your neck of the woods, over the pond, maybe Wimbledon. I just. I don't know. There's something depressing about being an American right now. It's really. It's traumatizing watching the daily abuse of this regime, how dismissive they are to people. And, you know, we're privileged white women. Imagine being black in this country. And the Voting Rights act is completely dismantled, you know, because these, these unqualified white men are so scared that a qualified person of color might do their job better than they do. It's just. It's really sad, dangerous shit that they're deploying and the dismantling of all the progress that we've made as a, as a nation, to reconcile, to atone for a lot of the shit we did earlier. It's, it's. It's too depressing. I don't think I want to be here.

[Joanna Nurr]

But you don't think that the Democrats should seize the moment and have their own celebration of America? I mean, I get that we're not going to celebrate what's happening, this sort of dismantling of American institutions at the moment, but you don't think there's an opportunity for Democrats to play offense and have their own version of whatever the UFC fights.

[Jen Welch]

I think as long as they were saying, today, we're going to wake up and fight fascism, you know, and then you actually saw some of the leaders of our party say, I'm refunding corporate PAC money. Enough is enough. We could control. We could flip the narrative. We could control the news cycle. Do you remember it was early in Trump 2.0, he said, you know, we thought we were going to get a lot more resistance than we've gotten. This has been a lot easier.

[Joanna Nurr]

Yep.

[Jen Welch]

That's because the Democrats are puss boys. He said that because they don't fight him. That's what's so frustrating about it. So if the Democrats, sometimes when they do this stuff, it becomes cringy. They try to be cool. It's not. I just think they should say 250 years is worth fighting for. So our, in lieu of a celebration, we're going to talk about all the crimes and all the lies that the Republican Party has propelled onto this country. Because they lie. They're pathological liars.

[Joanna Nurr]

Do you think Barack Obama should be doing more?

[Jen Welch]

I mean, yes and no. Number one, what could he do? He has no power. He's an ex president. I think.

[Joanna Nurr]

Well, he still has a moral authority within the party.

[Jen Welch]

He does. But I hold the leaders that we have that actually have power more to account than I do him. I do. I think that our leadership, our Democratic leadership. I think Ken Martin should retire asap.

[Joanna Nurr]

And he's head of the dnc, Right?

[Jen Welch]

Head of the DNC botched the autopsy. Of course.

[Joanna Nurr]

They didn't even release the autopsy.

[Jen Welch]

They just finally did.

[Joanna Nurr]

Right. And then it got leaked or something.

[Jen Welch]

Yeah. And it was incompetence, Breathtaking incompetence from top to bottom. Complete waste of money. So if the Democrats wanted to, in my fantasy world, Joanna, they would say, here's what we're going to do. We're going to fire Ken Martin. We're going to put a fighter at the dnc. We are going to say, no corporate PAC money. We are going to define anybody who takes corporate PAC money as a prostitute that takes money from a pen. No disrespect to sex workers, because I would much rather earn my money on my back the good old fashioned way than be a Cory Booker, a Hakeem Jeffries or a Chuck Schumer who tries to lie to the American public and act like they are not whores, which they are. They whore out for these corporations that fund the guy who is dismantling our country. And people are dying. This is before we even get to the dismantling of usaid, which experts have now say that hundreds of thousands of people have died because of that. So the pro Life party, the pro Jesus, pro God we stand with our Bibles is a death cult. The Republican Party is a death cult. It always has been, it always will. Be. The Democrats need to play offense and define it as such.

[Joanna Nurr]

Joan Walsh, you are such a breath of energetica when you fly into the studio. I love talking to you.

[Jen Welch]

Thank you.

[Joanna Nurr]

And lots of food for Democratic thought.

[Jen Welch]

Fight. Yeah, they need to fight. All right. It's always fun. Joanne Nurr.

[Joanna Nurr]

Who better to have than Jen Welch? Especially when she gets my name right. So exciting that she finally realized I had an A on the end of my name. I love her. It's fantastic, fantastic to see her. And I can't wait to come back tomorrow with Michael Wolff for another episode of Inside Trump's Head. Tell us what you enjoyed about the conversation and what questions you have for Jem next time she comes on the podcast. Until then, big thank you to our production team, Brian Murray, John Romero, Rachel Passer, Heather Passaro, and Neil Rosenhaus. So the good news is we have so many babies beast Tier members now there are too many names to read out and we really appreciate your support.

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