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- [00:00]
Michael
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- [01:00]
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- [01:32]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
This is on his mind. It's the COVID of Time, and he immediately started Truth Socialing the moment it dropped. And I'm going to read the Truth Social. Time magazine wrote a relatively good story about me, but the picture may be the worst of all time. They disappeared my hair and then had something floating on top of floating on top of my head that looked like a floating crown, but an extremely small one. Really weird. I've never liked taking pictures from underneath angles, but this is super bad and deserves to be called out. What are they doing and why? Michael Joanna, where are we going?
- [02:16]
Michael
Oh my God, we are going inside Trump's head. And again, I point out that this is the most important place to be if you are talking about or writing about or thinking about politics. And it's ait's not the intuitive place to be. When people, American political reporters write about politics, they do it from the outside, always from the outside. And there are very various journalistic reasons why that is the case. But in this instance, this entirely unique political moment, what we have to. What everyone has to realize is that everything depends upon one man and what he wakes up with what is on his mind at any given moment, and it changes from moment to moment.
- [03:16]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
It is like a William Carlos Williams poem. Well, or is it Carlos Williams? Carlos. No, it's William Carlos Williams poem. It so much depends upon the red wheelbarrow.
- [03:28]
Michael
No, that's the opposite of that, actually. So much depends upon the red wheelbarrow means things are fixed. It's a. It really is focused on a specific thing. With Trump, that's not the case. It's the vagaries that go through his head. It's whatever someone has said to him in the last two seconds. It's whatever he has seen on television. The opposite of the red wheelbarrow.
- [03:58]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
Okay, so in fact, it's not William Carlos Williams. In fact, it's the opposite. All right.
- [04:02]
Michael
However, William Carlos Williams is from Paterson, New Jersey, where I am from.
- [04:07]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
Oh, really? I loved his poem when I was growing up. I absolutely loved his poems. The Plum. The one about the plums in the fridge that someone's eaten. Anyway, we digress because Trump came back.
- [04:19]
Michael
I'll say.
- [04:20]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
But we digress because Trump. There is something poetic about Trump in a kind of distorted, strange way. Ozymanders. I could go on, but I'm not going to. Because Trump came back from his victory tour of the Knesset and then onto Egypt and then frantically started truth socialing.
- [04:44]
Michael
I mean, in the thing. I mean, he has. The context of his coming back was that he had brought peace to a region of the world that has, in his version of history, not seen peace for 3,000 years. So he has done the thing that no one in 3,000 years of history has been able to do. But he comes back, and that's not what's on his mind. What is on his mind is this.
- [05:14]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
Is on his mind. It's the COVID of Time, and he immediately started truth socialing the moment it dropped. And I'm going to read the truth social because I think it's important that we get into the details. Time magazine wrote a relatively good story about me, but the picture may be the worst of all time. They disappeared. My hair then had something floating on top of. Can you see this floating on top of my head? That looked like a floating crown, but an extremely small one. Really weird. I've never liked taking pictures from underneath angles, but this is super bad and deserves to be called out. What are they doing and why?
- [05:57]
Michael
Well, there's a couple of points here. First, he is right about that. That angle.
- [06:02]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
Can we just look at the neck?
- [06:04]
Michael
Yes, we'll get to that. But he's Right, about that. You never want someone to take a picture from below, which is a technique that the media or the print media uses when they want to diss somebody.
- [06:21]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
Okay. And why do we think they're dissing him now?
- [06:24]
Michael
Go to the relative. What did he say? The relatively good story.
- [06:29]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
Time magazine wrote a relatively good story about me, but the picture may be the worst of all time.
- [06:34]
Michael
It's not a relatively good story. It's a hagiographic story.
- [06:39]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
Okay?
- [06:39]
Michael
I mean, it is the kind of story that any politician would do anything to get. Now, how Trump, in a publication that has at best been skeptical of him, how he achieved that, is that the, the owner of Time magazine? And let's go on Time magazine, which doesn't really exist anymore. No one really reads Time magazines with events.
- [07:08]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
They do a lot of events, right? Time People of the Year. It's a list.
- [07:11]
Michael
Yes, but Trump is still obsessed with Time. I mean, there was one moment during the campaign, actually it was a pivotal moment. There was all kinds of things going on, important. And they, the campaign staff needed Trump to really concentrate, really do this range of events, which he canceled, all because Time magazine called him up and they gave Time magazine a full day with everybody saying on the campaign staff, time, why are we doing this for Time? Does anyone read Time?
- [07:52]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
Didn't he also?
- [07:53]
Michael
One person reads Time.
- [07:55]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
Okay, so. Or maybe two, Maybe the owner, Marc Benioff, the tech giant who founded Salesforce, with whom the government has a lot of contracts.
- [08:05]
Michael
Okay. And Marc Benioff, who has been considered a reasonable liberal guy in San Francisco, has recently come out as a full throttled Trumper, like so many in the tech community.
- [08:25]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
And indeed, he was at the Windsor Castle dinner because I looked at him and I was like, I know that person. I know that face. Marc Benioff sitting, I think, opposite Donald Trump at the, at the Windsor Castle. No, when you were being broadcast on.
- [08:38]
Michael
The side of the tower, I was outside, he was inside. But in abject. There was a piece recently in the.
- [08:47]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
In the New York Times. In the Times. I have it here because I cut out some, well, I underlined some quotes for it in a wide ranging interview. Mr. Benioff said this week that he avidly supported President Trump and thought National Guard troops should be deployed to San Francisco.
- [09:05]
Michael
So anyway, so it's interesting because the story as written, which I'm sure was sent to Marc Benioff before it was published, is, as I say, abject. But the COVID photo, which was probably not sent to Mark Benioff, is the opposite.
- [09:32]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
Yeah, it's the opposite. And this is how journalists get back at proprietors. When people used to leave Robert Maxwell's newspapers, especially if he'd fired them, the sub editors would always get the words Fuck Maxwell somehow in the copy, and they would do it by every capital letter would spell out Fuck Maxwell. But what's interesting is that Benioff has some Trumpian tendencies, not least him saying, I don't think anyone has hired more people or given more money or supported San Francisco more than I have. Mr. Benioff said it should be said that it's Dreamforce starting today, which is his big annual conference in the middle of San Francisco. So, anyway, waking up to Donald Trump being very disappointed with this photo, which. Do you want to give the phrase that Ron Filipowski, the editor in chief of Midas, coined for this picture?
- [10:32]
Michael
I personally do not. I'm going to let you do that.
- [10:34]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
All right. Well, I think he's referring to this. And he said it was a neck vagina, which was not a phrase I'd heard of before I thought of neck waddle. I mean, this is not a flattering.
- [10:45]
Michael
No, I mean, it's actually.
- [10:49]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
I mean, he's obviously concerned about his hair, but they showed his neck vagina, said Ron Filipowski, which did cause me to laugh this morning over my coffee. But we have so much to get into because we've got to talk about Todd Blanche. We've got to talk about the MAGA split.
- [11:05]
Michael
Well, let's go back. I mean, let's go back to.
- [11:08]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
Are we going to talk about Ghislaine?
- [11:10]
Michael
Yes.
- [11:10]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
And we promised people we would talk about Melania.
- [11:13]
Michael
Oh, yeah, okay. We have to do Melania, but let's do Gaza first before. So we have him now returning from Gaza, but what he has, he has exited, he hopes, a very serious split in maga. I mean, and this is the underlying, I mean, a key underlying element of this peace deal go on. And of his willingness to tell Netanyahu, you got to do it this way. I mean, remember, and he has not done this for the nine months of the presidency. He has let Netanyahu do whatever Netanyahu wants to do.
- [11:56]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
Well, and famously, Netanyahu is supposed to have said, I run Donald Trump.
- [12:00]
Michael
Yeah. Well, that is being repeated and repeated by the MAGA echo chamber, Tucker, Rogan, Pelle. Yeah. And that's at the core of this. MAGA has absolutely broken with Netanyahu. We hate the guy. We think he's a war criminal. I mean, you cannot get actually more extreme at this moment in the MAGA view of Netanyahu and essentially thereby Israel. So whereas Trump has been, up until last week, absolutely in the Netanyahu camp. So Trump. And you know, it's interesting in these moments to see Trump paying attention specifically to his constituency.
- [12:59]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
Okay, and where does this maga, where does the fury over this come from in maga?
- [13:09]
Michael
Well, I mean, it's curious. It's the fury on the far right mirrors the fury on the far left.
- [13:15]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
Right. Because I'm always like, Zoran Mandani and MAGA are joined. Well, a lot of people are joined in anxiety and fury over what happened in Gaza today.
- [13:25]
Michael
Right. So, I mean, some of it is. Some of it is obvious. There has been a slaughter going on in Gaza, a slaughter that has gone on far longer than it had to, obviously, because it just stopped when Trump decided it was going to stop, when essentially the US Threatened Netanyahu with whatever it could threaten him with, which is a lot. So then it stopped. But probably, I think it's reasonable to say on both extremes, left and right, this has the fury. I mean, it's hard to say that there is too much fury when it comes to what has obviously been a slaughter. But I think you can reasonably say that there are other political considerations going on here. So this becomes the agent of the MAGA people who want to, who are, as we've discussed before, you know, this is the lame duck season is in the process of beginning. There is going to be a fight about the soul of MAGA and the soul of the Republican Party. And one of the key issues here is that that is that that fight put J.D. vance on the other side of where MAGA wants to be. So I would say that that is partly what is being looked at right.
- [15:02]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
Now from Amy and Tucker Carlson, who we should come back and talk about later in more detail, is right where MAGA is on this?
- [15:09]
Michael
Absolutely. Well, all of those. Rogan Bannon very much. This is. We are the true Maga voices. And J.D. vance is not.
- [15:21]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
No, no. And the only reason I mentioned Tucker is because Tucker seems a more likely candidate than either.
- [15:27]
Michael
No, definitely. And I think we should spend some considerable time talking about Tucker. I think he is now a central voice. I think he may become a central personality, conceivably a candidate, but. But he is also a central intellectual. I use the word advisedly voice in articulating the MAGA position and the movement.
- [15:55]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
And he's a political outsider, too, in the way that Trump was, that he doesn't come from years of being a Congressperson or senator or governor. He's actually a personality who could run. Anyway, let's come back to that because I do want to talk about Melania, but I feel like there's still more to be talked about. About first with Todd Blanche and Lindsey Halligan and Pam Bondi and as the Daily Beast calls him, Keystone Cash.
- [16:23]
Michael
Yeah, no, I mean, what we've seen simultaneously with peace in Israel is. And Trump in his campaign for the Nobel Peace Prize, is Trump at home ordering the, the persecution, prosecution also quite literally of his enemies. So his intention very clearly is to put his political opponents in jail. That is in, I think, any version of politics. Autocratic, despotic, really nasty behavior.
- [17:10]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
Yeah, no. And completely wrong for the United States of America. But he also comes back to warring factions within his own Cabinet. Right, so. Which has been playing out in the press over the last few days.
- [17:23]
Michael
In the Justice Department. Yeah, no, very well.
- [17:27]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
In the Justice Department and against the FBI.
- [17:29]
Michael
The FBI is part of the Justice Department. Yes, yes. I mean, he has brushed aside. I mean, clearly there are voices, the senior. Most voices in the Justice Department. I mean, actually anybody with a rational brain in their head is saying, this is not a good idea. This is not a good idea just because it's not a good idea to openly be prosecuting your enemies. But on top of that, these are cases that we're not going to win.
- [18:03]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
Right.
- [18:03]
Michael
So.
- [18:04]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
And they're going to go before a jury. Right?
- [18:06]
Michael
Well, they would have if they get that far. And they won't even get that far. I mean, this is just going to lead to this specific embarrassment of the Justice Department. So, I mean, so they're all, Pam Bondi, Todd Blanche, you know, who are kind of saying, oh, my God, this is on our watch. We're going to, going to do this. So they're trying to, in every way possible, as they say in Trump circles and people around him slow walk this.
- [18:41]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
Right. Because then he loses interest and moves on to something else.
- [18:44]
Michael
Right.
- [18:44]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
Except that he sent out what he thought was, I think, a personal memo to Pam saying, come on, get on with it. This is outrageous. But it went out as a truth social media.
- [18:57]
Rachel Tippograph or Sarah Hofstetter (Creative Commerce Podcast Hosts)
Right.
- [18:59]
Michael
So in order to do this, I mean, essentially, I mean, let's understand what he's doing. The President of the United States is ordering the specific prosecution of specific people. That's not supposed to happen in any interpretation of due process. That's not supposed to happen, but that is happening. And in order to make it happen, I mean, he couldn't. Hishis the designated chiefs in the Justice Department, essentially. Well, they were slow. This wasn't going to happen. So he pushed them aside. He fired the U.S. attorney himself, personally fired the U.S. attorney in Virginia, and he installed a person by the name of Lindsey Halligan, who has zero prosecutorial experience.
- [20:06]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
Zero.
- [20:07]
Michael
As one of a person in the close Trump Circle said to me, lindsey, oh, my God, Halligan. So, and this is someone. Lindsay Halligan was a person. She does have a law degree and she's from Palm Beach. And she at some point joined the campaign. And on the campaign, it was Lindsey Halligan, Natalie Harpe, Alina Haba. And then Trump used to refer to them as my Charlie's Angels. And that was literally their job is to be, is to be the girls.
- [20:52]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
Around Trump and to sort of protect him. Right. Well, isn't that what Charlie's Angels did?
- [20:57]
Michael
Well, I don't, I think, I can't remember.
- [20:59]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
I just remember Farah Fawcett's hair. But they all have that hair, which.
- [21:02]
Michael
Yeah, no, I think that was it. He was just. There was no function here. Actually, quite the opposite. They didn't do anything. They were. At least Halligan and Haber were lawyers, but they didn't really practice. Their legal responsibilities were limited, except when other lawyers wouldn't do what he wanted, then he would just tell them what to do and they would do it, sort of.
- [21:27]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
And Lindsey Halligan is important in this because Virginia is the state where so many of these kind of important cases, government cases, come up.
- [21:37]
Michael
Well, it's just a federal district which encompasses Washington.
- [21:42]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
Right.
- [21:43]
Michael
So, yeah, so he put her in and said, you have to indict James Comey and you have to indict Letitia James, which has been done.
- [21:57]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
It looks like they're coming for John Bolton, too.
- [21:59]
Michael
John Bolton, Adam Schiff, Lisa Cooke, Jack Smith and Chris Christie, his old friend from New Jersey. And they were once very, very good friends. But anyway, Chris Christie is now on the list and of course, he would love to, and sometimes talks about indicting Barack and Michelle Obama and of course.
- [22:25]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
Joe Biden and Hillary. Crooked Hillary who got a shout out in his speech in Egypt.
- [22:30]
Michael
No, no, crooked Hillary, of course, of course.
- [22:33]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
I mean, it just. You can see why people don't even want to be in the room with him because it's some point. Even if you've been a fervent supporter, his finger may point at you. I mean, Chris Christie at one point couldn't do enough for him.
- [22:46]
Michael
Yeah, no, no, Remember those, that moment when Chris Christie was always in the picture with him. Kind of, kind of stroking. Oh, it was horrible.
- [22:56]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
And Trump senses it. Senses it and senses the weakness, I think. I mean, it was also sort of crazy the way he went after John Bolton and had that ridiculous mustache that he's got.
- [23:08]
Michael
Well, that obsessed him. He didn'ti mean John Bolton was not hired on several occasions because of the mustache. And then everyone else had been hired and fired. So they finally got to the mustache, which is what he said. Yeah, okay, hire the mustache.
- [23:23]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
Hire the mustache. Well, he's getting his back on the mustache now. But it's highly unlikely that any of these people will actually end up in jail, isn't it? Which is what, Pam Bondi.
- [23:35]
Michael
We say this at this point, but it was highly unlikely not that long ago that any of these people would actually be indicted. I mean, we would have said that some. Well, they won't actually be indicted, but.
- [23:47]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
They'Ve still, in theory, got to get.
- [23:49]
Michael
Through a jury in theory. I mean, this is, you know, I mean, this is what happens in. I mean, yes, let's not go down that, go down this hole at this moment because it is inconceivable. But the inconceivable is the times we live in. Okay, I'm going to toss to our sponsors.
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- [26:21]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
And Michael and I are back and we're still inside Trump's head. Right. So the autocracy is creeping in in terms of things like this. Yet there is still. We should celebrate the freedom to say that the president on his copy of Time has a neck vagina on X, which is seen by millions of people. So it's a strange dual hedfog, I think, is what I'm trying to say. Which brings me nicely to Melania. Why are we suddenly seeing. Okay, that's all right. Why are we suddenly seeing Melania? She hasn't been anywhere near him and suddenly she's reappearing. She's reappearing. So she was at the Windsor Castle dinner where we never discussed the reports that Donald Trump left his room, his bedroom that he was staying in. And we did say that they had separate suites and they'd specifically asked for separate suites. We didn't mention the fact that there were reports that he had left his suite in a terrible state and that there were sort of fake tan stains on the.
- [27:26]
Michael
Oh, you mean he was not him. He was not personally in a terrible state. The room.
- [27:33]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
Oh, the room. The room was, you know, it was a bit like picking up going into a room after the Rolling Stones had been staying in it.
- [27:39]
Michael
Yeah, no, no. I have actually had a lot of descriptions of the way he leaves hotel rooms.
- [27:45]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
Oh, really?
- [27:46]
Michael
Yeah. I mean, during the campaign, you know, when they, when they did have to stay, I mean, he doesn't like to stay in hotel rooms, but when he had to, they. There was always a kind of post occupation description. And the thing that I remember most well, there are a Lot of things. First thing, he just drops things on the floor so there's no papers. Whenever he reads a paper or looks at a paper. Cause he doesn't really read. He rips it and then drops it on the floor. But the other thing is, it's also accompanied by candy wrappers.
- [28:25]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
Candy wrappers. Is that because he takes Ambien? I mean, you know, I remember when I was in the fashion business and we would fly overnight for the shows in Milan or Paris, and a lot of people would take Ambien. And if they had. Well, even if they didn't have issues, one of the side effects is you raid the minibar and models and fashion editors would wake up with competing stories of finding themselves smeared in a Snickers bar with a wrapper sticking out of their eyelashes. Because that's what Ambien. That's one of the symptoms of Ambien. Because you're looking at me very doubtfully.
- [29:05]
Michael
No, no. I have actually heard similar stories. And, you know, when a lot of hotels, they put the chocolate on the.
- [29:12]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
On the pillow.
- [29:13]
Michael
On the pillow. And then on Ambien, you don't really notice that. And then you wake up and smeared all over you.
- [29:20]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
I've never taken Ambie. I'm terrified of any kind of sleeping drug.
- [29:24]
Michael
Sheets. Even worse.
- [29:26]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
Anyway, he leaves his hotel rooms, but apparently he also left the Windsor Castle room in a mess. Okay, how do we get to that? Because Melania was on the visit, and she's been, you know, we know that she wasn't visible. And as you've said, when she turns up at the White House, people drink.
- [29:48]
Michael
This is easy, what Melanie is doing. She is not somebody. I heard somebody say, well, maybe there's a rapprochement. Well, yeah, I guess in some universe that might be possible, but not this universe. Okay, she has. The Melania documentary is coming out in January on Amazon. She's on a promotion tour. She's beginning this. Listen, Melania is. You know, it's the Melania Hustle.
- [30:21]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
Okay, so we haven't. I mean, the Melania Hustle is the documentary going to be shown in Russia? Because we now learn, too. We haven't even. It's been such a busy week of everything coming at us. We haven't even gotten to the discovery that Melania has been speaking to Putin.
- [30:40]
Michael
I'm not even going there on that one.
- [30:42]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
Why not? What's that mean?
- [30:44]
Michael
It' swhat does that mean? I mean, what does it mean that she's speaking. Speaking to Putin? The coming payoff is on this Documentary, which she's already been paid $40 million for. She has a stake in the back end, I think. A very large stake.
- [31:05]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
I think it's 70%. And also, let's just remind people why Barron has been in the news.
- [31:13]
Michael
Well, Barron, I mean, confoundingly, has become one of the president's central crypto advisors, apparently.
- [31:28]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
But he may also be joining the board of TikTok or getting a job at TikTok.
- [31:32]
Michael
Oh, yes, then there is that rumor.
- [31:35]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
Okay, so I actually have to say I can't wait to watch the Melania documentary.
- [31:42]
Michael
I think we should watch it together.
- [31:44]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
I think we should do it. We should do a live watch party the minute it drops. Now, what I do want to know is why is she talking to Putin? Is it just an elaborate publicity stunt for the documentary, or is Amazon prime in Russia? We should know this.
- [32:02]
Michael
But we don't know this. But it doesn't matter. It just is a publicity stunt. Of course it is.
- [32:08]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
Right, let's. Because we know she doesn't like Christmas. I fucking hate Christmas. She hates it.
- [32:16]
Michael
This is true. Do you know this?
- [32:17]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
Yes. We heard the tapes that Stephanie Winston Wolkoff had of her saying I fucking hate Christmas. Now, I think we have other things to discuss, too. All right, so we've been through Pam Bondi, Todd Blanche. Understanding that it's unlikely he'll get these. Well, in theory, understanding that they were trying to slow walk the political indictments because they didn't think that they would actually get them through or that they could win, which rebounds badly on them. He's cleared them out of the way, put in Lindsey Halligan as Attorney foras U.S. attorney for Virginia, and she's going after people hell for lever.
- [32:56]
Michael
Yeah, let's go.
- [32:57]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
She's sensing an opportunity here, too.
- [32:59]
Michael
Well, no, she doesn't exist here. She's justbasically a transparent figure. I mean, she doesn't know how to indict anyone. She doesn't know how to try anyone. I'm sure she has no particular politics of any persuasion herself. She's just a Trump acolyte, and she's put in that job so that he can demandhe can order an indictment. She doesn't exist. It is he literally reaching down and indicting someone. So, I mean, it's.
- [33:38]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
She's the vehicle through which he's moving. I mean, if you want to.
- [33:43]
Michael
I think that even gives her more credit to say that she's the vehicle. She really. She is just the. The placeholder. And the placeholder for him. She has no Discretion. She has. Well, she has no abilities, but she also has no discretion. She could not say, I don't want to do this.
- [34:10]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
So supposing the Democrats.
- [34:11]
Michael
I have looked at the evidence, as everyone else said, and we're not, this is not going to work. Ok. She can't do that.
- [34:17]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
Right. Well, if I were her, I would be nervous that if the Democrats got elected again, who knows? Doesn't feel like that right now. But let's assume that they might do that. She would then be vulnerable, wouldn't she, to being indicted? Yeah.
- [34:30]
Michael
You know, I don't know how any of these people don't look to the future and think, you know, is this really what I want to be doing? Is this wise?
- [34:45]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
Well, maybe because like Steve Bannon, who just announced over the weekend that he thought Trump would be running again in 2028.
- [34:55]
Michael
Yeah, no, Steve has been, I think I've said before that there is baloney and then there is Bannon baloney, which is a particular. Yes. A particularly advanced condition of baloney. And knowing Steve, and I know him pretty well, you can rest assured that he's leaving whatever podcast studio, although he never leaves the podcast studio. But were he to leave, he would be rolling on the floor laughing at his preposterous suggestion.
- [35:40]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
Okay. All right. So, I mean, are we confident in the future of the editorial of Time after this photo?
- [35:50]
Michael
Who is the editor of Time?
- [35:52]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
I don't know who the editor of Time is.
- [35:54]
Michael
No, it doesn't. It doesn't. It's the editor of Time is, is like Lindsay Halligan.
- [36:01]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
Brutal. Brutal. I'm going to stand up for them because I think they did rather a good job with this photo. It's a wonderfully subversive cover for a man who used to make up Time covers and put them on his wall.
- [36:14]
Michael
Right.
- [36:15]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
Wasn't that one of the stories in one of your books?
- [36:18]
Michael
Yeah. No, it is a very meaningful piece of artifact for him.
- [36:24]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
And It's a very 1985 moment, too, which is where he lives. I know you said that Roger Eyl said He lived in 1965 when time was even more important. But 1985, it would have been important, too, no?
- [36:36]
Michael
Time magazine for years and years, the single most important, important piece of media in the United States, the COVID.
- [36:46]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
Well, today it still is.
- [36:47]
Michael
But, you know, one of the things I want to go back to, I want to go back to Todd Blanche because there was just a big piece in the New York Times about him. But I also want to couple that with a big piece just the Other day in the Wall Street Journal about Ghislaine Maxwell.
- [37:05]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
Oh, I can't believe we haven't talked about that. Ghislaine Maxwell in her Texas jail.
- [37:10]
Michael
No, and it was a. I mean it was kind of extraordinary. I mean, I mean the piece in the Journal basically said that this jail has been turned upside down by the fact that Maxwell is there. That all of the procedures in this prison have been altered to accommodate her.
- [37:34]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
Because they are terrified that something is going to happen to her.
- [37:39]
Michael
Well, that seems to be sort of one of the issues. I mean, another of the issue is that she has been given special this, that the other thing to keep her happy, obviously. But she's also under heavy guard because obviously they can'ti mean were something to happen to her that would, that would.
- [38:10]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
If something were to happen to.
- [38:11]
Michael
I mean, the whole notion of conspiracies.
- [38:14]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
Yes, yes, absolutely crazy.
- [38:17]
Michael
But I think the point about this piece in the Wall Street Journal was again points to that the leak comes. Remember the Journal is the newspaper that published the birthday letter from Trump to Epstein which was widely seen as a leak from the Maxwell's. And then that immediately resulted in Todd Blanche flying down to Florida to interview Ghislaine Maxwell. And then within days she was moved to this comfier prison, significantly comfier, which.
- [38:58]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
Is not where sex offenders, which she is, are supposed to be. I mean they're not even supposed to be in this case. So the rule is already bent for her.
- [39:07]
Michael
Right. So this was widely seen, that article was widely seen as a leak from the Maxwell family. This too is not least of all because it appears in the Journal, again is probably a leak from the Maxwell family and again a warning to the Trump White House that Ghislaine has a voice and the voice can be used against the Trump White House, can be used against Donald Trump if they don't. I think if there is any hesitation on what is widely assumed to be a, a deal to pardon her.
- [39:52]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
Yeah, I'm sure the Ghislaine Maxwell voice right now is screaming get me out of here. Certainly. I have heard from friends in the UK that Kevin Maxwell, her brother, which is where they live, which is where Kevin lives, has been telling people she is under incredibly oppressive guard, as she would be.
- [40:12]
Michael
And once again, a message.
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Michael
Huh?
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Marriage is so easy.
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- [40:49]
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- [41:09]
Michael
Of what you need.
- [41:10]
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- [42:19]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
We love our sponsors, but now we're back discussing, well, kind of everything.
- [42:25]
Michael
Now, this story in the New York Times yesterday about Todd Blanche is the opposite kind of leak. So it was largely a negative story about Blanche or a story about the antagonism toward him in MAGA circles. And that antagonism is? Well, that leak would have come principally because of what is perceived as his involvement in the Maxwell coverup.
- [43:03]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
Right.
- [43:03]
Michael
Which is obviously from the MAGA standpoint, another rift in the MAGA movement between Trump and this core of his base.
- [43:15]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
And the piece in the Times about Top Blanche was trying to suggest, at least initially, that he and Pam Bondi, his bossand again, always to remind people they were both Donald Trump's bones, personal lawyers now, number one and number two at the Justice Department, that there was tension between them and that there was tension between them and Kash Patel. In fact, they united on their dislike of Kash Patel, who's head of the FBI. Right.
- [43:43]
Michael
And remember, both Bondi and Blanche are now thought by the MAGA people to be complicit in the Epstein cover up.
- [43:52]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
Right. Because they said in July there's nothing to see. Yes.
- [43:55]
Michael
Or the President's. I think we should more accurately say the President's agents in the Epstein cover up.
- [44:03]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
Right. And we know that before Kash Patel got the job as head of FBI and his number two, Dan Bongino, who was a podcaster before he was made number two at the FBI, both were screaming for the Epstein files to be released before they took those jobs. Now, they've been much quieter, though. Apparently Dan Bongino stormed off for one day after they were.
- [44:26]
Michael
They have all been disciplined. They now act like, like, like there's.
- [44:31]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
Nothing to see here.
- [44:31]
Michael
Hostage videos.
- [44:34]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
Hostage videos. The head of the FBI and the number two and the FBI putting out their own hostage videos. About. About. Of course. What does it all come down to? Jeffrey Epstein. Epstein. All right, Michael, I've got some comments for you which I'm going to throw at you. Would Trump get rid of JD Vance to appoint one of his sons as his successor? Yes. No answer. Who's that from? That's from tarrow to the Tess.
- [45:06]
Michael
No.
- [45:07]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
Oh, you don't think he would throw J.D. vance over?
- [45:11]
Michael
No, I think he will throw J.D. vance over, and I think whoever is the Republican nominee, Trump will undermine because he couldn't tolerate there being another Republican president. But I don't think that has anything to do. And he doesn't want his sons to be the president either.
- [45:32]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
Scorched earth. All right, here is a good question, which actually we should unpack for another episode. And it's from Alexandra Ratz. N7,9,1. I'm not pronouncing that right, guys. What is in Trump's head with the Insurrection Act? Would you guess about how far he will be able to go on this authoritarian road?
- [45:57]
Michael
Well, very far. I mean, you know, this is sort of hard to imagine because we have never in the United States of America imagined this. And even now you think, well, yeah, he did that, but he's not going to go farther than that. And he does.
- [46:20]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
It's interesting how people just get pushed out of his way. I mean, there doesn't seem to be much resistance to him. I mean, I guess the Democrats would say they're resisting him. And we could talk about this more in another episode. Standing up against the troops. I mean, the courts are doing some work, actually. Some very brave judges out there.
- [46:43]
Michael
Yeah, no, and in some sense he is creating his own opposition too. I mean, this is you know, a kind of, you know, strange aspect of.
- [46:54]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
Do you mean internally of Trump?
- [46:57]
Michael
No, I mean externally. I mean, he's, you know, both Governor Newsom in California and Governor Pritzker in Illinois have now suddenly a much greater visibility because Trump has sent in these troops or threatened to send in these troops, and they are standing up, they are opposing him in ways that give them a new national political profile.
- [47:27]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
Right, right. No, completely true. All right, one more question. Why doesn't someone that's able to do so sue over the ballroom? It's the People's House. Were bids taken? Who is the architect? Did a short list of firms submit plans? Who is paying for this? Is everyone too afraid to challenge him? And that is from Susie Q 1170.
- [47:54]
Michael
Well, I don't know that there have not been suits, since there are suits about everything. But I think that in truth, the existing President of the United States, whoever it is, at a moment has wide discretion over the White House. Spending is another issue. But my understanding is that most, if not all of this is being privately financed.
- [48:20]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
Right. By American companies, I think. Right?
- [48:22]
Michael
Yes. Yeah.
- [48:24]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
That's also worth. Okay, what we get from your comments and which is why we love them, is we get great ideas for future episodes. Actually, the Ballroom is a fantastic episode, especially the fact it's going to be bigger than the White House itself.
- [48:37]
Michael
No, let's do that. My 10 year old daughter is appalled by this. Talks about this constantly now. Interesting ballroom. How can he do that? How can he just change the White House and the paving over the Rose Garden?
- [48:53]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
Well, the Moro lagoing of the White House is, I think, what's really sort of surprising to people. And the patio as well. What did Governor Newsom call the Predator Patio? So we've got Pro Pedopam. That was your nickname. And the Predator Patio, that was Governor Newsom's nickname. All right. There's quite a lot in there. But at least we know now that Melania is out again because she's promoting her Amazon prime documentary, the Melania Hustle. The Melania Hustle. All right, great. So what are we going to be talking about next week or on Thursday? In fact, we had some ideas. We had some ideas.
- [49:33]
Michael
The whole everything could have changed by then.
- [49:36]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
What I would like is Lindsay Halligan's hair tips. Now, I also want to point out several of you left comments about the strange light on the video that we put out or the YouTube we put out on. Does video make me sound old fashioned? It might make me sound a bit Gen X Boomer. Anyway, some people pointed out that I had a strange, almost Aladdin saying like flash that kept going across my face. And it was because, unlikely as this might seem, Law Enor SVU was shooting on the floor above us. But they had massive klieg lights. I think they're called klieg lights in the street. And they kept zooming into the office and landing on my face, which is why I look kind of odd. It looked like I had a silver flash. Anyway, I'm just solving that puzzle for people. Thank you. I wasn't experimenting with new makeup.
- [50:28]
Michael
Silver flash to me.
- [50:29]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
Well, that's very kind of you. All right, onwards and downwards and on to our next episode on Thursday.
- [50:38]
Michael
And I look forward to it.
- [50:41]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
No, you're supposed to be telling people to subscribe to the channel.
- [50:43]
Michael
Oh, subscribe.
- [50:46]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
It's very easy to subscribe to a podcast.
- [50:48]
Michael
There's just a button that you push there.
- [50:50]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
Yeah, you should be subscribing, please, to the Daily Beast because we're independent media and we really want your support. And subscribing to the podcast on Apple, Spotify, YouTube. Leave us a comment, leave us a review.
- [51:04]
Michael
Any, any. Wherever you get your podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts.
- [51:09]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
And a shout out to our top tier Bee Beast members, Karen White, Heidi Riley, Connie Rutherford, Sharon Shipley, Andrea Hodel, and Free dc. And thank you to our production team who are laughing as we're doing this. Devon Rogerino, Anna Von Erssen, and our editor, long suffering editor who's going to have a lot of difficulties with this issue, Jesse Millwood.
- [51:32]
Michael
Millwood. Okay, got it.
- [51:35]
Host (possibly co-host or commentator)
Millwood. Okay, we'll see you on Thursday.
- [51:40]
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- [52:00]
Michael
Of what you need.
- [52:01]
Grainger Ad Voice
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- [52:42]
Michael
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- [53:37]
Michael
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