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- [00:00]
David Rothkopf
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- [00:32]
Joanna Coles
That's it.
- [00:33]
David Rothkopf
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- [00:38]
Joanna Coles
of $45 for three months, $90 for six months or $180 for a 12 month plan. Required $15 per month equivalent taxes and fees. Extra initial plan term only greater than 50 gigabytes. Me slow when it works. Busy. See Terms.
- [00:45]
David Rothkopf
The President's brain is pure porridge at this point. Anytime he gets in front of a camera, he embarrasses himself, he embarrasses the country. He offends somebody. He is his own greatest liability. This point Trump does not know how to relate to people, does not know what a human reaction is. And frankly, if you're the President of the United States, you started a war of choice. It's an illegal war. It's been going on for five months. The only reason the war is being fought is you. You don't spend the weekend partying. He just doesn't care. And the message of Donald Trump is very Emperor Nero esque. I will party while America burns.
- [01:33]
Joanna Coles
I'm Joanna Coles. This is the Daily Beast podcast. If it's Monday, it must be a conversation with David Rothkoff to explain Trump being booed. What did Trump mean when he said probably, but he didn't mean probably. And the ninth day of the bombing of Iran, we're also going to be talking about the Tate brothers arrest and Britain, my old home country, has a new prime minister. But before we get there, I wanted to remind you to subscribe to the Daily Beast if you haven't done already. We are 1,000 subscriptions away from 700,000 subscriptions, which is our plea to you this week. This is an independent conversation because we are independent media. But we need your support. And you can show that support by pressing your subscription button wherever you get your podcasts. And we have a new phone line for you to leave comments and your reactions to our conversations. I'm going to read the Number now it's 929-274-3577. That's 929-274-35 77. Leave us a voicemail and we may choose to play it on the podcast. Okay, so no time to waste. A very busy week since I last talked to David last Monday. Thank you for your your incredibly fulsome comments on his comments about Lindsey Graham and why it was time for truth bombs, not just pleasantries after Lindsey Graham's death. David Rothkopf, let's get into it. David Rothkopf, Happy Monday.
- [03:17]
David Rothkopf
Same to you. Joanna, how are you?
- [03:19]
Joanna Coles
Well, I think I'm probably feeling a bit better than the President who was roundly booed at the World Cup. We reported it on the Daily Beast. When they camera flashed to him, the decibel level in the stadium, which had 80,000 people in it, went up from 74 to 84. Such was the din of the booing.
- [04:02]
David Rothkopf
It was so embarrassing. I was waiting at any minute for the loudspeaker system as Trump wandered onto the stage to try to get his picture taken with the team and had to be led off the stage by Johnny Infantino, the head of FIFA. And he looked completely disoriented. And I was just waiting for the loud speaker system at the Meadowlands to go. Will the family that's lost their grandfather please come to Lost and Found? He has wandered away. We have him here because it truly, it looked like a silver alert. The guy was out of place. And I say that with a lot of respect to all the people who go missing for real reason, but he just, he's such a freaking egomaniac. He thinks every party is about him.
- [04:55]
Joanna Coles
Well, I had two thoughts. One is that he associates himself with winners and he wants to be a winner. And this was the nearest he'd gotten for some time to some winners. Cause it sure ain't when he's sitting with his cabinet. And then the other thought I had
- [05:10]
David Rothkopf
was, did you see that he released the baby pictures of J.D. vance's new baby before J.D. vance did. You know where I read it in the Daily Beast, the reality is, Donald Trump, he just wants anybody's victory. I'll take it. I'll take it from the Knicks. I'll take the Knicks. I'll take the Spanish soccer team. Even though he hates Spain, right? I mean, he hates Spain and hate Spain.
- [05:36]
Joanna Coles
Hate Spain.
- [05:37]
David Rothkopf
Yeah. And now I'm going to take JD's baby too. I'm going to.
- [05:42]
Joanna Coles
Well, actually, what you might not have known, David, is that J.D. vance and Ushavants are going to give their baby to Donald Trump. It's part of a new gifting that the Cabinet do they present Donald Trump
- [05:55]
David Rothkopf
with their fourth born, with their children.
- [05:58]
Joanna Coles
Yeah, with their fourth born. And he takes the baby and it's raised in his enormous family. And frankly, we really wouldn't know which child had had it. Cause he's got so many grandchildren.
- [06:10]
David Rothkopf
And he wouldn't know because he doesn't know the names of any of his children.
- [06:13]
Joanna Coles
Well, as Ivana said in her memoir, she basically raised the children and presented them to Donald Trump when they were. At which point he began to take interest because they could work for him for free. That was his own ex wife's memoir.
- [06:31]
David Rothkopf
There'll be no more memoirs like that because, you know, she had a little accident and is now buried in a golf club.
- [06:38]
Joanna Coles
Yeah, but to be fair, she's buried in the golf club. So he could get tax advantage. I mean, you know, it's not entirely.
- [06:46]
David Rothkopf
She is his ex wife. How does he get a tax advantage?
- [06:50]
Joanna Coles
Because if you have a cemetery somewhere, if you can claim that you have a cemetery, you get a tax relief. You could do it in your garden next to one of your swimming pools.
- [07:01]
David Rothkopf
Yeah. Okay. Okay, Joanna, come at me. It's early in the morning. Come on. Come on.
- [07:07]
Joanna Coles
It's not that early, David. It's not that early for some of us. You know what I would say we're recording this on Monday morning. If people are confused listening to this on Monday evening. But the other thing I thought was, do you remember when Joe Biden was in Normandy, I want to say in the last summer of his presidency, and he also started wandering off and just had that look that Trump had at the World cup of just sort of staring into the middle distance and it wasn't clear that very much was going on. And then when he addressed reporters from the air base after the game or after the match, I should say he didn't make any sense. Can we play the clip?
- [07:53]
David Rothkopf
What we're doing now is we're ending any chance where they could have a nuclear missile. If you look at it, after a week and a half, not four weeks. A week and a half, Two weeks. We stopped them from probably, but I don't want to have the word probably. Thank you very much. Thank you, sir.
- [08:10]
Joanna Coles
We stopped them from probably, but I don't want to use the word probably. David, please interpret. Please translate what the President was trying to say there.
- [08:21]
David Rothkopf
Well, I don't think it's any different from what we were talking about. Before or what we talk about on a regular basis. The president's brain is pure porridge at this point. And it is even more porridge. Y. It's a more watery porridge. But when you get to the end of a long day, he's just exhausted and he can't think straight. And, you know, I mean, there's a direct connection between him going out, wandering on the stage. Did you see when he was led off the stage by Johnny and Fatino that Trump didn't want to go? And he started like, clap it. As he went off, like, seriously, it was. If I cared about the man, it would have been a little bit heartbreaking. But then he goes off to this thing, and he's asked about the war, and he goes in his brain, oh, I know. I have an answer. Something about nuclear. Something about, I had to do this. Something about their bad guys. Something about, this will be over soon. I think I said two weeks, maybe 14 days. It may be over in a month. But it all, like, misfired. So he, like, set these things in random order because the files, you know, there's no file retrieval going on in his brain anymore at this point. And, you know, then they lead him away to the plane because he obviously can't be exposed to the public. That's why you guys have written about it. His public schedule is next to zero. Because anytime he gets in front of a camera, he embarrasses himself, he embarrasses the country, he offends somebody, he says something he shouldn't say. And it happens when things are planned, when they're not planned around the clock. He is his own greatest liability at this point.
- [10:11]
Joanna Coles
If your roof started leaking, you wouldn't call your cousin who's watched a few YouTube videos. You'd call someone who's done it a thousand times. There's a reason you wouldn't trust the wrong person with something valuable. Just like there's a reason why Morgan and Morgan is America's largest injury law firm. Morgan and Morgan has a proven track record of fighting for the people. But for over 35 years, with over 30 billion recovered for their clients, Morgan and Morgan knows a thing or two about fighting to get you the compensation you deserve. Hiring Morgan and Morgan is like hiring an army to go into battle. They've got more than 1,000 lawyers and 100 offices nationwide. If you're injured by someone else's negligence, you deserve to be paid. Not all law firms are the same. Hire the wrong one, and you may be beat before you even start. If you're ever injured, you can check out Morgan and Morgan. Morgan and Morgan will fight to get their clients the best results. And their fee is free unless they win. For more information, you can go to forthepeople.com dailybeast. Well, on Saturday, he was in Bedminster at a fundraiser for Mike Lindell, who others may remember as the MyPillow guy, who has said, despite being registered in Texas, that he is going to run for the governor of Minnesota. And as they were in the middle of raising the money for my pillow guy, two American soldiers were killed. Private Isabella Gonzalez, who was 1919, and First Lieutenant Tyler James Feehan, who was 25. He was from Hawaii. Isabella was from Texas. And they were killed on an air base in Jordan. As the president was raising money for
- [12:13]
David Rothkopf
my pillow guy and another person went missing, and they've discovered the body of that person. And the death toll now of U.S. soldiers is 17. And when he didn't make any statement about this, and then finally when he did, he said, well, this is very sad, but I have to do this. He has no heart. I mean, I really think Donald Trump is extraordinary among all political leaders from all countries because he has no empathy. Zero. He cannot relate to human beings in the way a human being does. And I can't think of anybody else I've seen, like Vladimir Putin playing with his dogs. Hitler played with his dogs. Trump can't get near a dog. A dog would have nothing to do with Trump.
- [12:59]
Joanna Coles
A dog would, like Cristian Romero, walk straight past him. He wouldn't see him. It's possible that Donald Trump doesn't register with a dog. They can't hear him.
- [13:09]
David Rothkopf
Well, they can't. But according to Adam Kinzinger and some other reliable sources, they probably can smell him, which is a whole other story. But I really do find it's kind of remarkable the degree to which Trump does not know how to relate to people, does not know what a human reaction is. And frankly, if you're the President of the United States, you started a war of choice. It's an illegal war. It's been going on for five months. The only reason the war is being fought is you. It's cost hundreds of billions of dollars. It's destroyed global energy markets. It's going to have a bad effect on global food markets. It's. It is the biggest burden, the biggest albatross you carry around your neck right now. You don't spend the weekend partying while soldiers are dying. And Donald Trump played golf. He went to the Mike Lindell Party. He went to World cup party. He just doesn't care. And the message of Donald Trump is very Emperor Nero esque. I will party while America burns.
- [14:22]
Joanna Coles
You wrote a very good substack about this, and I was just going to quote from it. Trump's display, therefore, was not just embarrassing, it was disgusting, it was reprehensible. It was yet another instance of him showing disregard and contempt for our military. Indeed, while reports came in of Americans killed and missing over the course of the weekend, as you just said, he played golf, he attended parties, and he could barely be bothered to comment on the tragedies unfolding thanks to his malevolence and incompetence. Very sad was all he could muster, almost dismissively, as during past such instances, when he shrugged off the loss of life as just the sort of thing that happens in war, happens to soldiers, happens to innocent civilians, does not happen to serial draft dodgers or rich guys who live in gilded palaces and who care not one whit for the consequences of their actions and policies. It was another nauseating Nero Fiddles while Rome Burns display of insensitivity from the American president. Gut wrenching. Infuriating.
- [15:33]
David Rothkopf
Yeah, I mean, that was my reaction. I was angered by the way he does this. But this goes back. You remember when he went during his last term and he called the people who died there and who were in the cemetery where they were marking the invasion and memorializing the losses, and he called them losers. It's when he made fun of John McCain for saying he doesn't like people who are taken prisoner because he thinks of them as losers. Donald Trump thinks that soldiers, people who serve, are losers. They're disposable, they are fodder. They are the kind of people who are created to help fulfill the goals of the rich and the powerful like him, and are entirely disposable otherwise. And I just. It's so discordant. Even bad presidents in the past, every bad world leader in the past makes an effort to show some respect to people who make the ultimate sacrifice. Donald Trump does not. He cannot be bothered. And I think it's among the most revealing things we have about this man. He is so vacant and dark within what, you know, where normal people would have a soul. And I think he is soulless.
- [17:10]
Joanna Coles
Yeah. Well, what is interesting is the way, as you say, he talks about soldiers who've lost their lives fighting for their country, the ultimate act of duty. As losers. He tries to position himself next to winners. And I did think it was significant that Christian Romero walked past him just didn't take any notice. Now, admittedly, he wasn't a winner either yesterday, but he was a winner in terms of having gotten to the World cup final and the boos that Trump had and the speed with which they got him off the camera. And then that amazing Australian open mic, where they're looking at the picture of the Spanish players celebrating and they're all jumping up and down, and what an incredible achievement watched by the world, biggest sporting event ever. And you can hear the Australian, or you can hear me going into Australia, and you can hear the Australian saying, we can edit him out because they don't want Trump in the picture. Nobody wants Trump in the picture except for Trump. I wanted to quote just one more paragraph from your excellent column on Substack, which we will be running on the Daily Beast later today, which also addresses Trump's sort of fantasy thinking that if he declares the war over, it's just over, it's somehow done. We can declare victory, even though we actually know we can't. And we've just had the ninth day of bombing. Ninth day, night of bombing, you say. The biggest obstacle to the one obvious solution to Trump's Iran quagmire is just declaring victory and going home. But Trump wants desperately to claim he produced a better nuclear deal than Obama did in 2015. He wants to be able to say he won a great victory. He wants Iran to surrender. But he has done more than anyone to prove how resilient Iran really is, including to the Iranians themselves. Take his ego, his pride, his arrogance, his stubbornness, his anger, and you have all the ingredients you need for precisely the kind of terrible leader who has been failing their nations in wars like this one for thousands of years.
- [19:32]
David Rothkopf
Well, that was my. Not veiled because I mentioned it earlier, reference to the odyssey, which made $250 million around the world. Right. It's opening weekend, which is big, biggest Christopher Nolan weekend ever. But, you know, quite, quite beyond that, quite beyond the TMZ of it all, the reality is, you know, the Odyssey, the Iliad and the Odyssey are stories of an arrogant, egotistical king, Agamemnon, who launched a war for his own reasons that had terribly tragic consequences. And it's so bad that even Homer, who, whether he was a real person or not, it was a compilation of Greek songs about this. He was Greek, and the sympathetic characters in these stories are the Trojans, because the leader was so flawed. And the Greeks knew this. The Greeks talked about the fatal flaws of leaders, whether it was Creon or whether it was Oedipus, or whether it was Zeus himself, they realized the trouble the world gets into when arrogance or pride or stubbornness cause leaders to do things that hurt their people. And they wrote about it over and over again. And here we are, 3,000 years later, we're living this reality. We have our own idiot version of Agamemnon, who is leading us off into wars that should be fought and will not end the war until he gets the victory he wants. Agamemnon could have ended the war several times. Achilles died. All these people died. And he's like, no, I have to bring back Helen. That's my prize. I have to bring back my prize from this. So, I mean, I don't want to draw too much into the analogy, but it resonates because people have been suffering with idiots in charge for a long, long time.
- [21:42]
Joanna Coles
Well, and what I think is so curious is that JD Vance, who is put in charge of trying to resol this war by diplomatic forces along with Marco Rubio. Well, J.D. vance is out flogging his book. You know, he's written a book about.
- [22:01]
David Rothkopf
Well, not this. Not this weekend. Well, this weekend he had a new baby.
- [22:05]
Joanna Coles
Not this weekend, but last week and the week before in the run up to having the new baby, to present the baby to Donald Trump and say, here, sir, here, sire, is my fourth child for you. Well, at least you can release the pictures. Cause he knows if he actually left his child with Donald Trump, it would grow. You know, you've got the Transport Secretary making a reality show. You've got Kash Patel using the FBI plane to fly all over the country to see his country and western girlfriend at the country's expense. I mean, he's surrounded by a ship of fools. He's on a ship of fools.
- [22:43]
David Rothkopf
Yes, that's true. But, you know, it's a little worse than that, because a lot of them aren't just fools. Some of them are downright evil. They're malevolent, dangerous. You know, there's another story from this weekend that reveals that, right? Because the Tate brothers were arrested in Miami, Florida, for multiple counts of rape and strangulation and abuse of women. And we have to remember that the Tate brothers have been favorites of this administration, despite their despicable, misogynistic business, selling horrible ideas about how you treat women to young men. And who loves them? The worst of us. Right. But you had the Trump administration intervene at one point with the Romanian government to try to get better treatment for the Tates. They were allowed to come to the United States, they go to UFC matches. When Barron was trying to build by some absurd role that he had with the last campaign, the ties between the administration and young men, who did he turn to? The Tates. The Tates brag about their ties with the Trump administration. And really, you couldn't be more vile than the Tate brothers. And yet they're the ones on the inside, you know, who the President doesn't like. And J.D. doesn't like the Pope. You know, I mean, when you choose the Tate brothers over the Pope, you've told a lot about yourselves.
- [24:31]
Joanna Coles
Can I make a point here that actually they were arrested in Miami on behalf of UK authorities who've got, I think, 53 charges against Andrew Tate, seven counts of rape, three counts of human trafficking for sexual exploitation, three counts of assault using actual bodily harm, and 19 offenses related to indecent images of children and extreme pornography. And Tristan Tate has six charges against him, including two counts of rape and one count of sexual assault. And what was funny, because they are, of course, heroes of the broosphere, of the manosphere, is that the women's fear went kind of crazy yesterday, and there was a much mockery of what they were wearing. There's a very good one here of Andrew in what appeared to be Capri pants and a purple shirt, and someone saying, you know, thanks so much for destroying Capri pants for the rest of us. Someone else saying. Saying, dress for the arrest you want, Which I loved. I thought that was so funny. You know, where do you begin with these guys? But they've been arrested, you know, in theory, for extradition to the uk. I mean, I'm sure we're confident that Donald Trump will probably step in and refuse them extradition.
- [25:57]
David Rothkopf
Well, I mean, you know, you have to break these things down, because there's one part of this that is not funny at all. These are people who are accused of rape.
- [26:05]
Joanna Coles
Yeah, none of this is funny.
- [26:07]
David Rothkopf
They're disgusting people. There's another part of this which is worth mocking, and it gets to a bigger issue. I saw, I think, on the infowebs over the weekend that you did a podcast with my friend Jen Welch. And Jen has this theory which is pretty well developed, about why these guys in MAGA are so obsessed with their sexuality and even the existence of the manosphere. But since our last podcast, the Secretary of Defense has decided that the biggest problem facing a US military that hasn't won a war in 80 years is that we have low testosterone levels and that he is going to test the testosterone of every member of the US military and provide them with supplements or shots or whatever they need to to get to have a high T military. And you think to yourself, how weird are these people that all they can do, Trump with his obsession with muscular young men, surrounding him at all times with UFC men, sweaty men, grappling with each other, with the Tates and their whole weird manosphere, the Joe Rogan, all of this stuff. These guys, as Jen points out and as only she can, they're so insecure about their own masculinity and it's a fucking nightmare for the world that we have lived through the incel uprising and they are now in control of our government. And it's astonishing to me that it doesn't get more pushback. But as you say, Meg is starting to get a little uncomfortable with these people and maybe there will be, maybe, maybe they are starting to come to their senses. The right window treatments change everything. Your sleep, your privacy, the way every room looks and feels. @blinds.com, we've spent 30 years making it surprisingly simple to get exactly what your home needs. We've covered over 25 million windows and have 50,000 five star reviews to prove we deliver. Whether you DIY it or want a pro to handle everything from measure to install, we have you covered. Real design professionals, free samples, zero pressure. Right now. Get up to 40% off site wide plus get a free professional measure. At blinds.com rules and restrictions apply.
- [28:41]
Joanna Coles
Well, are you feeling high tea or low T today, David? And where do you think the President is? And do you think the miraculously, miraculously Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Forever War, may have a friend or two who flog supplements that may very well get distributed to the American military? Didn't Kash Patel sell supplements alongside his T shirts? And certainly Dr. Oz did.
- [29:11]
David Rothkopf
Dr. Oz did the Joe Rogan show. They have ads for them on, you know, a lot of these right wing shows, they sell supplements. So apparently these right wingers think something needs to be supplemented. Now personally, although I feel pretty high tea most of the time in my mind, high tea is something you have at 4 o' clock in the afternoon.
- [29:33]
Joanna Coles
Oh, yes, please, please.
- [29:35]
David Rothkopf
Which is a pretty low T, you know, thought to have about it. But, but, you know, I, I just never like obsessed about this stuff in the way that these guys obsess about it.
- [29:50]
Joanna Coles
It's hard to understand how people think that that could possibly be a positive, could be a positive representation of modern masculinity. And it's very odd that Barron Trump. Where is Barron Trump? How do you hide a six foot eight young man, and yet miraculously, they have done this, maybe Melania's doing, in which case, good for you, Mel. Barron Trump has disappeared.
- [30:15]
David Rothkopf
Who knows where. Barron Trump is certainly a very unusual young man. If Melania is trying to protect him, great. I wish she would be as concerned about protecting all the other children in America from the depredations of her husband in this crowd. But the reality is that this has been Trump's brand since before he got elected. This was, when you're a star, they let you do that, you know, that he can grab him by the pussy. This is a guy who a jury found responsible for the sexual assault of a woman. He has been accused by dozens of people. For a lot of people in that world, Trump's abuse of women and the fact that it continues to this day. Think of how he talks to women reporters all the time, quiet picking. Think about how he talks about women of color in the Congress, and invariably he refers to them as being of low intelligence. This was part of the appeal to a bunch of men in America who were feeling insecure, taking their supplements, not figuring out how to feel like men again. And it extends far beyond this. There was a very Trumpy comedian, Adam Carolla, a couple days ago saying, well, you know, if you come home and you're drunk and you weigh 50 pounds more than the woman that you're with and you force her to have sex with you, that's not rape. No, that is rape. And that's part of the MAGA brand.
- [31:56]
Joanna Coles
I wonder if they feel differently about it now that Eugene Carroll is able to cash the check, the first check from Donald Trump. He tried to stop paying her the $5 million that she was owed that a jury had awarded her for his defamation. She cashed it last week. It went into her account last week.
- [32:16]
David Rothkopf
Yeah, well, they may. I think they hear footsteps. That's a sports expression. You know, when you know, what sport is that, David?
- [32:27]
Joanna Coles
What sport is that? I've never heard that expression.
- [32:30]
David Rothkopf
Okay, well, in football. American football.
- [32:34]
Joanna Coles
American football or proper football.
- [32:37]
David Rothkopf
American football, if you start anticipating being tackled before you are tackled, they say you're hearing footsteps. You're sort of imagining the people behind you. And I think they hear the footsteps of consequences coming down the road. And E. Jean Carroll is part of it. You know what was super weird last week was that Marco Rubio, total tool, who's had his spine surgically removed, went on a rant against the International Criminal Court. The US Isn't even a signatory to the International Criminal Court. But Rubio and others in the Trump administration realize that other countries are and that they can bring cases against Trump. And it goes back to your point about the Tates. It may be that Donald Trump for the next couple of years controls the U.S. department of justice, but he doesn't control the Department of Justice everywhere. And we've seen in the cases of other governments, when foreign leaders pass through their countries, they arrest them. Even this past week, we've had Mamdani saying he's not sure whether he would arrest Benjamin Netanyahu if he came to New York. But Rubio's afraid of it. Trump is afraid of it. They are launching an attack. The State Department has made it part of their policy to attack this organization. They're not even part of cuz they're afraid of prosecutions overseas.
- [34:11]
Joanna Coles
David, is there a possibility that a member of the American Cabinet or Donald Trump himself could actually be arrested in another country?
- [34:23]
David Rothkopf
I'm not sure of the legal technicalities, Joanna, but I do know this. Vladimir Putin does not get on a plane and go to other countries because other countries consider him a war criminal.
- [34:34]
Joanna Coles
When, well, he came to Alaska. But that's because Donald Trump thinks he's a Buddhist.
- [34:39]
David Rothkopf
Trump wasn't going to arrest him. Pinochet got arrested traveling through another country and held accountable. And frankly, if you believe in the rule of law, you should believe that no person or country is above the rule of law and that if you violate the law of the international community, you should be held accountable for it. The US has always had trouble with this because of sort of notions about sovereignty and that nobody's law should be above our law. But it's mostly because they feel that we've done things in our past that are gonna lead our leaders to be prosecuted, whether it's Henry Kissinger or Richard Nixon or somebody else. And this administration is afraid of that. That's why Trump wants, similarly at home, Todd Blanche to be the Attorney General, because he wants the Department of Justice to focus on his enemies and not on him. It's why he wants to steal the election, because he thinks that the Democratic Congress or Democratic House or Democratic Senate would impeach him and potentially find ways to hold him accountable for his corruption. And that's what I mean by they are hearing footsteps. They know that once they leave office, they will have fewer protections. And they're starting to feel a little jittery because they've abused their power in so many ways, in so many places, in so many violations of the law that they can just hear the potential consequences approaching. Let me give you an analogy, since you don't know American football that you may know. Okay. Do you know the musical Peter Pan?
- [36:32]
Joanna Coles
I do know the musical Peter Pan.
- [36:34]
David Rothkopf
And what happens to Captain Hook? There is a crocodile following Captain Hook around and he's got a clock inside. And so Captain Hook's fate is that he's always hearing the ticking and talking of the clock as the crocodile approaches. And I think that Donald Trump is hearing the tick tock of his approaching crocodiles.
- [36:55]
Joanna Coles
So interesting. We haven't spoken since his speech from the White House to the nation with his cabinet sitting around him. And we haven't spoken since Jon Ossoff's masterly questioning of Jay Clayton, who's up, as we know, for head of National Intelligence, or indeed Todd Blanche's questioning. What did you think of Donald Trump's speech?
- [37:24]
David Rothkopf
I thought it was a desperate attempt to make a case he's made over and over again. It was boring, it was badly delivered. He was low energy. And by, you know, I mean, you had NBC and ABC and CNN not even picking it up. So by a lot of traditional measures, as I wrote for you guys, it might be considered a failure. But by the one measure that matters, it's meaningful because Trump is trying to lay the predicate for intervening in the upcoming elections. And he doesn't need to be right if he says it's all national security. And he realizes that national security is the one area where the President has almost unlimited power. And so what he's trying to do is to raise this idea that foreign governments will intervene. And we all know the irony of that because of Russia's intervention on his behalf, but that foreign governments will intervene and that therefore he will be within his authority to seize voting booths, send troops into town, delay election results, delay the certification of elections because of some nefarious foreign plot that he won't be able to tell us about because it's all classified.
- [38:46]
Joanna Coles
So that's really what Jay Clayton and Todd Blanche would be signing up for.
- [38:51]
David Rothkopf
That is what they've signed up for. And with Todd Blanche, who is a man who once worked for the U.S. attorney's office in the Southern District, but long ago sold his soul to Donald Trump, it's less surprising. Jake Clayton is sort of a rock ribbed member of the establishment as the current head of the office of the U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York. And there are Democrats who will defend this guy. But when you hear him, as he has done, say, well, I just don't know about election integrity in California, say. And people say, well, what's your evidence? And he says, well, it's really not about the evidence. It's about whether the American people feel comfortable with the results or when Jon Ossoff confronts him and says, who won the 2020 election? And he says, I'm not gonna play this game with you. When he's obviously answering the question for one person and one person only, he's answering it so Donald Trump doesn't hear him say, oh, Joe Biden won. Then you know that he is sold out, too, and that he realizes part of his job as Director of National Intelligence is to do what Bill Pulte did prior to the speech you mentioned, which is to get classified files and declassify them and redact what needs to be redacted to try to help make Trump's case for him, or do what Tulsi Gabbard, the priority occupant of the job, did in going to Fulton county and intervening in their efforts to seize ballots in Fulton county about the 2020 election. And so Jay Clayton is saying, yeah, I'm willing to do that, and it's despicable. And he should not be confirmed, just like Todd Blanche should not be confirmed. Of course, in Todd Blanche's case, he's already the acting director. He was confirmed as deputy Attorney General, and so he'll be able to stay in that job indefinite. Queen Carvania stood haloed by the morning sun. An army hung on her every word.
- [40:59]
Joanna Coles
My champions, I have sold my chariot on Carvana. Twas a lovely suv, an inexplicably queenly offer. They're even coming to the castle to collect it. Tonight we feast. An offer you can feast on. Sell your car today on Carvana.
- [41:19]
David Rothkopf
Pickup fees may apply.
- [41:21]
Joanna Coles
Yeah, it's fascinating. So you mentioned the potential of the Republicans losing the Senate, which I wonder if that's wishful thinking on behalf of the Democrats. But we got a lot of response to your appraisal of Lindsey Graham last week. A lot of people thought that you were speaking truth to power, that you weren't having any of this, that people live their eulogies, and this was how Lindsey Graham had lived his life. This week, Trump endorsed his sister. I mean, something I find incredible. I mean, this is. I come from a land where people inherit the kingdom, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised by it. But the point of moving to America is that's not supposed to happen here. And here we have the President suggesting that Lindsey Graham's sister Darlene should take over from him anyway. She's stepping in until the election. He was due up for reelection in November. Others are now going to enter the race. They have until the 27th, I think, of July to enter the race. Nancy Mace is supposed to be considering it. And it's possible enough candidates run that there's no clear winner or that Lindsey Graham's sister Darlene doesn't get elected. But what are your thoughts on this, on the weird familial connection here?
- [42:46]
David Rothkopf
Well, first of all, welcome to the United States of America. It's not that unusual. John Adams had John Quincy Adams. There were Harrisons and others served. And there were the bushes, where George H.W. bush was the son of a senator and the father of a president. And of course, we have RFK Jr. In this administration. And we had another Kennedy named Schlossberg running in a recent congressional race. We do a lot of that, too. Now, there is a distinction here between, I don't know, George H.W. bush, who previously served as Vice President, CIA Director, US Ambassador to the United nations, and a member of Congress, and the kind of people that Trump turns to, like RFK Jr. Who, who was a heroin addict who snorted cocaine off of toilet seats and has no healthcare experience, or Darlene Graham, who has zero, zero public service experience. Now, maybe we shouldn't be surprised. There is only one US President in our history who had zero public service experience. As it happens, that's Donald Trump. And he doesn't care about experience. In fact, he seeks people with no experience because they are dependent upon him for making decisions and getting elected and staying in office, and therefore they don't turn against him. If you look at the administration, you see countless examples of people, including the president, including the Secretary of Health and Human Services, including the Secretary of Education, including countless appointees to ambassadorial jobs, including, for example, Jared Kushner's father, or for that matter, Jared Kushner himself, or Steve Witkoff, who have no nuclear experience whatsoever and yet are negotiating those kinds of issues. Witkoff has no diplomatic experience and yet is being entrusted with negotiating sensitive issues. This is the pattern, not the exception, in this administration, because competence is considered irrelevance. Loyalty is everything. And that's how you end up with somebody like Darlene Graham, as now the acting senator from South Carolina, who is about to probably win that election, because if Trump puts his weight behind him, that's a party in that state which sort of falls in line, and that's a tragedy for the people of South Carolina. She doesn't know anything. She's not gonna have her own opinions. She's not gonna represent them. She's just gonna represent her godfather, Donald Trump, who put her into this thing. There is one other thing, though, about this which I find interesting, and I was gratified with their reaction to the column about Lindsey Graham. And you're nice to bring it up, but it's a week later. Lindsey Graham died nine days ago. He's gone. You would think he was in the news every day. The weekend he died, they figured out a way to put him on four different Sunday morning talk shows. He was a big spokesperson for Trump, and it's as if he never existed. And that's the nature of fame in Washington. He's just vanished without a trace. And it says something else, which is most of the way Trump views the presidency, I think is, as we've talked about before, is kind of a reality show. He believes everything can be achieved with him appearing on camera or him appearing in social media or a spokesperson for him saying something on camera or on social media that all the presidency is cops, as we call it in Washington. It's all communications. And of course it's not. And it's something that we have to live with here because comms is not action, and nothing is actually getting done. We're just spending all of our time working on poll results and polishing the appearance of the President of the United States, who's pretty busy polishing it himself. I did notice on that show that you did with Jen Welch that you now have gold stuff attached to your office doors as well.
- [47:13]
Joanna Coles
Of course, we did it to mark the 250th anniversary. We smothered the studio door in the very same gold filigree from a Home Depot that the President has used in the Oval Office. And to be authentic to it, I actually super glued it myself.
- [47:34]
David Rothkopf
Well, he does have that little tube of superglue behind him in the Oval Office so that he can add more of this stuff anytime. And I noticed another story this weekend that you guys had of him adding more statuary.
- [47:49]
Joanna Coles
Yes. In the Rose Garden statue of Thomas Jefferson that he's added to the Rose
- [47:56]
David Rothkopf
Garden, which happens to be by the sculpture who did the statue of him in Butler, Pennsylvania, putting up his raised fist. And, you know, there's always some kind of sleazy subtext. There's always, I mean, everywhere you look, there's a sleazy subtext. There's another place that there's a sleazy subtext, which is, turns out that the company that is responsible for the outbreak of projectile diarrhea, or as we call it, Trump Diarrhea, is a big maga company, has given a lot of money to the Trump administration and who knows what role they've played in the recent reassignment of the cause of what this disease is. But, you know, a long time ago, despite the fact that I'm not a journalist, a long time ago, I went to journalism school and.
- [48:50]
Joanna Coles
Did you go to Columbia Journalism School?
- [48:52]
David Rothkopf
I did. I went to Columbia undergraduate. I went to Columbia Journalism school. And the first day I went in and I had the best teacher in the school, who was a little guy named Melvin Mencher. And he was kind of a legend. He was kind of a curmudgeon, and he looked a little bit like a hobbit. And the whole first class was about one message, the whole first class. And it was follow the money. If you're covering the school board or if you're covering the president of the United States, follow the money. That will explain where the power is. That will explain what the connections are. That's the real story. And of course, he daunted a lot of the would be reporters. This is like. So that means you need to know arithmetic. You know, you need to be able to do the math. But I think in all of these cases, every case, Mike Blindell, explosive diarrhea, statues in the Rose Garden. Who is behind the building of the ballroom Ballroom. Who gets ambassadorial appointments when we have 115 open ambassadorial posts? Who gets regulatory breaks from the government? Who gets tax breaks written to support them? Who has special waivers for trades and tariffs done for them? It's all follow the money in this administration. It's all about the corruption. It's all about who is getting paid off. Oh, Don Jr. Buys a defense contractor that's selling drones to the U.S. government. Guess what company is going to get more drone contracts even in the case? Again, another story of the past few days. Truth Social, one of the great failures in the history of the media, is now launching a new service where you can get early access to the president's announcements for a special fee because they know that the president's announcements move markets. So literally everywhere you look, it's about Trump Enterprises, the Trump crime family. It's about corruption. It's about follow the money.
- [51:17]
Joanna Coles
So we know that Natalie Harp never leaves the president's side and is frantically either coming up with truth socials for him, using AI or tapping out his truth socials. Will you be prepared, David, to pay a Subscription to Natalie Harpe's Truth Socials.
- [51:36]
David Rothkopf
I am afraid I do not subscribe to Truth Social. I know that people at the Daily Beast and elsewhere see these things when they come out. It's so disgusting that who's speaking out against it? Marjorie Taylor Greene. You know, people who are sort of in his base are speaking out against this kind of stuff. You know, Natalie Harpe's role is kind of interesting. It reminds me, my daughter, my younger daughter was in a lot of productions, was a good actress, and she was in a big production of Chicago, and they were trying to, you know, sort of show the glamour of the character that she was playing. And so they had this little kid go around in front of her all the time holding a fan so her hair would blow in a certain way. And so there was always somebody in front of her with the hair blowing in a certain kind of way to make her look beautiful. Natalie Harp is there just to blow the fan on Donald Trump to make him feel like he is loved, to make him feel like he's the president he thinks he is. She's kind of the illusion. She's kind of the drug that is being offered to placate this otherwise rogue rhinoceros of a president.
- [52:53]
Joanna Coles
Well, you don't have Truth Social, but I do. I've just gone on to see what's the most recent Truth Social from the president, and it's him and a picture of Lindsey Graham. I hope we can show this. And it's got 238retrouths and 1.1000 likes. So it's a slow morning for Truth Social. David, It's a very important Truth Social.
- [53:18]
David Rothkopf
Right. No, I mean, it's a failure.
- [53:20]
Joanna Coles
Yes. The Stock is down 85% since it started.
- [53:24]
David Rothkopf
Well, because it's lost hundreds of millions of dollars.
- [53:26]
Joanna Coles
Right, right, right. Well, because it's an untruth Social. So I just wonder, we have a new prime minister in Britain. I just wonder if he's gonna run up against Donald Trump with the extradition order for the tape.
- [53:43]
David Rothkopf
I don't know. He may. You know, he came out. He's a very different kind of prime minister. It seems to me he is a mayor. I think that that's a trend that we're going to see more in politics because mayors actually have to get stuff done.
- [53:59]
Joanna Coles
Well, he's a former cabinet minister, too, to be fair. He was a former cabinet minister, left Parliament to become the mayor of Greater Manchester for the last, I think, 10 years.
- [54:08]
David Rothkopf
Well, I understand, but the thing about a mayor is they have to clean up homelessness, they have to build housing, they have to fix potholes, they have to do stuff. And I think people are so disgusted with politics in the US and the UK and elsewhere that they would like people who go back sort of old school to the job of actually getting things done for him. And he's got a more kind of folksy style. And we'll face it, the head of lettuce that beat the previous Prime Minister in duration had more personality than Keir Starmer.
- [54:42]
Joanna Coles
Right.
- [54:43]
David Rothkopf
And so Keir Starmer.
- [54:45]
Joanna Coles
Well, it wasn't explosive lettuce, though. It was just a regular lettuce.
- [54:50]
David Rothkopf
We don't know it became explosive. But anyway, you know. And also, isn't he from, like, northern England?
- [54:56]
Joanna Coles
He is from northern England. He's got a northern accent. I'm hoping it's good for the north of England, having grown up there. But I wonder whether or not he will have to intervene to get the Tates back to the UK to face their 56 charges of rape and assault and sex assault.
- [55:14]
David Rothkopf
Well, I certainly hope he does. If the President fights that, that would be like. I don't know, it would be like pardoning Ghislaine Maxwell, which is possible. That he will do.
- [55:23]
Joanna Coles
Right, but it's possible they've already promised her a pardon, isn't it? And that she'll go in a job lot at the end of the his presidency.
- [55:31]
David Rothkopf
Absolutely. Absolutely right.
- [55:32]
Joanna Coles
I wonder what happens, David, because there's so much talk about Trump saying that he's going to pardon all his cabinet and all the people around him that are doing nefarious things. And yet, were he to keel over in office, which there's also a lot of talk about, because he's clearly not a healthy man. He's 80, he's in his ninth decade. He's. He's got chronic venous insufficiency, which is very clear. He's constantly putting makeup on his hands to hide his bruises, to do with, I think, the excessive amounts of aspirin he takes. Were he to keel over in his chair, there would be no pardons for people. That must also haunt some of the people that work with him closely.
- [56:18]
David Rothkopf
Oh, you innocent child, you.
- [56:20]
Joanna Coles
What does this mean? They've already pardoned everybody. Is there a note in his first,
- [56:24]
David Rothkopf
some people have been pardoned, but secondly, is Mitch McConnell alive? I mean, we don't know about these things. Didn't you ever see the movie, Dave? You know, Trump could keel over and all of a sudden there would be 1,000 people in the administration going, wait a second, is my pardon done? And then people in the White House would be like, well, maybe we don't have to announce the president's dead just yet. Get the auto pen out. Let's get all this stuff done before we announce that Trump is actually.
- [56:54]
Joanna Coles
Do you think he has. And do we have a right to see the president's will?
- [57:01]
David Rothkopf
Is that something the president's taxes. Well, do we have a right to see the president's medical reports?
- [57:07]
Joanna Coles
Is it possible you could put him in a freedom of information request to see the president?
- [57:13]
David Rothkopf
I don't know that you could because I think it's private, whereas those other things are public and you could conceivably request them. And I did notice also last week in the testimony of Todd Blanche that he was continuing to defend the idea that the president didn't have to ever again be audited and that this was a deal that was struck. Even the court said, no, there was no settlement because there was no adversarial relationship. But he said, and this was as amazing to anything has happened last week, that he had a guy seeking to be attorney general who said under testimony, I'm not sure if I have to follow the conclusion of this court, which is like, I'm not sure if I'm going to instigate a constitutional crisis or not. But Trump is all about hiding things, shredding things, boxes of things disappearing, the boxes being buried in golf courses with dead ex wives, whatever. I expect that there will be a small industry of destroying Trump records. Probably has started already. I mean, who knows what they want Jay Clayton to be doing at the Director of National Intelligence, or Pulte to be doing about all the files that say there was collusion between Trump and the Russians. I'm sure they're in burn bags right now, or they were in burn bags months ago because they just don't want you to get the truth.
- [58:51]
Joanna Coles
Well, David, we're in danger of going on almost as long as J.D. vance did on Joe Rogan. So I think we should, we should allow people back their week. I know that you, hardworking commentator that you are, are about to go and see the Odyssey for three hours in the middle of a Monday.
- [59:13]
David Rothkopf
Don't I have to. Don't you to write for the Daily Beast? Don't you have to be au courant?
- [59:17]
Joanna Coles
I think you do have to be Okoran. I'm embarrassed. I haven't seen it. Normally I would see it, but I will see it this week. But it looks like it's okay. To eat lettuce from Taylor Farms. And thank goodness for Jon Osso.
- [59:32]
David Rothkopf
Thank goodness for Jon Ossoff. And you know what? I think maybe next week I'll be there in your studio for the podcast
- [59:39]
Joanna Coles
so you can see the gold filigree for yourself. I can give you tips on how to glue it should you want to put some gold filigree on your very tasteful white bookshelves.
- [59:51]
David Rothkopf
Do you do a home decorating show there at the.
- [59:54]
Joanna Coles
No, but we could start. It's very straightforward, David. It's super glue. It's gold filigree, and you just slap it everywhere.
- [60:02]
David Rothkopf
Thank you.
- [60:02]
Joanna Coles
It's all good.
- [60:04]
David Rothkopf
I'll change. Things will be changed around by the next time you see this office.
- [60:07]
Joanna Coles
My week always starts better when I get to start it with you, David. I know that viewers and listeners feel the same. I will look forward to seeing you in person next Monday in the studio. And until then, stay safe.
- [60:22]
David Rothkopf
I feel the same way about you and the viewers and I'll see you next week.
- [60:30]
Joanna Coles
I love starting my week with David Rothkoff. He just brings such clarity and he brings an infusion of energy and he's always got a sense of humor about things. He's not renting his clothes in despair. Okay, that number again for you to leave us. What you thought of the conversation and what you want to talk about. 929-274-3577-929274-33577. And a big thank you to our production team, John Romero, Ryan Murray, Rachel Passer, Heather Pizarro and Neil Rosenhaus. And I will see you tomorrow back inside Trump's head. So the good news is we have so many Beast Tier members now, there are too many names to read out. And we really appreciate your support. Traditional home security only alerts you after a break in, and that's too late. SimpliSafe is changing that. Stop.
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David Rothkopf
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