Why Trump’s ‘Bimbofication’ Scandal Will Haunt Him

Summary

The Daily Beast Podcast
Episode: Why Trump’s ‘Bimbofication’ Scandal Will Haunt Him
Air Date: April 4, 2026
Host: Joanna Coles
Guest: Hugh Docherty, Executive Editor of The Daily Beast

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Episode Overview

This episode, hosted by Joanna Coles and featuring Hugh Docherty, Executive Editor, delves into a period described as the "worst week" yet of Donald Trump’s second administration. The discussion focuses on a maelstrom of scandals, including the so-called “bimbofication” affair involving Kristi Noem’s husband, a string of high-profile humiliations, dismissals, and a deepening sense of chaos in the White House. The central theme is how personal scandals intersect with questions of national security, government dysfunction, and the implications for Trump as political pressure mounts – especially with Democrats poised to gain investigative powers.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Chaos of Trump’s Administration ([00:28]–[10:53])

• The Week’s Catastrophes:
  • Trump’s lackluster war speech, the sacking of Attorney General Pam Bondi, and bizarre events like Lindsey Graham spotted at Disney World during a government shutdown. ([03:30]–[04:33])
  • Public humiliations: Trump is booed at the Kennedy Center during “Chicago” and snubbed by Supreme Court justices. ([05:13]–[06:53])
  • Failed legal gambit: Trump’s efforts to overturn the 14th Amendment fall flat, and his conduct in court, including storming out mid-proceedings, “a horrible breach of etiquette.” ([06:53]–[08:33])
• Appearance of Decline:
  • Trump seems “devoid of his usual energy” in his war speech; speculation about his pallor and unusual hair color. ([11:05]–[13:03])
  • Hugh: “He was gripping that lectern for dear life. And interestingly, we didn’t see any pictures of him afterwards... at the White House, you would expect to put out video and photos because this is a White House that lives on social media. And yet there was none.” ([11:45]–[12:20])

2. The 'Bimbofication' & The Looning Scandal ([17:36]–[21:40])

• Brian Noem’s OnlyFans Revelations:
  • Kristi Noem’s husband, Brian Noem, exposed for spending large sums on OnlyFans with a balloon fetish, termed “looning.” ([17:36]–[19:18])
  • Joanna: “He liked to do pouty faces, you know, like people do on... Instagram... and at the Cam girls, who he was paying $20 a minute.” ([18:15]–[19:18])
• National Security Risks:
  • The importance of FBI background checks for cabinet members, and the possibility the White House either missed or ignored red flags about Noem’s activities. ([20:50]–[21:40])
  • Hugh: “Every cabinet secretary is rigorously checked by the FBI before they are confirmed... and that’s where this becomes a big question.” ([21:00]–[21:40])

3. Why This Scandal Isn’t Going Away ([21:40]–[26:22])

• Potential for Political Fallout:
  • Analogies to earlier Trump-era scandals, like Rob Porter, and the recurring pattern of explosive personal issues crossing into threats to national security and governance. ([22:14]–[25:07])
  • With Democrats expected to win the midterms, the prospect of Congressional investigations and subpoenas looms large:
    Hugh: “The moment they get in January next year, they can start issuing subpoenas, they can start demanding every bit of paper. They can haul people in front to ask questions… who knew is hanging over this affair.” ([00:28], [25:29]–[26:22])

4. The East Wing & Trump Ballroom Controversy ([33:35]–[41:34])

• Battle Over White House Expansion:
  • Trump’s plan to build a massive ballroom and demolish the historic East Wing is blocked by a Bush-appointed judge, who rebuked, “Donald Trump is not the owner of the White House, he is its steward.” ([34:25]–[34:47])
  • The judge’s ruling, containing “19 exclamation points,” underscores how profoundly the judiciary views preservation of the White House as public stewardship, not private property. ([39:10]–[40:00])
  • Symbolism: The proposed ballroom would literally and figuratively obscure the traditional line of sight between the White House and Capitol, undermining the principle of co-equal branches of government.

5. Waves of White House Firings & Instability ([31:18]–[32:47])

• Staff Turmoil:
  • The dismissals of Kristi Noem and Pam Bondi mark the end of a period of rare stability. Rumors swirl about further firings, suggesting a return to the whiplash chaos of Trump’s first term.
    "All you can say is the past is prologue ... This is what happened in Trump 1. People lasted days." ([32:35]–[32:47])

6. Media Critique and The Daily Beast’s Place ([42:12]–[45:13])

• Public Perceptions & Pushback:
  • Caroline Levitt, a White House aide, singles out The Daily Beast as persistent critics, joking about escaping their coverage by spending time with her children. ([43:04])
  • Hugh and Joanna respond with tongue-in-cheek pride, describing themselves as living "rent-free in Caroline Levitt’s head," and referencing the show’s independent, investigative mission. ([43:28]–[45:13])

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Chaos:
  “It's almost impossible to stay on top of this flooding of the zone, which, as we know, Trump and his goons do deliberately. It was always a Steve Bannon plan that you just flood the zone. Well, we are trying to mop up the zone and we really appreciate your support.” — Joanna Coles ([01:12])

• On Supreme Court Snub:
  “He walked in, stalked in, and had to just sit like a normal member of the public, surrounded by his own aides.” — Hugh Docherty ([05:40]–[06:07])

• On Bimbofication:
  “It starts with... what's known as bimbofication. He sought out camgirls who pose as bimbos. Hypersexualized, exaggerated physical characteristics, a bit like his wife enhancements and people might see a parallel.” — Hugh Docherty ([21:00])

• On Security Implications:
  “That's the sort of data information that foreign spies live to find. And this, you know, raises a whole load of questions.” — Joanna Coles ([28:10])

• On Trump’s Need for Control:
  “He's more upset about this than he has been about what's been going on in Iran.” — Hugh Docherty, on Trump’s obsession with the blocked ballroom ([34:51])

• Regarding Media Criticism:
  “Caroline Levitt's head. We've taken up residence in Caroline Levitt's machine-gunned head.” — Joanna Coles ([42:34])

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Important Timestamps

• 00:28: Hugh Docherty on Democrats’ imminent investigative power and the lingering “bimbofication” scandal.
• 03:30–04:33: Discussions of political and personal chaos: Lindsey Graham at Disney World during a shutdown.
• 05:13–06:07: Trump booed at Kennedy Center, snubbed by Supreme Court.
• 11:05–13:03: Analysis of Trump’s tired, off-kilter public appearance.
• 17:36–21:40: Unpacking the “looning” OnlyFans scandal and its wider security/political implications.
• 25:29–26:22: Why this scandal threatens to haunt Trump into the next Congressional term.
• 31:18–32:47: End of White House staff stability—signs of a coming firing spree.
• 34:25–40:00: Judge halts Trump's East Wing demolition; battle for White House legacy.
• 42:34–45:13: The Daily Beast’s ongoing role as White House gadfly; being “under the skin” of Trump’s communications staff.

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Tone & Language

The episode is marked by sharp wit, pointed sarcasm, and a gossipy, dinner-table energy. Joanna Coles and Hugh Docherty trade in familiar, breezy language, veering easily from the frivolous to the deadly serious — especially when personal peccadilloes intersect with questions of governance and national security.

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Summary

This episode paints an unmistakable portrait of profound dysfunction, mixing the bizarre and the consequential in equal measure. At its heart stands the “bimbofication” scandal, at once tabloid and gravely significant given its national security implications. Fired staff, judicial rebukes, and public humiliations point to a president under siege, not just from political opponents but from the consequences of his own management style and inner circle. With midterms looming and the Democratic Party poised for a resurgence, Coles and Docherty predict a rough road ahead for Trump—and a long afterlife for the scandals of this unforgettable week.

Transcript

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[Hugh Docherty]

Trump has got to worry about and why bimbofication is not going away is that the Democrats are almost certainly going to win the midterms. The moment they get in January next year, they can start issuing subpoenas, they can start demanding every bit of paper. They can haul people in front to ask questions. And they are making very clear that questions that one of the big areas of questions that they're going to be asking about is what was Kristi Norm up to at the department, Department of Homeland Security? What was Corey Lewandowski up to at the Department of Homeland Security? And they are going to start asking about what background checks were done, what happened to them? And crucially, who knew? And who knew is hanging over this affair.

[Joanna Coles]

I'm Joanna Coles. This is the Daily Bees podcast. And I think this might be the culmination of the worst week in Trump's second administration. We have the war and his very half hearted war speech. We have the firing of Pam Bondi. We have the stopping of the east wing and his ballroom that he wants to dominate the White House. We have him stalking out of SCOTUS after his judges, Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Comey, Barrett, Neil Gorsuch tore through his Solicitor General's position on tearing down the 14th Amendment. And of course, we had Kristi Noem's husband's special corner, shall we say, his bespoke interests on onlyfans with the looning a new word in our vocabulary, all our vocabularies and bimbofication. Who better to discuss this with? And I want to know if he agreed with me that this is Trump's worst week. Then our executive editor, the renowned tabloid editor Hugh Docherty, who I have prized out of the newsroom to make him talk us through what an incredible week this has been. But before we get into it, can I just remind you we are independent media, which is why we're allowed to get under the skin of Caroline Levitt. And we'll tell you more about that later in the show, but feel free and we appreciate your Support. If you smash the subscriber button wherever you're listening to this podcast and also subscribe to the Daily Beast, it's almost impossible to stay on top of this flooding of the zone, which, as we know, Trump and his goons do deliberately. It was always a Steve Bannon plan that you just flood the zone. Well, we are trying to mop up the zone and we really appreciate your support. And also, we all need to stay on top of what actually is going on out there. But now, Hugh, let's get into it. Hugh, is this the worst week of the second administration for Trump?

[Hugh Docherty]

I don't think there's any doubt about that, Joanna. The worst week so far, I think we can see.

[Joanna Coles]

Oh, so far you're predicting more terrible weeks ahead.

[Hugh Docherty]

I think it's almost impossible sitting here on Friday morning. We have just heard that an F15E Strike Eagle has been downed over Iran by Iranian fire. There is no doubt that this is getting worse. But let's just rewind and go through some of the chaos that we had this week. And I can't even cover it all because we don't have the time. This week alone, Lindsey Graham, his close ally, was pictured at Disneyland at Disney World in Florida, despite the government being shut down.

[Joanna Coles]

Well, and despite Lindsey Graham being a huge advocate for the war in Iran, something where you would think he would need to at least be looking as if he's taking it seriously for his own constituents.

[Hugh Docherty]

Yes. And I think that speaks to a lot of people's concern that this has not been taken seriously.

[Joanna Coles]

And he was wandering around Disney World with a Little Mermaid toy.

[Hugh Docherty]

A bubble maker.

[Joanna Coles]

A bubble maker. I wonder if he was going home to blow bubbles.

[Hugh Docherty]

Well, he did go home and he posted to South Carolina where he posted a picture of himself with a shotgun saying that he was shooting clays. But just to get back to the Trump and D.C. chaos. This week alone, his ballroom got put on hold by a Bush appointed judge who was scathing, who said that Donald Trump is not the owner of the White House, that he is the steward of the White House. That was bad. He went to his favorite place, the Trump Kennedy Center. It's really called the Kennedy center, but obviously he's tried to rebrand it.

[Joanna Coles]

He shoehorned his name onto the wall

[Hugh Docherty]

and he's closing it on July 4th. But he went there for the premiere of Chicago and he got booed. Boo.

[Joanna Coles]

I'm just doing sound effects.

[Hugh Docherty]

And those sound effects, the White House edited a version so you could barely hear the booing. But the Reality was he was booed.

[Joanna Coles]

And I think the audience, when they booked the tickets, didn't know he was going, but they were told there would be a special guest. I'm sure they hoped it was going to be some kind of musical star. And in fact, it turned out to be.

[Hugh Docherty]

The president was a musical fan. Booed he. Then the next day, he went to the Supreme Court, and he got much worse, I think, than being booed. First of all, he didn't get acknowledged by these justices, all nine of them. They showed who was the boss. They didn't say, good morning, Mr. President. He walked in, stalked in, and had to just sit like a normal member of the public, surrounded by his own aides.

[Joanna Coles]

And this was for the birthright. He's been trying to overturn the 14th Amendment, which guarantees that anybody born here gets automatically American citizenship unless they're the child of a diplomatic.

[Hugh Docherty]

And this theory has animated him throughout the second administration. It's been pushed aggressively by Stephen Miller. He went in front of nine justices, three of whom he has appointed.

[Joanna Coles]

So Neil Gorsuch, Amy Comey Barrett and

[Hugh Docherty]

Brett Kavanaugh, two of whom are dyed in the wheel. Conservatives who have made their sympathy to him very, very clear. Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, and Justice Roberts, who is a Bush appointee who has given Trump a lot of victories. His lawyers were torn apart.

[Joanna Coles]

So this is John Sauer. John Sauer, strange sounding, who's got a voice like rfk.

[Hugh Docherty]

He has an RFK junior voice. And he was torn apart, particularly by Neil Gorsuch, particularly by John Roberts. It's clear to Supreme Court observers that this was a very bad day. Trump left, he stood up, he turned around, and he stormed out as the ACLU's attorney was speaking, which, again, is a horrible breach of the sort of etiquette you and I have both reported from court, Joanne, and you know that it's a place where respect is shown to a judge. There are nine of the justices here. He showed no respect to justices. He went home, he tweeted, he posted on Truth Social about them. The next morning, he posted kangaroo Court. The chaos of that can't be undersold. But that wasn't even it for the day.

[Joanna Coles]

Well, and also, let's just remind people he was the first sitting president to go and hear oral arguments at the Supreme Court, which, again, is a very theatrical sort of performative act by him. And at this point, it's hard to think he's doing anything other than performing the act of being a president in a sort of television drama. That's running in his head.

[Hugh Docherty]

Every president beforehand who has been to the Supreme Court has been there to show respect for. For the institution. They have signed visitor books. Barack Obama did that. They have gone and had lunch with the justices, and they have even sat and watched oral arguments in cases that don't concern them, to show their interest and respect. Trump wasn't doing any of that. He was there to try to intimidate the justices in a case that he really, really fears he is going to lose and lose badly.

[Joanna Coles]

But of course he's going to lose it. It's been enshrined in the Constitution.

[Hugh Docherty]

It's enshrined in the Constitution.

[Joanna Coles]

It's been practiced law for the last hundred. So it's almost like he's setting himself up for failure. Except that it's clearly not even a dog whistle. It's a blatant whistle to people who are racist.

[Hugh Docherty]

Yes, he went back to the White House. He had a gathering behind closed doors to mark Easter. Bit early for Easter, but he is not going to be in the White House for Easter itself. He'll be at Palm beach, we hope, going to church. We doubt going to church.

[Joanna Coles]

Well, he'll probably be hanging out at some sort of Republican fundraiser at Mar a Lago, I suspect so. And then, fellow, we have fundraiser tonight. That's Melania, by the way, a mild bit early. I will be in New York. You have good fundraiser without me.

[Hugh Docherty]

But this gathering of religious supporters also went off the rails because it was not supposed to be open to the public. The White House accidentally published the video and it showed some really remarkable, I think is one way to put it, outpourings of crazy religious utterances comparing Trump during Holy Week, the holiest time of the Christian calendar, to Jesus Christ.

[Joanna Coles]

Well, and we shouldn't forget that, actually, he started off the week with the Pope in Rome scolding Pete Hemsworth for his insanely aggressive prayers in inverted commas, hoping that American bombs would fall upon Iran and kill people underneath and Godspeed. And it was this incredibly aggressive perversion of what a prayer should be, I think. And the Pope, Leo, an American pope, grew up in Chicago, called him out on it.

[Hugh Docherty]

Yeah. And this whole performance, he then addressed the nation, a speech that he did not appear either prepared for or. Or coherent in his arguments. And it was intended. His aides had briefed it was going to calm the markets and bring down the price of oil. The price of oil was going up on a ticker like that as he spoke. And it has gone up and up since then, it's around $110 a barrel. When he spoke, it was 100. It's now up 110. Gas prices follow, so there's a lot of chaos there.

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[Joanna Coles]

Download TikTok now. Can we. Can we just have a moment on the speech? He looked to me like. Like we know he loves nothing better than to talk. To talk and talk and talk in that regard were quite similar. And he looked reluctant to be there, I thought. I mean, if you think about him at the State of the Union speech, an hour and 47 minutes, he was just yakking away. You could see him roaring off the teleprompter to start shouting out to the crowd. There wasn't really a crowd there, although I know there were people at the White House who applauded him the minute he'd finished. But you felt like he was phoning it in, I suppose.

[Hugh Docherty]

This was not. This was not a Trump. This was not. It was certainly a trumpy speech. It repeated the same sort of patter about the best you've ever seen, things you've never seen before, words that we are all very familiar with. What it lacked was any of that sort of energy that he used to have and that it appeared to be a man. He was gripping that lectern for dear life. And interestingly, we didn't see any pictures of him afterwards circulating among those people who were brought in to clap for him and the white people.

[Joanna Coles]

Meaning was.

[Hugh Docherty]

Well, at the White House, you would expect to put out video and photos because this is a White House that lives on social media. And yet there was none. I think his appearance, either the lighting was dreadful or he was pallid. And I know that there's been. The camera was provided by Fox News, and we are told that people in other broadcasters who receive that pool feed were concerned that the lighting levels were wrong and had to adjust them themselves in their control room.

[Joanna Coles]

Well, it's interesting because his hair looked purple. It had lost the usual yellow sort of color, as one of our commentators pointed out, looked like moldy hay. That mouldy hay color had gone and it seemed translucent.

[Hugh Docherty]

This, I think, sums up. He seemed devoid of his usual energy. And this is not. I'm not being pro or anti Trump in saying this. One of the things about him is that he has a sort of insane energy. We know that. And it appeals to his base. It angers those who are critical of him. But it wasn't there.

[Joanna Coles]

Yeah, like the pilots from the F15 that's been downed. Missing in action.

[Hugh Docherty]

Well, it's, it's missing in action. But what we now know was that he had just fired Pam Bondi in a really strange, you might say callous, certainly brutal way for her. He summoned her to ride to the Supreme Court with him. And being in the Beast is an honour. It's an honour that he has extended to some people, Vladimir Putin, notoriously, who probably bugged it.

[Joanna Coles]

I'm sure he was sitting there sort of putting a little kind of microchip onto the Chair, going, yes, Mr. President, hello.

[Hugh Docherty]

But he, he summoned Pam Bondi to go to the Supreme Court. You would think that's an honour. The Attorney General is going to the Supreme Court, something. Attorney generals don't do much. They're going with the President. Never been done in history. They get to ride down Pennsylvania Avenue in the Beast. It's not an honour. He turns to her and he fires her.

[Joanna Coles]

And it's such a moment from the Apprentice, it's such a moment from the spin off series, which is the President.

[Hugh Docherty]

And yet she was then summoned to applaud him for his speech because he

[Joanna Coles]

wants to humiliate everybody. And she's been particularly craven. I mean, they're all craven to him. It's hard to imagine which one is more craven. Do you remember when she unfurled that huge sort of banner of him outside the Justice Department? So for anybody who works at the Justice Department, it's not the U.S. justice Department. It feels like Trump's Justice Department.

[Hugh Docherty]

And we're seeing more of that, the chaos unfolding because we don't really know why she was fired.

[Joanna Coles]

Well, we can guess. Refusal to go after all the people he wants to personally prosecute. Or she's gone after him in a way that it's just been ineffective. Cause largely what he's trying to do is illegal.

[Hugh Docherty]

But what we do know is that he has appointed his own personal lawyer, as he has described. Todd Blanche is going to be interim, technically is acting Attorney General when she leaves, but she's not leaving for a month. But she's also already left Washington and gone back to Florida. It's a crazy and chaotic scene. We don't know if she's actually going to do anything for the next month.

[Joanna Coles]

Can I make a suggestion? I think that they should put in as Attorney General Lindsey Halligan, Lindsay Halligan, who failed to bring the prosecution against James Comey. Because she wasn't allowed to be appointed because she couldn't even fill out the forms properly. So I think she would be great. Cause she's got fabulous hair. She's got better hair than Pam. We know that Trump likes hair. We know that he loves these women who all look the same. Lindsay Huggin for AG. I think we should start a campaign.

[Hugh Docherty]

Well, someone has already started a campaign. Not for Lindsey Halligan. Alina Habba has posted.

[Joanna Coles]

Oh, my God.

[Hugh Docherty]

Friday morning, has been posting pictures of herself with Donald Trump saying, it's always an honour. You can't take that any other way than a very, very public campaign to get that Attorney General job.

[Joanna Coles]

Well, and Jeanine Pirro also wants it. And Todd Blanche is said to have put a silent knife in the back of Pam Bondi. And Pam Bondi's supposed to already have a job in the private sector. So there's a weird sort of dual messaging going on. On the one hand, she's leaving because she's got an amazing opportunity in the private sector, which I think might just be Pam Bondi Associates and a little shingle outside doing mortgages, wills, whatever else, doing pardons. The pardon economy. She could make a lot of money. That's your next move, the pardon economy. Check out Liz Oyer, the lawyer for that. And yet she was supposedly trying to cling on to the role because this

[Hugh Docherty]

is the nearest thing begging to stay, to summer. And just to go back to this theme of chaos, we haven't seen that in this second term of people. There are only two people who know what Pam Bondi and Donald Trump exchanged in the back of the beast. And somebody spoke.

[Joanna Coles]

Well, just as long as it wasn't

[Hugh Docherty]

bodily fluids, we can think we can be safe. That it was a very brief journey.

[Joanna Coles]

You say that, but then Trump threw out a bit of a strange line when he was. He had press gaggle and said, you can ask me anything. You can ask me about sex.

[Hugh Docherty]

Why did no one ask me and nobody asked.

[Joanna Coles]

What is wrong with these reporters? I would have had my hand up. And you know what I would have said? I would have said, Mr. Trump, what do you think about looning? A new phrase that's come into our language because of Brian Noem, Kristi Noem's husband, also in insurance. I mean, Pam, you might want to talk to him about setting out your own shingle. Cause Brian has done that. Brian Noem has done that. Always been very supportive to his wife. But it turns out he's been looning on the side.

[Hugh Docherty]

He has. And I Think we should explain what this means. And I'm going to turn that to you, Joanna.

[Joanna Coles]

Well, as the editor of Cosmo, I had never come across looning. I'd never come across it. But it turns out there are so many different corners to Turn down on OnlyFans. And Brian Gnome had found one which involves inflating balloons. Was there no helium? Also, I felt for him this morning. Cause one of the problems with all those ships floating around trying to get through the Strait of Hormuz is many of them are carrying helium. And the problem with helium is it basically evaporates if it's not kept at the right time temperature between four and six weeks. So there is going to be a helium shortage. Brian. Order now. Order now. So what Brian Noem liked to do is insert up his T shirt. Who hasn't done this? Admittedly, most of us were four or five when we did it. Balloons. And then twiddle with the ties as if they were nipples. And then he liked to do pouty faces, you know, like people do on Influencers do on Instagram and at the Cam girls, who he was paying $20aminute.

[Hugh Docherty]

Yes.

[Joanna Coles]

So at a time when affordability is actually the thing that appears to be working for the Democrats in terms of the election, I think we should focus on Brian Noem spending $25,000 over the years on OnlyFans with his balloons.

[Hugh Docherty]

So our brilliant reporter Tom Latcham spoke to an OnlyFans model, a cam girl, right. She goes by the name Lydia Love.

[Joanna Coles]

Of course she does.

[Hugh Docherty]

Stage name.

[Joanna Coles]

I go by the name Lydia Love, too.

[Hugh Docherty]

It's an excellent name. But she spoke about. She said that she had interacted with him and that, yes, he had paid roughly $20, maybe slightly, maybe as much as $25 every minute.

[Joanna Coles]

A bit like the price of oil going up.

[Hugh Docherty]

It's like the price of oil going up as you talk. And all of this is. It might be sad. It's certainly causing people a lot of intrigue, amusement. But she raises a lot of very, very important questions, and that's why this is not going away.

[Joanna Coles]

Go on, tell me more. I don't know if it's sad. I mean, and also, none of this would matter were it not for the fact that he was married to the head of Homelands.

[Hugh Docherty]

Absolutely.

[Joanna Coles]

You do you. You wanna do your own personal thing. I don't think it's sad if he like balloons, rubbing balloons, whatever he does with balloons, pops balloons. Good for him. But when your wife is in charge of the safety of every single American

[Hugh Docherty]

well, and that's exactly why this is a big scandal that isn't going to go away. It starts with it's what's known as bimbofication.

[Joanna Coles]

Bimbofication.

[Hugh Docherty]

Bimbofication. Because he sought out camgirls who pose as bimbos. Hypersexualized, exaggerated physical characteristics, a bit like his wife enhancements and people might see a parallel. And he then dressed up accordingly in female exercise shorts, T shirt and the balloons that you've described. So all of that is his business, except that every cabinet secretary is rigorously checked by the FBI before they are confirmed by the Senate. And that's where this becomes a big question.

[Joanna Coles]

Don't tell me, was our friend Mr. Kash Patel, whose eyes are always on storks, was he too busy flying around in the FBI jet with his country and western girlfriend? Was he too busy to actually pay any attention to the background check?

[Hugh Docherty]

Well, I have to slightly disappoint that this background check would have been started just before Kash Patel himself became director of the FBI. So under Christopher Wray.

[Joanna Coles]

Right. Christopher, what were you thinking? Or perhaps they found out about it and let it go.

[Hugh Docherty]

And that's the question we have been. And Joanna, I just want to say we've been here before. And Trump won. And that's why this week is Trump won is back in. Trump won. The Daily Mail, which broke the story about Brian Gnomes looning happening. The Daily Mail broke a story that Rob Porter, who was Donald Trump's staff secretary, the staff secretary is this kind of behind the scenes but very powerful position in the White House who controls what paper the president sees and signs. So it's incredibly important as a behind the scenes. In 2018, Rob Porter was staff secretary and the Daily Mail broke a story that he had been credibly accused of of physically abusing both his ex wives. Not only did they accuse him, in fact one of them had taken out a restraining order against him in court in Virginia. This raised a whole. But yet. But he was in the Oval Office around the most powerful people in America and seeing the most sensitive secrets. This raised a huge question. Did the FBI know? Had the FBI told the White House and what had happened? And those are the same questions that the Democrats are going to be going after about Christie and Brian Noem. Was there an FBI check done? If there was an FBI check done, what happened next? Was it sent to the White House properly? Was it in depth enough to catch that the husband of the would be Homeland Security secretary was sending thousands and thousands of dollars to women who he clearly did not know and could not have vetted, posing in outfits that people might find outrageous or intriguing. And the possibility that the security service looked for is, is he open to blackmail? Now, quite obviously, blackmail kind of doesn't work in the Trump era because you could say anything goes. But what blackmail does work for is stop is making people do things they don't want to do. And that's why the FBI look into these backgrounds. The procedure normally is that these FBI checks are sent to the White House personnel office. And when it was Rob porter back in 2018, FBI said, We did our job. We told the White House this. We told about three credible allegations of physical abuse. We warned them three times. And the White House personnel office stalled this and allowed him Rob Porter into office because Trump wanted him. So it's possible that this has happened here as well.

[Joanna Coles]

But that. And didn't Rob Porter then have an affair with Hope Hicks, who was one of the young women around the Trump orbit?

[Hugh Docherty]

Yes. And this is all very Trump won his back again because weirdly, Hope Hicks had previously been accused or alleged of had a relationship with Corey Lewandowski. Corey Lewandowski is now more famous as the alleged lover of Kristi Noem.

[Joanna Coles]

Right. And they've been flying around together. He's been helping Kristi Noemi run the Department of Homeland Security. Correct. He's a sort of strange special adviser, but no particularly official role. And presumably helping her with contracts where there are alleged stories that he's getting kicked back.

[Hugh Docherty]

Yes. Already the inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security is going to be investigating the Democrats, who right now are in the minority. They don't have subpoena power. They are writing letters demanding details. And what Trump has got to worry about and why bimblefication is not going away is that the Democrats are almost certainly going to win the midterms. The moment they get in January next year, they can start issuing subpoenas. They can start demanding every bit of paper. They can haul people in front to ask questions. And they are making very clear that questions that one of the big areas of questions that they're going to be asking about is what was Kristi Noem up to at the Department of Homeland Security? What was Corey Lewandowski up to at the Department of Homeland Security? And they are going to start asking about what background checks were done, what happened to them? And crucially, who knew? And who knew is hanging over this affair.

[Joanna Coles]

So bimbification is not going away. It's going to haunt Trump second term.

[Hugh Docherty]

This is going to Haunt Trump's second term.

[Joanna Coles]

Right. So it feels like one of those sort of slightly silly, insignificant personal stories where someone gets humiliated and then we all move on. But in fact, it has much bigger ramifications because it shows the government, certainly the FBI. With Kash Patel not doing his job, no surprise he's not doing his job. We saw him chugging down beer at the Olympics when he should have been trying to find out what on earth happened to Savannah Guthrie's mother, who's still missing. And no sign of it.

[Hugh Docherty]

Although I said that Christopher Ree conducted the initial background check. One thing that became clear during the Royal Porter affair was that the FBI feel they have an ongoing duty. So if they had become aware of something. And let's just put this in context. Kristi Noem, we assume, goes back to her home in South Dakota now and again where she lives with her husband. The farm where she shot the dog, Cricket. Poor Cricket.

[Joanna Coles]

And as Megyn Kelly said, thank goodness Cricket didn't live to see the looning

[Hugh Docherty]

photos, but one other dog did because one is in the background.

[Joanna Coles]

Oh, okay. But Cricket at least put out.

[Hugh Docherty]

She went home to South Dakota. When the Homeland Security secretary travels, it has to be possible to brief her on the nation's most important secrets. And she travels with secure technology. At the same time. We have somebody who was on a webcam, on a laptop like this, we assume, or is mobile and talking to cam girls. That's the sort of data information that foreign spies live to find. And this, you know, raises a whole load of questions.

[Joanna Coles]

Well, and we know that the Iranians hacked Kash Patel's phone. Another piece of bad news for Trump this week. Well, they hacked his Gmail account and released, you know, six years worth of his personal information. Do we think, given the access to everything that Kristi Noem has or had as head of Homeland Security, do we think she knew about. About her husband's looning?

[Hugh Docherty]

I'll just say that she issued a statement saying after this story was published by the Daily Mail saying she was blindsided or saying she was devastated and the family is blindsided. Now, we have asked, did she know specifically, did she know anything? And every time we've been pointed to this statement, and it doesn't take too much grammatical interpretation to say this statement could be interpreted as saying that she, in fact, knew it already. There may be a distinction between her and the family. She has three grown up children, two daughters and a son. She has grandchildren. Her mother's still alive. They have cousins. That's the family Is she necessarily part of the family in this statement? Unclear. And we have asked that question and we do not have an answer.

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[Joanna Coles]

Well, it's something that Brian Noem can do with his grandchildren. Play with balloons.

[Hugh Docherty]

That's certainly true. But what we do know is that there have been a number of people around D.C. saying that they had heard that there was some secret in his life, that there was some arrangement, and that she had said things to the effect that were interpreted as, oh, maybe he was in fact gay and not that that's, you know, the same thing as looning. But it kind of goes in the direction of there was something known, there was something going on. Did she know that he had a secret life and she didn't know the details of the secret? All of these are possible, but all of these, that's what the FBI is supposed to warn the White House and the White House is supposed to tell the Senate and the Senate, by the way, they confirmed her 13 to 2 in committee. So that means a significant number of Democrats in the committee. And then seven Democrats voted for her at the confirmation, full confirmation. So were they misled?

[Joanna Coles]

They can't have known.

[Hugh Docherty]

They obviously didn't. They know. They absolutely did not know. But this is a really significant question and that's why this scandal, of all the things that have happened this week, weirdly, bimbofication actually has a long, long tail.

[Joanna Coles]

So Kristi Naim was fired last month. Pam Bondi was fired yesterday. We're recording this on Friday morning. Michael Wolf posits that because Susie Wiles is having medical treatment, she is not as usually engaged. And so she had said to Trump when he took over in this second administration, okay, we can't have the revolving door we had in Trump. One, it makes everything look chaotic and unstable. No one can take you seriously. And so amazingly, for the first year at least, we've had complete stability. Nobody's been fired now. We've had two firings in less than a month.

[Hugh Docherty]

Yes.

[Joanna Coles]

And people, big piece in the New York Times this week that had clearly been planted saying Tulsi Gabbard was on the skids. People think that Kash Patel might be on the skids. Howard Lutnick has been rumored as being on the skid. So do you think we're going into a period now where we're going to see more firings? Because Trump is really having a bad time. Things are turning against him. And as we know, when he's cornered, he blames everybody else, he lashes out, blames everybody else, changes the narrative, and then we all rush around to say, oh, my God, Pam Bondi's been fired. Pam Bondi's been fired.

[Hugh Docherty]

I mean, all you can say is the past is prologue and you can only predict the future from the past. This is what happened in Trump 1. People lasted days. Anthony Scaramucci, 11 days. 11 days.

[Joanna Coles]

11 days.

[Hugh Docherty]

People briefed against each other, people briefed against again. You know, people briefed against the. Briefed against themselves sometimes. It was chaos. It was unending chaos. And, yes, what we know about Trump is when we're in that cycle, it's impossible for him to get out of. And, you know, people this week compared that, rather cleverly compared. That speech about the Strait of Hormuz is just going to open naturally to his crazy Covid proclamations in March and April of 2020. It's just going to go away. We're airtight. It's fine. The similarity and the chaos that then followed does appear rather clear.

[Joanna Coles]

So another bit of bad news for Trump this week has been a judge putting the brakes on the East Wing developments and his ballroom, which is currently set for 90,000ft, which we know will dwarf the current White House, it will be almost three times the size of the current White House. He demolished it during the evening, which is what he does at operates at night. So people woke up to see the tendrils of the East Wing as sledgehammers were going at this amazingly romantic and somewhat sacred part of American history and culture and power. We know he wants to erect an enormous Trump ballroom. How much of a blow is this to him?

[Hugh Docherty]

Oh, it's huge. Sunday night, he was flying back from Mar a Lago after the New York Times, his hometown paper, the one he loves, second to the New York Post, had published a critique of his ballroom that pointed out some really basic things. The grand staircase leads to nowhere. There's fake windows in front of the toilets.

[Joanna Coles]

Well, that's a relief, isn't it? I don't want anybody watching me if I'm on the toilet in the East Wing.

[Hugh Docherty]

I would rather.

[Joanna Coles]

I don't want to watch Donald Trump on the toilet in the East Wing?

[Hugh Docherty]

No. And actually, weirdly, some installation artists put a large golden toilet on the National Mall this week. So we've got some insight. But he has taken this so personally, let's be honest. He's more concerned. He's more upset about this than he has been about what's been going on in Iran. And I just wanted to make sure I quoted him correctly. He went after the judge. Richard Leon is a Bush appointee. Nobody thinks that he is in any way a liberal. And he was scathing about this project. He said that Donald Trump is not the owner of the White House, he is its steward. And that hits directly. Everything that Trump says about the White House, everything he has torn up, he says it's because it's his. And here we have a rock ribbed conservative saying, no, you are the steward. You are the steward for the American people and for future, first, future presidents and future first families. And Trump ranted on Truth Social more than once. He also phoned some of his favorite reporters to talk about, just about Iran, in fact, about the ballroom. He managed a minute on Iran and then went straight onto the ballroom. And the thing that has really upset him is that the judge said, Congress has to approve these things. That's how our system works. And Trump unleashed his all caps. The judge said we have to get congressional approval. He is wrong. I can't do Trump's accent. I can't do an American accent because people, I'm Scottish, but I certainly don't want to do a Trump accent. Congressional approval has never been given on anything in these circumstances, big or small, having to do with construction at the White House. In this case, even less so because the ballroom has been built with private donations, no federal taxpayer money. Now, none of that's true. Barack Obama put a new fence around the White House. It spent years getting approval and eventually was approved by Congress. And there are plenty of other examples. But he is taking this so personally. It's the thing that really, that's what's driving him. He's obsessed by.

[Joanna Coles]

Well, and also, I know he's not a man that seems to think into the future at all, but he has mentioned or referenced will he go to heaven? And so one assumes that the legacy he wants to leave is this enormous Trump Ballroom that dominates the rest of the White House. Now, if this is held up, as anybody who's had to deal with the New York City Buildings Department knows, it can take years to get even the smallest thing passed. So there's a possibility, isn't there, that this could get held up through the midterms. And then if the Democrats win, even the House of Representatives, never mind the Senate, which may or may not be on the cards right now, this could get stopped. And he'll be living in a rubble site. He'll be living in a work site possibly until he leaves office.

[Hugh Docherty]

Yes, it's a really real possibility. We've seen pictures. It's basically, it's like there's a load of mud and some building materials.

[Joanna Coles]

Right. And a couple of sort of bulldozers.

[Hugh Docherty]

Yes. And the judge gave him slightly generously, I think, gave, gave a two week stay on his order. So that meant that they could keep doing whatever they were doing in the East Wing at that point. They could keep doing it for the next two weeks so that he can appeal. Nobody thinks there is any realistic prospect that a group of Federal judges in D.C. are going to overturn this ruling. Even Trump judges have to face up to the initial ruling. Being a very conservative judge saying, it's not yours, Donald, that's very likely to be upheld. This could go all the way to the Supreme Court. In the meantime, what's he going to do? He's not allowed to keep building or demolishing, whichever he happens to be at. And while there have been some people in MAGA saying just defy them, just do, felt very well for him to say keep building. But plenty of people who would be doing the building and the contracting go, well, hold on a minute. If I'm not allowed to do this, can people come after me after Donald Trump's gone? People don't defy court orders.

[Joanna Coles]

Right? Right. And I think the judge, I think Farrah Thomason wrote the piece for us, one of our reporters in our team down in D.C. and she counted 19 exclamation points in Judge Leon's report, which shows how passionate he felt about it. And clearly the White House itself is a remarkable, iconic building for America. It's not a palace, it's not Buckingham palace, which, as we know, sits in the middle of London. There's a huge, pompous mall up to it. It's about the royal family. You know, it's about power, it's about exuding power. And the humility and the modesty of the White House is supposed to be the thing that keeps presidential power in check too. Right? Keeps ego in check. And yet we know with Donald Trump that there is no way apparently to keep his ego in check other than court orders.

[Hugh Docherty]

One of the, one of the critics of this scheme who spoke to the New York Times, a piece that Trump was so triggered by, pointed out that the ballroom would be in the way of the very clear view that Pierre Longfange had designed when he designed Washington D.C. so that the Capitol and the White House looked directly at each other. And instead, with this ballroom in the way and the symbolism of, I don't want to see the Capitol, I don't

[Joanna Coles]

care, I don't need to worry about the Capitol.

[Hugh Docherty]

And that's exactly what the system was set up, that the framers set up a system. And Pierre Longfeng brought in an architectural vision of it to say you are co. Equal. You have to live with each other. You have to accommodate each other. Neither of you is actually in charge.

[Joanna Coles]

And this is such a poison chalice for any architect involved with it as it is indeed for any architect who's worked with it.

[Hugh Docherty]

Well, already one's gone.

[Joanna Coles]

So, yes, first one just went. And then the second one was forced to give a long interview in the New York Times recently to sort of blink twice. Exactly. Reinforce the fact that he's taking ownership of this project. Shalom Baroness, who we've been calling out. I mean, he should be ashamed of himself for doing this. This is not one of those things you want to do as an architect. Everyone will remember this.

[Hugh Docherty]

Well, everybody will remember it. Even if it's not erected, which we've got to say is a possibility. Right.

[Joanna Coles]

Well, certainly at the moment.

[Hugh Docherty]

And we assume that any democr that runs for office is going to come in on a promise of getting rid of the ballroom, however, or repurposing it entirely.

[Joanna Coles]

Right. I mean, I can't help thinking it's also a fascinating sort of comment on his wife's commitment to her role as First Lady. Because it's always been traditionally the office of the first lady, the East Wing. And yet he just went in one evening and trashed the entire place.

[Hugh Docherty]

And he rarely jokes about Melania. And he has joked that she was very upset about the noise. There's obviously a flaw in that. How often is she actually there?

[Joanna Coles]

Yeah, I was gonna say we don't think she's upset about the noise. Cause she's living in New York. Anyway, we discovered that we ourselves are getting under the skin.

[Hugh Docherty]

You were talking about rooms in the White House.

[Joanna Coles]

Rooms. Go on.

[Hugh Docherty]

Well, it seems the Daily Beast doesn't have room in the White House necessarily, although we are in the West Wing. Farah Thomas is regularly in the White House, reporting from it brilliantly. But apparently we're actually living somewhere kind of more intimate. Caroline Levitt's head.

[Joanna Coles]

Caroline Levitt's head. We've taken up residence in Caroline Levitt's machine gunned head. A machine gun lips is what Trump calls her, of course. But it turns out this week that she was on a panel talking about the pressure of her job and how wonderful it was to see her children when she gets home. She must be the only working parent that goes home and finds that that looking after toddlers is more relaxing than her actual job. But it turned out that she singled us out. Can we play the tape?

[Caroline Levitt]

Home to a beautiful baby and children who are just happy to see you no matter what. It is the most refreshing, beautiful thing and it gives you the best perspective on life like nothing else matters. Except for that. Who cares what the Daily Beast wrote today? You know, like who, who cares what the headlines are like? I have an amazing son who just wants to be loved and play trucks.

[Joanna Coles]

You know, who cares? Carolyn lovett, Voters care. Voters care.

[Hugh Docherty]

Voters care. Voters are going to care. November.

[Joanna Coles]

Well done. It's your headlines that get under this.

[Hugh Docherty]

Every bit of work that everybody at the Daily Beast does. All I can say is, first of all, if you do not subscribe to Daily Beast, you've got to see what it is that is obsessing Caroline Levitt. You can subscribe at at www.thedailybeast.com Caroline, get in touch. I know you're regularly in touch. Of course, Caroline and her, well, Caroline's always associates are always in touch. They call us glue sniffers, crackheads, bags

[Joanna Coles]

of shit, pieces of shit, lying sacks

[Hugh Docherty]

of shit, rampant tds. They've called our brilliant columnist David Rothkoff. He looks like a cuck and a loser. But we will put that aside, Caroline, and give you a free subscription because you need to keep up.

[Joanna Coles]

I am told that Caroline is also potentially up for the chop, as is also Stephen Chung, her, I think, number two. Well, does he have a separate job?

[Hugh Docherty]

Do you have separate jobs? And in traditional White Houses, Stephen Chung would have been Caroline's boss. But this is not a traditional White House. Unclear who's the boss there.

[Joanna Coles]

Right. And Donald Trump loves what Caroline looks like and it has to be said she's remarkably effective at doing her job. The way she stands up there and just spouts untruth after untruth is quite astonishing. And he's right. Those lips are like little machine guns spitting out bullets.

[Hugh Docherty]

Well, we are here to report on the bullets and I think we do so fairly and accurately and enjoyably.

[Joanna Coles]

Well, it's good to know that we're under Caroline Livitt's skin and that the only way she can relax from our relentless onslaught with your headlines and us trying to stay on top of what this government is doing, trying to flood the zone, is to go home and play with her children.

[Hugh Docherty]

That's true. And it's very wholesome and it's better than winning.

[Joanna Coles]

Well, Hugh, we've got work to do. We've got to get back out there. Yes, to get back out there. We have our. Ooh, we have our morning meeting.

[Hugh Docherty]

Joanna, thank you for having me.

[Joanna Coles]

Well, we'll be back next week, Hugh.

[Hugh Docherty]

Yes, we'll do a regular livestream.

[Joanna Coles]

Yep, a regular podcast, slash livestream, depending on what's going on, to keep everybody informed. But thank you if you have been for joining us. Don't forget to leave us your comments. Tell us what your favorite part of the conversation was. How do you feel about Caroline Levitt and her machine gun lips? And don't forget, subscribe to the Daily Beast. We are independent media, which is why we can get under cat Caroline Leavitt's skin. And we appreciate your support. So the good news is we have so many Beast tier members now there are too many names to read out. And we really appreciate your support. Thanks to our production team. Devon Rogerino, Ryan Murray, Rachel Passer, Heather Passaro, Neil Rosenhaus, Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile.

[Ryan Reynolds]

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