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- [00:00]
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- [01:00]
Joanna
More.
- [01:00]
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- [01:45]
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- [02:16]
Joanna
And then of course there are the dancing videos of Maduro that everybody said Actually triggered Trump.
- [02:23]
Michael Wolff
Trump personalizes these things. It only really works for him if he personalizes it. I need an enemy. And the enemy is not an abstraction, it's a person. In this case, it was Maduro. Remember, they offered him all kinds of stuff. You know, we'll set you up anywhere you want. You know, a luxurious retirement. And. And he said, completely rejected that. And then. And then danced in a mocking fashion. It pierces Trump directly when you mock him.
- [03:00]
Joanna
Michael.
- [03:02]
Michael Wolff
Joanna.
- [03:02]
Joanna
So we're back in the studio. Is this, this is our first in our first in person podcast. We've got so much to see.
- [03:10]
Michael Wolff
It feels like we've been away forever. This was a long holiday.
- [03:14]
Joanna
Well, a lot happened in the holiday.
- [03:16]
Michael Wolff
My four year old kept saying, I want to go back to school before he leaves.
- [03:20]
Joanna
Yeah, well. But that seems unlikely because. Mr. Swankypants, you and your wife have a very nice piece about you in the New York Times today. Saying what a lovely home you have and talking about how people are, particularly about my wife.
- [03:34]
Michael Wolff
I'm the bit player in this.
- [03:36]
Joanna
You're the bit player. But what she talks about doing is creating this lovely home. I've been to your home. So I can, I can testify to the fact it's all. Or I can attest to the fact it's a lovely home. Because of the brutality of what you deal with on a daily basis.
- [03:54]
Michael Wolff
No, I mean it's this interesting thing that happened quite unintentionally that. Because I can't do any of this. So when I started.
- [04:03]
Joanna
When you say any of this, what do you mean? You mean the home? Creating a home?
- [04:06]
Michael Wolff
No, no, I mean any of the social media stuff. So that she, I mean was. Victoria said, well, you should start an Instagram account. And, and she said, you don't have to do anything. And you just say what you always say.
- [04:21]
Joanna
Which you're saying anyway, I imagine that all the time in your house.
- [04:24]
Michael Wolff
You'Re just walking around, just going, yes, just.
- [04:27]
Joanna
You have that in common with Trump. Trump.
- [04:28]
Michael Wolff
Trump. Yes, absolutely. And then. But she would put me in particular settings in the house and which largely had to do where the light was. And that started to send this interesting. I don't know if you'd call it a message or, or a kind of sub context of this is going to be all right. I mean, you're saying these terrible things about Trump and it really, I mean, if you go through all this and everything that we talk about here and everything that we're exposed to during the day, I think it's an obviously Reasonable conclusion that we are living in the middle of a catastrophe. That history will see this moment as how did they survive that if they survived it? But told against the backdrop of this place that we live, which is reassuring and inviting in every way. And again, it's Victoria has created is not me. I'm just a guy who talks and sits in a corner and types. But that has had a kind of powerful effect now, just in a couple of months, from nothing to hundreds. And I think 800,000 followers. People want to be reassured.
- [06:04]
Joanna
Yeah. Uncomforted. And I actually think one of the things that really works about it, too, is that your house is what, 200 years old?
- [06:11]
Michael Wolff
Yeah.
- [06:12]
Joanna
And there's something very comforting about seeing things that have weathered storms. I often think New York itself still feels so new that it's possible you can walk down the street in New York and be wrestling with a problem that nobody else has wrestled with. Whereas when you walk in Rome and all the steps and the sidewalks are worn with the 2000 years of leather sandals, you feel like there is no problem in Rome that someone hasn't had before. And it's a different. It's just a different. You feel it in London too, actually, where again, the steps are worn and the pavements are often worn that people have lived through a lot. Whereas here it doesn't feel that people have lived through quite as much. Having said that, of course, there was a civil war, but there is something very comforting about looking at you.
- [07:00]
Michael Wolff
There's something very comforting about living in a house that's 200 years years old. Often something very irritating about it, too.
- [07:10]
Joanna
Yeah. The leaks, the lack of windproofing.
- [07:14]
Michael Wolff
Exactly. But along with that is that you feel many people have lived here before and they have left a mark and an aura, and it's nice to go home to.
- [07:32]
Joanna
You know who lived in my apartment before me? John Paulson. John Paulson lived in my building. Lived in my apartment before. I think there were a few people between him and me, but. And now he has a huge. He's one of Trumpy's billionaires. He's now got a huge building across the street at nyu.
- [07:54]
Michael Wolff
I know John Paulson in our apartment in the Village. You know who lived there before us?
- [08:00]
Joanna
Who?
- [08:01]
Michael Wolff
Bogart and Bacall.
- [08:03]
Joanna
Really? That was a fantastic apartment with that lovely garden.
- [08:07]
Michael Wolff
Yes.
- [08:07]
Joanna
Well, there you go. All right, go. We've got on to domestic things anyway. If you haven't read the piece yet, please do. What's it called? Living with the Wolf or Living with.
- [08:15]
Michael Wolff
The Wolves or How to live like a Wolf. I didn't understand the headline.
- [08:20]
Joanna
All right, well, anyway, it's, it's all good. And, and then, of course, I thought we would might also touch on your substack. I don't want to make this all about you, but your substack. I thought this morning was very good. A howl after the Ginsburg poem of death, where you talk about Donald Trump's first thing in the morning when he wakes up is how's it playing? It's his constant refrain, how's it playing? How is anything playing to everyone?
- [08:47]
Michael Wolff
I mean, and he has actually designated people. Their job is to call him up. It's his first call, second call in the morning. And then he always says, how's it playing? And it means anything that has gone on, a speech he's given or troops he's sent into some city or country, how's it playing? And how's it playing is for him not really a question of do people approve of this or am I getting good reviews? It's, am I dominating the news? Is this the singular headline? Is anyone paying attention to anything other than this or than me? And then this would be, of course, other than me. Yes. And that is, I mean, and I think you have to see that's the intelligent way to look at what's happened in Venezuela. I mean, everybody else is grasping for the intelligent way because this seems so ridiculous, so counterproductive, so self defeating. So everyone is in, Is this a. Can we see this in some novel Trump geopolitical terms, or can we see this as a bid for oil or Stephen Miller in the immigration side or drugs? That seems to have passed now.
- [10:20]
Joanna
Right, the fentanyl phase.
- [10:21]
Michael Wolff
Right. But there must be some reason. What is that? And I think that's an incorrect way of looking at this. The way to look at this is that is in reality television terms.
- [10:36]
Joanna
Okay, then I'm going to read one of your own quotes back to you. And for those of you who are joining the podcast for the first time, what we try to do is go inside Donald Trump's head and imagine what's going on. And in fact, if you can see our design here, we think that there's a lot of chaos going on inside there.
- [10:51]
Michael Wolff
And one of the premises here is that, is that people see this wrong, because they try to. The people who analyze politicians believe that you have to analyze them as politicians, that their goals have a clear cause and effect context, that they have, that they have an agenda, a political agenda, a policy agenda. And our view is that that's really not true about Donald Trump, who is clearly, who is not a politician. And it is about. His motivations are far different and really have nothing to do with a political agenda or a policy agenda. They have something to do with his own personal agenda.
- [11:36]
Joanna
Yeah. And that you'll fail to understand him and you'll fail to understand, understand the scale of what's going on if you only look at it in the way that you have looked at politicians before. So this sort of obsession with, oh, is this Trump's Iraq, Venezuela is sort of missing the point. And I wanted to read a couple of lines from your piece. In television terms, especially reality television, success is determined not by positive reviews or even the likability of your characters, but by the inescapable attention, often of the train wreck variety that you engender. Confidence, conflict and spectacle, which is exactly what he does. And he's so good at it. And then you go on to say, and I also love this because we know he's surrounded by certain people that are trying to corral him and make him follow the straight and narrow that we feel much more comfortable with. This view is at odds with almost every one of his political advisers, indeed with almost all people in politics who regularly try to counsel him on the qualitative response to issues we need to focus on the economy. He corrects them or ignores them. He leads instead with his guiding view, born of 14 years as the star of a top rated reality television series, of what will bring viewers to the edge of their seats and make them full participants in the story unfolding before their eyes. As we've always said, very smart. You're not supposed to say that after I read. You're supposed to go, oh, I wish I'd phrased it differently. But it is that we keep saying this is the spinoff of the Apprentice. The presidency is the spinoff.
- [13:20]
Michael Wolff
And I think, I mean, again, and let's go back. I mean, this Venezuela thing, which is on everybody's mind for obvious reasons, makes no sense.
- [13:29]
Joanna
Makes no sense.
- [13:30]
Michael Wolff
No sense in any kind of global strategy, in any kind of geopolitical point of view. And from a political standpoint, it's a no one would have done. There is nothing to gain here. And this idea, his announcements, we're going to take over. We're going to take over Venezuela. That's just a recipe for who's going to run it?
- [13:58]
Joanna
I am. I am. I'm going to run it. Who's in charge? I am.
- [14:03]
Michael Wolff
So what is going on here and what is going on here. It is just much better. And in this piece, you know, I talk about the reality television shows and the relationship to this White House and it sounds like I'm talking about that. This is a metaphor. It is not a metaphor. No, no, no, it's straightforward. It's very literal on his part. How do I hold the, how do I hold the attention? How do I get attention? How do I hold the attention of the public? How do I do it in a way that ensures that no one else gets any attention? And that is the recipe for Trump political success.
- [14:44]
Joanna
Right. And also when he's got the attention from something like Venezuela, we're completely distracted from health care premiums doubling, the Epstein files, the east wing of the ballroom being demolished at night, all the issues that actually have given him catastrophically low polls.
- [15:03]
Michael Wolff
Right? No, I think it is a function of distraction, but even that is seeing this in a political context. So we have to distract because those issues are not playing in the context that he's seeing. It is, I need the world to focus on me, me alone. And if they focus on me, and this is really critical and this is really the fundamental Trump political insight. If all that attention is focused on me, it's not focused on anyone else. Attention is a zero sum game. And if no one else can get into the picture, then I'm it.
- [15:48]
Joanna
I'm, you know who was trying to get into the picture pathetically on Air Force One this week? Lindsey Graham. Did you see that tragic exchange?
- [15:57]
Michael Wolff
Tragic, tragic. And Lindsey Graham also has gained a lot of weight. Looks terrible.
- [16:01]
Joanna
Well, he could take one of the new fat drugs. They've just come out in pill form. I think it's. Wegovia's come out in pill form today and it's much, much cheaper than having the shot, that needle thing. But what I loved was he came out, he groveled to Trump and then Trump slapped him. Anyway. I mean, I shouldn't say I love it because that's horrible behavior from the President, but it was just the worst kind of groveling from Lindsey Graham.
- [16:27]
Michael Wolff
No, and I think it's true and I think it's good to look at this in a broader sense. Every other politician is trying to get into this frame.
- [16:38]
Joanna
Unsuccessfully, Unsuccessfully. And so apart from JD Vance, who appears to have given up altogether, where is jd? I mean, Republicans, you see JD Vance tell us, cuz we're looking for him.
- [16:48]
Michael Wolff
Republicans can't get into this. Democrats certainly can't get into this picture, but Republicans can't get into this picture either, right? So it is a government of one. It is a political moment, which has gone on for quite some time now, of one.
- [17:06]
Joanna
And Marco Rubio is there to sweep up the mess. But before we get to Marco Rubio, because I do want to unpack him, I do want to talk about Stephen Miller, who is yelling about Greenland because he's figured out that he can get attention by saying outrageous things. He's been saying outrageous things about immigrants for some time, but now he's on the Greenland background.
- [17:27]
Michael Wolff
Well, he says outrageous things in a natural way because he is crazy. I mean, let's not.
- [17:35]
Joanna
He is crazy and grim looking and he's having another baby. He and his podcaster wife, Katie.
- [17:41]
Michael Wolff
I mean, the Stephen Miller thing is really interesting and really central to this. I mean, if there is a consistent policy person in this utterly inconsistent White House, it is Stephen Miller, deputy Chief of staff. And he has been able to sell first this immigration policy, which in no way can I construct a scenario in which this is. That this is going to ultimately redound to the Trump administration's benefit. Yes, immigration is down, but to then pair that with these pictures on a daily basis of incredible cruelty. Does this work in America? I think it absolutely does not.
- [18:41]
Joanna
And does it work on social media?
- [18:43]
Michael Wolff
Yeah. No. And the cruelty is part of the Stephen Miller thing, you understand? You look at the man, he says, I am a cruel person. I want to be cruel. This is what gives me pleasure.
- [18:59]
Joanna
Yeah. And didn't you say that Donald Trump thinks of him as weird?
- [19:04]
Michael Wolff
Yes. I mean, always. Certainly in the first. In the first administration, it was weird. I mean, he would call him Weird Stephen, and there's something wrong with him. I mean, you can't spend five minutes without thinking, ooh. I mean, the way he looks at you, the way he moves. I mean, I don't want to. Let's not make fun of someone's physical. The oddness of someone's physical presence, except if they're a cruel motherfucker. And obviously, in this situation, we have. Whatever is going on there is warped.
- [19:45]
Joanna
Is warped. Is warped. That's a great way of putting it.
- [19:47]
Michael Wolff
And he is a vital piece of this Venezuela thing. Where did the Venezuela obsession. Imagine being obsessed with Venezuela?
- [19:58]
Joanna
Hard to imagine. Do you think that Donald Trump could find Venezuela on a map? We have. I just. Many of you challenged us to take the MOCA test. So I have the MOCA test here, and we're going to take part of it. And I urge everybody to download this. This is the Montreal Cognitive Assessment Test that our President Aced we're going to see if we can ace it, too. But how did I get onto that?
- [20:20]
Michael Wolff
I tried it a few minutes, do you think, before we went live and we already had a few problems.
- [20:26]
Joanna
It didn't go well. It didn't go well, but do you think. I know. He passed the. The. Well, he aced the Montreal.
- [20:33]
Michael Wolff
Does he know where Venezuela is?
- [20:34]
Joanna
Can he find it on a map?
- [20:35]
Michael Wolff
No.
- [20:36]
Joanna
Could he find it on a map if you gave him a map of South America and said, please draw us the shape of Venezuela?
- [20:41]
Michael Wolff
He could not. Absolutely could not. But anyway, why Venezuela out of every place? I mean, if the interest is in an interdiction of drugs coming into the country. Well, then you would pick any number of other Latin American countries over Venezuela.
- [21:05]
Joanna
Well. And you wouldn't have just pardoned the Honduran president who we talked about, Juan Orlando Hernandez, who had tried to stuff cocaine up the noses of the gringos. Literally, his phrase. And I made a mistake in our last podcast when I said he'd personally been responsible. Not personally himself, but overseen 50 tons of the stuff. And someone pointed out, no, no, no. It was nearer 500 tons of cocaine into America. And cocaine is not a problem drug. I mean, it is a problem drug, but not on the scale of fentanyl.
- [21:38]
Michael Wolff
Yeah, no. So you would pick other countries for that if your concern was an incompetent leftist regime. There are other more incompetent leftist regimes. Not to say that this is not an incompetent one, because it certainly is. And then. Which leaves you with the oil question. But we're in the middle of a worldwide oil glut, so why Venezuela?
- [22:08]
Joanna
Because it's season two of Landman.
- [22:11]
Michael Wolff
Well, it is season.
- [22:12]
Joanna
Well, it's actually season three. I didn't realize Paramount had released season two. I can't wait to watch it. It's my absolute, absolute favorite show. Go. Billy Bob Thornton. Love him so much. And everybody's learning about the oil industry through Landman. It's amazing. Landman, season three. That's what this is. I bet you Trump's been watching Landman at 4 in the morning.
- [22:32]
Michael Wolff
Completely. But anyway, so where does this come from? Why? And there are really two reasons. One is Stephen Miller, who is obsessed with. Obsessed, obviously, with immigration, Latin American immigration, Brown immigration. And one of his. Part of his visions here is that we have to take over these other countries and then we can contain the immigrants there. I mean, this is. We're in a.
- [23:09]
Joanna
How does this sit with not only Maga, but Peter Thiel and All the Silicon Valley bros, David Sacks, who's his big AI advisor, who are desperate for real engineering talent from India, I mean, and from China. How does this work with their worldview? How do they square this circle?
- [23:33]
Michael Wolff
Well, I don't know how they, they square this circle by believing that they can control Donald Trump in some way or manage Donald Trump or get something from Donald Trump. I mean, they have. I don'tand maybe they have. I mean, the whole tax is supposed.
- [23:55]
Joanna
To be the HB1 visa whisker.
- [23:58]
Michael Wolff
Yeah. I mean the whole crypto world obviously has been been amply rewarded by Donald Trump. In the AI world, they are trying, certainly trying to get what advantages they can. And I think that they believe at this point they have scored, certainly scored more from this administration than they have from the last administration, a Democratic administration. So I mean, I think that they feel, I would say the tech bros feel relatively good about this. At the same time, they think Donald Trump is a moron, of course. And then, which brings that question to the J.D. vance question, you know, is J.D. vance the future that they are riding on here? But then the other aspect to come back to this, of Venezuela, which is fascinating to me, why Venezuela is Marco Rubio. And Marco Rubio, who is a Florida politician, senator from Florida, deeply involved in Cuban exile matters.
- [25:17]
Joanna
Child of Cuban immigrants.
- [25:19]
Michael Wolff
Child of Cuban immigrants. And, and the relationship of Cuba to Venezuela is very direct. So that Venezuela is one of his hobby horse. So both Miller and Rubio have brought this Venezuela to Donald Trump, essentially saying, we have our issues here. And then Donald Trump has taken this and bent it to his uses. I'm going to take over Venezuela. I'm going to go, I'm going to go head to head with this guy Maduro. I'm going to take him out. I'm going to be, he's going to be my enemy. I am going to win, he is going to lose. I mean, the whole Trump thing, who is my enemy? I mean, in reality television terms, where's the conflict? Who is the enemy? There's this good guy and the bad guy, the person you root for and the person you root against. Now, by the way. And it doesn't, you don't have to be the person you root for. You know, the villain is also as charismatic as the hero or more.
- [26:40]
Joanna
Right.
- [26:40]
Michael Wolff
Well, and in this situation, it doesn't matter. I mean, basically you have two villains. I mean, finally, what always happened, the thugs turn on the thugs. And so you have the bad guy Trump against the bad guy Maduro, which is Compelling.
- [27:03]
Joanna
Another spin off. It's another spin off, really. It's a telenovela coming out of the Apprentice. The presidency slash, Venezuela.
- [27:12]
Michael Wolff
Right. But the important thing, the important context to realize here and to see this, the lens through which to see this is not that there is anything material to gain. So there is no strategy here. There is no agenda. He does not want to run Venezuela and he will not run Venezuela. He will say he's running and he will say they're going to do what we tell them to do, but that's not going to happen. The oil is probably not going to happen. Nothing is really going to change.
- [27:54]
Joanna
Except the plot line, okay, he couldn't run a bath. So the idea of him running Venezuela is, is sort of absurd. But you know, who's going to have to try and run Venezuela or at least try and clear up the mess? And you saw him doing it over the weekend, little Marco.
- [28:09]
Michael Wolff
Well, but even Marco Rubio took the position. Trump is. We're going to, we're taking over Venezuela. We're running Venezuela. Which, I mean, just again, what does that even mean?
- [28:24]
Joanna
Well, and as you pointed out when we did our emergency podcast on Sunday, he made it up on the spot. He just made it up.
- [28:32]
Michael Wolff
Totally. A spontaneous utterance which has no basis. Congress is certainly not going to appropriate the hundreds of billions of dollars this would require. The idea that this will be supported by taking this oil out of the ground. Who's going to take this oil out of the ground? American corporations. Conservative American corporations which will are being asked to make a once in an era existential investment in an unstable, one of the most unstable political situations now on earth. Oh, yeah, that's going to happen.
- [29:13]
Joanna
Yeah, well, and there was gunfire last night. I mean, it feels like it's already begun. Journalists arrested. It doesn't look good.
- [29:21]
Michael Wolff
Yeah, none. But it doesn't matter because none of this is going to happen. And one of the interesting things about Rubio is that he basically contradicted the President. I mean, basically said, yeah, this is, this is not really, we're not really taking it. We're going to work through the existing government. And let's remember, so the existing government, all they have done in this idea of, you know, I mean, there's a lot of talk about this is regime change. It's not regime change.
- [29:56]
Joanna
Right.
- [29:56]
Michael Wolff
It's the same old regime. At least regime change would be a goal and an agenda and something to accomplish. No, they've gone. No, no, no, no, no. Machado, the right, the Nobel Peace Prize.
- [30:13]
Joanna
Winning in theory, leader of the opposition is not allowed.
- [30:16]
Michael Wolff
Forget about her. We're going to same. We're just going to take Maduro, the enemy. I win, he loses, and then we're going to let everything go on just as it has.
- [30:28]
Joanna
Right.
- [30:29]
Michael Wolff
So Delsey Rodriguez, which is essentially what Rubio was saying.
- [30:33]
Joanna
Right. And Delsey Rodriguez, who was the vice president, is now in charge and appears to be every bit as potentially difficult as Maduro. Although maybe she'll be more pliable because are they going to give her lots of money?
- [30:47]
Michael Wolff
Yeah, no, no, I think that they will. I think that they've come to some accommodation there. How long that will last remains to be seen, but it doesn't have to last very long. It just has to last until the next.
- [31:00]
Joanna
And until the next plot line.
- [31:01]
Michael Wolff
Yes.
- [31:02]
Joanna
All right, so. And then we should talk about Mark Kelly. Mark Kelly, who is now being threatened by Pete Hegseth, who, let us remind everybody, couldn't run two Veterans affairs organizations and is now the second most important person. Well, because he's in charge of the.
- [31:22]
Michael Wolff
Military and he's going to run Venezuela, too. Who's going to run Venezuela? Someone in the news conference, as in Trump, says, oh, these guys behind me. And they're going like, what?
- [31:33]
Joanna
Yeah, they're like, yeah. Pete's thinking, well, my experience of running things isn't going so great. Anyway. He's now turned on Mark Kelly because Mark Kelly, with some Democrats in November, urged members of the military not to fulfill orders that could be illegal.
- [31:57]
Michael Wolff
Alas.
- [32:00]
Joanna
What is that? Alas.
- [32:01]
Michael Wolff
Hegseth is right. I cannot believe those words have come.
- [32:04]
Joanna
Out of my mouth. I can't believe those words have come out of your right. Hegseth is right. Surely not. We love Mark Kelly. Mark Kelly, astronaut. He's been to space many, many times. He's done how many? 40 combat missions.
- [32:17]
Michael Wolff
I'm sure he' a very nice man, but essentially what he was saying to members of the American armed forces was disobey orders. You know, yes, there's a technical point if an order is illegal, but that's a highly rarefied situation and a highly complicated one. Who is to. If we had a military in which everyone, which is essentially what he was saying, could make the decision, oh, this is an illegal order. I think this is illegal. I'm not going to follow this. Okay, well, that would be a. That would. We would no longer have a military. So I'm afraid.
- [33:06]
Joanna
I'm afraid Pete Hexoth is right. Not four words I was expecting to come out of your mouth. Now I wish I'D never mentioned two words. Mark Kelly let's make move swiftly on so now I want us to do something that we mentioned on Sunday and everybody said yes, you've got to do it, you've got to do it. Which is we are going to live Take the Montreal Cognitive Assessment Test. This is the test they give to people to see if they are suffering from dementia and then they repeatedly give it to them if they are monitoring that dementia.
- [33:38]
Michael Wolff
A word now from our sponsor this.
- [33:41]
Joanna
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- [37:54]
Joanna
And Michael Wolff and I are back inside. Where else? Donald Trump's head. So we could attempt to do the first stage of the Montreal cognitive assessment, which our president said he had aced. For those of you who haven't yet downloaded it, this is what it looks like. This is the. This is the animal section that he was saying that he managed to identify. I think this is fairly straightforward. Horse. What do you think the second one is? Michael?
- [38:22]
Michael Wolff
Well, I would say that's a tiger. And the third one, and that's a duck. If it could you do that? Looks like a duck.
- [38:31]
Joanna
I've never understood that expression. All right, what about the numbers? This is visuo sp spatial. I quite like that term.
- [38:40]
Michael Wolff
1A2.B3.C4.D5E I did it.
- [38:48]
Joanna
Well done well done. Could you copy the bed that they've done? There's a drawing of a bed that you have to replicate. I think we could both do that. Let's assume we could do that.
- [38:57]
Michael Wolff
We could do that.
- [38:58]
Joanna
All right.
- [38:58]
Michael Wolff
We could draw the clock. Five past ten.
- [39:01]
Joanna
I could draw the clock.
- [39:02]
Michael Wolff
I was just doing this with my 4 year old.
- [39:04]
Joanna
Oh, you were learning.
- [39:05]
Michael Wolff
Tell time.
- [39:06]
Joanna
Okay, so the thing that we both stumbled on, if we're being truthful beforehand, is the memory. Read list of words. Subject must repeat them. Do two trials. Even if first trial is successful. Do a recall after five minutes. The recall after five minutes was tough. And the words were leg, cotton, school, tomato and white.
- [39:28]
Michael Wolff
Leg, cotton, school. You say tomato and white.
- [39:35]
Joanna
Very good. We'll come back to that. If we're still talking in five minutes, we'll come back and see if either of us can remember those words.
- [39:41]
Michael Wolff
I don't think I'm already blurring on them.
- [39:43]
Joanna
Yeah. And then there's abstraction. So this is making connections. And apparently our president aced this. So the similarity between banana and orange, what is the thing they have in common? Can you tell me that one?
- [39:59]
Michael Wolff
Well, I can because I'm reading it right here. But they are. That's the example. They are fruit.
- [40:03]
Joanna
All right, well, that's the example. And it's fruit. All right, I'm going to read you the second one because the answers aren't in that hammer and screwdriver.
- [40:12]
Michael Wolff
They are tools.
- [40:13]
Joanna
Well done.
- [40:15]
Michael Wolff
Matches and lamp, sources of light.
- [40:18]
Joanna
Okay, very good.
- [40:20]
Michael Wolff
Okay, this is humiliating.
- [40:24]
Joanna
All right, can you remember the words?
- [40:27]
Michael Wolff
Leg, cotton, school, tomato, white.
- [40:31]
Joanna
Well done. Okay, now I'll test you on them again a bit later. Okay. An orientation. For this you have to give your date month, year, day, place and city. So can you give me the date with difficult.
- [40:43]
Michael Wolff
The fifth?
- [40:45]
Joanna
No, no, I'm going to give you a clue. It's the fifth anniversary of.
- [40:49]
Michael Wolff
Oh, January. Is this January 6th?
- [40:51]
Joanna
January 6th? Yeah.
- [40:52]
Michael Wolff
Oh, my God. So why aren't we.
- [40:56]
Joanna
Why aren't we at what?
- [40:57]
Michael Wolff
Why aren't we pausing at that?
- [40:59]
Joanna
Well, we can pause at that, but right now we're trying to orientate ourselves on the MOCA test, which our president has aced. So, date. January 6th.
- [41:09]
Kevin Fallon
Month.
- [41:10]
Joanna
Can you give me the year?
- [41:11]
Michael Wolff
No, we're at the month.
- [41:12]
Joanna
Yeah, you said January 6th.
- [41:16]
Michael Wolff
Yes, yes.
- [41:17]
Joanna
The year.
- [41:18]
Michael Wolff
It is 2026.
- [41:19]
Joanna
Well done. Which is the year of the. In the Chinese astrological year, do you know what animal it is?
- [41:26]
Michael Wolff
No, no.
- [41:26]
Joanna
The year of the Horse day.
- [41:29]
Michael Wolff
The horse.
- [41:29]
Joanna
The horse.
- [41:30]
Michael Wolff
The horse. Right here. It's part of.
- [41:32]
Joanna
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Part of it. Okay. What's the day? Day of the week?
- [41:38]
Michael Wolff
It's Tuesday. Always Tuesday when I'm sitting here.
- [41:41]
Joanna
Yep. Well, sometimes you come in on Thursday, but mainly it's Tuesday place.
- [41:47]
Michael Wolff
New York City in the Daily Beast offices.
- [41:50]
Joanna
Very good.
- [41:51]
Michael Wolff
Okay, Far.
- [41:52]
Joanna
All right, so I'm gonna sign. I'm gonna sign. You've passed your mocha test. Well, wait a minute. You have to give me the words. You have to give me the words again.
- [42:04]
Michael Wolff
You see, I've already. Okay, wait a minute. When. Just start me off there. What was the body part?
- [42:08]
Joanna
Body part. Lower body part.
- [42:10]
Michael Wolff
Legs.
- [42:12]
Paylocity Advertiser
Cotton.
- [42:13]
Michael Wolff
Tomato. White.
- [42:16]
Joanna
There's one word missing. Where do your kids go during the day?
- [42:20]
Bilt Loyalty Program Host
School.
- [42:20]
Joanna
Excellent. Michael Wolff, you've passed your MOCA test. You and the president of both. It's marvelous. It's absolutely marvellous. So the president's. Mental health, clearly a big issue. I know that you're saying that Venezuela is a plot twist. To what extent do we think he really is wrestling with mental health issues?
- [42:41]
Michael Wolff
Well, let me frame this in back to reality television terms. You have to. You have a central character in reality television, or you have the character that you want people to focus on. And his character is. I am indomitable. I'm the. I'm the winner. Everyone else is the loser. That's basically the single character note. But he's had problems with that in the last number of months in which he no longer seems. His strength seems to be fading. And that's on the health side, and especially, of course, on his inability to change the Epstein discussion. So we're coming into the. Not just the distraction from this, but a new plot line that gives him. Makes him again, the strong man.
- [43:41]
Joanna
The strong man, because he looked at the press conference, there were two things that struck me. One, he appeared to be slurring his words slightly. And the other was that when Dan Kane or Raisin Cain, General Kane was talking, and when Marco Rubio was talking, he appeared to be asleep standing up. He could not keep his eyes open.
- [44:00]
Michael Wolff
You know, I mean, I think that there is very. And I think that this comes clearer and clearer, that there is decline here. The extent of the decline, we don't know, but we can see that it is a fact he is lesser than he was. There are things starting to go wrong here. Now, will invading a country and taking out its leader and then putting him on trial, will all this distract from that? Will all this redound to his. The image of his strength? Well, we have yet to see but you know, as I say, and I think it should not be underestimated, he's pretty good at this.
- [44:48]
Joanna
Yeah. And I sort of. It's hard not to see the decline. And then you see him answering questions at the press conference, journalists hurling questions at him, and he seems very competent in answering them. Although he does definitely seem more irascible, hence him sort of slapping back.
- [45:08]
Michael Wolff
Well, but he's not really. I mean. I mean, he answers. I mean, he's bold in his statements, but are they good answers? We're gonna run Argentina?
- [45:22]
Joanna
No, no, they're terrible answers. But he does it as he does it. He's still playing a character.
- [45:28]
Michael Wolff
I mean, absolutely, he is.
- [45:30]
Joanna
He was coherent enough to ad lib his way through the press conference, which if he was really had really wrestling with dementia, he wouldn't be able to do, I don't think.
- [45:40]
Michael Wolff
Well, it's a different kind of dementia. I mean, dementia comes in so many forms. There's the Joe Biden form in which he could not put words together, and then there's the Trump form, or the potentially the Trump form in which he departs by a factor, reality at any given moment or he loses the plot line. And that's back to the Mamdani meeting where everybody around him, you know, they went into that meeting and he was going to treat Mamdani like he treated Zelensky, upbraid him and he was going to be. He was going to be the strong man and this was the weak man. This was a setup. This was part of the key midterm setup. Mamdani is going to be our first foil, our enemy. And instead he embraced him and everybody around him was going like, what the fuck happened here?
- [46:38]
Joanna
What did you think?
- [46:40]
Michael Wolff
It was not supposed to play this way.
- [46:42]
Joanna
What did you think of Mamdani calling him to register his anxiety that going into Venezuela and extracting the possibility.
- [46:50]
Michael Wolff
I think Mamdani also wanted to get into the picture.
- [46:53]
Joanna
Right, of course. Right.
- [46:54]
Michael Wolff
Third day and. And I think probably Mamdani was confused by this embrace of Donald Trump. And he, for his own reasons, had to be on the other side of Donald Trump. So this was his way of asserting his own strength.
- [47:16]
Joanna
Okay, so as we're talking, as we came into the room, we heard the unfortunate news that. That Doug LaMalfa, Republican congressman from California, had just died suddenly. Died 65.
- [47:30]
Michael Wolff
I'm attentive to these things.
- [47:32]
Joanna
Yeah, we're all attentive to these things. Anyway, very unfortunate. And our condolences go out to his family. It, of course, means that the difference between the Republicans and the.
- [47:44]
Michael Wolff
Do you know his family?
- [47:45]
Joanna
No, I don't know his family but I feel terrible for them that he died unexpectedly.
- [47:49]
Michael Wolff
Maybe he doesn't have a family.
- [47:52]
Joanna
I can't believe we're having this conversation. I suspect he has a family. Anyway, he certainly has constituents who must be thinking, who are we going to vote for next? And interestingly, the governor has to call a special election. So this now means that by my accounting, The Democrats have 213 seats, the Republicans have 218 and there are four. Four seats now empty. Doug's newly empty as of today. Marjorie Taylor Greene's. And then there are two other. One is a special election that's going on forever in Texas and the other is Mikey Cheryl in New Jersey who became the governor.
- [48:28]
Michael Wolff
So there's one clear Democratic seat.
- [48:31]
Joanna
Well, there are probably. I think there are. I think there are two Democratic seats. So there's Mikey Sherrill's and then the one in Texas was a Democrat and then Douglas Malfa in California is Republican and obviously.
- [48:47]
Michael Wolff
So it is possible that if the two Democrats. If the, if the two Democratic seats are replaced, that would give the.
- [48:55]
Joanna
That goes to 215. That would go to 215 Dems and there would be 200. And if the other two seats that are Republican now. Marjorie Taylor Greene's and Douglas.
- [49:07]
Michael Wolff
Yeah, but I'm just. I mean that's not. I mean the math still does not work. I was just wondering if it would.
- [49:12]
Joanna
But if Democrats got all four, which could happen in a special election just as a protest vote, there could be one vote within the Republicans. All they would need is one Republican. Thomas Massie, Doug, Don Bacon.
- [49:26]
Michael Wolff
Well, we're not.
- [49:26]
Joanna
Anyway, the point is close.
- [49:28]
Michael Wolff
We're grasping at straws.
- [49:29]
Joanna
We're grasping at straws here, but it's close. And Mike Johnson's got his work cut out. Will Mike Johnson be there in six months time?
- [49:40]
Michael Wolff
We're handicapping this, I think.
- [49:42]
Joanna
Well, I think we should go on Kalshee or.
- [49:44]
Michael Wolff
Yeah, no, he will not be there. Wait a minute. Let's figure this in terms of the midterms. They'll want a sacrificial somebody for the midterms so maybe he gets to hang on just so that they can blame him.
- [50:01]
Joanna
Oh, that's interesting. So the minute the midterms are over, assuming the Democrats win.
- [50:06]
Michael Wolff
Well, there won't be. Yes. Then it's in a relevant. That would be an irrelevant position.
- [50:10]
Joanna
Right. He still seems very unpopular with the Republicans.
- [50:16]
Michael Wolff
Well, any speaker would be unpopular. He's not as unpopular as past speakers.
- [50:23]
Joanna
Okay, so Republican speakers, that is right.
- [50:26]
Michael Wolff
Democratic speakers, always quite popular. I mean, that's a reflection of the demo of the Republican Party, which is another key subtext in this midterm year, that the Republicans are fractured. The Republicans hate each other. The Republicans hate Donald Trump, but can't say they hate Donald Trump. So it's a cauldron of unexpected expressed or sometimes expressed bile.
- [50:55]
Joanna
All right, so Michael, you've got young children, your friend from when you were traveling with him As a reporter, RFK Jr. Is limiting the number of vaccines that children can have seeming to me to be unsolving problems we have already solved.
- [51:14]
Michael Wolff
No, it's, you know, I mean, there's Venezuela over here. So we're not paying attention to probably the bigger issue and the bigger problem, which is the undoing of the health care system in the United States by Bobby Kennedy Jr. Former heroin addict at 72 years old, still junior. And that is going to be a lasting legacy of, of the, of the Trump administration.
- [51:50]
Joanna
The dismantling of health care that has been, I mean, vaccines that have been one of the major accomplishments of the last 50 years.
- [51:58]
Michael Wolff
No. And all on the part of a know nothing opportunist.
- [52:05]
Joanna
You know, also attention seeking.
- [52:08]
Michael Wolff
Yes. I mean, also running for president, 2028. Yeah, absolutely. And this is all MAGA base stuff. So this is all a political agenda. It is not a health care agenda. And health care for a very long time in this country has certainly been to the side of politics or over. It has not been a political, there has not been a political agenda here. Now there is a clear political agenda. A clear political agenda with a political purpose. Bobby Kennedy Jr. At 72 is running for president.
- [52:58]
Joanna
And, and at 72, he's still 20 years younger than the judge who is now overseeing the Maduro trial, who is 90.
- [53:11]
Michael Wolff
Yeah. Well, that seems extraordinary.
- [53:14]
Joanna
It's incredible.
- [53:15]
Michael Wolff
But to some of us that's good news.
- [53:17]
Joanna
RFK Jr.
- [53:18]
Michael Wolff
So anyway, so yes, and I think this is, and I've been trying to work this out. I mean, this can't be good for Trump, this dismantling of the health care system, this anti vax group crusade. It is only relevant in terms of the support of the MAGA base, which he needs. But at some point, and I think that point has already begun, that bleeds grievously, bleeds over into all other voters. So anyway, a point of distraction. Well, anybody who's trialed, and we will, we will. And pay no attention to the fact that. Your kids are not going to get vaccinated. And once again, a commercial message.
- [54:14]
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- [55:10]
Michael Wolff
Well, the holidays have come and gone once again.
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Kevin Fallon
But if you've forgotten to get that.
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Michael Wolff
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Joanna
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- [55:41]
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- [55:46]
Michael Wolff
Do they ever actually clean the ball pit at these kids play gyms? Or is my kid just swimming in a vat of bacteria catching whatever cootie of the day is breeding in there. A cootie that'll probably take down our whole family.
- [56:00]
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- [56:14]
Joanna
And I'm back with Michael Wolff inside Trump's head. And of course this week we had the tragic memorial service for Tatiana Schlossberg, who just died. His cousin.
- [56:28]
Michael Wolff
Yeah, yeah. Well, his cousin's daughter.
- [56:31]
Joanna
His cousin's daughter. So his first cousin once removed, whatever that is.
- [56:36]
Michael Wolff
Yes.
- [56:36]
Joanna
Who wrote a very eloquent piece in the New Yorker before she died about how the Trump government are stopping research into essential work to.
- [56:44]
Michael Wolff
Yeah. Impinioning it on him. Yes. On RFK Jr still at 72.
- [56:55]
Joanna
A truly disturbed individual.
- [56:58]
Michael Wolff
No, no. And he is. I mean, that's the other thing. And everyone who has had dealings with him over the years, including myself, it's been very clear there's something wrong here.
- [57:11]
Joanna
He is, as many members of his family have said that, too.
- [57:16]
Michael Wolff
Yeah. I mean, he spent, you know, decades as a drug addict just to begin with.
- [57:22]
Joanna
Yep, yep, yep. And now he's trying to end the Narcon program that has actually been very effective in helping people who've overdosed, especially from opiates. I mean, you can't make it up. You really can't make it up. Governor Newsom now under threat because Governor Waltz says he's no longer running for re election to governor because he couldn't spend enough time on his campaign and serve the people of Minnesota. I don't know what happened last time he ran somehow. He was able to do it last time, but he can't do it now. He looks like he's just thoroughly beaten up and had enough. So he's stepping aside. Maybe Amy Klobuchar will run for his.
- [58:02]
Michael Wolff
And what does that have to do with Newsom?
- [58:04]
Joanna
Obviously, they're trying to, I think, get Newsom out of the way because he seems to be head and shoulders above the rest of the Democratic candidates at.
- [58:12]
Michael Wolff
The moment, you know. Yes, of course. I mean, and that's what they're going to do. That's their job to. Their job as Republicans going into a difficult, a difficult election year is to then start to try to pick off Democrats. I mean, but this is not exceptional. This is. I mean, Trump is particularly good at this. But, you know, you got to rise to the occasion. Let's see what Newsom has.
- [58:43]
Joanna
Well, I think this would probably be good for Newsom. He's very good at dealing with Trump and taking whatever's going on.
- [58:49]
Michael Wolff
This is what. Kamala Harris was not good at this because she was not particularly tried. So, yeah, bring it on.
- [59:00]
Joanna
And also she didn't seem to have the sense of humor that I think helps in the situation.
- [59:05]
Michael Wolff
Well, whatever the reason, I mean, there's a lot of ways that you have to deal to deal with this, but you're only going to learn how to deal with it if you have to deal with it.
- [59:12]
Joanna
Right, right. And then, of course, there are the dancing videos of Maduro that everybody said actually triggered Trump.
- [59:21]
Michael Wolff
Do you think that's possible in the way that 100%. This is Mano a mano. This is.
- [59:29]
Joanna
Let's just say that again. What was that? Mano a mano. Say it one more time.
- [59:34]
Michael Wolff
Well, that's what, you know, it was. Trump personalizes these things. It only really works for him if he personalizes it, you know, and the walls thing, I am against him. The Newsom thing, I am against him. I need an enemy. And the enemy is not an abstraction, it's a person. In this case, it was Maduro doing.
- [59:56]
Joanna
That weird dance that looked like it was mocking.
- [59:59]
Michael Wolff
Yeah. And then to the extent that Maduro, remember, they offered him all kinds of stuff, you know, we'll set you up anywhere you want, you know, a luxurious retirement. And he said, completely rejected that, and then danced in a mocking fashion. You know, I mean, it goes. It pierces Trump directly when you mock him. The thing you must not do is mock Donald Trump. And so, yeah, he took him out because of that.
- [60:36]
Joanna
And his tracksuit, his sweatsuit that he was wearing, you cannot find it for love nor money because it's sold off the shelves and there's now a wait list. Would you like me to put you on the wait list for one of those? It's a sort of beige tracksuit, you.
- [60:49]
Michael Wolff
Know, Joanna, I would not.
- [60:51]
Joanna
With black zip jacket.
- [60:52]
Michael Wolff
I'm going to pass on that.
- [60:53]
Joanna
So, Michael, as you made the point, the release of the Epstein files didn't really solve anything. It just threw 1.6 million files out into the open and people are still wading through them.
- [61:07]
Michael Wolff
And with apparently another 5 million files.
- [61:11]
Joanna
Another 5 million to go.
- [61:12]
Amazon One Medical Advertiser
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- [61:13]
Joanna
Oh, I missed that.
- [61:13]
Michael Wolff
Yeah. No, this is. This is. I mean, Venezuela, of course, it is going to dominate the news for the next X number of news cycles. But then we are going to come back to Epstein. 2026 is going to be the. It's going to be the. This is going to be the Epstein year.
- [61:35]
Joanna
This is the year of the horse and the year of Epstein and Epstein on the horse. It's the year of moving forward.
- [61:43]
Michael Wolff
You know, it is the year where Trump is going to have to account for this. I don't know how he gets out of this. I mean, I guess, you know, there's many countries to go.
- [61:53]
Joanna
Yeah, there's Cuba, there's Greenland, Colombia. Do you think that we're serious about. We are. Do you think the President and Stephen Miller are serious about getting more of Greenland? Because.
- [62:08]
Michael Wolff
Well, it's a totally confusing thing because we basically. We already have everything we could want out of. Out of Greenland. Greenland's a NATO member. We can put more military bases there. Actually, we used to have a lot more military bases. There. And then we, by our own decision, shrunk it to one, I think in Thule. Thule, Greenland. Oh, Thule, Thule. And then we have a variety of mineral rights there that we can exercise our access to or the access through American companies to these. I don't know what we get were we to take over Greenland, except another plot point.
- [62:50]
Joanna
Well, there's only 50,000 people there. So what would be. Or who would we be taking over? We're not going to extract their president because they don't appear to have one. I mean, there's the premier of Denver.
- [63:03]
Michael Wolff
It's completely, I mean, it is just, again, it is what Greenland represents. Something I want or I heard somebody say, well, that Trump wants to be remembered as the first American president in X number of years who has increased the land mass. Yes. The landmass of the U.S. but again, I think that that's all that sees it in terms of agenda, even a ridiculous agenda, but it's still an agenda where what he wants is just to be the center of attention.
- [63:40]
Joanna
Well, it's also what Putin's trying to do with Ukraine. Right. And then if he gets eventually Ukraine, he can go further into Eastern Europe. But it's what he has in common with Putin.
- [63:51]
Michael Wolff
Well, I don't know. I think Putin has a very clear agenda. He wants to recreate the Soviet hegemony. And I mean, Trump clearly doesn't want to do that. He doesn't want to wreak American hegemony. We already have. There already is an American hegemony. And again, Greenland.
- [64:17]
Joanna
Why?
- [64:19]
Michael Wolff
For what reason? Ukraine. Yes. You can say Putin wants this for the following strategic reasons, and those are objectionable on so many levels, but they're clear and they're consistent. Greenland, I mean, Greenland is like this other thing, Venezuela.
- [64:41]
Joanna
But if you look at America, one.
- [64:42]
Michael Wolff
Of these things that they have in common is that you create conflict where there is no threat. In other words, he's not. Trump is never going to go. Trump is not going to go into Iraq. Trump is not going to, into a situation where actually he might put US Troops in harm's way. I mean, in a way that's, I suppose, good. But it's also a, it's almost like a mock war.
- [65:17]
Joanna
Right? It's a mock charge. It's like, you know, standing up to an elephant that's mock charging you. Is that a good analogy?
- [65:25]
Michael Wolff
No, I think it's just again, it's the theater of the this, it's performative. I'm doing this. But really, what is at risk I mean, it's good that there's very little at risk except the world order, of course, but that's an abstraction.
- [65:42]
Joanna
All right, again, performative. But can you remember the five words?
- [65:47]
Michael Wolff
No, I can remember school, I can remember white, I can remember tomato, and I can remember legs. But let me do. I think you probably have to do them in the right order. I think you might do legs, school, tomato, white.
- [66:08]
Joanna
And then the second one is a kind of fabric.
- [66:13]
Michael Wolff
Cotton.
- [66:13]
Joanna
Yes, cotton.
- [66:15]
Michael Wolff
Was this in there?
- [66:16]
Joanna
You've still passed, though. You've still passed. You've aced it. You've aced it. All right, some questions for ourselves. Melania session again for new viewers and listeners. Michael is suing the first lady. First person to do it. So we're asking for questions so that when he has her under deposition for his anti slap suit, we have all the questions that you want him to ask the first lady or the president or anybody else he chooses to subpoena. Here's a question from Melania. From Stardust Memories. Here's a question. Woody Allen film from in South Chicago for Melania. How were you involved with Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein's modeling agencies? Because of course, she was a model.
- [67:07]
Michael Wolff
Fundamental question.
- [67:08]
Joanna
And were you involved with recruiting other girls and women from Eastern Europe, presumably to model.
- [67:15]
Michael Wolff
Valid question.
- [67:18]
Joanna
Okay. This is a question from someone called Amy Ball. I would like to know if Ghislaine Maxwell could also be deposed. If Friends of the Trumps can be deposed. Yes.
- [67:26]
Michael Wolff
Yes. Answer. Yes.
- [67:27]
Joanna
Yes. Okay. Yes. Okay. So we will get an update from you on how it's going with Melania on Thursday.
- [67:35]
Michael Wolff
Yes. As a matter of fact, I'm heading from here to a meeting with a lawyer meeting.
- [67:40]
Joanna
Oh, that's exciting. Well, it actually is pretty exciting. All right, so we promise that if you send Michael your books, he will sign them. He's going to sign Today's to Bob McLennan. Can you sign it here, please?
- [67:54]
Michael Wolff
You know, now, I have done this often enough now that I know the place. You sign books on the title page.
- [68:01]
Joanna
Okay. And you cross your name out, don't you?
- [68:03]
Michael Wolff
Incredibly valuable.
- [68:04]
Joanna
Okay, Bob.
- [68:05]
Michael Wolff
Years to come. Okay, and who are we signing this to?
- [68:11]
Joanna
We're signing it to Bob McLennan.
- [68:13]
Michael Wolff
Can I make. Can I see Bob's Barb?
- [68:16]
Joanna
B A R B Barb, who says she loves listening to the podcast and she loves your book.
- [68:23]
Michael Wolff
Okay.
- [68:24]
Joanna
And she's recommended us to her entire circle. So Barb, if you're watching Michael, is signing your book. Thank you.
- [68:30]
Michael Wolff
To.
- [68:32]
Joanna
And she says, by the way, I picked up your book from biblio.com.
- [68:37]
Michael Wolff
I noticed that this was a remainder copy.
- [68:41]
Joanna
It's a remainder copy. We're also. Thank you for sending stamps. We're going to send it back courtesy of the Daily Beast. But if you have one of Michael's books and God knows there's four of them on Donald Trump and two on Murdoch and you want him to sign them, he is very happy to do so. Very scribbly signature, just like the President. Nice thick Sharpie. All right. So if you have been. Thank you for watching. Don't forget to leave a comment. Tell us what you think about Venezuela. Do you think you could pass the MOCA test? Download it and try with your friends.
- [69:14]
Michael Wolff
Do you think you could run Venezuela?
- [69:16]
Joanna
Yeah. Do you think you could run Venezuela? Very good point. All right, we'll be back on Thursday, God willing. Don't forget to subscribe to the Daily Beast.
- [69:27]
Michael Wolff
God willing.
- [69:28]
Joanna
And Michael is going to read out Beast tier of members. Don't forget, you can join the Daily Beast community. You get extra content, but also you're supporting independent media, which we really appreciate.
- [69:39]
Michael Wolff
And we have these great dinners which you can.
- [69:42]
Joanna
Yeah, we're going to start doing dinners which you're invited.
- [69:45]
Michael Wolff
Invitation to great dinners. I've never been invited.
- [69:49]
Joanna
But you're hosting one. You're hosting. And also don't forget. I'm not sure if they're sold out or not. 21st of January, the 92nd Street Y in New York. Michael and I will be appearing live.
- [70:02]
Michael Wolff
And it will be Trump, Epstein, Melania.
- [70:06]
Joanna
Maybe a little Venezuela, but it will be the day after. It'll be a year to the day since the inauguration of the second Trump administration. So there will be much to review and bring questions.
- [70:19]
Michael Wolff
And we would like to thank our BB level members. Yvette. Yvette. Yvette Johnson. Methinks, Betsy o', Farrell, Ills and Lynns Chelby, Max Quibbit. A lot of new names here. David Shari, Thomas Moore, Maria Voltain, D. Kujer, Watts, Sein Lund, John H. Overrocker, Deb K. Ostratter, Sondra Clark, Travels with Carl. Andrew Beaver, the all time favorite, the Capinator, Harry Clark, Dawn McCarthy, McCarthy, Daniel dog lover M. Griner, D. Stone, Fulvia Orlando, Herbie, Andrew, Melor, Tatnall, Val Love, Francesco, Will Hutchison, Andrea Hodel, Bocock, D.C. sharon Shipley, Connie Rutherford, Karen White and Heidi Reilly.
- [71:33]
Joanna
It's Andrea Hodel. Hodel, like Yodel. She actually had to write in and tell us how to pronounce her name because you would get it wrong. Anyway, Andrea, we really appreciate it and.
- [71:44]
Michael Wolff
Thank you for our team, which has changed now. So I'm Devin Ryan.
- [71:53]
Kevin Fallon
I'm Kevin Fallon. And I'm obsessed. I'm obsessed with finding the best movies and TV to watch and stream. I'm obsessed with all the celebrity gossip you text your friends about in that group chat. I've spent years binging everything worth watching and plenty that isn't going to red carpets and private screenings and talking to the stars for the Daily Beast. Everyone from Meryl Streep to Mariah Carey to Andy Cohen and my best friends. And by that of course, I mean the Real Housewives. Jennifer Lopez even once posted one of my reviews on her Instagram, which is a sentence that will be on my tombstone. And now I want to share it all with you.
- [72:29]
Joanna
I was obsessed with quite a few things. Oh, Hollywood stuff. It's so fun. People really freaking love that show.
- [72:37]
Kevin Fallon
Three times a week on Obsess, the podcast, I'll be telling you what to watch, what to stream, and what the celebs behind your favorite movies and TV shows are really up to. Along with the Daily Beast, Matt Wolstein, I'll interview the stars we are obsessed with and get them to spill their secrets.
- [72:51]
Michael Wolff
I thought, oh, that's fun. It's crazy. It's kooky. And then that image was just everywhere on the Internet for a while.
- [72:57]
Bilt Loyalty Program Host
So mortified, so embarrass.
- [72:59]
Kevin Fallon
It's going to be glorious, it's going to be gossipy, and you're going to be obsessed. I can't wait to see you right here on YouTube. Subscribe now to the Obsessed channel to watch new episodes, dropping every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
- [73:12]
Joanna
I'm obsessed.
- [73:19]
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Paylocity Advertiser
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Michael Wolff
Podcast advertising works. And with Acast Ads Academy, you'll learn exactly how. Our free on demand courses are built from more than a decade of podcasting experience, giving you practical tools to create campaigns that drive results. Complete the course and you'll earn a certification that proves your skills in one of the fastest growing channels in media. Get started today@go.acast.com academy. Want more great listens? Check out our comedy podcast the Last Laugh and our Star Studded the Daily beast podcast@thedailybeast.com podcasts.
- [74:56]
Bilt Loyalty Program Host
If you enjoyed this episode, consider becoming.
- [74:58]
Joanna
A Daily Beast subscriber. Subscribing is the best way to feed.
- [75:01]
Bilt Loyalty Program Host
The beast and support all of your.
- [75:03]
Joanna
Podcasts as we cover what might become the darkest timeline.
- [75:07]
Bilt Loyalty Program Host
Head to thedailybeast.com membership podcast and sign up today.