The Daily Beast Podcast - I Know Why Trump's Slimy Goon Squad is Unravelling

Episode Date: June 23, 2026

David Rothkopf and Joanna Coles unpack a weekend of political chaos that stretches from the collapsing Iran negotiations to the algae-filled disaster of Trump’s reflecting pool renovation, exposing a presidency built on grift, dysfunction, and spectacle. As JD Vance is dispatched to Switzerland to negotiate an impossible peace deal, Trump’s public undermining of his own vice president becomes a window into the increasingly fragile state of Trump’s inner circle. David and Joanna dive into the bizarre Father’s Day snub of Don Jr. vs Eric Trump and the mounting controversy surrounding Ivanka’s Albanian ambitions. Rothkopf delivers one of his most blistering critiques yet, connecting failed foreign policy, a decaying reflecting pool, and an administration he sees as incapable of governing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Check it out at plaud. slash Daily Beast and use Beast for 10% off. That's PLAUD.com.A.U.com slash daily beast and use code Beast for 10% off. Who is building an arch to honor himself? And who's got banners of his big, ugly face hanging all over downtown D.C. Now, that's what I would call a vandal. And so Donald Trump is the vandal in chief, Rift Force One. This flying brides, that has come here from Qatar. While Americans can't afford gas, can't afford food, are getting kicked off health care.

It's the most luxurious plane in the world. Everybody knows that the deal he's struck with Qatar, when he leaves the presidency, the plane goes with him. He gets to keep it. It's beyond grip. This is corruption at a scale that we have never seen it, and he's bragging about it.

I'm Joanna Coles. This is the Daily Bees podcast. It's Monday, so we must be with David Rothkopp. And indeed, we are where we're going to talk about a lonely figure on the international stage, J.D. Vance, as his boss tries to undermine him on truth social. We're going to talk about why did the Trump organization single out Eric Trump for love on Father's Day and forget about his other children? Who knows why? And we're going to talk about the drug. unfolding as we have this conversation in the UK as the British Prime Minister resigns. It's all action. And don't forget, Grift Force One, the new plane from Qatar that David has very strong opinions about. So let's get into it.

David Rothkopf. Joanna Coles, where are you today? I am still in the south of France, my friend. I am not going to complain. We have record temperatures, record amounts of rosé in bottles flowing everywhere, champagne everywhere. And everybody is very excited about the transformation in the advertising business. That's why I'm here to hustle up dollars, which reminds me that we would love you to subscribe to the Daily Beast if you haven't. This is your moment to show your support for independent media and they don't come much more independent than David Rothkopf.

Yeah, show your support for independent media and help pay for Joanna's return flight from Khan. Thank you. Yes, by return flight. People do not subscribe. She's not coming back. I'm going to get stuck that. Well, that will encourage people to not subscribe, David. So listen, we've got, you know, I know it was Father's Day in the U.S. yesterday.

We have to talk about the diss to Don Jr., who didn't appear in his father. as truth, social, rantings. But Eric Trump did. So lots of love for Eric Trump from the Trump organization, but no love for Don Jr. We must talk about a lonely day for J.D. Vance. I'm sure he would rather have been at home with his three children. But instead, he was in Switzerland, yodeling for peace with the Omanis and the Pakistanis. And I'm dying to talk about the accusations of vandalism.

at the long reflecting pool that Trump says has been slashed as if it were the Friday the 13th movie and Freddie Kruger appearing at night. And instead, it turns out a former Olympian has been arrested for pinching a bit of floating paint. So where do we begin? We've got Grift Force One, as Hugh calls it, the new airplane from Qatar. And we've, well, last time we talked, we mentioned the UFC because that had happened the day before. We've also had the Obama library, which it's just the juxtaposition of UFC fighting, the reflecting pool, reflecting nothing, the ballroom in a demolition crisis. and then all the other ex-presidents, like a sort of band back together in Chicago.

But I guess we should start with the Iran deal. And what's happening? And poor J.D. Vance, as I said, yodeling, yodeling peace. Poor J.D. Vance. We all, we all feels terrible for J.D. I'm sure he's eating a lot of Toblerone. I hope he is.

And cheese and clocks. I mean, what else is Switzerland for? Well, there's something else Switzerland is for, and that is to dispose of vice presidents you don't like very much. And this is, you know, what Donald Trump is doing. It's like, here's this thing that Donald Trump has not been able to solve that is really impossible to solve on the terms that Donald Trump wants to solve it. And somebody's got to be the fall guy. And he's like, hmm, who could I pick from around here? And he goes, well, maybe it's that guy, J.D. Vance.

whatever the name he's using these days is. Let's send him over there. And then when we have to strike a lousy deal, we'll say, well, that was, that was J.D. Don't you remember when the Maduro extraction happened that Trump was everywhere talking about it? He was everywhere. And, of course, he's pushed J.D. Vance out to negotiate this impossible peace deal that the Iranians are just frankly laughing at. and then he's undermining J.D. Vance's attempts by his truth, social posts. Please explain. Yeah, and also we seem to be hearing in all sorts of stories and upcoming books and all kinds of other nonsense

that he like talk shit about J.D. Vance behind his back. And he's always going up to people going, who do you like better, J.D. or Marco? You know, and he's kind of playing them off of each other like his kids, right, like he did this weekend with Eric and Don Jr. But, you know, you talk about something else that's pure Trump, which is he's first in line to take credit for things he thinks he can get credit for, and he is the first to push it away. And I would expect any minute, Don Jr. to be named the head of the committee to fix the reflecting pool. Because, you know, because like, why not give that thankless job to him, since, of course, we know the reason for the problems with the reflecting pool.

But with Iran, the problem is this. Every single available solution is less good than where we were the day before the war started and less good than where we were the day before the Obama agreement was torn up by Trump. And so he's going to get an agreement on nukes that's less good than the Obama agreement. And we saw this already because J.D. came out and said, look, we have an agreement and they're going to allow inspectors in. And that's fantastic. And, you know, people need to stop and, you know, just sort of go back and look at their notes because that was in the Obama agreement. Iran's promise not to have nuclear nuclear nuclear nuclear nonproliferation treaty. And all the way back to 1957, they kept saying it. So he is achieving nothing. Trump, knows he will achieve nothing because Trump has a, Trump has a secret that he actually knows in some part of his lizard brain. And that is, he has no cards. All the cards he says he has. I have all the cards. He has no cards. And, you know, he rolled out the Republican Party over the

weekend, Lindsay Graham, you know, a bunch of other sort of spear carriers in the Republican Party. all come out and go, if we don't have a deal, then we are going to go out and we're going to bomb them. And, of course, the Iranians know something that Lindsay Graham doesn't know. Just there's no way Donald Trump's going to go back to war. There's no way Donald Trump is going to go and try and take over the strait of Hormuz. This war is despised by 70% of the American people. It's going to cause economic hardship for a war.

everybody through the elections no matter what they do. And so, you know, Trump's stuck. He knows whoever negotiates the deal is going to end up with egg on his face. And so he goes, hmm, how about the guy with the beard? How about the guy who's trying to promote his book, Communion, Finding My Way Back to Faith? Yeah. I mean, what a guy. What a guy. This weekend, He was meeting with a Pakistani, and he said, you know, the most important people in my life are an Indian and a Pakistani, my wife and you. They're the only ones I talked, even though his wife is, of course, from Southern California. Right, his wife is American.

Her parents are Indian. Exactly. But he is the smarmiest guy in the world. And today, you know, when somebody said, well, you know, the Iranians don't like it when Trump threatens them. Vance said, well, we told them, you know, this is what we call in America trash talk. And if they talk trash about him, he's going to talk trash about them. And, you know, he was trying to kiss ass and defend him.

And he sounded like a dork. And of course, the interesting thing about all this is that the very beginning of the MOU specifically says that neither side will threaten the other side. Right, right. And what does Donald Trump? Do he can't stop himself, David? He cannot stop himself. That's right, because he's never made an agreement that he hasn't broken.

And that's where we are here. And so, you know, what happened last night, right before markets open, they said, okay, we, but maybe we're making some progress because they don't want, you know, the thing they fear is not the Iranians. It's a stock market. Mm-hmm. Well, maybe they fear the Iranians a little bit, too. Well, I mean, they fear the Iranians are going to push harder and harder because the Iranians are really good at that.

And the Iranians know that, you know, there's nothing that Trump can say no to that they can't overrule. And we saw that because Trump said there will be no tolls. And then the Iranians go, well, there doesn't be an administrative fee. And, you know, we're going to go ahead and do this anyway. And Trump's like, yeah, well, maybe there needs to be an administrative fee. And the Iranian said, Trump's like, we're going to get rid of missiles. And the Iranian said, no, we need missiles. And so then Trump comes out and goes, well, we can't take away their missiles, can we?

And so forth. And they're going to hold his feet to the fire. And he's going to realize, you know, I mean, this is, I think if we stop and we look at Donald Trump's benighted life and his five or six bankruptcies and his three failed marriages and the kids who hated. and the business partners who don't want to do business with him anymore, and all the stupid fucked up things Donald Trump has done in his life, this is one of the worst. This is going to be one of his signature failures as president. Because this war, it is a Wall Street bank on Friday estimated

that the total cost to the planet of this war could be, a trillion dollars to the global economy. And the war itself probably, probably, they estimate, has cost $130 billion minimally. And, you know, there is no level on which him starting this war is working out for it. Well, nothing about his treatment of Iran has made sense, right? The minute he ripped up the JCPOA, the Obama agreement, the Iranians immediately started enriching uranium again. They immediately embarked on the nuclear program requiring the obliteration in theory, obliteration last summer. And now we're in a worse position.

I do not understand why more people aren't outraged by this. I don't understand why more European leaders aren't outraged by it. I mean, Georgia Maloney gets outraged because he's put out nonsense. about wanting her begging for a selfie. And she's like, Italians, we don't beg. We never beg. I love that. Why aren't they more outraged by what has gone on here?

Because I think that the European leaders, for the most part, are rational human beings who realize that getting outraged is not going to get them anything. And their whole plan, and I've talked to some European diplomats about this, I think their plan is ride it out. You know, manage Trump. You know, they've got the Secretary General of NATO, Mark Ruta, the former Prime Minister of Holland. And he like kisses Trump's ass a little bit. And some of the others stroke him and McCra's one day tough on him and one day nice. And Kira, the outgoing Prime Minister of the UK,

one day tough on him and one day nice. And Georgia Maloney, when she yells at him, she says, but, you know, I could have been your ally. I support some of the things that you support. And I think they're just trying to get to the end of this nightmare because they know that if he gets pissed off, then he starts tariffs. We're going to have tariffs. We're going to have bad trade deals. I'm pulling my troops out.

I'm not, you know, and they don't want to have to go through that. So I think they're just being sensible. As for Americans being outraged, Joanna, the poll this weekend said 70% of the American people don't approve of this. That's as outraged as America gets because 30% of Americans, thinks the earth is flat. Right. So the rest of us think that the war in Iran was a bad idea.

So David, on top of the reflecting pool, can we just have a moment on the reflecting pool because it's supposed to be ready by July the 4th? It appears that the whole thing is going to have to be redone. We know the contract didn't go out to tender. It went to a friend of Donald Trump's. Are we surprised that the reflecting pool is reflecting nothing but the corruption and the greed and the frankly grift of this current administration. You know, first of all, that's a rhetorical question because clearly we're not surprised, right?

But secondly, let's just break this down a little bit. Did you see the picture of the guy who got the contract? Of course I saw him. He looks like a mafia, he looks like a mafia, don. He looks like a Mafia Don. I mean, when Hugh Dockery, our executive editor, got that picture, he was beside himself. I mean, the hair, the mustache, the overcoat. It doesn't look like a Mafia Don.

He looks like a kid in high school playing a Mafia Don in the high school production of The Sopranos. Okay, fair, fair. You know, he's like holding a big cigar and he's got this cheesy coat on. But the reality is this. Trump screws up things all the time. Trump is the tackiest person on earth. But this was a really big, I mean, let's look at this. The reflecting pool was fine, right?

And he thought it was a little dirty. And so he said, well, okay, let's refinish the bottom of the reflecting pool. It wasn't that tough. It didn't take that many days. And yet, from every single possible perspective, it's been a debacle. They did it with the wrong people. They did it in an illegal way. They painted the bottom of it the wrong color.

The bottom color heated it up. When it heated it up, algae started to grow. There was a picture over the weekend of a dead duck floating around in the algae. No, it was so sad. So sad. It was horrible. And it's turned into a tourist attraction in downtown D.C. For people to hate on Trump, right?

They come down and they reflect on what a bad president they've got. So then Trump sends in the National Guard and people from Homeland Security to threaten people. And then he's like, holy mackerel, this is a mess. What are we going to do? And he's like, well, I have to blame it on somebody. So he comes up with a conspiracy theory. And he says, well, it was vandals. And they cut, according to him, a 250-foot gash in the bottom of the materials on the bottom of the pool.

And he's like, he's. says we're rounding up these vandals who are behind this whole thing. Lord knows if there were a vandal, and we'll get to that in a second, they would not get the pardon that the vandals who destroyed the capital on January 6th God. But of course, there is beyond all of this. There is this meta thing. And the meta thing is, who's the vandal in Washington? Who's defacing everything in Washington? Who defaced the Oval Office? Who destroyed the East Wing? Who put a giant claw on the south lawn of the White House? Who is building a gilded ballroom for billionaires to dance in while Americans starve?

Who is building an arch to honor himself? Who's covering all the horse statues in Washington in gold leaf? You know, somebody, and who's got banners of his big, ugly face hanging all over downtown D.C.? Now, that's what I would call a vandal. And so Donald Trump is the vandal in chief. He is the man who is defacing the nation's capital. And, you know, he's trying to go further. You know, he wants to rename Penn Station after himself.

He's trying to rename Dulles Airport after himself. He's renamed West Palm Beach Airport after himself. You know, he didn't do enough damage as the worst, most tasteless developer in America. Now, he's taken it to a number. scale with tack. And by the way, it ties to something else you've talked about, which is grift force what? This flying bribe that has come here from Qatar that he decides, I mean, this is like mind-boggling.

The president holds a press conference to say, look at the $400 million gift I was given by a government, and to then, while Americans can't afford gas, can't afford food, are getting kicked off health care, go, it's the most luxurious plane in the world. The most luxurious, and he's got it in painted in these cheesy Trump colors, and everybody knows that the deal he's struck with Qatar was not just they give him a plane to use as president, but the deal is that when he leaves the presidency, the plane goes with him. He gets to keep it.

I mean, and it costs a billion dollars to upgrade the plane to be suitable to be Air Force One. So he gets 400 million from the Qataris. He gets a billion dollars from the taxpayers and he gets to keep the plane. I mean, this is grift, but it's beyond grift.

This is corruption at a scale that we have never seen it. And he's bragging about it. it. I mean, something's missing. I'm very glad I checked in with you this morning because we're receiving peak Rothkoff this morning. Your outrage is very clear. Do you think the reflecting pool will be done by July the 4th? Is that even possible? And does he, is it possible there was that, his description of the dagger and the 250 foot slash, I thought they'd just painted the bottom of the pool, so it's not

possible to have slashed it. Is it just all made up? Well, of course it's all made up. Right. I mean, Joanna, their cameras all around the pool. There's cameras all around Washington. If somebody did that, it would be on video. Nobody did that. And what he says, a slash is what he meant was that the kind of surface,

what they paint it with is a kind of a rubberized surface. And what's happening is they didn't, fix it to the concrete or whatever the reflecting pool is made out of properly. And so pieces of it are just floating up in the swan. Now, for meme makers everywhere, it's been great. Because here is the drain, the swamp guy, literally building a swamp in the middle of Washington. Right.

That's a very good, it's an amazing metaphor, isn't it? It is amazing. And so there's thousands of little internet memes of, you know, trying to. covered with algae and, you know, seaweed hanging from his face, like the, you know, the, you know, the, the thing or some horror movie monster crawling out of this swamp. And in fact, one of the great things that happened over the weekend is that some creative artists started projecting on different buildings in Washington images from the swamp. thing coming up and image, you know, they just started projecting all over Washington mocking images of Trump. So, you know, I think that one of the things about the reflecting pool is the timing

couldn't be worse because you had this Iran war debacle, the country's in a mess, the 250th birthday is coming up, you had this UFC hideousness, and, and now there's a mess. this thing, and it's such a symbol of his vandalism, his failure, his inability to take responsibility for anything, his turning Washington into the grimyest, slimyest swamp of all time, that, that, you know, it's, it's, you know, you talk about reflection, you know, upon reflection, this is a metaphor. This is a metaphor for Trump. And it's a, it's pretty powerful.

And what do you think the most serious of his, you know, you? cabinet members think as they drive past it in their government cars. Do they have their head in their hands? Well, okay, totally fair question. But if you were thinking of, for example, Marco Rubio, who at least had a career as a senator before, or if you thought of Scott Besant driving past, these are people that you still think have a foot in reality. Do you think they're just head in hands thinking, oh my goodness, we can't even get this done? You're doing this to trigger me. Okay.

There's no foot in reality. You don't think there's any foot left in reality. Or, no, maybe it's in the Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan book. But apparently, Scott Bessent referred to Zelensky as Mr. Bean in a bad suit. I mean, how dare he this pampered parody of a rich guy? you know, with practically going around with a monocle and a top hat, make fun of this guy who is an actual hero of democracy, who stood up to Russia for four years,

and he's comparing him to Mr. Bean. I mean, Marco Rubio is kicking people out of the country or keeping them out of the country for offering views on the Internet that are critical of Trump. He's, Marker Ruby is like, I'm Mr. Normie, right? But he has gone 100% total fascist. He's responsible for the millions of people who are going to die because USAID was shut down. He has gutted the State Department.

There are most diplomatic posts, senior diplomatic posts, and the U.S. has around the world, are open because he doesn't think he needs them. He's presided over the shutdown of the NSC, and he's presided over the worst U.S. foreign policy. ever. Look at the tariffs. Look at the invasion of Venezuela. Look at sinking all of these boats around the world. Blowing up NATO, blowing up our allies, kissing up to autocrats from around the world. The president's grift, destroying American soft power. That's the normal guy? Fair point. I totally triggered you. I totally triggered you. But you think there's nobody riding up and down in their hushed, quiet government cars that doesn't look. look out and think, how can we have messed up the reflecting pool?

It's such a peaceful place in Washington. It's supposed to be a peaceful place. It's a sort of sacred place for reflecting. Maybe Melania, when she's escaping the White House, and she's heading off to whatever actual homes she lives in and whatever actual bed she sleeps in, might go, that idiot has done it again. But you could do that in her voice better.

I could. He is unifying, unifying Washington with what has happened to reflect, Paul. The pull reflect, if it's not reflecting. That's a weird accent. I'm thrown because I'm in the South of France and I've been speaking French all morning, so now I'm very confused. I don't know where I am or what's happening. You did see that the final accounting on the Melania movie is coming out. And tell me, tell me exactly what it is. Well, I don't have the exact numbers, but I do know that it was something like, you know, it made a few million dollars in revenue, but it cost them 40 to make and that another 60 or 80 or something to produce, to a market and stuff.

So they may have spent $100 million on this movie. They probably lost $70 or $80 million on the movie. It was a complete flop. And, but, but anyway, I don't know who it is. Some, clearly somebody must realize what a mess he is making of these things. I mean, in the, in the Maggie Haberman, Jonathan Swan book, apparently somebody says they go into the Oval Office and Trump is like they're putting up this gold, filigree stuff.

With super glue, right? With super glue. With super glue. Now, you know, we could talk about Maggie Haberman and. Jonathan Swan and what an absolute offense to journalism it is for them to go and collect all this stuff and then keep it until it's a book, right? I mean, there's some of the things that they're writing about here, which include, you know, his failings as president, bad policy and all this other stuff that is news. And they just hold on to it until they can go and cash in on it as a book.

What offends you the most? What are the points that you feel they should have released at the time? There are so many. I am offended by people who are day-to-day journalists who are not reporting breaking news when it comes in. I mean, Donald Trump, it was very clear to him that, you know, people thought that he was not healthy, that people thought that, you know, that there was fighting in the White House

and there were tensions between different people in the White House, The White House was dysfunctional in many respects. And they just thought, no, we're going to keep this until we release the book. And, you know, they're good journalists. They write good stuff. But something has happened in journalism today where it's perfectly acceptable to go and gather up all this stuff and not report it until you get paid, until your payday happens, until it gets you on the New York Times bestseller list.

And I just think that's an offense to journalism. But hasn't that always been the way? Hasn't that been the way with Bob Woodward? Oh, he's one of the worst offenders. In fact, Bob Woodward probably owns the patent on this kind of offense to journalism. Well, it's the conflict or the tension, isn't it, between the writer and the journalist. And nobody's going to buy a book if there's nothing new in it

when you're writing this kind of nonfiction. So it's complicated. And I guess the Times thinks that they want to keep them reporting and so this is the quid pro quo. But no, I guess so. But it's also possible to wait a couple of years, have some perspective. But one of the problems is that publishers want books on breaking news now. So, you know, they want, you know, they want them to write three books in the course of the presidency

in real time that break news. And I think that's where you get the tension. Used to be in the olden day somebody would write a book. It would come out three years after. It would be about perspective. which, by the way, we could use some perspective, right? I think that's not a bad thing to focus on. But it's an ugly model, and frankly, it doesn't do the American people any service.

And I don't know. That's just my opinion. Well, I'm very curious to read the book. Have you ordered yours? I was somebody offered to send me a copy, so I will read the free copy I get. Okay, so I do want to talk about Donald Trump. as a father, and on Father's Day, the Trump organization marks it with a gushing, gushing, I mean, as gushing as the water from the Reflecting Pool tribute to Eric Trump, with no mention

whatsoever of Donald Jr. Now, it says this Father's Day, we celebrate not just the man who inspired it all. But the son who showed up every single day and proved that the greatest gift a father can give isn't a name or a fortune, it's an example. The empire that Donald J. Trump built did not survive four years of presidential service by accident. It survived because a son put on his hard hat and went to work. Eric Trump is not merely the beneficiary of his father's legacy. He is its keeper, its engine, and its next great chapter. What can this mean for Don? For Don Jr., whose wedding to socialite Bettina Anderson, whose father was a financial advisor to Jeffrey Epstein, what can this mean for Don Jr.? Nothing good. I mean, clearly, Don Jr. is not in his father's

good graces. I mean, he could have gone to the wedding. Clearly, Bettino really wanted the wedding at the White House. They could have done it there. It wouldn't have cost Don anything. He probably wouldn't have even, you know, spend any time with them there. He doesn't spend much time with anybody. In, you know, in fact, isn't it in the Maggie Haberman book that he goes into his separate bedrooms with Melania and then his bedroom ends up being all littered with fast food? And ice cream cartons. And she doesn't want to live with that. So he goes in there and then they have go in and clean it up every day. Anyway, he's... I don't think that's the reason that Melania just want to hang out with Donald.

Well, I don't know. He's got ice cream, empty ice cream cartons and rappers of, you know, hamburger wrappers at the bottom of the... But I think there are probably other reasons she doesn't want to live with them. You're absolutely right. But Joanna, think about this guy. He's like the president or he's, you know, this super rich billionaire. And he's alone.

his wife doesn't want to be anywhere near him in his bedroom spending countless hours texting and tweeting in his jammies and he's eating him big Mac and he throws the carton on the floor and he's eat it's like Howard Hughes

or something I mean it's one of these billionaires has lost his mind except he's the fucking president of the United States I mean that's the amazing thing and his family I mean it's not just Don Jr What about Melania's favorite child? I mean, you just look at Barron and he go, this guy,

there are bad headlines in store for this dude. Not to make, you know, he hangs out with Andrew Tate and he loves, you know, that whole world. But he's not mentioned, you know, Tiffany, she's never, poor Tiffany, you know, she's never mentioned. And, you know, I mean, I think he's still. still deeply in love with Ivanka. But Ivanka's taken herself out of the running, right?

She's just said politics is too cruel. I don't want anything to do with it. So Jared is busy out there negotiating, but Ivanka's not part of it. Well, right. She's not part of it. She's like, Jared, you take it the heat. You'll be out there. I'm be telling you what to do from behind the scenes.

Well, and happily she's found the Albanian island that they want to live on. And Albania is closer to a revolution over the corruption of the Trumps than we are. You know, and they could get, I mean, I love what's going on in Albania. I think there's a lot we can learn from that. Yeah, we should remind people. People have literally been, I mean, thousands of people have been protesting in the streets over Ivanka and Jared's hope. Well, in fact, it seems like they've already started work in this natural, beautiful beach and part of Cizanne island, which Ivanka said that she discovered when she was staying on a friend's yacht and she

went swimming and then they found this island and then they climbed to the top of the island and they were barefoot and it was so intrepid. And then they discovered that they could buy this item for not very much money and turn it into a fabulous billionaire's resort. And she said it was just the kind of place she'd always wanted to live. They don't live on the same planet as we do. I think Ivanka is living in this billionaire's bubble where she believes she can arrange her world in such a way that she can influence her father and have her husband be the front guy who takes all the heat for these things. And he can go and collect money from overseas governments that want to, you know, have a special

in with the president. And she can look like she's removed from it. And she's just being a mom. But then, you know, she travels around the world on yachts and things. And she says, oh, let that island looks nice. Let's take that one. And she just is completely out of touch with the idea that, you know, it might belong to somebody else or, you know, that might not have a price or the country involved might want to have a say and what happens to it. And it's this kind of, you know, there is this, you know, there's this group.

They're 1100 billionaires in the United States that live in a life on a different planet from the rest of us. and she is, you know, she's just sort of got it down. And, you know, she thinks she can escape on the other end of the Trump presidency and is not going to bear the burden of the fact that her father is an accused sex offender, an accused fraudster, has been impeached a couple of times, maybe impeached another couple more times, you know, is the worst president in history. She's going to think, no, I can escape all that. That's her whole game.

And it's a Melania's game, too. It's kind of interesting that these people are like trying to get close to Trump, trying to get as much cash out of them as they can, but trying to not be tainted by the fact that they're associated. I just want to go back to Eric Trump because this tribute, it's more than a thousand words long on the Trump organization. And it says from an early age, he was on the job sites. He mowed lawns.

He laid tiles. but what distinguishes Eric from the caricature that critics attempt to construct is the texture of the man himself. He is by all account someone who genuinely loves the work, the construction, the design, the tangible satisfaction of standing in front of something he helped build. He has spoken often about his deep love for the outdoors, for skiing, for shooting. He is in a word, real. I mean, what is this? It's just super bizarre. And then it says Eric Trump, growing up alongside the greatest deal maker in America

and what it means to carry that legacy forward. What can it mean to carry that legacy forward? I don't know. I think they're all going to have to change their names. It's like the Hitler family that used to live in Long Island. Right. And after World War II, they changed their names. You don't want to have to carry that burden.

And by the time Trump has done, a couple more impeachments, a couple more giant scandals, once we learn what's really going on in the Epstein files, you know, once, you know, there are 15 more scandals that we're going to hear about. By the time we get to the end of this thing, he's going to be Eric Smith. You know, he's going to be Eric Smith of the world. It's going to be living in an FBI protection program. Right. And it's going to be the worldwide big building corporation. And it's not going to have any name associated with it. But, you know, the funny thing is you read all of that.

When I think of Don and Eric, I think of Beavis and Butthead. And I'm like, you know, that's the image I see. You know, Eric was always the dope. You know, he was always the one that everybody was making fun of. Maybe Don feel sorry for him in some respect. I don't know. It is clearly a very dysfunctional family. You know, I was thinking about this today.

And I know other people have made this comment about Trump. Have you ever seen him show affection for anybody? Well, apart from grabbing his wife's arm or hand because she's always flicking it away. Right. She pulls it back. But have you ever seen him do? You know, I was watching the Obama thing. And here's Obama and Michelle and their kids and Obama and Bush and Obama and Clinton and so forth. Obama and Joe Biden. there's real affection. These people care about each other. They're normal.

They're not that normal. They want to be president. You're not normal if you want to be president, right? But they have some normal traits that they have not completely lost. And, you know, Michelle came out wearing a skirt that had her mother's face on it, and he got all moved. And, you know, I'm not into this, you know, like, I think Barack Obama was a pretty good president. I think he was a good guy and a very smart guy and he's a great orator and he broke, he made history and he deserves a lot of credit.

But I think he was kind of a pretty good president. But watching these people at the Obama Library and thinking they're normal, George Bush and Laura Bush, they like the Obama's. They're nice to each other. George Bush gives Michelle Obama at a funeral a mint. You think ever Donald Trump ever gave anybody a fucking mint in his life? Did he ever say, oh, you look like you need a mint? There's no normal there. Well, there's no normal in the UK right now, David,

because Kirstama has just resigned after a mere two years in the job as British Prime Minister. It depends on what you mean by normal. Well, Britain's turning into Italy. Yeah, you've had seven prime ministers in a decade, right? Yeah, which is very unusual for Britain. And also, Kirstama is the man who shaped the party up, the Labor Party up, so it could be reelected after endless years of Tory rule. I think 14 years of Tory rule. So remarkable exit for him, as he's threatened by a Mundani-Ti,

type figure who's been the mayor of Greater Manchester. Well, let's break that down. Okay, first of all, Kirstarmer, prior to being Prime Minister, was a pretty respected guy. He was the chief prosecutor. Right. He was kind of similar to the Colin Firth character in the Bridget Jones movies. You know, that was kind of how he was viewed, right? And he just didn't have.

And again, this is a leadership thing. You know about it from business. But some people just don't want to take the hard decisions. Some people are just not made for being the front guy in this way. And he just couldn't deliver. And it was pathetic. But, you know, there were six other pathetic leaders of the youth. in the course of the past decade as well.

You know, when you say a Mamdani-like figure, what do we mean? Well, we mean someone who's leaning into progressive politics as a way of making people feel better, I think. I mean, and just so, yeah, I'm going to stop you on the Kia Stama thing because the first decision Kirstama government did was to cut the benefits for pensioners heating. I've never come across a worse political decision. than to cut old people's heating benefits. It was a staggering decision.

Then they went after the farmers. They've made decision after decision that was incomprehensible to people, actually. I don't think it's not that he's, I don't think it's just that he's not a frontman. He's not a great orator, as Donald Trump said recently, he's not Winston Churchill. You don't have to be Winston Churchill. But he's definitely not a politician, is what it turns out. Yeah, even Winston Churchill wasn't Winston Churchill, right? Remember, you know, for four years he was Winston Churchill.

Yeah, during the war. Yeah, absolutely. But you're absolutely right. And he made some bad decisions. And, you know, he undermined himself politically as a result of them. And clearly he made those decisions because he was making a behind-the-scenes political calculus with pressure from different people within his party. It was the wrong way to go.

But I'm thinking about the Mamdani thing from a slightly different perspective. Because, you know, when I read about these developments and you see people like Andy Burnham being compared to Mamdani or Washington has just finished its mayoral primary and the person who will be the next mayor of Washington is another Democratic socialist, just like there is in New York, just like there is in Seattle.

or people compare AOC and Bernie Sanders and so forth, and they say they're leftists. I was reading the economist, and they refer to them as leftists, and that this is about they're being progressive. And I don't think that's what Mom Dani's about. And I don't think that's what this change is about. Mom Dani is about lower rent, cheaper buses for traveling. pre-K for people who need it, a grocery in your neighborhood. These people recognize that the government,

the people don't believe government serves them, that people believe government serves powerful people above the government. And it's not delivering the kind of basic needs they've got. And I see this is kind of a different thing. It's about good governance and nuts and bolts, you know, meeting the needs of average people who feel like they're being left out by governments that are controlled by oligarchs. And so it's not, I don't think the labels are super helpful.

And, you know, clearly, Mom Dani has been thus far very successful by delivering small-scale, but meaningful, positive, you know, he filled 100,000 potholes. that wasn't nothing. That was something. And I think that's, you know, I mean, frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if there's more of a focus on mayors. Mayors actually have to do stuff. Well, they're accountable, aren't they? Bam Darni hasn't been able to deliver free buses and he hasn't been able to tax the rich quite as vehemently as he said he was going to because there are all sorts of. But it's June and he's been in office for six months. And he did come up with a tax for Pietater's, and he did it with the governor and the legislature, and he did get something done. And he's checking, this is not a Monta-Dani campaign speech. Well, it sounds a little bit like one.

And as someone who lives in New York City, which I know you live in the beautiful part of D.C. that you do. As someone who lives in New York City, I will say I haven't noticed any difference whatsoever to them. number of mentally ill people that are on the streets. He's been incredibly lucky in terms of the overall decline in crime in cities. And he's been unbelievably lucky with the Knicks win, which has put everybody in a fantastically good mood. Well, look. And lucky is better than smart many times, right?

Look helps. And the reality is this, that in New York, when he came in and now, there are 120,000 thousand of people without homes, which is, you know, vastly more than any other city in the United States. It is a serious problem. I don't, you know, will he solve it? Will he make a big den? I don't know. I actually am getting at something else. I'm a little tired of the labels of people saying, oh, Trump and the conservatives. There's nothing conservative about Trump or, you know, the left is got to be destroyed in order for the centrist to win. But the centrist are really people who are advancing a corporate agenda and they're not so much center. They're sort of pulling things

the right. And what do you mean by the left? Are you talking about health care for everybody in this country? Well, everybody wants that or common sense gun controls or stuff. That's, that's not what the issues are anymore. I just think the labels aren't super useful. And I think people are really sick of government that seems to be giving breaks to rich people and power people and doesn't seem to be helping them with their very real problems of whether they're paying for their lives or whether it's a crazy guy in the street or whether it's crime or whatever. And I just think they want government that works. And, you know, the thing about Trump is I did this over the weekend.

I thought maybe I thought I would turn it in the column. And I sat down and I made a list of 50 initiative. You always tell me I'm making lists all the time. Probably some manifestation of OCD. But I made a list of 50, what I thought was sort of the 50 major Trump initiatives. And every single one of them was bad. And every single one of them had a bad outcome. And I went out on the Internet and I said, please, name for me one thing Trump has done

since becoming president that was actually meaningfully good for most Americans. And the answer was none. Now, I know I'm on blue sky and I'm a liberal crazy and whatever. But the reality is Trump is an example of bad governance. We're living at a new deal. The British government is not functioning. Somehow our governments are not actually meeting the needs of, people to deal with their day-to-day issues, whether it's the cost of living or getting

healthcare or being made safe or just having decent infrastructure around them. And I just think that we're at a kind of watershed, particularly in the U.S., where the majority of the under 40 population, which is the majority of the electric going forward, they don't believe, There was just a poll. 70% of them don't believe in the American dream anymore. They don't believe they're going to ever own a home. And I just think everywhere, this is the issue. The issue is, could somebody make my life a little better?

Can they make a plausible case? They can make my life a little better? Right. Can gas get cheaper? Can I buy a home? For the most part, sort of modest ambitions, which, and also in the light of Elon Musk becoming the world, world's first trillioner? In light of Elon Musk being the world's worst trillioner, I saw somebody on,

you know, the internet this morning saying, if you have one dollar, you are closer at wealth to the second wealthiest person in the world than the second wealthiest person is to Elon Musk. Wow. Wow. That's an interesting. That's a fun riddle. You know, the point is Elon Musk is one of the worst people in the world. He's a racist. He's a racist. He's got a, a platform for racists. He's taken companies that other people have created. He's been a huckster. He sold the stock. And he's fucked up the companies. I mean, Tesla will not be a major factor in electric vehicles in five years because it's been overtaken by the Chinese. X, he destroyed. SpaceX is a con of the first order. Everything about SpaceX is based on, well, if we go to Mars,

this company will be worth a lot. Or if its rockets don't blow up, this company will be worse a lot. Or if data centers are based in out of space, this company will be worth a lot. And it's all on the come. It's all make-believe. But he has figured out a way to do that

and to make a trillion dollars by doing that. Even though everything he touches turned to crap. Look at Doge. Everything Doge did. Some of it was illegal. Some of it turned to crap. What they did with USAID will result in 10 million people dying. The cuts they're making in terms of cancer research

or the cuts they made in terms of other forms of veterans services and so forth, people are dying and suffering from that right now. And yet, investors are like, yeah, let me write him another check. And it's not because they think he'll create value. It's because they think there will be demand for what he's selling and that they can get out of the stock before all the suckers who are holding onto it once it collapses in the future. Well, David Roscoff, there's demand for what you're selling,

which is outrage and humorous lists full of contempt for our current government. I it's not content. I'm just I just wish it worked better. You know, I just I just wish it worked a little better. I just wish people's needs were taken care of a little more effectively. And, you know, that's why some of that Obama thing was pretty moving because there were people there who'd worked and they were all deeply flawed people. But Joe Biden and Barack Obama and Joe, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, all of them made huge mistakes. They all did something positive. And we look back on that.

They were a little bit decent. They were a little bit effective. And we look back on that now with urine. Because we're in such a black hole of malevolent, bad governance. I do think that watching the elderly. presidents get back together, get the band back together as it were in Chicago, also reminded you of presidents who, when they were doing the job, believed that they were representing all of America, that that was their goal and that was their wish. And you didn't see the divisiveness

that you see with our current leadership. There's a fundamental difference between them. And it's really important to remember because July 4th is just less than two weeks away, right? Two weeks away. And it's they all recognized that the president of the United States in our system is not the top. It's actually the bottom. He reports to everybody. The president works for everybody. Donald Trump believes that he is the king, that he won the United States. And I, in some competition. And it's all his to do whatever he wants to do with it. And all the rest of us have to take the consequences

because as he said, and he said this this weekend with regard to Iran, but it's true with regard to everything. He said, I can do anything I want. He keeps repeating that. It's a meme in his life. I can do anything I want. And the reality is he does not understand public service. And I know that sounds really boring

and like out of a civics class. but these people, as you just point out, they did. And he doesn't. Okay, David, excellent to see you as ever. We will regroup, I hope, next Monday. And we will see what happens in the UK, whether or not they start the process for Labor leadership nominations. I think that will probably open next week.

And, well, we'll see whether or not the reflecting pool is reflecting anything at all. We will see. I look forward to where are you going to be back here in America? I should be back by next Monday, yes, all being well. I'm going on to Paris, which is experiencing record temperatures. And I'm warned that the apartment I'm staying in with my older son has no air conditioning and it's record temperatures. So I have been warned. Yeah, you be careful. No, you know, France, whenever it gets super hot, like people die because there's no air conditioning. There's no air conditioning. But there is lots of bottled heavy. Yeah, so I shall be taking that wherever I care.

Well, it's the best city in the world, so you should enjoy it. Have a great time. Thank you. And we'll see you when you get back. Safe travels. I will see you next Monday. I always love talking to David Rothcob. I think my favorite part of the conversation was him just talking about how Trump is the chief vandal in America.

But write on YouTube, give us your comments. Tell us what you think. We love to read them. and it's good to have a place to express your feelings about the crazy that's going on right now. So if you have been, thank you very much for joining us. And a big thanks to our production team, John Romero, Ryan Murray, Rachel Passer, Heather Pissarro and Neil Rosenhouse. So the good news is we have so many Bee Beast tier members now.

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