The Daily Beast Podcast - How Trump Secretly Knifes Cabinet Suck-Ups: Wolff

Episode Date: December 5, 2025

Michael Wolff joins Joanna Coles to discuss a president oscillating between boredom and sudden, theatrical fury; a man who now demands ever-greater flattery from aides who are running out of new ways to praise him. Joanna presses into the Hegseth Venezuela debacle that Trump is suddenly trying to disown, the strange Kushner–Witkoff Moscow overture supposed to “solve” Ukraine, and the inner-circle panic over Trump’s fixation with who is—and isn’t—sufficiently servile. Along the way, they track the “moronocracy” shaping U.S. policy and ask: if flattery no longer works, what happens next? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

If we're suddenly in a political moment of which a more complicated, naughty, draggy political moment, the stimulation is going to go down. And I'm not sure that he knows what to do with that, except his head droops and then lists to the side, because he is fundamentally bored. The whole flattery sycophant thing is he wants it, he needs it, he demands it, and then it starts to irritate him. And again, irritate him because he's not getting enough of it and irritating it because now he sees through it.

So Pete becomes an ass lick. Michael. Joanna. And you are in... I'm in Los Angeles and you cannot believe how I have construed my podcast studio to talk to you today. my computer is balanced precariously, I will say. So if I suddenly go this way, you'll know why, on the trash can because I was trying to improvise in the room to create studio and reasonably flattering lighting. Because last time we did this, you said that it was a disaster.

So I got up incredibly early to build a studio around myself. Possibly too much information. All right. Well, at least I'm not falling asleep. like the president did yesterday in his cabinet meeting. We have a lot to get through. We've got to get through Hegseth. We need to get through what on earth is happening in Russia

with your friend, Steve Wichoff and the president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner. We need to know what's happening with Olivia Nutsi's book release, which came out this week. Where should we begin? Should we begin with the president dozing? Well, yeah, no, because I have a sort of, I have a perspective and inside the White House perspective on this. And it was, I mean, I think everybody else is reporting this as another age-related symptom,

which it certainly may well be. The man is 79, overweight, we can go on and on. But within the White House, there was something actually to them more worrisome, which is, is the president bored? How can he be bored? How can he be bored? How can he be bored? there's so much going on. Well, I will tell you because let's remember, the president exists on two things, without which there is, in fact, no Donald Trump, flattery and fury. Flattery and fury, yeah. The problem with flattery is that all these people gathered around to flatter him,

they have already delivered the maximum, the maximum. the maximum groveling. And so if you deliver the same level of flattering, no matter how lavish and groveling, and if you can't up the ante, then he gets bored. I mean, it's kind of like drugs. Right. Your tolerance level builds. Exactly.

So now he would need them to be naked and prostrating themselves and perhaps bringing him grapes to keep him interested. Totally. In the last couple of weeks, He's been on the phone, and that's always a tell with Trump on the phone and asking questions, the questions of which imply an answer. So, you know, and they've been questions like, is Pete an ass lick? Is Pam a suck up? Is little?

Oh, whoa. Is Pete an ass lick? This is something he's actually been asking. Someone told you that they heard him say this. Absolutely. And this would be completely in character. You know, the whole flattery sycophant thing is he wants it, he needs it, he demands it, and then it starts to irritate him. And again, irritate him because he's not getting enough of it and irritating it because now he sees through it. So Pete becomes an ass lick, Pam becomes a suckup, and little Marco, he's, he's asking, is he just saying what I want to hear? But patently he is. But this is all evidence of an indication of Trump's, you know,

disgruntlement with the people around him, which always comes to this. And this is because they are incompetent because Pam Bondi, you know. They are clearly incompetent. But that's another problem because he clearly, it's not as if he wants competent people. I mean, he wants people who are going to lavish this kind of of just abject flattery on him. But then the problem with this abject flattery is that it breaches its limits. And he still needs more. Such an interesting take on things.

And it makes total sense. And it also reminds one of the emperors of yore and the kings of yore who are simply bored and demand an execution or something to keep them interesting. And each time the level has to go up because their senses are dulled by it all. You know, completely. And then there was, and then there is the fury thing too. You know, he needs an enemy. He needs somebody to, you know, he needs to wage a pitiless attack on something.

And he did that on Somalia. But so the word from the people in the room is everybody kind of went, when he went on this, this rant, it was like Somalia. really right we're at Somalia now it's come to this and and I think there's that again that's that thing you know and it may be you know he has run this has been you know as I've as we've discussed before the most remarkable year in the history of the American presidency and certainly we can argue it's the most destructive year but it is just remarkable I mean what he has the attention of the public that he has been able to hold, this ability to do things that no one else would do,

with no one else getting in his way, just a kind of storm trooping through the political landscape, but which is clearly now with the election, with Epstein, with all of the things that we have been, talking about coming to a different kind of pace and quite possibly to a kind of grinding slog, which most presidencies come to. And I think that's, I'm not sure he can deal with that. Well, and I'm sure it's exacerbated by him older now, too. So in his first presidency, as you know, he was still trying to sort of understand the impact of

the deep state who is trying to stop him doing things. Now he's got carte blanche. He's bulldozed everybody. But the fact he looks exhausted, clearly physically he's not great. He told us that he'd have an MRI, but then he couldn't remember what it was for, what body part it was for. He seems increasingly erratic. His sudden remark about affordability, oh, this is a Democrat thing, it's a fake thing, it doesn't mean anything after he just had his cuddle puddle with mom darning about affordability just sort of makes even less sense than normal. Again, people make the mistake of thinking of Trump as other presidents, that somehow he has his eye on the arc of history. Somehow, you know, he sees how his agenda is playing out

or not playing out. And I want to, you know, again, try to correct that, that Trump is a man who lives in the moment. It is about his stimulation now. Right. Okay. And if that fails him, I think everything starts to fail him. And if we're suddenly in a political moment of which a more complicated, naughty, draggy political moment, the stimulation is going to go down. And I'm not sure that he knows what to do with that, except, except, you know, his head droops and he fall, and he, um, and then lists to the side because he is fundamentally bored, not only just old, which is something, yes, I mean, I think that's, uh, that is certainly worth keeping tabs, tabs on, but this other thing about being bored that it becomes kind of existential in,

in, in its way. I'm not getting the stimulation that I, require. So, I mean, I think this is, this is this, that just, I just want to put a, put a pin in that to think about if going, going forward, we have Donald Trump, who is not quite Donald Trump, who is, who doesn't have, who is not sustained by the flattery and the fury that he, that he needs, who is, you know, kind of not present. Well, also Donald Trump bored as things get complicated. So the Russia situation is complicated. And of course, he's now trying to figure out what to do with Pete Hegzeth. And is there anything more likely to send a shudder of despair through one than Pete Hegzeth saying publicly, we have your back? Obviously, I'm talking about Admiral Bradley, who was in charge of operations in Venezuela.

and who now must just be rolling his eyes at the idea that Pete Higgesith is saying he didn't even stay in the room to witness the end of the operation. This is a man who parades around with all his American doll accessories, his pockets wear, his stars and stripes that he wears absolutely everywhere. And yet as defense of war, he cannot be bothered to stay in the room long enough to check the end of a very short operation. Well, yeah, I mean, I suspect that actually not true. I mean, I suspect that there is, that this is, Pete Hegs is peddling as fast as he can on this. So, and what is what is the excuse for picking off these poor men who are clinging to boat wreckage? Well, I wasn't there. I didn't see it.

The fog of war. The fog of war. We're not at war. We are not at war. Totally. But I think the, you know, I mean, I think the gut thing, what seems more likely than not is that he did this. He enjoyed these men being being picked off and now was lying about it. Michael, can we back up a minute here? Because this story first appeared in the Washington Post,

which I don't want to over prop them here, but people had sort of written off the Washington Post because Jeff Bezos had dismantled the opinion pages and said they should stick to ideas about the free market. And we know he's been, you know, he was front and center at the inauguration. And the Washington Post appeared to have been somewhat defendants. is that of any significance here? You know, it's probably not significant to the Washington Post. The Washington Post has become something else. But sometimes these stories are too good not to tell.

And Pete Hagsif picking off the Venezuelans hanging to the boat debris, even for Jeff Bezos, you know. One wonders if Jeff Bezos knew anything about it. I'm sure he didn't. But within the newspaper, within the paper, they thought, okay, this story, we're not going to get in too much trouble from Jeff Bezos because of this story. It's just too irresistible. But I think beyond that, yes, there might be.

There might be a sense that everybody who has been abject in, trying to carry favor with with with with Donald Trump feels they have to do less of that at this moment that there is a turn um you know and again election Epstein we we can uh the economy we can make we can make the list um i mean i mean there was a there was a a piece today which i think was in the times um looking forward to the midterms and um and and Right now, and of course, we're still a year out, but right now the view is catastrophic for the Republicans. So, yes, I mean, I, you know, I think, I mean, in, in, even in Donald Trump's autocratic America, things can go south very quickly. And they might be.

Well, and Republican senators are coming out now expressing extreme concern over people. Hegseth's behavior. And there is something ironic about Trump obviously choosing him, and let's not forget, he was a co-host on a Saturday morning show on Fox News, having run to veteran agencies basically into the ground, having had all sorts of issues with alcohol, having had all sorts of issues with women, and him only being confirmed by J.D. Vance, it was just J.D. Vance vote that got Pete Hegzeth, the confirmation. Of course, and it's not just, you know, I mean, there is this thing. So everybody, the Senate Republicans approved virtually all of Trump's cabinet choices at this full well-knowing that in almost in, in the bulk of the instances, certainly the high-profile ones, they were improving.

completely incompetent people, people who had no experience, people who had achieved nothing in basically in their lives, mediocrities at best, failures. Pete Hagseth with the, you know, the weekend co-host, RFK Jr. What has he been doing for the past 50 years of his career, effectively nothing? You know, Pam Bondi, you know, a hack lawyer in Florida. I mean, you can go down the list here. Nobody is distinguished or distinguished only by their lack of distinction, which everybody, every Republican was fully aware that these were morons. But they were Donald Trump's morons. So it was like, okay, let them, you know.

you know, it's Donald Trump's world. Let's, we don't have an alternative here. But that doesn't change the fact that they are morons and that, and that every Senate Republican Senator knows their morons. So when it becomes the moment, the, you know, the, you know, the, you know, the emperor's no-close moment, they're not then at that moment going to continue to defend them. Well, and what's also noticeable about both RFK Jr. and Pete Hegseth is when they were going through the confirmation process. Both of them had members of their family. I mean, Pete Hegseth's mother had written a letter to him which got leaked, I think, from one of his former sister-in-laws, saying you are an abuser of women. I mean, it was a letter no mother would ever want to write to her son and no son would ever ever. ever want to receive. And of course it got leaked and she had to apologize. But it was a devastating letter. And then similarly with RFK, the video of Caroline Kennedy coming out and saying, this man is a

dark man. He's got his cousins addicted to drugs. Entirely. But we don't even have to go there. All of that is just piled on. And the and the, and the fact that they were, that these guys were confirmed by the Senate with that, is this strange, creates this strange moment in which, in which when everything comes apart, everybody, every senator who confirmed them has to actually go in the opposite direction. And that's what we're going to start, start to see now. Because in each instance, we have an example of somebody who abjectly does not know what they are doing. Right. And I think what you can see with Pete Hegseth too is the panic that he might be the first to be fired by Trump, the first cabinet minister to be fired. Because do you remember that Matt Gates, who was up for Attorney General, didn't get the nomination. They got rid of him very early on. But then everybody else pretty much got railrooted through. So what we're waiting for now is the first firing. And you can see, Hegseth must be sitting around. that cabinet table thinking, oh, my God, it might be me, it might be me, which is why he's

flamming like an old actress at this point. As I've said before and just cautioned, often this kind of opprobrium heaped on Trump's appointments creates a defense for them. He doesn't want to do. He will resist doing what he, anyone is trying to force him to do. So it is actually a more powerful indictment of them that they are failing to deliver to him what he needs, the flattery in this instance. I mean, if he gets bored with them, then they're going to go. And that's a stronger motivation than someone saying that they're criminals and war criminals. and corrupt.

You've got Donald Trump himself also backing away from Hexler, because you've got him saying on the plane on Sunday, well, I didn't know anything about it. I mean, his first thing. I'm just a word of caution. Yeah, no, no, I hear you when you say, oh, he always doubles down. He's stubborn. He's not going to be told by the press what to do. But I thought it was notable that he was backing off and saying, well, I wouldn't have done it

twice. I wouldn't have done it twice. In the incompetence department, I'd like to move to. Russia at the moment because I think it's I think it's important. I mean, I think it's extraordinary what what's happening there because, I mean, you have these two people wholly with with, I mean, who are essentially negotiating the fate of the Western world. Now, if anyone said to anybody in New York, not that long ago, that, that Steve Whitkoff was negotiating the fate of the Western world, people would be,

they wouldn't even know how to react to that. Well, let's say Michael Wolfe has lost his marbles. He used to be a great writer, but now he's lost it. But there Steve Whitcough is with Jared Kushner, somewhat more competent, but wholly focused on his own benefit in advantage. So you have an incompetent and a grifter now in Moscow trying to sell out Ukraine. But the more interesting thing perhaps is the fact that they can't even do this. They can't sell out Ukraine.

Try as they might. And they've done nothing but try to do this, to give Russia whatever they want. But because these guys are fundamentally unsuited to the job, unsuited to the the intricacies of diplomatic solutions. They can't do it. They can't even, they can't give Ukraine to Russia, which they've been trying, trying to do, because they have a world in opposition to them. Thank God.

But that is where this chapter in this now in this rather long-running saga of trying to give away Ukraine where we are. They are now with Putin. Putin is telling them, forget it, you know, I'm not going to take these compromises. You have to give me Ukraine. And then it's not not at all unlikely. They'll come out of this with some deal to give Putin Ukraine and that will fall apart immediately thereafter. So, Michael, we've been inside Trump's head and you say he's bored. What is going on inside Putin's head? Is he having fun here? Is he enjoying his sort of cat and mouse game?

That's above my pay grade. Putin is, I mean, Jesus. But they had a five-hour meeting yesterday. One of the conundrums of the world at this point. What is going on in Putin's head? What is going on in Trump's head is remarkably transparent. What is going on in Putin's head may be as transparent, which is, you know, he is held been on the restoration of imperial, of an imperial Russian design.

I don't know. Or maybe he's just held been on amassing vast sums of money. I have no idea. That seems impenetrable what Putin wants, why he would send. and what may go up into the millions of Russians to their death in Ukraine. I mean, I think, I think there must be some psychopathic element here. I don't know. So I'm going to give up on this one.

Well, it makes the history teachers or their history professors and all the diplomatic experts that the Trump administration has poured scorn on look slightly less. incompetent now as we see them coming out of a five-hour meeting looking thoroughly exhausted with not very much to show for it. Yeah, well, you just have to say Steve Whitkoff. Okay, Michael, Michael, be quiet. We're going to take a break for our advertisers. And we are back. I mean, how did Steve Whitkoff get in this position? This is, what do you do? What is your credential here? What's this, what is his singular credential is as only, as a golf buddy.

But that's how Alana Harbour was picked because, as you said in your book, which she complained about but then confirmed, she met Trump because she was at Bedminster lying around the pool in a bikini. Every Trump pick is essentially a circumstantial pick. Do you intersect with him in a way that allows you to demonstrate your ability to. your ability to flatter him. There's nothing else going on here besides that. That's what you do.

That's the qualification. That's the interview. How do you flatter me? At what level? And then by the time you've fully flattered him, he gets bored and he's off with his head and onto the next. So Michael, when you texted me this morning, you had a very good description for what you thought the government of Trump should be called.

Yeah, I mean, it is a moronocracy. I mean, that is, it is literally, let's just go, let's staff, and that becomes a kind of the credential. Are you moron enough to work in Donald Trump's government? And we can go down the list from Hegg Smith to Cash Patel to Pam Bondi to to Christenome, to RFK, to Alina Haba, Lindsay Halligan. These are subpar people not only in their jobs, but in any profession that they might have, that they might work in. A moronocracy, it's sort of tragic, and it would be funny if it weren't tragic.

And you also sent me a piece by George Will from the Washington Post. saying the killing of the survivors by this moral slum of an administration should nauseate Americans, which I thought was a good line too, a moral slum. And George Will doesn't usually deliver a good line. So even he's been inspired. Yes, let's take note of this. But, you know, George Will is, you know, who works for the Washington Post. I mean, that ought to be a signal that the tolerance of the Republican bulwark is coming apart, I think.

Yeah, it's fraying. And we talked about the Kash Patel story and this leaked report saying that there was a lot of internal, well, concern is putting it mildly about Cash Patel. We missed one particular detail, which I saw taking off online, which was this idea that when he flew to Utah after the killing of Charlie Kirk, he refused to get off the plane until he had the correct FBI jacket. And he wanted various badges on it that other people had to cut off their jackets and put on his. So he wasn't bothered about getting to the scene of the crime on time. He was bothered about the optics, I'm sure, for social media. And there was a lot of feeling within the FBI that him and Dan Bongino, his number two, was spending a lot of time on social media and not enough actually doing the job,

which surprises no one and is simply two more people to add to the Morinocracy. Yeah, no, well, these are patently unsurious people. But just I know a little about the preparations of all politicians. politicians for when they exit the plane. And that's a, no one seems dignified at that moment. Well, there was, I noticed another strange comment by someone regarding Donald Trump. They were talking about Donald Trump's age and the fact that he still takes the steps at the front of Air Force One and walks up them.

And then they said, but you don't know what he does when he, gets onto the plane. And I thought, well, what can he do? What does that mean? Does that mean he just lies down? Does it mean he's completely out of breath? Do you have any indication what that means? I have not. I don't know. I mean, I've seen Donald Trump come on to the, to his plane, not to Air Force One. And he seems, he seems fine. He seems strutting about. He seems like Donald Trump. All right. So, we mentioned RFK Jr., who's been in the news again this week. following the publication of American Canto, the somewhat grandiosely named memoir of Olivia Nutsi,

a former writer at the Daily Beast, who is someone you know. I have only met her once, and I will confess we tried to hire her when I got to the Daily Beast because I loved her writing. Nootzi or Nosey? Or Nuzi, as Keith Oberman said, because he was involved with her.

Do you want to explain what this story is, because you wrote a passionate substack about it this week. Passionate. You think it was passionate? Well, it seemed passionate. It seemed passionate about her energized writing. You know, I mean, I just, I mean, she is being pilloried by every, by the whole set of journalistic bishops, if you will, which I find somewhat hypocritical, but, you know, But more to the point, I mean, I mean, the life that this, that this woman has led is kind of extraordinary.

And on the edge of adventure and self-destructiveness, I would say. But I think she's a good writer. I mean, you know, I think the Trump years have not produced a lot of good writing. and I think for a lot of reasons, liberal writers don't like to, at best they condescend or writing about Trump. Nobody has, or very few people have kind of access in proximity. And they just don't, they don't get the Trump thing. They see Trump in political terms rather than in Trumpian. terms. But anyway, I think, I think she wrote for New York magazine on a kind of sporadic basis. And

every time she did it, it was, it seemed original. It seemed to offer something that that nobody else was offering. But then she went on to have an affair, and I use the word in some kind of air quotes, because unclear actually, actually what the, the nature and the level of intimacy was between them, except for some erotic poetry from RFK Jr. Worth getting a hold of that. I think we've read it here. Did you read it?

I think actually I read it with Kurt Anderson. I think you might have missed that episode, Michael. We could do a reprise. We could do a reprise, except the poetry itself isn't really worth it. I think there might have been some naked photos, too. As always. Well, no, not as always. Not as always.

I don't know. I find it hard to, has there been a sex scandal in recent years in which there were not, not naked internet photos? I don't know. Jeff Bezos himself had an internet scandal, a picture of, he was clearly enjoying sending some naked photos because that's how the whole thing came out, right? that the American, the National Enquirer had photos of him. My point in this substact column that I wrote is that she's a extremely good writer. And the fact that she went on to have whatever she did with RFK Jr. And then her previous boyfriend who got jilted in all of this has now struck back

and revealed other affairs that she has had. And I'm, I'm like, you know, the measure here is what you write. If you have an affair with RFK Jr. or whoever you have, and then if you write about him, you either produce a piece of bad writing or you produce a piece of good writing. and the measure here should not be the relationship, the nature of the relationship you've had. It should be what you've written. There was an observation by Keith Oberman, who was someone that Olivia had also lived with for a period of time, that perhaps the actual hero in all this was the editor at New York Magazine who'd edited her stories over the year,

because it turns out that she... I would interrupt to say, A, that's bullshit. because Keith Olberman has no idea what goes on at New York Magazine. And I, who have written as many words for New York Magazine as I believe anyone has, you know, I mean, sometimes there's editorial support, sometimes not much. So I don't know. All I can say, because I have some insight into that is when I joined New York magazine after we had met and you had in fact said to me you need to come and work for New York

magazine. There was always there was always a frisant in the office when your column arrived. Your copy was to be dealt with completely differently to the way anybody else's copy was dealt with. It was oh God, Michael Wolfe's column has dropped and there would be kind of heads buzzing. Everybody would be reading it. The lawyer would be summoned. It was drama. Every week it was a drama when your story arrived. I think you're making that up. I'm not making it up. I'm not making it up.

I worked in the room next to the guy. That guy next to you was there for a brief period. He was an editor on my book who I hired and then I fired. But all I can say it was enormous drama when your copy dropped because it was like handling a kind of the Ming vase that arrived every week in a gallery that could not be dropped and people had to be very careful with it. And Michael, quick toss to our sponsors. And we are back inside Trump's head.

But Olivia Nuzzi, Nutsi, whatever, could not have had a better rollout for her book in many ways. I mean, everyone certainly in the media has been talking about it. She got an extraordinary piece in the New York Times. I don't know. And I don't know how this, I mean, maybe this will redound to her benefit. I mean, I think it's, I think it's, you know, I mean, she's a young woman. This is a pretty difficult kind of thing to endure the opprobrium of the journalistic community. But, I mean, I don't know.

I mean, I think she's going to be fired from, she was fired from New York Magazine. She was fired from, she is going to be fired from her new job at Vanity Fair. And I just let me point out. Actually, these magazines need her more than she needs them. I mean, in both cases, both in New York magazine, a stable of, you know, largely unknown and undistinguished writers except for her. And in Vanity Fair's case, you know, all the writers of your in Vanity Fair departed long ago. and now it's another faceless bunch in which they hired not that long ago, Olivia Nudzi, to be there, be a distinctive writer, a writer with a voice, a writer with a

reputation. With a point of view, with a point of view. And now they will be forced to sacrifice her, as New York Magazine was forced to sacrifice her because of the, you know, the ruffled feathers of the journalism community and the ruffled feathers of lesser writers. Well, and you know something about the ruffled feathers. You've, you've been through that, too. A lot of feathers, yes.

And it is a thing. And it is, you know, and I mean, my situation is, I mean, is different, but it has a, it has, it intersects at some, at some point. There are people who are, there are writers who are concerned with writing. And then, and then there are, there are a journalist or, you know, editorial bureaucrats who are, who are involved in the essential, in the essential protection of the journalism organizations they work for, which are all in some form of, of distress. and extremists. So everybody is, everybody rushes to protect them, to protect themselves, to protect their reputation,

to do what the lawyers tell them to do. I mean, it's a terrible time for, for, to be a journalist and for, for journalism. But, you know, Olivia Nutsi,

Nuzzi, has on, you know, many occasions now, produced, distinguish pieces of writing. And hell, that's,

I hope she produces much more. Well, I wonder if Ryan Murphy will simply buy up her story at this point because it's, I mean, I think the difference for you, too,

is that you've got a ton of books under your belt. So when you ruffle feathers, it has a different impact. This is her first book. I am old and she is not. So who knows? That's, um, you know, we'll, we'll see. I mean, I would, uh, um, I'd sacrifice all the books to be that young again. Would you though? Would you? I don't think we would.

Probably I would. Oh, interesting. Interesting. Well, that in itself could be a book. The, the, the writer who gives up all his books to start again. Yeah. Yeah, for youth. That definitely feels like a fable. Also possibly something that Ryan Murphy could do, a sort of Dorian Gray inspired story. Well, Olivia's book was not doing as well as I'd expected. Actually, I thought, goodness, with all this publicity,

it must be number one on the bestseller list. It was somewhere like number 13,000 on Amazon's list. And I think it was number four in journalistic memoirs, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Our God Hunter S. Thompson was still number one. I don't know if it's been number one ever since he wrote it. But journalistic memoirs, there aren't that many of them. Anyway, she was number four in that because Amazon creates all sorts of different categories. So you can strive to be a best salary in one of them. All right, Michael, before we go, we have some more questions for Melania. Bring them on, please. Okay. So this one is from Michael Cole, 7528. No relation to me, although my father is called Michael, so that's odd. But I have an S. Okay, from Michael Cole 7528. Ask Melania, how did you get your first work visa? How many times did you renew it? Did you pay taxes? No other model has ever been given the Einstein exemption to become a citizen. I'm not quite sure how he was. would know that because a lot of European and East European models came over at that point. How many roommates did you first live with, name them were they models?

No, and I think it's fundamentally a good question and a good and an area that remains mysterious and opaque. I mean, how does a person from an Eastern European model with an insignificant modeling career end up married to a man who becomes the president of the United States? It's an incredible story. I mean, in many ways, it should be a hugely hopeful story that an immigrant can come to America and end up married. to the president because we know an immigrant can't become president, but she's got the next best thing, except that she's married to Donald Trump. Well, we suspect that there is, that this is, that we don't know the story.

That's the, well, we don't know the story. That's the, and that's the reason for your case. Okay, this is from Anna Rex. How much time does Melania spend with Donald Trump and with Baron? What's her beauty regime? I would like to know her beauty regime. where does she shop? Because you never see, I guess she has shops closed for her

or people just bring stuff to wherever she's living, Trump Tower or the White House when she's there. Because you never see little social media videos of her out shopping, which you do sometimes with celebs. And then finally, who are her friends? That would be interesting to know. Who does she hang out with if she's not hanging out with the president? First part of that question is the important question.

How much time does she spend with Donald Trump? And with Baron. Yeah. I mean, is this all fake? I think that's a reasonable thing for the American people to know. And then we've got a question here from someone called No Way 7555-5. Ask Malania about her pre-up. What are the details of the pre-nup?

How much does she get for every year she stays married to him? That's also an interesting question. Yeah, I'll say. Okay, final question from Citric. Ask Melania. Question is, coming from Savinia, did you have a communist upbringing and or education? Were your parents members of the party? Did you ever go to Moscow for a training? Okay. Yeah, okay, those are good questions. Very good questions. This case is building. Do we have any more details on it?

When will you give us a bit more information about what's happening? Soon. I mean, a lot of people want to know what's happening, and I've been explaining that, you know, the law, justice apparently moves very slowly. So, so I am learning about this as we all will learn about it. It really takes a long time. So, but I am pressuring. I'm on the phone with the lawyers every day saying what's happening. happening, what's happening. Well, as long as you get it done while they're still in power, although I'm sure they may want to deflect. I mean, that's the other thing about this, is that they are experts at delay. Delay, delay, delay, delay. All right, so any more questions for Melania as Michael fights? Send them my way, please, and I appreciate it. And they're good. Yeah, they are good. They are very good. People have really engaged on this. I think people want to know. I think this is one of those, those

You know, those Donald Trump mysteries. The Donald Trump mystery. Okay, well, there's no mystery to the fact that we will be at the 92nd Streetwide on January the 21st. Come and see us. There are still a few tickets, though happily we've sold a lot of tickets for it. But 92nd Streetwide, Michael and I will be there live, happy to take your questions and be addressing the issues of the day. Well, let's hope it'll be a good evening. I know it will be.

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