The Daily Beast Podcast - Kimberly Guilfoyle's Money Secrets Just Exploded

Episode Date: October 9, 2026

Michael Wolff and Joanna Coles are counting down to the midterms—and the Trump world is already positioning itself for what comes next. Marco Rubio appears to be launching his 2028 presidential campaign with a grandiose pitch to save Western civilization, while Michael predicts Trump and Rubio may need a new “big thing” to distract from the Iran war, impeachment threats, and mounting investigations. Meanwhile, Kimberly Guilfoyle is engulfed in a stunning new corruption scandal involving hundreds of thousands of dollars as Trump’s political operation increasingly looks like a pay-to-play enterprise. Plus, the Senate map is suddenly tilting toward Democrats, a resurgent measles outbreak threatens RFK Jr.’s political ambitions, and Michael explains why Trump’s team—and Trump himself—may be far more vulnerable after the midterms than they appear. #ad Unlock your best hair & skin with @iRestorelaser and HUGE savings on iRESTORE with code BEAST at https://irestore.com/BEAST ! #irestorepod  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

U.S. Voters Abroad. Have you got your ballot yet? All states are now sending ballots to overseas voters. So if you want to vote this year, you should request your ballot right away. Go to votefromabroad.org and click request my ballot. Ask to receive it by email. Questions? Ask our support team directly. Don't miss this chance to shape the future. Don't delay. Vote from abroad.org. Everything in the Trump administration is for sale. The story is, is always open for a transaction. If you want a pardon, if you want introductions, all of that is available to you if you pay. This is pay per play for really everybody in the administration. And everybody in the administration is spending a lot of time, as Kimberly Guilfoyle is,

trying to figure out how they can get money, how you can create a somewhat legal, somewhat acceptable context for taking this money. Also, not leaving a paper trail that will hang you for taking this money. Michael. Joanna. For new people joining us here today, welcome to our 175th episode of Inside Trump's Head. I think it's clear where we are. I'm Joanna Coles, and this is, my co-host is

I'm Michael Wolfe And it's 25 days to the election to the midterm cycle 25 days Oh my God So little more than three weeks In the middle of October So there could be a surprise any day Or maybe the surprise is that there will be no surprise

Or the surprise is that the Republicans are just going to be flatly wiped out Or the surprise is that they won't be, and then we will be surprised. Then we will be surprised. We should remind people that it may be 25 days till the midterms. It's only 10 days till you and I appear at the Terragram Ballroom in downtown L.A. Go to beast.com. slash ITH Live, ITH for Inside Trump's Head Live or Ticketmaster.

We are appearing together. It's a live podcast taping on October the 20th. Come and join us. Come and join us. And feel free to subscribe to the Daily Beast podcast, wherever you get your podcasts. We are independent media. And there are all sorts of tiered memberships where you get extra content from Michael, dinner with Michael, a holiday with Michael, who is currently in London having a blast. Always a good time in London.

I'm very envious. You're in a much grander hotel than I am. I am in San Francisco. and I'm staying at a modest hotel, let's say that, and no room service. So I found this morning, in the spirit of foraging, a squashed Clementine at the bottom of my bag and a crushed bag of nuts, which I mainlined like a hungry squirrel. So you ate them both. You ate the crushed Clementine and the nuts.

Well, okay, great. So I'm fueled up. I have an observation that I want to call attention to because it was for at least for a moment, I was shocked, which is that at a point yesterday when I was scrolling down what, well, I would call the front page of the New York Times, I did not see one story about Donald Trump, which, you know, I really thought that was a a unique experience, certainly for the past since the second term began, and actually a kind of a unique experience over the last 10 years. So I wonder if that's a sign.

And then I had dinner with somebody last night, journalist by the name of Rachel Johnson. Oh, wait a minute. I know Rachel Johnson, Boris Johnson's sister. Everybody knows Rachel Johnson. And she said no one in London is talking. about Donald Trump anymore. So I don't know.

Have we reached the point of no return for Donald Trump? Is that true that people aren't talking about Donald Trump anymore in London? Perhaps because, well, who are they talking about? Are they talking about the new British Prime Minister Andy Burnham? Yesterday, I

had breakfast with David Cameron, another former British Prime Minister referring to Boris. And actually he made quite a good joke. He said, you know, there are quite a lot of ex-British Prime Ministers, so I'm glad that you're having breakfast with me. It was a small group to celebrate a rather good podcast he's done on Alzheimer's disease,

not because he has it, but because his mother had it. But it's sort of interesting to see what do you do if you're a young ex-prime minister? And did he speculate that Trump might have Alzheimer's disease? Very good question. How did I not ask him that? I should have asked him that. Though you seem firmly in the camp that doesn't think that Trump has dementia. Or I'm in the camp to think that Trump has always had dementia. So if you've always had dementia, then you can't really get dementia. Trump insure. It's its own thing. I did think when he, and we slightly underplayed this, I think, when we talked about it on Tuesday, possibly because it had lived. literally just happened as we were, I think, recording the podcast. But his sort of, you know, take out L.A., take out San Diego, it's a small price to pay. As you're always saying,

he just says whatever's in his head. I think there's broader implications to that. And, you know, I do not think that actually that's what he, that's what he was saying or that's what he meant to say, but I think it's a very clear window into how Trump thinks. So I think we should come back to that because that is, that's the direct road into Trump's head. Okay, so we should come back to that. And of course, who was working out furiously in San Diego yesterday, who clearly didn't want to be taken out by the Iranians, Pete Heggzert, so we can talk about Pete a bit later on. And I think, in fact, we're going to come back and talk about Pete at greater length on Saturday because he really is a pool hanging over this midterm elections. But we're going to talk

about Marco Rubio. We're going to have a second visit to what Kimberly Guilfoyle is up to in Greece and all sorts of financial shenanigans going on. We're going to talk about yet more measles now for 40 outbreaks of measles in the US, a disease that really had disappeared. by the beginning of this millennial. And of course, the shifting Senate races and the knife edge and the 40 or so seats definitely in play. And for those who know that when we read, we grow, which is the message from the second lady,

we have a new episode with Gary Player, the golfer, odd. Why would he be reading children's books? And of course, there's always a new episode of, I am your health and human services secretary, Robert Kennedy, and his new food video, which is a one pot chicken thigh meal. Where should we begin? I think you should begin in the Hellenic Republic, Michael. I think we should begin with Marco Rubio.

Yeah, let's, and because Marco Rubio is beginning, and what he is beginning is his campaign for the presidency. And let's remember, in 25 days the midterms, which means in 26 days marks the beginning of the 28, of the 2028 campaign for president. No sleep for the weary, that would be. No sleep for the weary. And we'll come on to this. And we're going to go into it in a bit more detail later and then again on Saturday.

What usually happens after the midterms if the incumbent president gets a shalacking is that he makes some cabinet changes. So both Hegeseth and it now appears Marco Rubio are quickly using the platform they have to put their hand up and say, hello, I'm going to inherit the Maga base. Right. And that's exactly what Rubio was doing. Actually, it's a curious claim. He was making this claim for the Maga base in the midst of the Iran war, a war that he's going to be whatever he does tarred with. He is the Secretary of State, after all. And the Iran War is, well, it is unpopular with everyone,

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so you can feel confident and refresh. So he's over there for the US Greece strategic dialogue, which is now in its sixth year and really reflects the fact that actually Greece is becoming a more strategic player. They are, of course, also needing to upgrade their military. and so they are in the process of buying F-35 fighter jets from the US. And of course, Kimberly Guilfoyle is there as their ambassador, former girlfriend or, well, former fiancé actually, we should say,

of Don Jr., former wife of California Governor Gavin Newsom, a romantic stretch which is very, I mean, even in novels, it's hard to understand a romantic stretch, quite that elastic. And as you pointed out, the last time we talked about her, she's very much a Becky Sharp type character from Thackeray's Vanity Fair. But just to go back to Marco's speech for a second, he's really positioning himself as, I think it's fair to say, the savior of Western civilization. You know, I don't, I mean, I thought that was a little kind of, I mean, he's trying to position himself as both resists.

respectful of Donald Trump and more intelligent than Donald Trump. So, which is not that hard if you think about it, of course. But, you know, this whole speech was cast and God knows, I mean, I could see the team having to write this speech, you know, with Greece as the as the functional metaphor for Western civilization. I mean, it was ridiculous. It was preposterous. I'm sure Marco Rubio knows nothing about, about. about the glory that was priest. Right.

And he gives the speech on the Nix, which is, of course, he's got the Parthenum behind him. And it's the sort of cradle of Greek democracy. That's where he gives the speech. That's the symbolism of it. Right. So it was staged and tone deaf.

And Marco Rubio has always been kind of tone deaf because he's uncomfortable in his role. He's actually Marco Rubio is. a foreign policy wonk, unfortunately for him a neocon foreign policy walk. And, you know, clearly they're trying to encompass that, make him sound grander than he is because he isn't very grand. And also at the same time, not offend Donald Trump. Now, it's actually a good idea. You talk about the history of Greece. Donald Trump is going to just shut that out. I don't care. Great. Great. And but if, but this is the moment, he had to make this

speech at this moment because now it all begins. He is going to run for president. I mean, so this is very, you know, very clear, very forthright. The only thing that he did not say in this speech was announce his candidacy. But it is surely there, which makes almost everything he he said in this speech completely irrelevant. It doesn't matter. It's just about I am giving the big speech. Well, here's just how significant he was taking it. There were four state department video cameras. I'm taking this from the Washington Post, including one mounted on a crane for cinematic shots of him on the next. You would have thought they could use a drone, actually. Why would they need one mounted on a crane? You should have just had a drone,

but perhaps they haven't got that in the State Department. Perhaps we've run out of drones, Michael. Perhaps we've run out of drones. And perhaps neither you nor I know anything about cinematography. I tell you what I do know, having done this for years at fashion magazines, when you hire a crane, my friend, you are into thousands of dollars. And I do know that you can rent a camera, a drone camera for much less money. Well, just think about this. This footage is going to be the basic footage of his campaign. So they're making an investment here in, you know, this is in the production details of staging

a campaign that they want to look, they want to want this to look like he is the heir apparent. He is inevitable. So the duel here really is between his production. production, his production details and J.D. Vance's production details. Who will have the better production? And Pete Hegzeth. Don't let's forget Pete. But Pete is going to be, Pete is going to have to be a come from behind Canada seat. So these are the two leaders. And you have to, if you're going to be the leader, you got to look like the leader. Okay. The only thing I would say is we're paying for this. This is the State Department making these videos for Rubio.

This is not Rubio putting his hand in his back pocket and producing it. It's not even him hustling a congressman like the Greek ambassador. But just to go back to his speech for a second, this is one of the things he said. And as you say, I'm sure Donald Trump, the minute he heard this just tuned out. But this is Marco's signaling for the future. We have much to learn from the men of ancient Greece. They knew that there was nothing selfish or wrong about loyalty to your nation, nor anything selfish or wrong about fighting to defend its interests above all else. Hello, Maga.

Hello, Maga. I mean, who wrote this speech? I could go on the next decade. We can discuss this. This is one of those prompts that would be good for. a 14-year-old essay. The next decade will write the story of the next century. The course we take will determine whether the West maintains its place at the head of the

world or resigns itself to a future of atrophy, servitude and decline. Yeah, this is all AI stuff. I mean, whoever the speechwriter was typed into AI, what's the relevance of ancient Greece to today's military problems. That's the prompt. And then they've picked out pieces of this to put into this speech. Okay, well, he's done a drive-by of liberal values. I'm just going to throw that. He goes that liberal excess has lowered standards to ensure that no one will lose. So I was listening to this speech and I suddenly had a, a theory about what's going to happen, what's good for Marco Rubio, and probably also what's good

for Donald Trump posts the midterms. So for Donald Trump, he's going to need something. What does he do? I mean, he's got these huge problem and can't get out of this war in Iran. That's a problem for Rubio, too. But he's also going to need something that holds the attention of the world because he's Donald Trump. Without that attention, he's not Donald. Donald Trump. So it is in his mind. And this is one of the things that he says around to his AIDS constantly is what's a big thing? We need a big thing. I need a big thing. Get me a big thing. Big thing. Big thing. They make fun of this. Big thing. As though it's one word. And Marco Rubio is also going to need a big thing. What is the thing that gets him distracts from

the war in Iran. What is the thing that he can, that he can something in this administration with which he can brand himself that isn't the war in Iran? So what is this thing, this big thing for Trump, this big thing for Rubio? Would you like me to tell you? Is it Cuba? They're going to invade Cuba. That is exactly what they are going to do. Right, because that's Marco's thing too. He's the child of Cuban exile parents. Right. They are going to be the liberators of Cuba, and they need a war that they can win. And I suspect they can win that war. And I think that they can win that war with Alacrity. And they can then say, we are, we have saved Cuba. No other American president in, what are we talking now, 70 years has done this. And more than 70 years, 80 years. And we have done this. And it's going to distract from everything else, from the impeachment that's going to come because the Democrats control Congress to the investigations of Trump's family, to all of this nightmare of things that is going to come down on Trump's head.

They need a distraction. This is going to be it. Do you think the American people care about Cuba? Do enough of them? I understand that Marcos base in Florida, where he was a senator before Secretary of State, I understand there's a big Cuban exile community there. But do you think this plays writ large in America? Doesn't it just remind people of the failed war with Iran?

Well, yes. I mean, we'll remind us of that and we will try to remind other people of that. But the, you know, victory, especially for Donald Trump, you claim something is a victory. And, you know, I mean, and remember, remember, considering all of the other things that he might do disasters, he might get himself into, this is probably what they think of as an easy win. I mean, not that I'm at all, by the way, recommending that they do this. This seems as foolish as anything else and is fraught with problems. But, you know, I think I can see this happening. I can see Donald Trump leaving the presidency in 2029,

and I can see the Trump boys opening a casino in Havana. Of course. Of course. Great. what would it be called? It could be a crypto casino. It will be called Trump Havana. Trump Havana. Trump, Trump, Copacabana. Yeah, of course it will. Of course it will. Yeah, and I'm sure Jared and Ivanka have already scoped out twin properties for their property. Yeah, it's Suzanne Island in Albania, which of course they discovered when their friend with the yacht that they were staying on. They all went swimming and they found this amazing island. It was completely deserted.

Yes, it was deserted because it was the nature reserve. And amazingly, amazingly, I still find this incredible story. Jared Nivanka's determination to colonize said island and this beautiful, a beautiful refuge for flamingos has actually caused the biggest protests in Albania since the Second World War. And the poor president of Albania, who thought he was doing a good job by sucking up to Trump's relatives, has now put his own career in jeopardy. Anyway, I totally meandered off the way, because we're really talking about Marco Rubio and Greece. And let's segue there, because I think Marco Rubio's head must be exploding, that he has, having stated. This coming out, I'm the man of great seriousness and I am the, I am Mount Olympus of politicians

in a Donald Trump government. I am a presidential timber. And then he manages coincidentally to intersect with Kimberly Guilfoyle. So we have to give a shout out. KG, as they say in the in Trump circles. KG, KG. OK, we're going to give a shout out to Dana Matioli, Drew Hinshaw, Rebecca Bawhouse, and Joe Parkinson of the Wall Street Journal.

They have been on this story. About three weeks ago, they did an incredible story about how Kimberly Gilfoyle was basically hustling as fast as she could as ambassador to Greece and had aligned herself with a lobbyist. for an energy company. How many reporters, how many reporters does it take to screw Kimberly Guilfoyle? I think might be the joke here. Oh, Michael.

Why are there so many reporters on a story? Jesus, I, you know, anyway. Well, anyway, it was a very good story and it really focused on her relationship with this lobbyist with whom she's spending so much time that people first assumed he was, her chief of staff. And then as Donald Trump pointed out, when he saw them both back in the US, he's very good looking. So they appear to be spending a ton of time together. And now another story

has come out by the same team at the Wall Street Journal. Let me read one of you, let me read you one of the texts and then we'll go into the story. Let me just separate this. The story last week was a devastating story, a story of enormous corruption and the kind of thing that obviously should provoke a whole series of congressional investigations. I mean, just there. This is, and should be death for an ambassadorial career or political career, any career. But then there's another story, which is entirely different. It's not a follow-on story. It is an entirely separate chapter of corruption. Yes, and we should point out in the previous story in the Wall Street Journal, it also became clear that Kimberly appeared to be threatening the Greek government

itself by suggesting that America could cause real unrest in Greece. And the Greek, I think it was defense minister took enormous umbrage to that, understandably. So she's not proving as popular there as she once was. Anyway, I'm going to read one of the texts from this story and then let's explore what's actually going on. This is a text from Kimberly to a businessman called Eric Dutters. Eric, I really wish you would stop papering all these things. It's really dangerous and not helpful to you or me while you could simply just call me on signal. What could she be? be referring to, Michael? Why doesn't someone want someone to contact them in or text them? Yeah, and just to point out that all of the Trump people use Signal. I mean, everybody reverts

to this. I mean, actually, I think I might have exchanged a signal or two with Kimberly Guilfoyle. The, and just to make clear, Signal is an encrypted program. and the messages, you set the messages to disappear. So what someone says to you, you're pretty much, at least if you're relatively disciplined, you set it and people will not, there will be no record of your messages. Correct. The alternative is, you know, regular electronic communication in which you do leave a paper trail that will hang you.

Well, it appears that Mr. Detters, who wanted, or it's D-E-T-E-R-S, how would you pronounce that? Is it D-T-E-T-E-R-S? I would say D-E-R-S, but I don't know. I never heard of this man before. Okay. Well, he's a businessman, and he ran and failed to get a congressional seat. But he's asked Kimberly for all sorts of things. He doesn't seem like a very big businessman.

Does he own a couple of pizza joints? I mean, some, I don't know. This is not auspicious. He does have tax problems, however. Well, he's inevitably, he's got tax problems, and he's paid Kimberly over the last three years for her lobbying efforts to, A, help him with his tax benefits. And then incredibly, what I love about this story is it's got great details about what this businessman wanted. But he wanted to go on Tucker Carlson.

So he was hustling. her to get him on Tucker Carson's podcast. But then the other point of this is it's not just what he wanted, but his ire that he gets nothing from her. He pays her tons of money. She delivers nothing. Well, okay. And one of the other things he wanted was that he and a local guitarist

had written a song called Kentucky Outlaw, and he wanted Gilfell to get the lyrics to come. country rapper, Kid Rock. You know, Kid Rock, who's the only pop star that's ever seen, apart from Lee Greenwood. It's Lee Greenwood and Kid Rock. The Dems have Beyonce, they have Bruce Springsteen, they have everybody, but Trump has Kid Rock and Lee Greenwood. And then he says to her in a text, he's a Kentucky outlaw, meaning Kid Rock. He fights the man and refuses to crawl. It's fantastic. A couple of points here that this is illustrative of the kind of crap that politicians, all politicians, have to do with from people who give them money. So let's assume, I mean, she's getting money.

Let's, we'll get into the basis that she gets her money. But all politicians are taking money from people legally or not, or illegally. But every dollar comes with a set of. expectations and the expectations are often not grand. You're kind of, you become the servant of people who give you money. You become, you know, you become somebody who has to deliver on these, on these ridiculous, demeaning requests. So that's the, that's the defense of Kimberly Gilfoyle.

Right. And then you spend a lot of time because often you can. can't deliver, right, but you still want to take the money. So you then spend a lot of time obfuscating about how you tried, but right now it's not the right time for them, but they're still engaged. And, you know, it's worth revisiting in six months. I mean, that keeping someone at bay while still taking the cash. No, and this is particularly true inside of the Trump administration because there's a certain thing, a certain level, why wouldn't you take the money is available, why wouldn't you take it? If you don't take it, then you're kind of not playing,

you're not a serious player inside of Trump world. That's number one. But the other thing is the expectation that because you're a part of Trump world, all of these things are, you would be willing to do all these things. And then if you suddenly refuse, then you get a kind of reputation as not really being a Trump world player. So you're kind of trapped in this. At the same time, you need the money. You know, Kimberly Guilfoyle, one of the reasons ambassadorial posts are sort of divided between professionals in the State

Department and then, you know, campaign friends and donors and people who are really not necessarily have no qualifications for being an ambassador, except that they can afford it, because it's a very expensive job. You know, the State Department is really underfunding you, and you succeed because you can, you know, I don't know, give great parties, really. Well, you succeed because you can give great parties and you can maintain often the official residences. So if you think of Winfield House in the middle of Regents Park in London, which has been

made famous by the diplomat. Actually, I don't think they used Winfield House, but it's a fantastic house in the middle of the biggest private garden in London outside of Buckingham Palace's private garden. But it requires enormous upkeep. Similarly with the French embassy in Paris requires enormous upkeep. And so, and that's something that ambassadors, especially in those two particular positions are sort of expected to do. And then they're expected to host parties and have friends round and be of social consequence. And I remember one or two ambassadors, one in particular in London, the American ambassador to the court of St. James, saying that he would go to Downing Street twice or three times a week to give the British Prime Minister advice on how to handle things. So it's a

very interesting role. Who would that have been? Do you remember the ambassador? I do remember the ambassador, but I'm not going to, I'm not going to. Because it's not necessarily, you know, like Woody Johnson was the ambassador of the court of St. James during the first Trump administration. And I can guarantee you no British prime minister would have taken advice from Woody Johnson, nor would he have had advice to give. Okay, this was a, but I bet they would have gone to the parties. I bet they would have gone to the parties that Winfield. House that Woody Johnson was throwing. It was under a Democratic president.

Let me put it that way. Great. Another, so a question, which I don't think is answered in this Wall Street Journal piece or the last Wall Street Journal piece, where did these emails come from? Do we know? Well, great question. So they've obviously been leaked from so on, probably a disgruntled staff, right? But there are two things about them that are important.

One is that Kimberly Guilfoyle, before her Senate confirmation for the post, needed to pay off an Amex bill. So she asked Eric Dieter's to pay it off for her. She needed 100 grand to pay off her Amex bill because she didn't want any debt going into the thing. And he appears to tease her a little bit in terms of what he will say he is going to offer her. And at one point he writes her a letter saying, I agree that, you. you know, we're going to pay you another $50,000 for your consulting, feel consulting. But then he says to her in another text, I'm not going to pay you $100,000. That would cost me a divorce.

So at least Eric Dieter's wife is on the case here. Well, yeah, but does that is the implication that he's having an affair with Kimberly Guilfoyle? Well, actually, it's interesting. I hadn't thought about that. I hadn't thought about that. I don't know. You hadn't thought about that?

I mean, if somebody says, you know, I can't give you money because you say to another woman, I can't give you money because then that, you know, that might cost my marriage. I don't know. Well, I was thinking that I have to explain to his wife why he'd written Kimberly Gilfoyler check for $100,000. But maybe that's the implication. Yeah, that would only be, seem to me to be a problem. Otherwise, it's a business deal. I'm writing Kimberly Gilfoylea check because,

This is a, this is a, we're in a transaction. She's going to get me. And part of this was that she has promised him help with the IRS. I mean, so he's theoretically getting value. It turns out he doesn't get value because she doesn't do anything. I have no idea whether they're having any kind of romantic relationship. But certainly it does prompt the question in this. these set of emails.

Yes, you're quite right. Why would his wife be particularly annoyed? Right. And again, where do these emails come from? And if I have the fault these stories in the journal, it's, you know, we ought to have a sense of the context of this, which we don't. Okay.

Okay, well, here is what is interesting. But even without the context, this is pretty juicy. Okay, it's definitely juicy. And he, Dita's, there's a section in the piece that talks about him facing his own legal issues. And in 2020, he was banned from entering a courthouse in Ohio's Hamilton County. I'm reading now, after threatening on social media to burn it down. The Kentucky Bar Association twice suspended him, citing aggressive litigation strategies, false statement in court proceedings and filing frivolous.

claims. And when the Kentucky Supreme Court was considering whether to reinstate him to the bar, Dita's denounced members of the association as jokes of human excrement. And the chief justice wrote in 2021 in a ruling not to reinstate him, Dita's practice of law is not governed by constitution, rule of law or procedure. It is anarchy. It is anarchy. So Dita's response to that of course, was these rules written by big law to hurt people like me. Screw them. I'm a legal outlaw, which perhaps led to his song Kentucky Outlaw, which he was paying Kimberly to get to Kid Rock and which she couldn't deliver.

And let me just widen this aperture a bit to see that a couple of that, number one, everything in the Trump administration is for sale. So you can, I mean, it's, it's in sort of open, you know, the store is always open for, for a transaction. If you want a pardon, if you want, if you want introductions, if you want to have, get in to see the president to, to try to convince him of something, although it won't, that will be useless because he doesn't listen to you, but, but you might feel your advance in your cause. all of that is available to you if you pay. So this is pay per play for everyone, really everybody in the administration. And everybody in the administration is spending a lot of time, as Kimberly Gilfoyle is, trying to figure out how they can get money, how you can create a somewhat legal.

somewhat acceptable context for taking this money and also not leaving a paper trail that will hang you for taking this money. Well, what's so delicious about this piece is that it actually shows you part of the paper trail and that's what's fascinating because it's not very often that you get the actual text from people trying to cover things up. So we've got a few more details here. Two days later, Dieter sends her a photo of a printed memo addressed to her. I have paid you $300,000 over the years, he wrote. As of this memo, I have not received one favor. I am not naive or a sucker.

I need results. She says, stop papering all these things. It's really dangerous. Just call me on signal. So she then called someone to try and help him with the, with the tax issues, absolutely no go. And then she says, also very privately, if you write an email or a text about,

I'm going to kill you because I love you, but you're so out of control. So I'm sure he is. And just think about all of these people, having to deal with people giving them money because they want things, but not doing it in a proper way, everybody becomes potentially exposed here.

And then there's this other aspect of this, that this is being done by people at ever more distant layers from the center of Trump world. So they're out there saying they can do things, which they can't do. So they're taking money on completely a fraudulent pretext. they cannot deliver. Well, and again, just swinging this back full circle to Marco Rubio, Marco Rubio is then asked about this latest Wall Street Journal piece,

which has dropped towards the end of his visit. And he's like, well, first of all, he says, suffice it to say, our embassy here is doing a great job. Our ambassador has been a strong ambassador. And then he's what in tabloid parlance, you would call monstered by the press on the tarmac as he's about to leave. And he's asked about it again. And he says, well, we're not going to litigate this here in the middle of a press conference.

That's not how we do things. It's not the American way, which of course is exactly the way his boss does things, frequently litigating and attacking and accusing and defending himself in press conferences. So Marco Rubio was well and truly. dogged by Kimberly Guilfoyle in his effort to launch his campaign. And it's an example that Marco Rubio has no game. He can't respond to this. He looks guilty.

He looks. He looks. I mean, you can see the frustration on his face. He's probably the fury about Kimberly Gilfoyle. The ludicrousness of Kimberly Gilfoyle, which everyone knows. Why is Kimberly Guilfoyle, the ambassador, ambassador to Greece. It is not only because

she was the girlfriend of the president's son, but because she was the jilted girlfriend of the president's son. That's her qualification to be jilted, to have been jilted.

Exactly. Trump wanted her out of the way. And if you're Marco Rubia, also learning that Kimberly Guilfoyle got 300,000, for doing absolutely nothing. And this is just one example of someone that she was supposedly trying to help. So the well may be others. He may also be furious. I mean, Anthony Scaramucci was talking about how, in fact, he predicted that Rubio wasn't going to run, that this was Rubio's moment to make money, that he's got four children. He's been in politics for a long time. And he's never made the money that he's now surrounded by, especially. as Donald Trump is making a lot of money. So I'm sure for him learning that she was making more than his Senate salary for doing absolutely nothing.

No, that's a misreading. He would have thought, he would have thought, oh, my God, why is she taking pennies? I mean, this is, you know, you don't put yourself on the hook here for $300,000. I mean, that sounds like an enormous amount of money to most people. I would like $300,000. But this is Donald Trump land. Everybody is Donald Trump land is is is chuckling about Kimberly's low price. Interesting. Interesting. Well, Donald Trump seems to be distancing himself.

And Anthony, by the way, is not Anthony is way off the mark on this. This guy is running for president. This guy is only ever dreamed of being president, not dreaming of his family. He's not dreaming and making money. He has one dream to be the president of the United States. Michael, you're so cynical. His dream is to save Western civilization and to lead us into the next century of Western thought. So Michael, two more advisors of Donald Trump have been caught advising, well, I think it's fair to say unsavory clients in Bosnia, Herzegovina, allies of Vladimir Putin, this is James Blair and Chris Lusavita, and Donald Trump is now distancing himself from them.

Yeah, I'm not sure. I mean, this is what has happened in the Trump world. These are finally Trump-aligned politicians. As we were talking last week, it looks like another member of the Bullseye, family, the Bolsonaro's son, will become the president of Brazil. The Bolsonaro's have sheld out millions upon millions of dollars to Trump-related people, Trump advisors, Trump political consultants. This is the Trump people are aligned around the world with people who we would not consider

the examples of democracy. Not examples of democracy. Well, even Donald Trump is distancing himself from this particular maneuver because of the Putin connection. So do we want to talk about specific Senate races? Do we want to talk about our friend Ken Paxton struggling down in Texas against James Telfrico? I think at 25 days out, it's good to remind everybody. where we are in this in this midterm race, which is shifting very quickly and now has shifted into, well, I mean, when we started to have this discussion about the midterms, the Senate was

at best a hope and a prayer, but it was a pretty, a pretty attenuated hope and a prayer. Now it's right here. I mean, I don't think you, I mean, certainly certainly can. control of the Senate is a toss-up, and day by day, it shifts more toward even the possibility, the likelihood that the Democrats will take the Senate. I mean, that is a, that is big. You have seats in play that, that just didn't seem possible. I mean, I mean, including Ohio in Texas. That's extraordinary. But it's not even just Ohio in Texas. I mean, you have. added Iowa and Kansas to this, Iowa and Kansas, in nobody's imagination, would that have been

possible? So you have a range of Senate seats now, Alaska, Georgia, Maine, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, Iowa, Kansas, New Hampshire. You know, actually, New Hampshire, there's a couple here, a couple of flips, which appeared to be flipping toward the, or held by Democrats now, appear to be flipping to Republicans, but even that now is fading. So New Hampshire, up until a couple of weeks ago, seemed suddenly iffy for the Democrats, again now trending back to them. Every swing seat is now trending to the Democrats. Yeah. And the Cook report saying 40,

three seats are competitive and there's money going into 60 House districts. That's 43 house seats are really competitive and there's money going into 60 of them. And in North Carolina, where Roy Cooper is proving very popular as a Democratic candidate, more than $20 million has gone onto it. And the new factors that's now coming in against the Republicans is this outbreak of measles, a disease that had essentially disappeared from America. And there are now 40 separate outbreaks of measles throughout the country. I think there...

But actually, actually concentrate. The biggest part of the measles outbreak is in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania is the state. You know, I mean, essentially, you know, where as Pennsylvania goes, so goes the nation. If you win Pennsylvania, you will win the presidency. I mean, that's what it has been for the past number of races. And we now have a situation in which, I mean, obviously, obviously an outbreak of measles is not going to make the Republican Party

in RFK Jr., another likely candidate for the Republican nomination, not going to make the Republican Party more popular. Right. five people have died from measles so far. And again, more cases of measles in the last year than there had. So we're only nine months in than there have been since 1990, cumulatively from 1990 to the beginning of this year, more cases than the last nine months. It's just shocking, shocking abdication of responsibility by our secretary of Health and Human Services, who actually loves to spend his time making cooking videos. And the only reason I advocate watching them,

the recipes are fairly basic and the recipes are good, is he is so peculiar. As a person, he's just so odd. And you see the chefs that he's working with who are trying to sort of hustle to make a meal that is affordable and easy for people who aren't used to home cooking. And it's a perfectly admirable thing to make a video like this. although not when there's outbreaks of measles in the country, you'd think he could be doing something else. But of course, this is also part of his platform for 2028. If you watch it, you see how he has no ability to relate to the chef.

And you see the chefs, the cooks or the chefs, this current most recent issue is someone called, I think she's called the home produce mom. And it's actually a rather good one-pot recipe. but what you see is her desperately trying to get a connection with him and completely unable to do it, as have the other chefs been too. And I can't help wondering if his focus on autism is something to do with his own lack of being able to connect with people. He doesn't have a sense of humor.

He's not warm. He sort of speaks across them. There's no connection when they talk. And it dawned on me that he has some social issues, which may not just be from the years of heroin. Let me, let me, let me, let me suggest something else that he has some social media issues. Now, we're at a moment in time where every politician believes they have to have a social media game. That this is what it's about, Momdani. You know, it is all in, are you, can you use the medium?

And, you know, and the medium is not necessarily intuitive. I mean, these guys are are very much used to a proscenium, a separation. They don't, they don't, I mean, Donald Trump can do this because he doesn't give a shit.

I am, what you see is what you get. You know, RFK Jr. is, you know, is very protective of himself. First thing, he's, you know, when you grow up as a someone named, named Kennedy, you grow up with a kind of wall around yourself. And social media operates in exactly the opposite way. There's no wall.

There's no pretense. There's no hiding. Here it is. This is what it is. Nobody's prepping you for social media. That is a brilliant analysis of it. And you can see he's a 73 at this point. a 73-year-old man struggling with a medium, which actually you have managed.

Fine. You've got a million followers on Instagram. You haven't had any issues with it. Here we are. We've got almost, well, we're almost 800,000 subscribers on YouTube alone. And yet, RFK is so awkward in front of the YouTube camera. You almost feel, you know, embarrassed for him. You feel embarrassed for him that he can't connect.

I mean, it is a weird thing to suddenly have to have to be a part of. I mean, I found it a weird. I think, what am I doing here? But I don't have anything, you know, I don't know what I have no pretense here. It's just like whatever, whatever it is, it is. But that's not what he feels. He feels I have to be something particular. I have to be a Kennedy.

I have to have a message. I have to do all of those things that you've been prepped to do over all of these decades, which are essentially related to television. I am a person who can go on meet the press. I'm not a person who can just, you know, show up and... And pretend to be comfortable in the kitchen, because I look incredibly awkward. Whatever we do on social media. Well, the other person that we've talked about before who also looks incredibly awkward in front of a camera, and I just wish she would be allowed to give it up.

And you've said, you think this is her advisor saying you need to be out there more, you need to be out there more, is poor Ushavance with her story time with the second lady. This time she has Gary Player, the golfer on. And I can only think that that's because their oldest son is learning to golf. And there was that whole incident. you remember where J.D. Vance's security team leaked details of him trying to use the VEP's helicopter to fly his son over the DC traffic for a golf lesson, which I think eventually he didn't end up doing. So I'm assuming they're trying to build up their golfing connections. But, you know, last time it was Luke Brian. Let me interrupt it. Do we know, does J.D. Vance play golf?

I'm sure he plays golf. I don't know, but I'm assuming he plays golf. Certainly the son is learning to play golf. But why would Usha have Gary player, unless Donald Trump had suggested it? But her guess are completely random. This is aimed at children. Anyway, last time I looked, it had barely scraped 2,000 views. And she always does this.

I want to just go back to this. I'm interested in this J.D. Vance thing, if he's a golfer. or wherever, you know, everybody's addicted to drugs and you're also a country club member. I mean, I'm sure you can learn golf as an adult, most people in business. Let's not forget he works in finance for a bit. Those guys on the West Coast play golf, though not as much as the guys on the East Coast. Yeah, I'm surprised at this. But anyway, we should find out because that would be interesting if he said out, I got to play

golf because that's how you get close to Donald Trump. And if I play golf, my kid is going to play golf, let's play golf. He does play golf. J.D. Vance does play golf. In fact, he recounts in Hillbilly, Elegy that he tried out for the school's varsity golf team and didn't get in. But he played at Turnbury in Scotland during his family holiday. Remember when he went to the UK last year, he played at Turnbury.

He does play a little bit of golf. He does. Add that to his resume. I wonder if that's a if Donald Trump has so tainted the game of golf in a political context that that will be a kind of a slur. He's a golfer. He's a golfer. Remember Lindsay Graham was, wasn't he Donald Trump's most frequent golfing buddy? they played golf over 154 times, I think. No, no. Who was Steve? You know the answer to this. His most

frequent golf buddy is Steve Whitkoff. His sole qualifications for negotiating the fate of the world. He was a for some member. Oh, Michael, do you play golf? Never once in my life. Which is too bad because you're surrounded by beautiful golf courses in the Amptons? Yeah, I suppose I am. I mean, we're surprised around, but we have surrounded by more water than that, and I do fish. Okay, you fish and you swim. You fish and you swim.

All right, Michael, what we haven't discussed, and we are going to discuss in more depth on Saturday, but I just want to draw people's attention to it because he was in San Diego this week, is Pete Heggseth. I really think the only reason he wanted this job is so he could get fit and he could just have someone shouting at him all day to buff up. I mean, he was in San Diego working out with the military. And, you know, the war is going wrong. George Bush fired Donald Remstfeldt, who was his secretary of defense when he lost,

when he got shellacked in his mid-times and the midterms and the war in Iraq was going really badly. Do we think that Hexeth is vulnerable here? Well, we think that he's vulnerable. We think that everybody around Donald Trump is vulnerable because Donald Trump is capricious and a blamer. So everyone ought to be. But on the other hand, as we know, when the press calls for everybody's head and they will call for everybody's head after as soon as the midterms happen, Donald Trump doesn't do what the press wants him to do. even though that might be the best thing for Donald Trump. Let's double down on that subject because he is, you know, I mean, the central crisis, the political crisis for Donald Trump and the crisis for the world is the war in Iran, a war that is being in many ways directed by Pete Hegseth of all people.

Colonel vodka, as Roger Ailes would frequently call him. Colonel vodka. Okay, Michael, I will look forward to seeing you on Saturday. Who knows if Donald Trump will be back on the front pages, if people in London will be talking about him again. But we will always be inside his head and we'll be back on Saturday. And I will see you then, Joanna Coles. Big thanks to our production team, Ryan Murray, John Romero, Rachel Pasa, Heather Pissarro, and Neil Rosenhaus. So the good news is we have so many Bee Beast tier members now. There are too many

names to read out and we really appreciate your support.