The Daily Beast Podcast - How Trump Just Got Humiliated by His Star Guest

Episode Date: September 26, 2026

Joanna Coles and Hugh Dougherty dig into Donald Trump’s extraordinary welcome for Chinese President Xi Jinping, from the red-carpet spectacle and lavish state dinner to the tensions over Taiwan, Iran, and China’s support for Tehran. They examine what Xi’s carefully chosen language of the “Thucydides Trap” reveals about the increasingly complicated U.S.-China relationship, and why the White House’s embrace of Chinese power looks so striking alongside Trump’s attacks on Beijing. Then, with the midterms looming, Hugh breaks down the Republican panic showing up in key races across the country, where money is shifting and some GOP candidates appear eager to keep Trump at arm’s length. Plus, the escalating fight between Trump and the press, the White House’s attempt to restrict CNN’s access, the media’s decision to stand together, and Trump’s launch of his own 24/7 “Trump TV”—before Joanna and Hugh get into the bizarre resemblance between Ivanka Trump and Natalie Harp that had everyone doing a double take. #ad Save 20% off Honeylove by going to https://honeylove.com/DAILYBEAST! #honeylovepod #ad Start a free trial and get 50% off your first year of Monarch Core at https://monarch.com with code BEAST. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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have killed American troops. Russia and China are both providing intelligence to the Iranians on where American assets are. Chinese, we learned this morning from an intelligence leak reported by CNN, are providing details in real time of movements in the Strait of Hormuz. That is information that is incredibly dangerous to American service members in the Gulf. And yet you got a state dinner. And the other thing is that Trump, having written to Xi and said, please don't buy Iranian oil, China is buying almost all of Iranian oil.

90% I think. Yes. So he's welcoming in a very clear adversary to America. I'm Joanna Coles. This is the Daily Beast podcast. What a week. What a week. The Communist Inns,

chief, something that Donald Trump has said he's against communism. The communist in chief, well, he arrives and we have the American military on their knees, giving him a red carpet rollout. We will be talking about that. We'll be talking about the dress code. We'll be talking about the menu for the Chinese leader. We'll be talking about Trump's speech at the UN. We'll be talking about the midterms. We'll be talking about the war. Well, we'll be talking about all of it. with Hugh Docherty, our executive editor, who pretty much knows everything, actually. Hugh is like a walking AI. And, well, no time to waste. Let's get into it.

Hugh. Joanna. Oh, my God, you're in red. I am in red to note. It's a salute, a salute that our president was very busy doing a man who's never been in the military, got out of the military. Why was he wearing such thick gloves, Hugh? It was warm in D.C. And yet he was wearing gloves.

I think he's covering something up. Well, he had slathers of makeup on his hand at the actual state dinner last night. Welcome to the Daily Beast podcast, by the way. We've got so much to discuss, not least, why President Trump is rolling out the red carpet for the Chinese leader who is buying oil from Iran, despite President Trump's plea in April not to. and who is supplying Iran with intelligence about where American troops are. But nevertheless, we rolled out the red carpet. We gave him a beautiful statue of an eagle.

And our tech CEOs gathered to celebrate on Reagan Red China. It was all quite a spectacle. Before we get into that, I just want to say thank you to everybody who subscribed to the Daily Beast. We are aiming to get a million subscribers on YouTube. So if you do not already subscribe, please join our family, join our community. If you do subscribe, give us a like because that helps spread the word. And you can keep up to date with all of this at the Daily Beast.com. Very well said, Hugh, much better than I could have said it,

and share this episode with a friend. We're going to talk about who, single white female, whom, with Ivanka and Natalie Harp. Can we show the picture, please? because I got confused last night. I was like, oh, interesting, Melania and Natalie are there, but in fact it wasn't Natalie. It was Ivanka. It's quite a picture.

So who is trying to get Donald Trump's attention by looking most like each other? I actually don't know. Very confusing. I know you have theories. I do have theories. We're going to talk about the midterms. America is going to decide 39 days from now,

and I wouldn't want to, I don't know. We don't know. what the result is, do we because we don't know how people vote, but the Republicans think they know what the result is and they don't think it's a good one. Lots of panic to talk about all around the country. Lots of panics to talk about. Okay, but let's get into the weeds of this state visit because I'm obsessed by menus. I think they tell you a lot about either the person whose house you're at and you're eating their food or indeed when you're at the people's house. And earlier this week, I predicted that the state dinner was going to be intense, but I was wrong. It was actually

in the White House. There as Donald Trump pointed out when he offered everybody a tour of the ballroom, which he said would be built and finish in a year's time, that they only had, what did he say, 165 people or something, and actually the ballroom will be able to hold 965. So come back soon, President Xi. Come back soon. Come back in a year and it'll be a bigger gathering. And of course, The ballroom, the destruction of the East Wing, is being justified on national security grounds. And at this dinner last night, Trump said that he would do the honor of showing President Xi and his communist entourage the inside of the new ballroom project as a work in progress. And that really shows his dedication to national security, that he is showing that not to the American people first, but to what is widely considered. to be the biggest strategic problem that America has.

And certainly a power that is really determined to know America's secrets. Do you think the Chinese have already got people working on the ballroom, as it were? Do you think part of the construction crews are actually Chinese spies? Well, you would hope that they're not. You would hope that there's been incredible security and that there's been a massive due diligence. I think both you and I, Joanna, have visited various embassies. in Washington, D.C. It's one of the sort of privileges of this job.

And one of the things that a lot of those embassies, they literally, when they're building, they bring in crews from their own countries because they are so concerned about listening devices being implanted by whoever the local builders are. Well, and in the walls. I mean, literally in the walls,

in the light fixtures, in the columns, all of it. So if the White House is not building that is not assessing the background of the people that are there with that in mind. That's a big problem. And my prediction is, I don't know the answer, but I think the Democrats are going to be very interested in trying to find out. Well, and the speed with which they have moved forward with the ballroom, which let's not forget, doesn't have congressional approval.

It doesn't really have any approval, isn't it? It's going through this little office at the White House instead of the National Parks Department, instead of the GSA. So it's highly plausible that the backgrounds of all the people working in the construction crew perhaps have not been as diligently researched as one would hope. Well, we will find out, but do you know who probably knows already? President Xi. President Xi.

So here's what the president and his wife had for dinner. First course, yellow squash velute with wild mushroom fricacy. crispy panchetta and scallion oil, followed by sesame-crusted seabass, a note to the Chinese there with the sesame-crusted, seabass with brazed baby bok choy, roasted garden eggplant, and sauce verte. Why are we using a sauce verte, I suppose it is, green sauce, green sauce, which is herbal sauce, and then dessert, vanilla cremeau, with worn. Farngy Parnet and sour cherry confi accompanied by White House honey ice cream.

And the toast was Schramsburg, Blanc de Noir, sparkling wine, which doesn't sound great. Sparkling wines never sound good. Either have champagne or don't do it at all. I know I'm going to get letters from people saying we love American champagne, American sparkling wine. It's all good. So do I, and I do drink it all, deliberately chosen because Schramsburg was served. when Nixon went to China.

Sounds delicious. It does sound delicious. I mean, it sounds pretty great. It sounds also a bit pretentious. Like, why don't we just have good American food? Why don't we say, cheeseburger? You know, why aren't we having what Donald Trump likes? Is this torture for him this meal?

I mean, honestly, this is pretty. He's really, you know, taking one for the team, I think, here. He's taking one for the team. We know what Trump loves. Trump would like a wedge salad, maybe a prawn cocktail, a shrimp cocktail, definitely a large piece of beef, well done, if he can't get a burger. Right. And then pie and ice cream, double servings.

I have to say I would like that too. I don't think the president sounds pretty good, but. I don't think the president wants wild mushroom friccassay. No, I just don't think he does. That's what it looks like he's got on on the top of his head at times, but I don't think he wants to eat it. I definitely don't see him as a sauce vert guy. I think he's been there sort of scraping that to the side with his fork. This is all Melania. I just going to point out, do you think it's Melania? Oh, I mean, first of all, you don't think it's Robert Kennedy Jr. because he's now

got his real cooking show. Well, he does his real cooking show. Although he likes red meat. I was just going to point out, there's no bear cub, there's no raccoon penis, and there's no dog. Very funny. Very funny. It's not the RFK Jr. State dinner. And also he has hamburger and eggs for breakfast. I can't really see him enjoying this. But he was there. And so was his wife, Cheryl Hines. Who crept on as the final guest in the guest list.

A very final. I've printed out the guest list. Oh, thank goodness. For some reason, the first bit from the White House was in giant print. Not entirely sure what was going on with the print size. But you have to go through a lot of people. pages, passed quite a few confirmed communists, passed Lauren Sanchez Bezos, of course, the wife.

Who's keeping a much lower profile recently, isn't he? I highlight that because this is somebody who was around a lot, and actually we hadn't seen on such stage for a while. Brett Kavanaugh. Oh, yeah, the Supreme Court Justice. Sparkling wine, he prefers beer, as we know. Jesse Waters of Fox News and Laura Ingram of Fox News, both of whom rail against communist, but we're apparently happy to sit down for dinner with them. Katie Miller, the podcaster

and wife of Stephen Miller. And I'm still going, I'm still going, I'm still going, I can't read all these names out because we don't have the air time, but right at the bottom, right there, under Sandra Lynn Ellison, who is the spouse of David Ellison, new owner of CBS, is Cheryl Hines, spouse of Secretary Kennedy. So good job, Cheryl. You squeezed in there. Because we know that in a year's time, the ballroom will be enormous. It will be the ballroom that swallowed the people's house. Yes. But Donald Trump will be having enormous dinners.

He, I mean, I think, first of all, obviously this is not going to be the menu for the new ballroom when it emerges. It's going to be his menu. It's not going to be RFK's Bear Burger. But it's, I'm convinced it's a millennia menu. I'm just going to point out, Joanna, that main course, no kind of. No carbs. Although they may have had bread on the side. They may have bread on the side. It's true. They may have had bread. It's true. I'm guessing that Trump was back upstairs and munching down on some fries, to be honest.

Oh, you think he got the White House kitchen to send him up some burgers and fries? I'm going to make it. I'm going to suspect so. I mean, obviously, I'm saying that without any evidence whatsoever, but we do know he likes a midnight snack. We do know he likes a midnight snack. If you like the support of a sports bra but hate wearing one all day, I know exactly what you mean. Most of them feel great for a workout, but after a few hours, the straps dig in, the band gets uncomfortable, there's a uniboub, and you're ready to take it off. That's where Honey Loves Crossflex Activity Brass stands out from the pack. It gives you the support of a sports bra, but it's actually designed for all-day wear. It's wireless, so there's no poking or pressure points.

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Use our exclusive link to save 20% of Honeylove at Honeylove.com slash Daily Beast. That's honeylove.com slash Daily Beast. And after you check out, they'll ask you where you heard about them. Please support our show and tell them we sent you. Experience the new standard in comfort and support with Honey Love. What's there any frenzied posting this morning? Do we wake up to frenzied posts from truth social? There was not.

And actually, Trump has been, I'm not going to say restrained or constrained. The numbers are down on his truth social. Yesterday and the day before, quite a few outbursts. And most of them about this fight with the media. And one of them, thirsting, I think, is probably the word I would use over Xi Jinping, calling him fit and handsome. fit and handsome, which is odd because actually he didn't look either of those things.

He did not. And as we know, there has been a rumor, and again, there's no evidence for this rumor, but China is this incredibly difficult country for people to report on and from, and rumors often have something behind them. And this rumor has been that Xi Jinping had some sort of stroke while he was previously abroad and had to come home for country.

treatment. Now, looking at him, we don't see any of the kind of the really obvious signs that would suggest that. But he's president for life, something that our president has expressed interest in. Right, very much. And yeah, he doesn't look as young or fit or whatever as he did before. And he was also clutch clutching his wife's hand as he came down the stairs of the air airplane that he arrived in. And he looked exhausted. He looked tired. And that's kind of notable because because actually Xi Jinping in the past has been very careful about projecting this. I do think Strongman is quite the right word, but there's certainly this... I think Strongman might be exactly the wrong word.

Well, yes, but it's a very carefully calibrated image that he is trying to project. And he, you know, he arrived. He brought his own car. Chinese made sort of huge limousine their version of the beast. So not a B-Y-D, not a bar. or bid. How do you pronounce it? I believe it's bid, but I don't. Which now outsells Tesla as the world's best selling electric car.

Biggest selling electric car. Yes, he brought his own armoured limousine. So, you know, the Chinese automotives are not actually allowed to be sold in the United States. That's one of the many trade barriers that exist. And, you know, there's no point. You know, this was, some of this is retailing. He was saying, look at us. I've got an amazing car.

Why shouldn't you go and buy it? He was very, very careful. It was being shown off. It was parked in a way just on the way into the White House in such a way that every reporter who went past was able to inspect it, which was clearly done consciously. Well, it reminds me of when Donald Trump was shilling for Elon Musk and he had the Tesla parked outside the White House

and he got in and he went, wow, computer. It's unclear that he had been in the front seat of a car for many years and realise that most cars these days come with a lot of screens. Right. But there you go. Yeah. Okay, computer. So let's talk about the Chinese leader's speech.

So I think there are actually two speeches, two bits of speech while talking about. And what's fascinating about this visit is that Trump rushed to the airport, as we all saw, he went to Andrew's Air Force base. He had American service members on their hands and knees waiting for Xi to arrive. They literally rolled out a red carpet. Which they did do for Putin when he had in Alaska. So you have the visuals, which isn't a great visual of American military on their knees rolling out the red carpet. We've got that on screen right now. It's not great.

They then flew over, they did a flyover to B1 bombers. And that kind of went a bit badly because Trump winced. and she did not well not only did he wins I was discussing this with Michael Wolfe earlier this week he stuck his fingers in his ears and he kind of went like this

and it looked like I mean did sound very loud except that Melania didn't flinch Mrs She didn't flinch and the Chinese leader didn't flinch and Trump looked like he really was having issues with it yeah yeah absolutely And that moment, I know you've discussed it with Michael Wolfe, it kind of sets up the next day in the White House that we have a, this was a drama in two parts at the White House.

And the morning and afternoon, she came to the White House. He didn't stay in Blair House, which is this traditional, the tradition for a foreign dignitary of that level would be either. And you remember that the King and Camilla stayed at Blair House. they would stay at Blair House it's just across from the White House it's amazing I mean you get glimpses inside it occasionally on you know

from footage from inside it but it's vast it's you know it's comparable to the residence of the White House he didn't stay there he stayed in a hotel actually the hotel that Trump used to own which now is you know the place to be apparently

but he arrived with his entourage they went to the Ovales office, sat down, and she, in the course of speaking, in the oval office, did something that he had done Beijing before. He mentioned this concept called the Thucydides trap. The biggest trap is saying it right. I hope I've done that. But he mentioned this idea of the Thucydides trap. And the idea is that the younger upcoming power, the challenger power, is going to be, is going to get into conflict with the bigger power and it's going to win. Right.

And it's not hard to see who he is positioning himself as here. Now, it's pretty insulting. If you go to somebody else's house and say, oh, you know, I know I've got, you know, I know that I know that technically you're better off than me, but tell you what, we're going to fight and I'm going to win. It's not great. It's fighting talk. This is wrapped in the language of diplomacy.

It's also wrapped in language that we have no idea of Trump. actually knows what the Thucydides trap is. I'm 100% confident he has no idea what it is because he was a Greek general slash historian. He wrote the definitive history of the Peloponnese war. And also it's about the challenger power frightening the older, more established power into thinking I'm going to have to create a war here to squash the challenger, right? And this idea comes to us from ancient Greece, from Athens and Sparta, and Sparta was a rising power.

But also, it's something that the American military at the higher levels are taught. It was a concept that was popularized from the early 1980s onwards in reference to the Cold War by a thinker called Graham Allison. And if you go to the War College, if you go to West Point, if you go to do higher officer command, if you got joined, any, every one of the general corps that was lectured by Pete Hexeth, they have all been taught, they all learn about and think about the Thucydides trap. So she mentioning it to Trump, first of all, kind of insulting, he's mentioned it twice,

and he's playing on this question of does Trump know, and you're pretty confident he doesn't. Weirdly, he's never been asked directly what the Thucydides trap is. there's an opportunity there for us for us all at the White House. But it's pretty insulting to say it twice. You know, and then to have done it in Beijing and then come to the White House and do it on home turf. Well, and the other thing he said, which I thought was fascinating, was he said that she was demanding that the US, and I'm going to quote him directly here, adhere to the correct position of opposing Taiwan independence. Yes.

So while mentioning he doesn't want to fall into the Thudisadee's trap, he's also provoking America by saying you're taking the wrong side with Taiwan. Yes. And of course, we know that we've pulled out the USS, is it Washington to replace the Lincoln? Right, exactly. The Washington went to replace the Lincoln. Right. There is now no carrier, no supercarrier in the immediate area of that part of the Pacific. this is a moment of strategic weakness, but it's also a moment where she is turning up.

And when he talks about the Siddhidi's trap, exactly what you're mentioning at the top of the show, Jilana, he has been helping Iran. He is being, he is providing to Iran the components for the chemicals that underlie the rocket fuel, which powers their ballistic missiles. If China cut off the supply of some chemicals, they couldn't fire their ballistic missiles. those ballistic missiles have killed American troops. He is providing the coordinates. Russia and China are both providing intelligence to the Iranians

on where American assets are. Chinese, we learned this morning from an intelligence leak reported by CNN, are providing details in real time, we believe, of movements in the Strait of Hormuz. That is information that is incredibly dangerous to American service members in the Gulf, and yet he got a state dinner. And also, Trump was asked this earlier this week at Angar, UN General Assembly Week,

and he sort of dismissed it and said, oh, we all do it, we do it to them too, right? So the other thing is that China... But rather, obviously, China is not at war. China is not a war, of course. And the other thing is that Trump, having written to Xi and said, please don't buy Iranian oil, China is buying almost all of Iranian oil. Yes. 90% I think.

Yes. So he's welcoming in a very clear adversary to America. My relationship with money has changed a lot over the years. When you're younger, finances can feel like something you can deal with when you absolutely have to. But as you get older, you realise that understanding where your money is going can give you a lot more freedom and control. That's why I like the idea behind Monarch.

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Use code beast at Monarch.com to get your first year of Monick core half off at just $50. That's 50% of your first year at Monick.com. Use the code beast. I mean, what is he doing here? Why has he gathered all our big CEOs? I mean, I know that they're trying to work out some kind of detente around AI. But, But why the phoning? I don't want to crawl inside Trump's head. I would recommend that Michael Wolf is the man who is in there and will have a view on this.

All I'd say is that there is a pattern here with Trump. He believes that this sort of approach works. And I think most people who look at whether that approach works or not will say he hasn't had much success with it in the past. There are no great trade deals to show. for previous interactions, particularly with China, but also, you know, there's an element of this with Iran. And the one hand, he was planning to annihilate them.

But on the other, he was like, oh, we're going to make a great deal and they want to talk. This idea, I think his negotiating style, and it's in the art of the deal, is that you try to ingratiate yourself with the person you're negotiating with. And this is, you know, the recognition that China is a rising power is quite right. It's obviously a rising power. It's building aircraft carriers. It's building

strategic bombers. It's building submarines. It has a bigger Navy than the US Navy by the number of ships. The US Navy, people believe, remains strategically much more capable. It's a blue water fleet, as opposed to a sort of a literal fleet. But what is the difference between a blue water fleet? The ability, the US Navy can project its power around the world anywhere, basically, on blue water. The Chinese one for now appears more tethered to being close to Chinese territorial waters. But if they want to invade Taiwan, that's precisely the sort of fleet you need. And where is the supercarrier that is able to combat that? And also, we've seen, thanks to Iran, China is sending stuff to Iran. Iran is sending lessons to.

China because they are demonstrating how you can cripple American power. The American carriers cannot approach Iran as closely as, you know, strategically they would want to. The Fifth Fleet Base in Bahrain was taken out by drones and by missiles. The American safe zone no longer exists in the Strait of Hormuz. Those are massive lessons for any rising power that has got the opportunity to do something similar in Taiwan. And he was sucking, you know, serving yellow squash veluté. But the Russia invasion of Ukraine also provides an example to Xi, who we think is a cautious leader.

Yes. Because it's, they thought, you know, Putin thought, and we talked earlier this week to Luke Hardin, whose book, Betrayal is about how these bigger powers like America, like Russia have no longer adhered to essentially the UN mandate post the Second World War that bigger countries don't just go and help themselves to smaller countries. Russia marched into Ukraine, thought that they would take it in five days and four and a half years later they haven't done.

So she is probably looking at that. And I also came across another thing in the Ucidite's trap that I found very interesting, which is how language changes when the traditional power thinks that they're being challenged. And they start using words differently. And recklessness starts being seen as courage. So what would traditionally be thought of as a reckless move is talked about in terms of courage, that caution about going into a country, which is something that I think you could argue other presidents this century have all felt about Iran.

Enormous caution about going into Iran. Trump has presented as cowardice, which is a. the classic traditional power. So he's like, well, they didn't have the courage. I'm the only person that can take Iran on. And that moderation, which is something again that I think former, perhaps not George W. Bush, but other leaders have been very, very cautious about starting wars.

Obama in Syria just saying, we're not going there. He drew a red line and then promptly let them walk over it. But caution is seen as cowardice. And you see that in the language. that Trump adopts as this kind of, you know, bullish language about war. And it's very much a symptom of this trap that she is talking about. And Trump, it's interesting that we were talking about what went down at the dinner. Trump avoided all of this sort of language in the White House and his dinner.

He's been very, he has for once been kind of restrained in this language. but he did show things which people are saying are reckless. First of all, we talked about the ballroom. It's funny, but it does seem a bit reckless. Also rather reckless for his court case, where he is claiming that he is able to build the ballroom because of national security. But another intriguing element of this is he took she on a tour

of his new blamed-up White House, and he pointed out all the tacky gold that he's adorned every part of the White House with. And they went along the portico, which he has put portraits of presidents. And it's like, you know, you can see it on screen right now. It is horrendous to the eye. And he stopped at the portrait he has put up of Joe Biden. And it's this childish troll that he's got a picture of an auto pen because there's this

weird little conspiracy theory that Joe Biden wasn't really governing. It was the auto pen, blah, blah, blah. And he pointed this out to Xi. And many people looked at that who know about Chinese relations. who know about how the top people in China at the top of this Communist Party elite think and said they thought that this was a spectacular mistake to insult a previous American president

that there's no way that Xi Jinping is going to take anybody around any part of China and insult any Chinese leader, obviously not the biggest names, but even some of the ones that have kind of raised from history, We know that Xi Jinping disappears people now and again. He got rid of Hu Jintao, but he's not going to show Trump a portrait and go ha ha ha, that's it. He will have seen this as an incredible moment of American weakness and a divide in America that China can drive into.

Right. And also a president that now has cancer is very clearly failing. and, you know, his own son has said he doesn't have very long left to go. I think the, you know, the chilling lack of humanity of all this as well is something that, you know, I'm sure Xi Jinping is kind of thinking, what the hell? But anybody would say, what sort of way to behave is that? That is not, it is a fundamental shift in behavior. And, I mean, it's certainly reckless on its own terms about the reputation and the power of American presidency. Well, and I thought you saw some of that recklessness with Donald Trump at the UN this week as well when he was saying, well, and Michael Wolfe talked about the word, you know,

that he's used the word obliterated. We know in fact that Iran hasn't been obliterated. Its military hasn't been obliterated. It's still remarkably effective for a small power that in theory has taken all the air power that we could thrown at it, all the bombs that we could have thrown at it. And he said, well, you know, I'm the decider. I will decide whether or not we annihilate them or will we let them back into the world economy. Maybe they could become the most powerful, you know, power in the Middle East.

Again, that sort of traditional language, we're going to annihilate you. And of course, Iran wasn't a challenge of power, but has inadvertently become one. Yes. And this is all, you know, the speech at the banquet, I was going to say the banquet at the state dinner. Well, it was a banquet. What's the difference between a bank? You know what? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I think it's the same thing. In the comments, if you know the difference between a banquet and a dinner, can you write and tell us?

I was kind of thinking like trumpets and guys in armor and kind of medieval times and turkey legs, maybe. Turkey legs. I've been to medieval times in New Jersey. So much fun. And just a historic because turkey legs did not exist in medieval Europe. But there we are. And I'm not sure they should exist now, but they do. And delicious. But he used Trump at his speech at the dinner was very low-key, he spoke in admiration of she, and this was, you know, the sort of the choreography of it is to, that there is, he wants people to think there's going to be some sort of agreement or deal or something. And quite honestly, there does not appear to be any agreement or deal.

There may be some Deiasex McKina down the road, but the last, time he went to Beijing, he walked away with what he said was a deal about China buying agricultural products and manufacturing products. They've not lived up to those commitments. Right. Go to Iowa for the soybean farmers have seen that commitment not met. And that is a crucial element of the midterm elections, by the way. But what's on offer here? We don't even know. The tech lords were all there because they want access to this Chinese market. And that Chinese market is huge. It's not as big as the American market and she was here because he wants access to the American market. But the language of, you know, speaking in admiration of she and speaking

about the relationship between the two countries, all great. But, you know, rather like the meal, where's the beef? Oh, very good. Rather like the meal, where's the beef? Where some see heroes and others see egos. Bloomberg sees the era of billionaire athletes. A fad to some, the future of money to others. We see crypto's trillion dollar swings. The end of jobs or the end of human struggle. We see the endless funds fueling the AI hype. While others follow the noise, we follow the money.

Learn more at Bloomberg.com. So, Hugh, let's talk about the midterms. My concern is that the Democrats are overconfident, We saw this in 2016, we saw this in 2024, that being against Trump is somehow enough. I understand that it's a different race, the midterms. I understand that it's often just about local races, but Trump has insisted that Republicans think of this as him on the ballot, which, of course, many of them are saying, absolutely not.

It's scrubbing you from our websites. We don't want to pretend you're anything to do with this race because you're so unpopular. unpopular president in all the recent polls, what should we be looking for? Well, this is one of these, we are, as I said, 39 days out. There are people, there's probably people watching this who already have mail-in ballots. A lot of mail-in ballots have gone out. And there are certainly, in the next few days, that number just goes up and up. There are military ballots that will have reached overseas by now. So people are beginning to, the thing that happens is people crystallize in their minds, and the number of people who have already cast

their vote goes up. And these polls are, as you say, extremely bad. I just took, you know, as a snapshot this morning, Trump's job approval on average on the polls at the moment is 38.8%. Right. It's never been a lower for him. And every time Trump has been on the ballot, he's been on the ballot three times. He won twice. He lost once. I mean, he said, obviously he doesn't agree he lost, but he lost once. And in 2020, his numbers were kind of in this direction, and it was a very, very obvious defeat for him. He came back because Joe Biden's numbers were kind of in that direction as well. In between in those midterm elections, in those first 2018 midterm elections,

Trump's numbers were actually higher, and yet the Democrats won anyway. So here, I think what we have is we all know that those polls have consistently underestimated the number of people who will vote for Trump, but he's not on the ballot. So exactly how much of that probably 5% or so discount that you have to make comes into play. And even if you say 5% of people, you know, you have to add 5% percent. for Trump voting. Even then, these numbers are really still really bad.

Georgia, Georgia was deep red. It was then became sort of, you know, maybe purple if you're optimistic. John Ossoff has got a lock on this place. He's 7.8% up in the polls for the Senate.

Keish-Land's Bottoms, who's running for governor, is being pulled up. She has other factors that run against. So John Ossoff is a senator. She was the mayor of Atlanta. And we have to mention that she's African-American and it's the South. So, you know, putting all those into play, this shouldn't be too hard for the Republicans.

They can say she ran a liberal city and appealed to this sort of base in the countryside. She's up in the polls. North Carolina, Mike Whitewater, what lay there. He's behind by 8.2%. It's so bad that they're saying we're probably going to stop spending any Republican money. there. So those are signs that we have never seen before in the Trump era, that the Republicans are saying, we're not going to spend money in places that are where Trump territory. And they've already spent, the Republicans have already spent nationally $450 million on this

election. They've dropped a money bomb on this election. And even with that money, they really, fear that they're going to lose in Texas. And that is, you know, Texas is, you know, Texas is, actually run closer than people want, you know, than people kind of perceive. But for the Republicans, this would be a psychological, a spiritual blow of immense proportions because Texas, since the Bush dynasty turned Texas from Dixie Krat to Republican, Texas has been read. And if you ask anybody around the country of what sort of state is Texas, they'll say, oh, it's conservative, it's Republican. And that psychic blow would be huge. You know, the polls suggest strongly that Ohio, is not just in play, that they are spending,

they are now up to, I believe, $140 million being spent to try to get the unelected Senator John Hustid a full term. But Sherrod Brown, who was a senator, lost, is running again. And he lost by one point. Lost by one point in a Trump wave year.

They are really, you know, they are bombing money into this race. That's money, therefore, they're not spending in North Carolina and in Georgia. Michigan, people had thought was a stretch for the Democrats to hold because of a controversial candidate in the form of Abdul al-Said. But the polling averages there put him up by about two and a half points. That's not enough to say, oh, you know, home and hose.

But what it suggests is the Republicans are going to have to invest really heavily there if they want to get Mike Rogers into the Senate. But money is not infinite. and where else are they not spending? And then down the ballot, you have to spend on a whole load of house seats. This morning, the Cook Report, which is a very authoritative analysis of political intent. They moved 14 seats, 14 house seats, towards the Democrats. That doesn't necessarily mean the Democrats would win those 14.

But it means they're in play. But they're in play. They went from being safe Republican to lean Republican. They went from lean Republican to being toss up. They went from being tossed up to lean Democrat. None of that is good news for any Republican. And we're hearing it begin to seep out from under the door, under the door jams from the closed doors.

A talk show radio host in Iowa this week said he had seen the internal polls in Iowa and that it is a disaster. And Iowa, again, deep red. It's really fascinating. to lunch yesterday, organized by Emily's list, which had a group of female candidates all running in swing seats, which is where they're putting their money. And one of them, Christina Nicobocker, who's running in Ohio 17, I think the district is, was saying that she's running against a Republican incumbent who's been there for 20 years. He's never once in that entire 20 years

held a town hall. And she is incredibly impressive. A former Air Force, officer who's now an oncology nurse practitioner. And she said that the people of Ohio in the district she's talking to are just like everything this man has voted for. He's voted 100% with Donald Trump, has been to take things away from us. She was an incredibly impressive candidate. So we'll see what happens to her. Christina Nickabooker, if you are in Ohio.

And Ohio 17, I should say, includes Young's town, which is in. incredibly blue collar. This was part of the MAGA sweep was that this disaffected blue collar that had been in the lock of the Democrats went to MAGA. And now this election is that people are asking, well, what have you done for me? And prices are up. The war is a factor. The whole, you know, the feeling that we are not getting better. And particularly, as you say, health care. Health care in places like in Ohio 17's got a lot of rural elements. Rural health care has been decimated. But also the war. I mean, there's a military base there too. And this unasked for war, this illegal war that wasn't approved by Congress. And now people are

just feeling like there's no end to this thing. And Iran has managed to outmaneuver America. How is this possible? Donald Trump promised it would be quick war four weeks. five weeks. You've got Pete Hegzeth there with his wife sort of showing him how to do things. I mean, these incompetence around Trump also don't inspire any confidence for Republican candidates out there. Well, and that's why Republican candidates aren't turning up for them. Right. They're not, you know, J.D. Vans has been to Iowa and Ashley Hinson, who's running, didn't go for the Senate. Didn't go to greet him. Didn't go to greet him. They're not wanting, they do not want Donald Trump to come to their territory. And Trump's aide said, oh, he's going to do

loads of rallies. He's going to do lots and lots of rallies. It's going to be a rally a day or something like that. They said he was going to visit 35 states, I think. None of that's happening. And those people, weirdly, are actually breathing a sigh of relief. They don't want him turning up for them. They're saying, if we can kind of, you know, say, yeah, sure, I'm not actually as MAGA as I said I was and hopefully sneak under and not have Donald Trump turning up with Mr. Brick suit and the whole rally entourage on your doorstep,

then maybe things won't be quite as bad. And he's going to deep, deep, deep red. You can't get any redder. Radder, Joanna, than your jacket. Redder than the red carpet for she. He's going to Oklahoma and Alabama to have rallies. Well, and one couldn't help thinking last night that him surrounding himself with all,

the tech billionaires, plays to the Democrats' narrative that America is now for Donald Trump and his very wealthy friends. They're the people that have gotten richer while everybody else feels poorer. People, I think, feel very unnerved and destabilized by this moment. And the phalanx of billionaires only adds to that. And also, it used to be that state dinners would be a demonstration of America's talent, right? There would be Hollywood. would act as there, there would be writers there, there would be artists as well as very successful businessman. So you're getting the full version of America and instead Donald Trump has doubled down on his billionaire friends and there's no room for anybody else.

And these are the guys building the data centers which are horrendously unpopular. The other people that are, the people that are at this dinner, by the way, should say, they literally brought the head of the Chinese Communist Party to dinner and Trump's, you know, the Democrats are the target of these Republican ads that say communism, communism, communism, well, these are actual communist guys, and they're the ones at the dinner. They're the ones supping down the velouté and enjoying the friecaze, because nothing's too good for the workers, I suppose. But the direction that Trump is moving in with the billionaires everywhere, with wanting to

do a deal with China, which people perceive. Steve, people, and we talked, I've just mentioned Youngstown. Youngstown and the area around it is almost emblematic of the feeling that jobs were sucked out of free trade and the entry of China into the free trade, into the ability to trade freely with the United States. This error is what Steve Bannon, who I know features hugely, Michael Wolfe, you know, Michael Wulf's understanding of Trump, a lot of that comes from Bannon. And Bannon understood that people were angry about China.

Trump is pushing the buttons that make people angry. And if that follows through for the next 39 days, then that's really, really bad news. So on balance, good thing to invite Xi, bad thing to invite Xi for Trump. Oof. You've put me in the Thucydides trap. I'm trapped. I think it was a Chinese... Premier, I believe, who was asked about the uprisings in 1967 in Paris.

And he said, and what effect it would have had, and he said, it's too early to tell. But in translation, it was translated that he was asked about the French Revolution. And it was too early to tell. So I am going to choose the too early to tell answer, here. Okay, total cop-out. And come back to me after, I don't know, 250 years. Okay, total cop-out. So, Hugh, one of Donald Trump's posts was excruiting the media for not having covered him enough, not having covered his speech.

And in particular, he was going after CNN. Now, just explain to us, to those who weren't following as closely as perhaps we were, because we're media and we're obsessed with media. Trump banned CNN. He banned MS now and he banned Politico from covering him. him and from access to the White House and he took away their passes, their passes to be part of the White House briefings. The pool then responded, the White House Correspondents Association that creates a pool that ensures that everybody gets access to what's happening with the president and understands the importance of covering the president, especially one in his ninth decade, who's 80 years old

and who's had three attempts on his life, you know, very visible attempts on his life. We understand the importance of covering him at all times. What happened with the coverage of the she event? Because as they were covering it, a judge was actually deciding how the press should have access and whether or not Trump had completely trampled on their constitutional rights. Well, not surprisingly, Trump had indeed completely trampled on their constitutional rights. Who would have thought, Judge Tim Kelly, federal judge appointed by Donald J. Trump said, on the balance of probabilities, when this goes to full hearing, I will probably

find that Trump has trampled on your constitutional rights. And therefore, you need to give back these passes. And that should have been at least the end of it. But this being the Trump administration, the reporters went back. This happened at 1 a.m. in the morning. It's not often federal judges stay up that late, I would imagine, to do it. this work, but this was how important it was. What an important moment it was that this judge was willing to burn the midnight oil. And actually, this was on Wednesday night, wasn't it?

It was not, I said, I was wrong, I said last night when they were having the state dinner. In fact, it was the night before. Yes. Thursday morning, the report has went back and they still couldn't get in. They then went back to court. And all of this is happening. While Xi Jinping has arrived at the White House, he's brought the Chinese press corps with them. China does not have freedom of speech. Let's just be absolutely crystal clear here. And this White House, the White House, you know, has banned American journalists from covering the White House, but it has welcomed in Chinese journalists. And not only that, these Chinese journalists were in fact incredibly aggressive about taking up

space and getting near the action, way more so than American journalists are, in a way that was bizarre, farcical and disruptive. CNN went back, CNN, MS now, and political went back to court. They were represented by Ted Butrus, who is a legendary First Amendment attorney, a warrior for free speech. And not surprisingly, the White House crumbled basically on the steps of the court and said, oh, no, we're restoring the badges. went back in. But the White House did not entirely restore access here because the pool, which is an attempt to organize, as you say, covering the president is incredibly resource-heavy, energetic, and there are five television networks that are part of the pool. They are CNN, they

are Fox News, ABC, NBC, and CBS. Over the years, they have built the infrastructure that allows them to follow the president, film him in public events, film him as he's coming into the White House, as he's leaving the White House. It's incredibly resource heavy. Which means it's expensive. It's really, really expensive. It takes manpower, it takes person power, it takes computer servers, it takes cameras,

you know, this is a whole... And you have to pay every time you fly on Air Force, right? It's incredibly expensive. And these five networks have done that as an act, partly, obviously, for their own advantage that they get this footage, but really of public service. And the pool, the White House decided they would select who was in the pool and they weren't going to allow CNN back in the pool. So while this whole she event was going on, the pool remained in solidarity with CNN, something that nobody had expected, or I shouldn't say, nobody, something that nobody in the White House had expected would happen. They thought they could divide and rule. But the pool has remained in solidarity until CNN are back in the pool. They'd

said they would not cover these events in the way that they normally would. So we've much more limited filming of it. We've much more limited access to see what was happening. Now, if you're Trump, that's why you were melting down. Right. Because he lives to be on television. He lives. We've got three cameras here. That man would love three million. I mean, he wants to be all over the TV at all times. And obviously, he wants to be adored. They'd cut off the feed, and he was absolutely furious. It's interesting because a lot of people, a lot of commenters over the year that we've been doing these podcasts have said, why does the press cover him so slavishly cut off the thing that gives him oxygen, which is attention, cut off the TV cameras,

ignore him and see what happens. And we saw what happened, which was he went ballistic because CNN hadn't covered him slavishly. Caitlin Collins wasn't at the event saying, Mr. President, what are you doing? And when she turned up at the UN, he couldn't understand why she was there. He was like, you're not supposed to be covering me. Obviously, thrilled that she was there. And she said, well, the UN invited us, sir.

This is, it's an incredibly good question. And yeah, we've both seen it in comments. with both, you know, I've had readers and listeners and viewers emailing me, and I welcome that. It's a really finely balanced thing. Yes, Trump is abusive towards journalists and his conduct. Particularly women journalists. Particularly women journalists. His conduct is atrocious.

Cutting off that oxygen of attention may modify his behavior, but he is also the American president. and therefore has access to immense power, he commands the nuclear codes, he has the ability to direct the work of millions of people, and I'd probably say hundreds of thousands of people in the executive branch, the military, the power that is available to him as president is vast,

and therefore having a camera on him is an important part of holding him to account. And that balance, I absolutely understand why people say, just shut him off. And I have myself often thought that White House reporters personally should be more aggressive. It's often, it's kind of obvious with some of them that they perceive personal advantage of, oh, that person got slapped down, I'll go next. And it's, you know, that's human nature, I think. but when the attention gets turned off, then we don't know what's happening. That is itself probably bad, definitely bad for democracy.

And that balance we have seen this week that the networks do want to get back to covering Trump, not because they are slavishly in love with them, but because they believe as journalists that their job is to record history. And that's certainly how I see our job. So there was some footage from last night. Where does that come from? There were other, yes, there was other footage. There's a lot of still photos because the TV pool and does not, you know, the TV pool

has been the affected group of this. The print pool has not been affected. So photographers went on doing their work. And there was also some video footage from the White House itself. And of course in this week, Trump has launched his own Trump TV station, which is on YouTube and which is essentially Trump's greatest hit. So it's 24-7 Donald Trump. It is Trump 24-7.

We have watched it, so you don't have to. Michael Ian Black, who's a brilliant humorist, inflicted it on himself. The numbers are, I'm just going to say, we've got the QR code up on screen now for people who want to find Michael Ian Black's verdict on it. It is hilarious. He says it shows why Mussolini Television never worked.

Oh, Mussolini television. Can I throw in here? I did notice that his numbers were very low. We have 24-7 inside Trump's head television. So look for it now, 24-7. If you're ever, you can't get to sleep or you want some kind of stimulation or motivation to get out there and do something inside Trump's head television 24-7.

So Donald Trump has, he's basically copied us. He has, except his, no insights. It's all rolling out the greatest hits and it's not proving popular. I bet he's watching it himself. Do you think he gets into bed late at night with his burger and then just puts his greatest hits on and lies there watching it? I bet he does. Aw. What a scene.

I know. What a scene. What a scene. Actually, do you know what? Honestly, we've got no knowledge that Trump has ever watched YouTube peculiarly. He's big on conventional television. We did some comparisons. We followed some numbers.

But would he know it was YouTube? Because 30% of people watch YouTube on a television set. And we're told that he has televisions wherever he goes. So it's possible that he has unwittingly watched it. Has Natalie? I suspect he's running 24-7 in his bedroom. I think that's honestly, totally possible. Natalie, if you're in the comments, let us know.

Yes. Was Natalie invited to the state dinner? Because I didn't see her. I saw Ivanka was single white female in her. I mean, they looked identical. The hair was identical. I hope we're showing pictures of this. We have that picture.

The turquoise dress, which was a bit of a nod to Melania's dress for the first inauguration, the Ralph Lorenz suit she wore with a kind of little bolero, which was in itself a shout out to Jackie Kennedy. But Ivanka and Natalie Hart both have their hair up. As I realized, I do too today. So it's possible I'm single white femaleing Natalie Hart. So you inadvertently. You are Natalie Hart. I could be.

I could be. Wow. Well, she's a lot younger than me. But Natalie and Ivanka looked identical, many people getting them confused, I think, not just me. Melania turned up in a business suit. So big sort of bow and pants, which is unusual for a state dinner. Unusual, I thought. And she and Donald Trump were dressed in identical.

They were twinning. They were twinsing. It was very strange. The closest they've ever been. It was very strange. Those couples were both wearing red ties. Or to be fair, she to the dinner was wearing a Chinese sort of Mao suit, I think they're called, with a collar. But during the day, they were both wearing a navy suit with a sort of patterned red and purple tie.

Yeah. Yeah. Very strange. Yeah, they were more like a couple than Trump and Ivank. Then Trump, oh my goodness, I just said it. Than Trump and Melania. Yes, and worth reading David Rothcops' hilarious column about something which actually, well, it was about Donald Trump's crush on Xi Jinping.

And it reminded me of also in the news this week, Princess Diana, because her book, her brother, also reminded me of Princess Diana because her brother, Charles Spencer, has written a book, our columnist, Tom Sykes, of the Royalist, has been chronicling this book because it's caused enormous ructions with Buckingham Palace and with King Charles. But Diana, well, Charles Spencer, her brother, who many remember delivering the eulogy at her funeral, which is 30 years ago now, he recalls Diana having lunch with him and telling him that she was going to get a divorce from Charles, Prince Charles, as he was then, because Prince Charles was in love with his valet. And it made me think of this when David Rothcob wrote about

the crush that Donald Trump has on Xi Jinping, because men do get obsessed with each other, too. And here is a strong man that Donald Trump, as you say, would love to be in power for the rest of his life. And Xi Jinping has already announced he will be in power for the rest of his life. Yes, so maybe that's, did Trump see him come in and quickly, you know, quickly single white female as well? I think he did. I think he did. Shout out to Don Roos, who wrote single white female, because it's just a phrase that lives on and on and is so good. We should just put that picture of Ivanka and Natalie up on screen, brilliantly selected by Elizabeth Brockley,

who leads our visuals team. and it's pretty extraordinary. How similar they look. People know that Spider-Man meme where there's two Spider-Men pointing at each other. Right. There's a bit of that going on. It's Bridget Fonda and Jennifer Jason Lee

and it's very scary. And it's in the White House right now. And it's in the White House happening right now. Yes, you can't make this stuff up. If you have been, big thank you for joining. I will be back tomorrow with Inside Trump's Head and Michael Wolfe. And Huey, you're going back to the newsroom to whip up yet more stories.

I'm just going to see what's been happening. Are there more single white females? Is there more Trump TV? All these mysteries unfolding on the DailyBeast.com. On thedailybeast.com, if you haven't subscribed, do. And also there are tremendous benefits to joining, not just supporting independent media, which is what we are and why we can have the conversations that we do.

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