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- [00:00]
Boost Mobile Advertiser
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- [00:30]
Michael Wolfe
Dreaming of getting the all new iPhone.
- [00:32]
Commercial Announcer / Ryan Reynolds
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- [00:35]
Joanna Weiss
Then stay in bed and let a.
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Michael Wolfe
Boost Mobile expert deliver and set it up for you. Oh, actually they will have to get up and open the door.
- [00:41]
Sponsor Voice
Oh right.
- [00:42]
Commercial Announcer / Ryan Reynolds
Delivery available for select devices purchased@boost mobile.com terms apply.
- [00:45]
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- [01:34]
Michael Wolfe
They just had never seen this completely different Trump behavior and unexpected. And what causes this? And with Mamdani, people in the White House said, great, this really gives us an enemy. You know, perfect enemy, left wing socialist, immigrant. It just fit every category that they needed until he comes to the White House and he becomes the model citizen for Donald Trump's new world.
- [02:04]
Joanna Weiss
What about the idea that somehow Trump is playing three dimensional chess?
- [02:11]
Michael Wolfe
I'm glad you asked. This person who was really just flabbergasted by the whole thing said he doesn't play 3D chess. He has one game. And this wasn't it. And you know, the implication here is that something had happened here. There was some really alarming mood swing.
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Joanna Weiss
Michael.
- [02:39]
Michael Wolfe
Joanna.
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Joanna Weiss
People can't see, but I'm going to tell you anyway. You are wearing the most delightful plum colored pants.
- [02:47]
Michael Wolfe
Thank you.
- [02:48]
Joanna Weiss
Are they moleskin or are they cord or are they velvet?
- [02:51]
Michael Wolfe
The. They're corduroy.
- [02:52]
Joanna Weiss
Yeah. They look very good. Very good. And your. This is nice too.
- [02:58]
Michael Wolfe
Appreciate it all.
- [02:59]
Joanna Weiss
It's quite fancy, isn't it? It's nice and soft. Is it cashmere? It is, yeah. Very nice. Okay, so what are you hearing inside the White House? Inside Trump's?
- [03:08]
Michael Wolfe
Well, you know, this was kind of. I mean, I had been puzzling about this Mamdani thing as the whole world was puzzling about this.
- [03:18]
Joanna Weiss
And this is the press conference with mam. Dani going down to dc.
- [03:22]
Michael Wolfe
Yeah. And with this love fest. I mean, Trump doesn't have a love fest with anyone except himself. So it was like shocking. And so I spoke to some of the people, and particularly one person I speak to often in the White House, and I would characterize this person as quite up close to what is going on. And I said, well, what was everybody's reaction to this? And he said, everybody's reaction was, what the fuck?
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Joanna Weiss
Really?
- [03:59]
Commercial Announcer / Ryan Reynolds
Yeah.
- [04:00]
Michael Wolfe
And it was like, yeah, nobody expected that. This was not the script. It was completely out of the blue. And then he added, and concerning.
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Joanna Weiss
Concerning? Why concerning? Because I feel like, isn't it. I mean, Trump's typical bully in that for the most part, I always think of him as actually being quite nice to people's face and then the minute they leave the room, he's horrible.
- [04:25]
Michael Wolfe
No, I think that that's a misunderstanding because remember, it's all Trump on set.
- [04:32]
Joanna Weiss
Right.
- [04:33]
Michael Wolfe
So the Oval Office is always the message that he wants to send. I am the dominant person. I. I'm the big guy, you're the small guy. I am angry. And you're going to take it. I am. I am the president. And you're not.
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Joanna Weiss
Right. You're a lesser person.
- [04:53]
Michael Wolfe
This is for you.
- [04:53]
Joanna Weiss
You're a lesser president.
- [04:54]
Michael Wolfe
Yes.
- [04:55]
Joanna Weiss
I suppose you think of Zelensky and you think of the South African president taking the brunt of him. Yeah.
- [05:00]
Michael Wolfe
I mean, virtually anybody he is sending that message. And it's a message of dominance and submission. Except for this, which was my son.
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Joanna Weiss
Right.
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Michael Wolfe
And so, I mean, among the other things. So this person that I was speaking to said this wasn't just losing the plot, this was like a different guy. The look in his eyes was crazy.
- [05:28]
Joanna Weiss
So the look in Trump's eyes as he's looking up to Mamdani.
- [05:31]
Michael Wolfe
Yes. I mean, they just had never seen this. Completely different Trump behavior and unexpected. And what causes this? And with Mamdani, this person, he has said only terrible things about the person who, even when Mamdani won, the people in the White House said, great, this really gives us an enemy, you know, perfect enemy, left wing, socialist, you know, immigrant. It just fit every category that they needed until he comes to the White House and he becomes the model citizen for Donald Trump's new world.
- [06:14]
Joanna Weiss
What about the idea that somehow Trump is playing three dimensional chess?
- [06:20]
Michael Wolfe
I'm glad you asked, because this person, who I was, who was really just flabbergasted by the whole thing, said, he doesn't play 3D chess. He has one game and this wasn't it. And, you know, the implication here is that something had happened here. There was some really alarming mood swing.
- [06:47]
Joanna Weiss
Is it possible he's had a stroke over the weekend? We had Dr. I mean, well, we had Dr. John Gartner on the podcast last week, and he was saying that, you know, there are clear indications that something has gone wrong. Sticking his leg. He's got a freedom.
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Michael Wolfe
Well, this would be. I mean, this was certainly the suggestion. And you know, the point was, the point this person was made, and I think it's a fundamental point about Trump, is that he always stays in character, which is, of course, what he does. What is his training? 14 years as a star of a hit reality television show. He is in character. And this person, the view was that this was so weird that he's on the set, the cameras go on, and suddenly he's playing an absolutely different part. And this person said, and this was, as you can see, I wrote this down, all of this down, because this was like riveting. So he says, literally the only explanation was that the guy forgot who he is. So weird. He says. And then he said it gives you a 25th Amendment shiver.
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Joanna Weiss
Well, the 25th Amendment being when you can remove the President because he's no longer in sound mental health. Mental state.
- [08:22]
Michael Wolfe
Yes. So at any rate, wow. I mean, I don't know, we're just encapsulating that one moment. But the people around Trump saw that moment and they were, to say the least, startled.
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Joanna Weiss
And do we. Is this. Do we think. Because Mam Dani is very charming because they'd had a private meeting beforehand where Mam Dani had paid homage or. I mean, Trump appeared to be enjoying himself. He appeared to really think that this.
- [08:51]
Michael Wolfe
Young man was, I think, other son thus suggests is that this was so different, and Trump is so good at playing the role, but he clearly was not in that role out of character, playing a different role. And the view of this person and people around Trump was that they had no explanation for what was going on here. So we can invent an explanation.
- [09:25]
Joanna Weiss
Well, I'm interested.
- [09:27]
Michael Wolfe
It could be a stroke. I mean, it could be. What else could it be? I mean, the idea that he might actually have liked Mamdani is not plausible. First thing, because he doesn't really like anybody and because he knows that's not the job here. The job is to be. To be the godto be Donald Trump. I mean, remember? And it's fundamental. What role is he playing? He's playing the role of Donald Trump, and it's the Apprentice. It's the guy. I'm the boss. I'm Trump, and you're nothing.
- [10:06]
Joanna Weiss
Is it possible that he worries about New York because Melania is living here and he wants to make sure she's safe?
- [10:14]
Michael Wolfe
What do you think, Joanna?
- [10:16]
Joanna Weiss
I'm very curious to know what's going on or what was going on inside Trump's head when he was with Mamdani. And I thought there were.
- [10:26]
Michael Wolfe
Well, I think the implication here is that something untoward was going on in his head. I mean, he had lost the plot.
- [10:35]
Joanna Weiss
So I had a couple of observations about the press conference, which I watched a couple of times. 1. One is that his chair was physically too low for the desk. So he looks like he's sitting in a child's chair, and he's not quite high enough. Like, you and I are both high at this desk. If you look at it, the desk comes up to here, and he looks strangely small. And Mamdani is unnaturally calm. So he just stands there. He holds his fourth finger, and he just stands there. And he's not doing the thing that Elon did, which is sort of twitching and jerking. And Elon's child is picking his nose and wiping the booger on the desk. And Trump is looking horrified. Ma', am. Dani actually looks to be the powerful one in the room. And Trump just looks like. And then the sort of, you know, you don't have to answer that question. And the constant hand on his arm, like I'm doing to you, was noticeable?
- [11:29]
Michael Wolfe
No, everything was off about this.
- [11:33]
Joanna Weiss
I mean, is it possible he was just really fatigued?
- [11:39]
Michael Wolfe
Of course. I mean, there's many possibilities, but I think the clear signal that is being certainly sent by this person is that something was off.
- [11:53]
Joanna Weiss
Right.
- [11:54]
Michael Wolfe
And so we can speculate about what that might be. But the larger point is that Donald Trump never breaks character, is always in character. That is his strength as a politician. Except for this moment when something went.
- [12:16]
Joanna Weiss
Awry, maybe Marjorie Taylor Greene's resignation has really gotten to him and he understands something bigger going on.
- [12:25]
Michael Wolfe
It's quite possible that a lot of things have gotten to him. You know, the interesting thing, I mean, many people have observed is that this, that the presidency certainly the first time around, really didn't affect him much. You know, all other presidents, you know, you can see their hair going gray. They look, they look haggard. They look like they've been to, say the Lee's working way too hard. That was never the case for Trump, partly because he wasn't working that hard. Gets up late, plays a lot of.
- [12:59]
Joanna Weiss
Golf, watches television, to be fair. And eats ice cream.
- [13:02]
Michael Wolfe
Yes. Watches television. I mean, a point that was always made is that his life in the White House was not appreciably different from his life in Trump Tower.
- [13:12]
Joanna Weiss
Right.
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Michael Wolfe
But maybe, you know, in this year, and we're heading, coming very close to the end of the first year of this presidency, this, you know, this has been a active year.
- [13:28]
Joanna Weiss
Well, it's been a very active year. And the last couple of weeks have been difficult because you have the shutdown, you have the problem with the health care premiums, which are doubling. One of the reasons Marjorie Taylor Greene said she was quitting politics, because she could see the impact of it on her daughters who are going to have their premiums double.
- [13:47]
Michael Wolfe
No, and actually, that's a good point, which we should, because I think it's central that he is now considering, again, completely out of character, extending the Obamacare subsidies.
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Joanna Weiss
Right. And what's clear is that the Republicans haven't come up with a substitute for Obamacare. Do you remember when he was campaigning, he said, oh, I have a concept for it. I've got some ideas. Nothing's materialized. The Republicans haven't come up with anything that's better than Obamacare, even if Obamacare turns out to be pretty broken.
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Michael Wolfe
Right. And. Well, actually, that has been sort of their saving grace. They couldn't come up with anything, so they haven't changed Obamacare. But if the cost of Obamacare goes up, people are going to feel that. I mean, they're really going to feel that. And they are going to blame it. Not on Obamacare.
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Joanna Weiss
No, they're not going to blame it on. Blame it on Trump. So is it possible that he hasn't actually understood, because he's not directly impacted by it, that people's premiums are actually going to double and in some cases treble, which means that people are going to go from paying, say, $800 a month to 1600 or even up from 2000 to 3000 to $4000 a month. This is real money. And it's going to impact red states as well as blue.
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Michael Wolfe
It is, it's beyond real money. It's real money. It's real, real money.
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Sponsor Voice
Right.
- [15:13]
Joanna Weiss
It's going to mean a lot of people are going to go bankrupt.
- [15:16]
Michael Wolfe
It's not an incremental step up.
- [15:19]
Joanna Weiss
Right.
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Michael Wolfe
It's a bankrupting step up.
- [15:25]
Joanna Weiss
It's a bankrupting step up. And it's also bankrupting for a lot of Republican, you know, Congress people and senators. This is, I don't understand how the Republicans have baked this in and not thought it was bad for them.
- [15:39]
Michael Wolfe
Trump, needless to say, is not one of his gifts, is not holding two contradictory ideas in his head at the same time. Soand his overriding point here is Obamacare bad.
- [15:54]
Joanna Weiss
Right?
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Michael Wolfe
That is the thing. I mean, from the beginning of his political career, Obamacare bad. And he certainly, he has not replaced Obamacare. He has not fixed Obamacare. He has not even given much thought to Obamacare except Obamacare bad. So coupling that with Obamacare bad, but a more expensive Obamacare bad for him is a complicated, is a little more complicated than Trump is used to.
- [16:30]
Joanna Weiss
Well, and especially because I do think the Democrats have been fairly strong in hammering out the message that this is because he's given a tax break to billionaires, to the richest.
- [16:42]
Michael Wolfe
It's not, none of this is good. And so I think maybe there's a broader issue. Does he realize, and you know, in saying Trump realizes anything is, you know, you need a little kind of critical understanding of that. But does he sense in some more profound way than usual that actually things are going against him?
- [17:10]
Joanna Weiss
Right.
- [17:11]
Michael Wolfe
That there's a whole political ecosystem that's, you know, if not caving in on him, sending up all kinds of warning signs.
- [17:26]
Joanna Weiss
Right. Well, you've got the unanimous vote for the release of the Epstein files. You've got Marjorie Taylor Greene leaving, and now other people saying there's been this whole kind of anonymous campaign that other people, other congresspeople are going to resign because the Republican Party is a shit show.
- [17:43]
Michael Wolfe
Well, even more fundamentally, you have a very, very difficult economy, which, you know, he fundamentally got elected in 2024 on that issue. And he has not been able to in any meaningful way create any kind that has not been ameliorated. And in fact, you can argue that it has only gotten worse.
- [18:13]
Joanna Weiss
Well, and also, people aren't so stupid that when he says, oh, prices are going down, people are in the grocery store, they're on Amazon, they know that prices aren't going down. I mean, Marjorie Taylor very effectively said, you're gaslighting us. Stop gaslighting us.
- [18:30]
Michael Wolfe
MARJORIE Taylor Greene.
- [18:32]
Joanna Weiss
I know. I can't believe I'm holding her up.
- [18:35]
Michael Wolfe
We'll get to that.
- [18:36]
Joanna Weiss
Well, and then the other bad thing that's happened is, of course, the Comey verdict. You know, Lindsey Halligan, someone you have been pointing out, is utterly incompetent ever since she came on the scene, has lost her case and the judge threw it out with, you know, complete disdain at how this was brought. So a sense of the DOJ in chaos.
- [19:00]
Michael Wolfe
Yeah. I mean, it's not only just the DOJ being in chaos, because it has always kind of been. I mean, since, you know, I mean, that's, that's the whole, I mean, his whole point. I'm going to take over the DOJ. Yes. It's going to be, it doesn't. The DOJ's function is not the DOJ function anymore. The DOJ function is to be my lawyers and to protect me. And what you now see in this is that the DOJ has a fool for a client, which is the President of the United States.
- [19:34]
Joanna Weiss
Right.
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Michael Wolfe
And I mean, that is really the case here. Why did this happen? Because of him. And I'm sure the people in the doj, Pam Bondi, et cetera, are quite aware of that.
- [19:47]
Joanna Weiss
Well, she must be furious because also she didn't even know that Lindsay Halligan was going to file when she did. And at least she said she didn't.
- [19:54]
Michael Wolfe
You know, and let's go back to the Lindsey Halligan story. Lindsay Halligan was one of the women on his, on the campaign, in the campaign entourage who just happened just the fluke circumstance of having a law degree and was only there because of the way she looked.
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Joanna Weiss
Right.
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Michael Wolfe
And because he liked to say a line. Among one of the things about Trump is that, you know, he has a line, he repeats it until you want to shoot yourself. And this line was, I may not have the best legal team, but I have the hottest. And then the phone would go up and there would be a picture of Lindsey Halligan and Alina Habba. And that was the entire, that was their entire reason for being. So fine, he gets elected and she getsyou know, and there was a lot of discussion of what roles would these. Would Alina Habba get? You know, Alina Habba wanted to be the press secretary. No, no. Everybody nixed her on that. Then she wanted to be the United nations representative. No, no, no, no, no. But then she became. Alina Habba became the prosecutor in New Jersey because he put her into that.
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Joanna Weiss
I don't think she's been confirmed, has she?
- [21:22]
Michael Wolfe
She's all too serious. Yes. No, they can't be confirmed. But he can put them in or he thinks he can put them in.
- [21:28]
Joanna Weiss
Right. Well. And interestingly, one of the technical reasons that the case was thrown out is because Lindsay Halligan is the second. What is it?
- [21:38]
Michael Wolfe
Yeah, well, she's not legitimately appointed.
- [21:41]
Joanna Weiss
Right. So she's an interim. And the person before her was an interim.
- [21:45]
Michael Wolfe
It's all right. And it's just, all it is is, is him, Donald Trump, superseding all procedures.
- [21:53]
Joanna Weiss
Well. And it's also him playing at being president. You can do this in a television show. Right. Cause there's no consequences. But in real life, there are consequences and there are other people judging you.
- [22:04]
Michael Wolfe
But even beyond that. So we take Lindsay Halligan, someone who knows nothing about practicing law, but she.
- [22:13]
Joanna Weiss
Was a runner up in Miss Colorado.
- [22:15]
Michael Wolfe
Yes. And she didn't really even have a job in the White House. She had kind of a, you know, a patronage job. So she is literally, and I'm sure she is like, what happened? So she's like a picking. She's like a dummy just put into this.
- [22:38]
Joanna Weiss
I feel I should be defending her here. And yet I can't because she's been utterly incomplete. No, no.
- [22:42]
Michael Wolfe
And. And so she did a job which she. Or she tried to do a job which she couldn't do, which she was only doing because he ordered her to do it. And by the way, no one else would do it. And so it has come to its logical conclusion. A judge looked at this and said, this is not only ridiculous, but this is absolutely absurd. And get rid of this.
- [23:11]
Joanna Weiss
Well, and now because of the statute of limitations, it looks like they can't bring charges against Comey again because obviously they've appealed, the government's appealed, but it's actually run out of time.
- [23:24]
Michael Wolfe
It's just an absolute mess.
- [23:28]
Joanna Weiss
So does Trump mind? Is he just moving on? Is he screaming at people? Is he yelling at Pam Bondi? What do we think is happening here?
- [23:36]
Michael Wolfe
Screaming at people, yelling at Pam Bondi? You know, in the Trump world, and the Trump world is built on so much. Abuse, playing of the legal system this will, they will appeal on this. They will push this out. So what is he going to do here? He is going to push this out as long as he can and he will, I suppose, manage to push it out for some time and continuing to cause problems for Comey and Letitia James, continuing to make them spend money. So this is all whatever vengeance he can wreak, he will. And he will do this even if it holds him up to, you know, a deserved degree of mockery.
- [24:38]
Joanna Weiss
Right.
- [24:39]
Michael Wolfe
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- [24:43]
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Michael Wolfe
Yeah.
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Michael Wolfe
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Michael Wolfe
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- [26:52]
Joanna Weiss
And Michael Wolfe and I are back inside Trump's head. So then the other thing that we've got going on is the Ukraine, Russia peace treaty, which at one point had 28 points to it. I don't know when did it happen that peace plans had 28 points to them? That seems to make no sense to me. Whatever.
- [27:12]
Michael Wolfe
I mean, this seems to be also kind of an extraordinary story, which, as far as I can tell, began with Trump wanting peace. And the only way to get peace in Ukraine is to do what the Russians want.
- [27:33]
Joanna Weiss
Right.
- [27:34]
Michael Wolfe
So again, this is like holding one thought, one thought in his head. Oh, I can. Peace. Peace comes if Russia stops attacking Ukraine. This is what they need to do. That which does not account for the fact that Ukraine will not do any of these things. So how this could have come about in any appreciation of the difficulties in this situation, I don't know. That's staggering. But it did come about. Suddenly there's a 28 point peace plan, which patently the Ukrainians are not going to agree to. The Russians will agree to it. The Ukrainians will not agree to it.
- [28:30]
Joanna Weiss
Well, and I don't think the Europeans.
- [28:32]
Michael Wolfe
Will agree to it, nor the Europeans. So it is dead on the face of it. So why would this be proposed? Why? Why? I mean, this is politics. This is the most basic thing. Why would this even come about?
- [28:50]
Joanna Weiss
Well, and it also felt like the peace band was back together again because our old friends Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner emerged as sort of central to this. Now, obviously, we know that Steve Witkoff is a special envoy to Russia and has been back and forth talking to Putin, though he can never seem to remember what he said to Putin. But Jared suddenly popped up again, as we know that he was sent to steel.
- [29:16]
Michael Wolfe
We have to ask what Jared's game is here, because there's always a Jared.
- [29:20]
Joanna Weiss
There'S always an angle for Jared, and.
- [29:22]
Michael Wolfe
Jared is always the winner of the game, but nevertheless. So this deal is floated. It is leaked, actually, but obvious. Of course it would be leaked. And then they have to. And Trump is defending this. Not only defending this, but he's yelling at Zelensky. You know, you're going to get wiped up more with you if you don't.
- [29:48]
Joanna Weiss
Right. And remember that thing he said to him when he came over in February, You've Got no cards. And he was repeating it again, saying, I told him, you've got no cards, you've got no cards, you've got loads of cards.
- [29:59]
Michael Wolfe
That's fine. And if you think about that, okay, maybe, I mean, as horrible as it would be if Trump then said, we're out, you either agree to this or we are out of this, goodbye. And that at least would have been consistent. But actually, none of that happened, and everybody was sent in to undo exactly what Trump had done.
- [30:30]
Joanna Weiss
Right.
- [30:31]
Michael Wolfe
So we are now back to where we were before, apparently, with a peace plan that would be acceptable to Ukraine but not acceptable to Russia. So we've just. Nothing has happened here at all, except that we have shown once more that Donald Trump has no idea what he's doing, that the foundation here is just a foundation of incompetence. And I can't help but think in the Comey thing, plus Ukraine, you know, certainly sends the message that we are. We're back to the first administration, we're back to the gang that couldn't shoot straight fundamentals of Donald Trump's way of governing. And, you know, this whole year has kind of masked that, just because things I think have happened so quickly and so outrageously or audaciously that everybody is kind of knocked back and has been, if not admiring, in some amount of, intimidated by, I would say, the headlines. Every day's headlines.
- [31:55]
Joanna Weiss
Right. Because it's feels like things are happening and because they've happened with a velocity that we're not used to.
- [32:00]
Michael Wolfe
Exactly. But now we're back to, literally, the first administration. The first administration was a bit of incompetence. After a bit of incompetence, everything was broken in some way. Whatever they did, they did not know how to do. And. And now we're rolling right back into this. You know, he can't.
- [32:28]
Joanna Weiss
Right. He concentrates.
- [32:29]
Michael Wolfe
He wants to indict his enemies, but he doesn't know how to do it.
- [32:32]
Joanna Weiss
Right.
- [32:33]
Michael Wolfe
Yes, he wants peace, but no idea how to bring peace. And not only no idea, but in every effort, is not just a failed one, but a ludicrous one.
- [32:46]
Joanna Weiss
Again, we get back to the. The fact that he is a television producer and that these are sort of announcements which he makes, proclamations which he makes, but he can't do the complicated work of actually making them stick. So he can announce, I'm going after James Comey. He's being indicted. Tish. James is being indicted. But then the indictments don't stick. He can pretend he's got a peace treaty Underway, but nobody's agreeing to no.
- [33:14]
Michael Wolfe
And I think that that was, that's, that's partly what has happened throughout the past year. It's been a whole set of announcements and headlines, and now we're getting to the follow through, and there is no follow through. There can be no follow through because it's all fucked up. Then this other thing, which is, to me, is extraordinary. So, you know, immigration has been a winning issue for Trump, a fundamental issue, arguably, why the thing that has most fueled his political career. So you have that winning issue. A lot of people, you know, for better or worse, saying yes, but then you send in these guys in black and face masks who won't identify themselves, who are on video literally every day dragging women and children away. So you've taken the issue that you are, that has always worked for you, and you're squandering it. Massively squandering it.
- [34:21]
Joanna Weiss
Well, and also taking people out of the workforce that the workforce needs.
- [34:26]
Michael Wolfe
Well, that'. Syner. On a larger economic basis, this is, you know, ridiculous and is going to backfire, but on that more particular emotional basis, humane level, you know, and immigration is fundamentally an emotional issue. You know, keep, you know, we feel that somehow it's wrong and somehow immigration is destabilizing and somehow it's out of control, which you can argue it is.
- [34:58]
Joanna Weiss
Well, and certainly those images of the southern border were alarming to everybody, and it was a missing. It was mystifying why the Biden administration wasn't able to deal with it completely on.
- [35:08]
Michael Wolfe
So in the Trump column, firmly, until you take it out of the Trump column with all of these, you know, the black guys in masks, I mean, they're not black. They're dressed in black, right?
- [35:19]
Joanna Weiss
No, no. And they're deliberately designed to look scary and autocratic. And yet it's backfired because once they're all over social media, people are just appalled by it. And it's not who Americans think of themselves as being, fundamentally.
- [35:33]
Michael Wolfe
So the gang that couldn't shoot straight is back in charge.
- [35:41]
Joanna Weiss
So it was clear that Trump wanted to try and get a peace deal done by Thanksgiving, that now, longerthat no.
- [35:49]
Michael Wolfe
Longer looks, it's all out. It's literally anything that he said that was relevant to this peace deal, which was just the other day he was saying it is out the window, gone, forget about it.
- [36:04]
Joanna Weiss
So what's he thinking? What's inside his head as he approaches Turkey Day?
- [36:10]
Michael Wolfe
Whoosh.
- [36:11]
Joanna Weiss
Apparently, is he going to be having Thanksgiving at Mar a Lago?
- [36:15]
Michael Wolfe
I'm Assuming I'm assuming I'm assuming that will be. It will not be a family affair. Yeah, no, I think. I mean, my question is, is he starting to realize that there are. That this is serious stuff. I mean, right now, you know, and we haven't spoken for a while about the Republicans basically rejecting his political plan to reapportion key states in a way that would give him a likely win in the midterms. So that's an initiative that seems to have failed. So is he looking at losing the midterms? And if he looks. And if he loses the midterms, he's kind of lost. I mean, that means.
- [37:16]
Joanna Weiss
It means he's got one more year left and he's already putting out lame duck vibes.
- [37:25]
Michael Wolfe
Yeah. One more year till the midterms. Yes. Yeah. Well, I think that it's. I mean, he's going to be crucified if there's a Democratic Congress in a year from now.
- [37:39]
Joanna Weiss
And then there's Mark Kelly and Alyssa Slotkin and the six Democrats that were all members of the services who put out a video reminding active members of the services not to do anything illegal.
- [37:52]
Michael Wolfe
I want to take a contrary view on that.
- [37:53]
Joanna Weiss
Well, you don't know what I was going to say. You're going to say they shouldn't have put out the video, aren't you? Yes, yes. And actually, as I was funny enough, I sort of agree with you on that. I think obviously Trump overreacted, as did Pete Hegson.
- [38:12]
Michael Wolfe
Their doing this is completely provocative. Yes. There's a technical point there that you're not supposed toi mean, if the order is illegal, you shouldn't obey it. But the larger point, which is that people can't decide on an ad hoc basis whatso mean people, soldiers, people in the armed forces can't decide on an ad hoc basis or what is legal and not illegal. Only in the most egregious circumstance are you going to come to that. Can you make that kind of qualification? It's completely ridiculous. But having said that, of course he overreacted.
- [38:59]
Joanna Weiss
He overreacted well, and that was what's interesting, I thought. Finally the Democrats have begun to figure out how to get under his skin, because I thought the videos actually were slightly ridiculous, too, but it turned out they worked. And maybe that's what you have to do to have an impact if you're a Democrat.
- [39:15]
Michael Wolfe
I wonder about that, though. I mean, I think it's a safe assumption that everything that Democrats do. I know what you're going to say is probably wrong. And in this case they've given him a, you know, a very credible argument. Now. Yes. Does he ruin his own argument by I think he's shooting them or.
- [39:44]
Joanna Weiss
Well, he said, I mean he basically said execute them. And John Gartner who he had on, I mentioned earlier, said he's like the mad queen in Alice in Wonderland. He's like off with their heads. Off with their heads.
- [39:55]
Michael Wolfe
But that's something that has often been effective for him. I mean it's a very simple, you know, and remember the old Trump thing, you know, not to take him literally or whatever that.
- [40:06]
Joanna Weiss
Right. Take people.
- [40:07]
Michael Wolfe
Don't take him literally.
- [40:09]
Joanna Weiss
Don't take him literally. But take him seriously.
- [40:11]
Michael Wolfe
But they, but they, they understand what he's saying in this instance, he has a point. And they're, they've been kind of at best facile about the whole thing. And one more again, of course from our sponsors who we love.
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- [42:42]
Joanna Weiss
And Michael and I are back. His overreaction does suggest he's not the same Trump.
- [42:50]
Michael Wolfe
No, no, actually, that suggests he is the same Trump. He always overreacts, and to great effectiveness. He overreacts in such a consistent basis that he isthat he isthat that isthat. That's figured into everybody's reaction to his reaction. And it doesn't seem like he's overreacting. It seems like he's playing the character he is Donald Trump.
- [43:15]
Joanna Weiss
Okay, that was quite meta, that response. I'm not sure I entirely followed it, but what are you doing for Thanksgiving?
- [43:24]
Michael Wolfe
You know, making a turkey.
- [43:26]
Joanna Weiss
So are you doing the cooking? Of course.
- [43:28]
Michael Wolfe
I always do the cooking.
- [43:29]
Joanna Weiss
Okay. Do you know, this year I've always done the cooking. This year I'm having friends. And to my absolute excitement, one of the friends called up and said, I'm having the whole thing catered and it will be delivered to your house on Thursday morning. And I'm beside myself with excitement that I do not have to do all the cooking.
- [43:45]
Michael Wolfe
Really?
- [43:45]
Joanna Weiss
Yeah. Yeah. I'm just thrilled it's going to be an overcooked turkey. I don't care. I won't have had to cook it.
- [43:52]
Michael Wolfe
It's going to be lukewarm sides.
- [43:54]
Joanna Weiss
No, it won't be lukewarm sides. I will heat them in my oven. I can do all the heating up.
- [43:57]
Michael Wolfe
Overheating. Overheating.
- [43:59]
Joanna Weiss
Oh, you're just. You're just Scrooge. You're Scrooge and you're coming early. I wish I could go to Mar A Lago for Thanksgiving. I just wish. I wish someone at Mar a Lago would invite Michael and I for a meal at Mar a Laga. I know you've already.
- [44:16]
Michael Wolfe
My Mar A Lago meal.
- [44:18]
Joanna Weiss
What would Trump do if he saw you eating happily at Mar a Lago as the guest of one of his members?
- [44:26]
Michael Wolfe
You know, that's a really good question. Because it could be that I would be, you know, the Mamdani of the moment. And, you know, and it is to your point about this, you know, when I have been with. With Trump, he has always treated me very well. And actually, if he had any beef with me, then he would transfer it. So it's not you. It's my staff blamed me on his staff, and then I got forgiven in this or, you know, once I ran into him on the campaign trail and it was a group of other people and he was coming by and he stopped and everybody was like this and pointed at me and said, I made that guy rich. And then he went on, which is.
- [45:23]
Joanna Weiss
Why you can afford these fabulous cashiers. Yes, it is.
- [45:26]
Michael Wolfe
I owe it all to Donald Trump.
- [45:28]
Joanna Weiss
Lovely plum cords. All right. So many, many comments from last week, including lots of people that liked my analogy to Robert Palmer's Addicted to Love video. They thought that the Maga girls were like a different version of that. Lots of it. Turns out we've got lots of people who loved Robert Palmer. Johnny and Mary, I think it was Johnny's always running around. Anyway, great song. Okay, questions for Ask Melania. Is your John Dyson, John Dice of Bleak House? Legal situation goes on with Melania. Question for Melania. And this is from Nora Page. Nora, thank you. Why did you wear that jacket that said, I don't really care, do you? After visiting kids in cages? And whose idea was it to do that?
- [46:20]
Michael Wolfe
There may be a relevancy issue on that question, but why not try?
- [46:25]
Joanna Weiss
Well, was she signaling? I mean, it might be interesting that she was trying to signal something. What was she signaling?
- [46:30]
Michael Wolfe
Okay.
- [46:31]
Joanna Weiss
Okay. Another question from Sobey Skillinder. My question for Melania is, has Baron every. This is a great question. Has Baron ever spent any time in the sun at Mar? A Lago? He sure maintains a ghostly Manhattan pallor. I would like to say that not all Manhattan palace are ghostly, but Baron does look oddly ghostly, as if he's never seen the sun.
- [46:58]
Michael Wolfe
I think there's a larger question here which I think we will address about exactly where these people live.
- [47:04]
Joanna Weiss
Well, and where is Barron? He's supposed to have moved to D.C. the NYU campus in D.C. why have we not seen any pictures?
- [47:11]
Michael Wolfe
I think we will get to the bottom of who lives where and with whom. Fundamental political question.
- [47:18]
Joanna Weiss
Okay. All right. Okay. This is from Grace Haviland. Ask Melania how she supported herself when she first came here on a visitor visa. Very good question.
- [47:31]
Michael Wolfe
We will get to the bottom of this. Career in. Career in air quotes.
- [47:37]
Joanna Weiss
Okay. And Then this is. This is just a comment. It's not really a question, but it's from someone called just gothere72, which makes me think. Think that it could be one of those foreign accounts that we've been learning about this week, which actually I think is one of the most disturbing stories that so much of political discourse going on on our social media platforms is actually coming from abroad. As we know, Russia, China, various Eastern.
- [48:04]
Michael Wolfe
European countries, you know, and is not even human or. These are bot accounts.
- [48:10]
Joanna Weiss
Yes. Anyway, I'm not sure if this is a bot or not. From. Just got there. It sounds like a bot account. Trump is still competing with his deceased best friend. He was always insanely jealous of him and continues to covet Epstein's friends, women, charm, money and his ability to make people laugh. That feels to me like a weird comment. I think that's from a bot. Just go there. 72. If you are a real person, identify yourself. Fair. Fair. We haven't even mentioned RFK Jr's love sonnet for various reasons because it's. It's a bit sleazy.
- [48:47]
Michael Wolfe
A bit sleazy, yeah.
- [48:50]
Joanna Weiss
It was so weird.
- [48:52]
Michael Wolfe
I mean, it's extraordinary.
- [48:54]
Joanna Weiss
It was so weird.
- [48:56]
Michael Wolfe
Yeah, I. I mean, extraordinary. And also, strangely, he seems to have spent some time thinking it through.
- [49:05]
Joanna Weiss
I don't know what the pentameter was. I was trying to figure out, is it actually a sonnet? Is it kind of a limerick? It sort of fell somewhere between.
- [49:14]
Michael Wolfe
I am just. It's, you know, when I was. Long ago, when I was following Bobby Kennedy around for when he was running Teddy Kennedy's campaign.
- [49:29]
Joanna Weiss
And this was in Alabama or Arkansas.
- [49:31]
Michael Wolfe
This was in. It was in Alabama and there was a little entourage of reporters who were following him and he would disappear. Just you stop at a gasoline station and there was a young girl working the pump. Suddenly RFK Jr would be nowhere to be seen for 20 minutes.
- [49:59]
Joanna Weiss
I wonder if I leave you.
- [50:00]
Michael Wolfe
I leave you with that thought.
- [50:01]
Joanna Weiss
I'm just fascinated as to whether or not there are lots of his sort of children out there that, you know, that the mother has said to him, you are the son of RFK Jr. And the trial's like, my mother is insane. This could never have happened.
- [50:19]
Michael Wolfe
I think we should investigate. We should get into this.
- [50:23]
Joanna Weiss
We should get into it. All right, well, in the meantime, are you going to buy either the ex digital mistress's book, American Canto, or Cheryl Hines book, whose name I can't remember. Oh, it's unscripted. Are you going to buy either of them which one do you think is going to be better written? What? A publishing book.
- [50:42]
Michael Wolfe
You know, I mean, I must say, I mean, whatever I might think about Olivia Nuzi, I have thought that she's a good writer.
- [50:52]
Joanna Weiss
She is a good writer.
- [50:53]
Michael Wolfe
So I don't know. Now, I've seen some initial comment on the book which would not support that, but I'm open. Cheryl Hines, we can assume is not going to be a work of literature.
- [51:12]
Joanna Weiss
Okay, Michael, as always, I'll see you before the holiday. See you before the holiday.
- [51:19]
Michael Wolfe
We have another. Is that. We have a holiday.
- [51:22]
Joanna Weiss
We have a holiday special. We have a holiday special.
- [51:25]
Michael Wolfe
We stop for nothing.
- [51:26]
Joanna Weiss
We stop for nothing. And actually we have a theme, which is Trump and greed. Well, it's really Trump and food.
- [51:35]
Michael Wolfe
Yeah, it's Trump and food.
- [51:37]
Joanna Weiss
Right. It's Trump and food. But I think he's greedy around food. He seems a greedy person. I imagine he does.
- [51:47]
Michael Wolfe
I mean, we're going to discuss. I think we should discuss actually what Trump. What's on Trump's mind when it comes to.
- [51:53]
Joanna Weiss
When he's eating.
- [51:54]
Michael Wolfe
Yeah, because it's so peculiar.
- [51:57]
Joanna Weiss
Okay, well, we'll. We'll get into it then. All right, so if you have been. Thank you for joining us. Please feel free to subscribe to this podcast, leave us a comment and subscribe to the Daily Beast so you can stay on top of the madness that that's going on right now and join our Beast tier of members where Michael can then read your name out. Michael, here's the list of our Beebeast tier members.
- [52:22]
Michael Wolfe
We could memorize them. We should.
- [52:23]
Joanna Weiss
We could memorize them, except they keep growing.
- [52:26]
Michael Wolfe
Herbie, Andrew Mellor. I think Joanna says Mellor.
- [52:33]
Joanna Weiss
I do. I don't know why you put the emphasis on or. That feels all wrong.
- [52:38]
Michael Wolfe
Fulvia, Orlando Las Conde, Sandra Clark M. Griner. Bonzo, Val Love, Francisco Bocock. D.C. karen White, Heidi Riley, Connie Rutherford, Sharon Shipley, Andrea Hodel, Devin, Anna and Jesse. Without whom.
- [53:08]
Joanna Weiss
Without whom, we would have nothing to do on a Tuesday morning.
- [53:15]
Michael Wolfe
Thanks, guys.
- [53:19]
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Want more great listens?
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Michael Wolfe
Check out our comedy podcast the Last Laugh and our Star Studded the Daily.
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