The Daily Beast Podcast - Real Reason Trump Lost It at Key Ally: Wolff

Episode Date: March 20, 2026

Michael Wolff and Joanna Coles dive deep into the unraveling chaos inside Trumpworld as the Iran war exposes a full-blown MAGA civil war, with Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly and Nick Fuentes clashing against Ben Shapiro, Laura Loomer and Mark Levin in a bitter fight over Israel, antisemitism, and the future of the movement. Wolff reveals shocking behind-the-scenes insights into the conspiratorial currents driving Trump’s base, the growing belief that shadowy forces are steering U.S. foreign policy and how figures like Jared Kushner are being recast in dark, dangerous narratives. As Trump stumbles through a conflict he never planned through, sidelining his own America First allies while embracing traditional hawks, the episode paints a portrait of a movement fracturing in real time—where ideology, opportunism, and resentment collide, and where the battle for control of MAGA may reshape American politics in ways few saw coming. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Why did he write this? He wrote this because Jared called him up and said, the Qatarians are furious. You gotta do something here. They're hopping mad. And he said, okay, I'll take care of it. I'll take care of it. The Israelis were put over to the side,

and the emphasis was then on the Qatarians who are among Jared's many clients in the region. The calls that I got yesterday, I spent a long time on the phone, yesterday was, again, a confirmation, their confirmation, yes, Jared is behind all this. Michael. Joanna. So nice to have you back in person, although it's very confusing because I am used to doing this with you on Tuesdays in the studio, and today it's Thursday.

So we've all been thrown off by your travel schedule. I think we can handle it. Can we handle it? Well. I'm counting on it. Week three, week three of the war that was going to be over immediately, that was just going to be a bombing exhibition and incursion and excursion. Who knows what it was going to be?

It occurs to me just thinking this, the war is going to be over soon. I guess that is said about literally about every war. Nobody has ever gone into a war, so this is going to last and last and going to sink into a quagmire. but we always do sink into a quagmire. Right. And also, this was not going to involve any shrews on the ground, and now Marines are getting ready to go and keep open the straight of Hormuz. And the interesting thing about that is that if that happens,

and nobody seems to have another recipe for how to keep the straight of Hormuz open. So, therefore, except with United States. Marines. And that means that once you do that, they have to stay there. Right. And also, why weren't they there in the first place? Why didn't anybody anticipate this? And the thing I am shocked about is how Donald Trump talks about this war. And again, it's hard to be shocked by Donald Trump. But can we just listen to this clip of him talking about how he was surprised that the Iranians decided to fight back? Can we listen to a Trump clip? Bring it on. In the last two weeks, they weren't supposed to go after all these other countries in the Middle East.

Those missiles were set to go after them. So they hit Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait. Nobody expected that. We were shocked. I mean, this is A, everybody expected that. But what is the man saying? I don't know. I mean, we were shocked.

What is he talking about? he's trying to obliterate a country and he thinks they're not going to respond. Is this because they didn't respond last summer when we obliterated them the first time? I have no idea. I mean, it's insane that you sit there and says that. Like a kind of five-year-old, well, I hit you, but you weren't supposed to hit me back. He's, I mean, I'm trying to. It's just insane.

I'm pausing because it's virtually impossible to explain this. You can only explain this by saying there was no preparation here. He paid attention to nothing. Any warnings that were given him, he ignored or looked beyond or waved away, and it was back to obliteration. We're going to obliterate these people. And in fact, he said when the issue of the Straits of Harmas would, was brought up, he said, you know, we're going to take them out before they do that.

So it's literally that most fundamental mistake, you know, quite a modern mistake of thinking that bombing can solve all problems. Right. And the air power is the only thing that matters. So we're going inside Trump's head. We're going to explore what's happening in the war. We're also going to explore what's happening in the MAGA base because we've now got, and we'll come on to this in a minute,

but we've got very divided camps. So we have Tucker Carlson, we've got Megan Kelly, I think they're joined by Nick Fuentes, who are all on one side saying this war is a disaster. And then we've got Mark Levin, or Mark Levine, Laura Luma, who's looming up again, and Ben Shapiro saying, no, this is the right thing to do. So I want to come on to that.

I also want to come on to... The Gentiles versus the Jews, dare I say. Okay, well, we can. get into that. And then I'm very curious to know what's inside Donald Trump's head about Hegsseth. But before we go there, I wanted to read out a truth social, you know, thundered out by Donald Trump, which makes no sense whatsoever. This was sent out last night, early this morning. And again, the grammar is complicated. It gives us an insight into the kind of, well, as this, design shows.

Just read it. Okay, I'm just going to read it, but it's all right. It does explain itself. Okay. Israel, out of anger for what has taken place in the Middle East, has violently lashed out at a major facility known as South Pars gas field in Iran. A relatively small section of the hole has been hit. The United States do nothing about this particular attack, and the country of Qatar was

in no way, shape, or form involved with it, nor did it have any idea that it was going to happen. I mean, it's just not true. Well, it's obviously not true, but let's think about what happened here. Why did he write this? He wrote this because Jared called him up and said, the Qatarians are furious. You've got to do something here. They're hopping mad.

And he said, okay, I'll take care of it. I'll take care of it. This is it. And then the Israelis have come out and said, of course you knew about it. We told you about it. Well, it's just there. The Israelis were put over to the side, and the emphasis was then on the Qatarians, who are among Jared's many clients in the region.

Right. So, as you mentioned before, Jared is actually running things, and Trump thought that he could just put this out. What are you hearing, because I know you've been talking to people, what are you hearing about what people are saying? No, well, it's really interesting. So we discussed my view of Jared's participation in this, that Jared is the controlling voice, he is the heavyweight with his father-in-law. And I think I said he's the son-in-law who ate the father-in-law.

And then you did that image of a snake dislocating its jaw, which is what snakes do to eat something that's three times their size. So this prompted several conversations and calls to me from what I would describe as MAGA people. Now, there's an interesting thing about this, and I think it's a misunderstanding of some of the MAGA currents, that, I mean, we see the MAGA people as intensely ideological, intensely right-wing, leading. with immigration and the furthest kind of Trump policies. And that's certainly true, but there is another aspect of MAGA, which is not necessarily ideological. It is more conspiratorial. Oh, interesting. I thought you were going to say it's more pragmatic and more moderate.

No, no, it is. I mean, it may be if you extend that out, but nevertheless, it's always in the context of the conspiracy, of who is controlling who, of what the real agenda is, and in some sense, I am afraid it all kinds of adds up to the Jews, and the Jews are behind everything, which is the oldest conspiracy. The oldest conspiracy in the book. But at any rate, And you may ask, why do I talk to these people? They talk to me. I'm, I'm, I somehow become a, I was going to say a mirror, but it's actually some, more like just a, just a piece of glass that they, that they, that they kind of talk through because I listen.

I suppose that's the reason. I just listen. Right. You're a postatory. Repository for this? Yeah, I don't. I mean, I find it actually fascinating, so that's why you listen. But at the same time, yes, you should say, oh, my God, get away from me.

But these are two sides of this. But the calls that I got yesterday, I spent a long time on the phone yesterday, was, again, a confirmation, their confirmation, yes, that Jared is behind all this. And then there's a kind of rush to now associate Jared with the Alexander brothers. You might recall that the Alexander brothers were three brothers in the real estate business, kind of real estate salesman to the stars

and real estate salesman to the billionaire class. And based in Florida, Right. Based in Florida, but also in New York, I mean, I think, I think wherever your, your $10 million plus homes are sold, you find the Alexander brothers, who are also Jewish. There is actually originally Israeli or their parents were Israeli. But that was a kind of thing to make that association, Jared and the Alexander brothers. Well, because the Alexander brothers. brothers have just been found guilty of rape. Found guilty of a long list of...

Wasn't it rape? Yes, rape and abuse. Who knows? Yeah, I mean, they're terrible, terrible people. Terrible people. And this was kind of described in this. So, you know, Cushner is Jewish. The Alexanders are Jewish.

And the MAGA description, the Alexander brothers are, this is a direct, are Jared's muscle. Now, again, this is, I'm trying to do this in a way. We certainly are not in any way inside this conspiracy. But this is represents a very, I think, a really important theme in understanding what is going on. in the Trump universe. Now, now, and these, these, this view, I mean, this view is, is absolutely in every way opposed to this war, to the Iranian war, clearly sees the linkage here to Israel. I mean, it's, it's an explicit linkage.

We are doing this on Israel's behest. We are doing this because Netanyahu has tricked Donald Trump. So, I mean, this is now, this now rises to this to a central issue among part of the MAGA base. And one of the things that was in these conversations that I had yesterday is that this White House has managed. to push out all of the, I guess, isolationists, for lack of a better word. Is that the word? Yes, I think that is. Well, America first.

Yeah, but strictly the isolationists, we don't want any foreign involvement. I mean, it's an absolutist case. So their view is that all of these people have been pushed out of the inner circle, the White House. And this is also relevant, and I suspect this had to do with some of these calls yesterday, with pushing out, what's going to? Joe Kent? Yes, exactly. So Joe Kent, the head of the national security. Right, because he clearly, A, he really is a conspiracist, but very much aligned with this MAGA view. Okay, so he was working. for Tulsi Gabbard. Tulsi Gabbard's been appearing at the intelligence hearings, really saying

almost nothing. And when asked if there was evidence that it looked like Iran might be imminently about to attack the US, just said, that's not our job to predict to that, which is insane. Because as John Ossov pointed out, the senator from Georgia, that's exactly their job. But she said, know, the president is the only person who can assess the level of risk. She's actually giving evidence. We're recording this on Thursday morning. She's giving more evidence as we speak. But my point is Joe Kent worked for Tulsi Gabbard.

We know that Tulsi Gabbard isn't in favor of war. So she's still around, but she seems to have been silenced a bit. What about J.D. Vance? Let's go back to Tulsi for a second, because it sounded to me also like she was putting the blame on the boss. Now, the last time that happened, which was just last week, that costs Christy Noem her job. So all of these people are having an enormous problem articulating what is going on. And they are, they have found themselves, you know, particularly a Tulsi Gabbard, who's a, who's a, who's a, and we'll get to Tucker Carlson, but she's, Tulsi Gabbard is in many

ways a Tucker Carlson creation. I mean, she is, she came to prominence because he kept featuring her day after day after day when he had when he had his, his Fox show. But we should just, we should just remind people that she's a former Democratic congresswoman. She served in Iraq and Afghanistan and she went on an unapproved trip to Syria. And while she was a Democrat, she was under serious consideration for the UN ambassadorship when Trump was elected in 2016. Right. And she grew up as part of a cult. She's a very intriguing character, not least that strange streak in her hair, which seems to have gone black again. Yeah, no. Tulsi Gabbard as as as head of... Susan Sontag. Except she's so the opposite of Susan Sontag. But she's nevertheless an intriguing,

puzzling black box of a character, as so many of them are. But she's also, when she is, she grows up out of that, that, that MAGA point of view, which is very much in the Tucker Carlson point of view, very much no foreign involvement. But she's also incredibly ambitious and or as, as Steve Bannon would say, as ambitious as Lucifer. What a great description. I mean, there are a lot of them that have that. And so she is in this thing. So she has to preserve her job,

but she's now putting her in quite a difficult position because she is explicitly there to defend this war. And she literally said it was not the intelligence services job to assess the risk, the only person who could do that was trouble. So, and we're going to start to see that. We are seeing this, but we will see it more and more, that these people who have come out of the MAG aside, and we're looking here toward the, as this kind of comes apart, I think we're going to see this day by day and in real time.

J.D. Vance, where is J.D. Vance? Well, where is J.D. Vance? Totally. Totally. And he, obviously, too, comes out of this. side of the equation. And he's also a conspiracy theorist, as Susie Wiles told us. Of course.

Of course. And Joe Kent gave his resignation or told J.D. Vance who was going to resign before he announced it and before he told Donald Trump. Exactly. And let's enter into a little bit of conspiratorial thinking on this and go back to Susie Wiles, who we just did a special show about. Yep, last Saturday. And because she is, Susie Wiles is, has always been absolutely aligned with traditional Republican politics.

She's as rhino as you get. And she is very much aligned with Marco Rubio, also as rhino, as neocon, as classic in the Republican defense of Israel, of the military, of the military, all of these kind of generational Republican themes, which Trump is supposed to be against, but obviously not. And what we have now seen is Trump basically embrace. He is actively now every day in the embrace of these traditional rhino republican aggressive foreign policy moves, which is, let's do this, Susie Wiles, Susie Wiles, who is the person, the operational person of the Trump government, who is very much in this camp, but also specifically in the Marco Rubio camp. Right. She used to work for Marco Rubio. Let's remind people.

She used to work for Marco Rubio. She was the person in the Trump circle actively promoting Marco Rubio as the vice president. Let's assume, I think it's fair to assume, she is now actively promoting Marco Rubio as a future president. So this is really Trump's evolution from America first to neocon. I mean, he's getting sucked in now, that Marines going into Carg Island to protect the Strait of Hormuz. I mean, this is exactly what happens to people often in their second term. I saw it happen repeatedly in the UK where things are not going well at home. We've got the Epstein files here.

we've got, let's not forget, we've got ICE here and Mark Wayne Mullen flexing his muscles at his select committee confirmation hearing. So it's a mess at home. Trump doesn't want to focus at home. He's focusing abroad. He thought he was just going to be able to bomb the hell out of Iran, but it turns out, surprise, surprise, we're shocked. The Iranians are fighting back. And let's just go to the, to the, to the, there is, and it's important to remember this, that of all of the, yes, Trump White House, MAGA, the power of MAGA, Steve Bannon, Tucker, this kind of noise, but the Republican Party is still very much entrenched. You have, you know, you have, you have, you have Cruz, you have Lindsey Graham,

and these are the people, especially Lindsey Graham, who are in Trump's ear. So literally in Trump's head. A strange thought to have Lindsay Graham whispering fruitily in your head. And he is, yes, no. And Lindsay Graham is one of the great whisperers and one of the great traditional rhino, Republican, you know, I never had a new thought in, haven't had a new thought in a generation kind of guy. Right.

And he certainly had a resurgence. I mean, he was sort of lying somewhat dormant. and now he's made himself relevant again. He's a survivor, is really what I'm saying. Okay, so let's talk about this division. So we now have Megan Kelly and Tucker Carlson and Nick Fuentes, all of whom have loud podcasts. This is also, I mean, remember how the last election,

everybody was saying, oh, it was the podcast election. It was the podcast election. This feels like it's the podcast war, actually, or the podcast party. So you've got Megan, you've got Tucker, you've got Nick Fuentes, and then you've got Laura Luma, You've got Ben Shapiro and you've got Mark Levin. Is it Mark Levin or Mark Levin? Of the micro penis, according to Megan Kelly.

He says Megan Kelly is neurotic. He said that she was emotionally unhinged and lewd. And she retorted by saying, well, you've got a micro penis. I mean, what is this fourth grade? Not even. It's so weird and peculiar to me. Whatever. There's a big division there.

And they all have loud platform. I mean, let's do the obvious, too. This is really a division between Gentiles and Jews, kind of stark. And on the Carlson Fuentes-Kelly side, this is specifically their view is against Israel. Well, Nick Fuentes is against almost everything, as far as I can see. Well, they're all, I mean, he's a particularly unpleasant man. unpleasant but incredibly compelling, incredibly good at what he does. No, he's an effective broadcaster.

And he has young men seem to like him and they love embracing them. Well, not all young men, I should say, but some young men. Yeah, no, but let's, I mean, let's, so let's, there's a couple of distinctions to make here between Israel and anti-Semitism, which I think that we should, that we should get to. But very much lining up here, what. what's the the the the opposition is is on the one side we don't want to not only do we not have any want anything to do with with supporting Israel we believe Israel is mendacious and at the root of everything that is going wrong right so the ultimate conspiracy theory um right Israel is the

Epstein state Israel is the Epstein state that's such a and then on the and then on the on the on the other side, you know, you have you have Levin Shapiro, Lumer, who are, who are all Jews, who very much take that traditional, and it is traditional. This is exactly what nobody, no one in American politics for three generations has basically deviated from the view that the United States has to support, do anything possible to support Israel and they remain on that on that side so but then we have this this this this this view that well we we have the development here is that is that israel is really responsible for this war or Israel is certainly a key participant in this so if you

are opposed to war and remember there's a great part of the Trump base that is that voted for Trump on the because he he he he's swore he swore his opposition to forever wars so we now have have Israel that has caused us to go to war which and and so therefore Israel is part of this conspiracy that has done this to Donald Trump who has taken the MAGA movement essentially and subverted it. And of course, these are Jews. And so let's not forget about that.

And let's go back to the thing that has, I mean, we're dealing with the far right wing. The far right wing has made this resurgence in American politics on the back of Donald Trump. And the far right wing in the United States has, always been that, you know, anti-Semitism has been a key part of it. And that's been dormant for the Republican Party for a long time. I mean, the Republican Party and the conservative movement has managed to achieve the success it has achieved largely because it pushed those people to the margins. We don't want to have anything to do with that.

And that was always, by the way, part of the embrace of Israel. We embrace Israel and that sort of cleanses our anti-Semitism problem. But now all this is coming back. And I think it will recast, I mean, it does a couple of things. First, it brings back this incredibly toxic and very emotional issue into American politics. and it breaks from the mainstream of the Republican Party. You know, the mainstream... Well, it breaks from mainstream politics, right?

But isn't this also, interestingly, where the far right meets the far left, because the far left has taken up very anti-Israel positions, too, largely because of Gaza, and especially among the younger people who don't really know what the Holocaust was? Absolutely. And I think the Democrats, though, have a kind of respite from this now because this is such a internal Republican issue that I think the Democrats can say pay no attention to, you know, our fringe people.

Because, I mean, the fight is going on among Republicans. So Carlson Fuentes and Kelly, obviously all right wingers, Levin, Shapiro, Lumer, all right wingers. Right. So it's a fight that the Democrats would be wise to just sit back and let them happen. No, no, when your enemy is committing suicide, I'd let them carry on and doing it. I mean, I just suddenly thought, are we, because clearly Tucker Carlson is going to want to run for president. Is this a Tucker and Megan ticket? No, they may seem to get along, but I don't think anybody gets along with Megan. Oh, is that right?

Yeah. So what about J.D. Vance? I mean, what's happened to the vice president? He seems to have disappeared. I mean, he's been given benefits fraud. Trump literally said to him, here's a benefits fraud portfolio for you to go and sort out, which is one of those. It's like giving Carmelah Harris the border.

Yeah, no, I mean, he's in this, he's in a position. He gets to survive this if he survives it. In other words, if he can straddle this and he's looking at this, I'm sure he's looking at this and saying, okay, if I have any hope of being the president of the United States, if I have any hope of getting the nomination to possibly be the president of the United States, I got a hold together these MAGA crazies and these rhino guys in the Senate. Okay, and just remind me, what's happening with Turning Point USA? So we've got Erica Kirk out there now trying to shoehorn it into schools.

Where is turning point on this? You know, I think their turning point is left as a, as a, this is kind of the spoils in the middle of this. Who's going to get turning point? Is it going to be Mark Levin? Is it going to be Tucker Carlson? Who would you say were the better? performers slash podcasters between Megan, Nick Fuentes and Tucker Carson, all of whom are, you know,

enormous podcasters. But so is Ben Shapiro. Laura Luma seems to whisper into Trump's ear and Mark Levine is on Fox. Who would you put money on? Mark Levine is on Fox. No, but he has a podcast, too. He's not a permanent Fox guy. I am going to confess that I have not listened to Mark Levin's podcast.

Yeah, no, no, he is, and he's, um, okay, so between podcast. Okay, so, and who cares if it's a podcast? These are all broadcasters. They're all people with platforms. They're all people with platforms, big names, and more importantly, they have followers, although I'm sure that there are people listening to all of them. Um, who would you put your money on to survive? Well, to survive in what, in what form?

These are, these people all have big audiences. To take the MAGA base with them. If MAGA splits, too? You know, I mean, I'd put my money on Tucker. I would too, I think. We're not saying we agree with him. We're just saying that he seems the most strangely plausible as a someone with a platform. Yeah, I mean, the interesting, I mean, I've known Tucker for a very long time. I know him well. I have, I like him, I like spending time with him. I think he's incredibly smart.

He's an amazing gossip. And he's, and he is one of the most opportunistic people I've ever met in a lifetime of meeting opportunistic people. And he's going to make anti-Semitism his opportunity. as so many people have, so many times in history. Yes. Yes. I mean, I once had this kind of interesting conversation with or telling conversation with Tucker. And he was complaining that he was being accused of anti-Semitism.

And he said, I'm not anti-Semitic. He said, I'm anti-Cathetic. What does that even mean? Well, it means it actually makes sense. First thing, I'm sure he is, if he needs to be anti-Semitic, he'll be anti-Semitic. But what it also means is, you know, he really is located in the kind of Republicans of the 1920s, Charles Limburg, America. That is America first. and that was always, first and foremost, anti-Catholic.

Catholics were the immigrants. Right. So this is all returning. So much of this, so much of this which has been marginalized for so long has come roaring back. I mean, roaring back. And into the open? Yes, no, completely. I mean, because anybody can say anything on podcasts, for one thing.

We can blame it on podcasts. But we should also blame it on Donald Trump, of course, because he's the one who has opened the political discussion to any of this. I mean, essentially he's opened the political discussion to hell, whatever works. To whatever works. Yes, that's exactly what he's done. So what is inside Trump's head about Pete Hagezeth? because Pete Hegzeth must be seeing himself as a contender for 2028 too. Yeah, I think he's probably fine with Hegseth as long as Hegsists toes the line. And I think he probably likes it.

You know, Hegseth is the one out there now. So at any point, Hegseth is the person he can blame. Right. And remember, Trump is always looking for the person to blame. He has survived on blame. The interesting thing is that having survived all these years, 10 years now, he may have, and I think this is part of the issue, run out of people to blame. So when he runs out of people to blame, that means it's just him.

Well, is he going to at some point blame Netanyahu over this? Because then that would make it look like he'd somehow been duped by Netanyahu. Well, I think, I think, I don't know, yeah, I think that that's a problem. He can't, I think that goes to a broader issue. He's stuck in this situation. Right. And so the idea, and we talked about this in the earliest days of the bombing, that he would, have a couple of days of bombing, declare victory, the Ayatollah dead, get out.

But as soon as he went, went beyond that, and it was kind of like, okay, the Ayatollah, that was the moment. We could claim victory. Right. That was the Maduro moment, claim victory. But he didn't do that. He kept going on partly probably because of Netanyahu and what the Israelis were doing. But having done that, he is now finds himself stuck. Stuck.

Right. And so who to blame, I think this is going to be a complicated. I think he doesn't know who to blame right now. So what's going on inside Putin's head? Because America's basically taken out Venezuela. It keeps saying, Donald Trump keeps saying, I can do whatever I want with Cuba. And they've, you know, obliterated, double-bliterated Iran. If you're Putin, are you sitting there thinking, I've got no allies left?

I'm assuming Putin is the happiest man on earth. Oil is at $120 a barrel. Nobody is talking about Ukraine. Ukraine. Remember Ukraine? I'm sure he's waking up and thinking, my God, can you be luckier than me? But you don't think he's thinking, wait a minute, my allies have all been taken out. Donald Trump is weirdly unpredictable. What if he did this to me?

No. I think he's thinking we're making, I saw the figures, it's like billions a day. And we've just opened up Russian oil. We've just taken the sanctions off of Russian oil. It's an amazing, it's Putin's world. And what about, how significant is the delay. to the China trip. We know that Donald Trump was incredibly excited about going to China

because she was going to put on president, she was going to put on this fabulous parade for him. I just, I remember during the first term, how long they spent the people around Trump

getting him to pronounce the name correctly. He couldn't do it. They had to send him. It was always Z. Z. Z. Z.

Z. Well, I'm, and then they would say, say, She like a woman. She like a woman. Interesting. Okay, well, President Xi, Donald Trump, was expecting the mother of all parades, right?

And when they put on a parade, they really do put on a parade. And even they have the soldiers the same height, which is incredible, right? So that when you look across them, it's just the most astonishing formation. Anyway, his trip to China has been delayed. What is going on in Xi's head? Yeah, I don't know. I'm in a lot ahead. Okay, so let's go, oh, you're in a lot of heads.

All right, so let's go back to what's inside Trump's head about delaying the trip. Yeah. I'm not in Asian head. So, but what is going on in Trump's head delaying the trip? Do we know that? Because he said, well, I can't leave. He said, in theory, because of the war. I assume they've done that.

They were getting bad vibes from the Chinese. And so that was like, let's not go there because that's, we're not going to produce. anything good out of that meeting. Right. So all of the good vibes that we had hoped for, or at least none of the bad vibes was not going to happen. So let's cancel that trip. That's why those trips are canceled.

Okay. Okay. So disappointing. And also bad news for the Qataris, really, because they're being bombed and they supplied him with this huge free Air Force One. I mean, that's, you know, talk about looking a gift horse in the mouth. No, listen, it's a problem for, he doesn't know. I mean, let's just imagine this.

You're the commander in chief. You have a war going on, and it is all above your head. Right, and you don't know what to do about it. You don't know what to do. Although I'm trying to think. So inside, because Trump doesn't ever think that, he thinks he always knows what to do. and he's at any given moment on the phone telling people what to do. And they're either not doing it because it's crazy or they are doing it.

And then it results in some other terrible thing, less, you know, oil goes up another $10 a barrel. Right. And the real issue is that Israel wants something different out of the war than America does. I assume they do, although I couldn't tell you exactly what. I mean, I guess they want to kill everybody who's in charge. I think doesn't Israel just want Iran no longer to exist, at least in its current form, and Donald Trump just wanted to bomb it a lot? Well, I don't know.

I mean, no, I think Donald Trump wants it not to exist also. I mean, this is the thing. I mean, you know, for almost 50 years, you know, Iran as it is constituted, and as it has been constituted for almost 50 years, has been a problem for everybody. So, and I think that was, from Trump's point of view, it's like I'm going to be a hero. We're going to get rid of these people.

I'm going to finally do it. All those other jokers who were president didn't do it, but I'm a guy who is going to do it. Right. I have the Cahonis to do it. And another ex-president. told me he wished he'd done it, except all the living ex-presidents say, no, we didn't tell you. And nobody told me that they could essentially put an embargo on much of the world's oil.

Why didn't anyone tell me that? Right, right. I think in this whole discussion of MAGA and anti-Semitism, you know, I really think that we, it's worth flagging that this has, is becoming a kind of. of that certainly among younger voters, younger male voters, I mean, this is a really potentially powerful issue for Tucker or for anybody who wants to grab it. Well, and we have the candidate in Florida, what's his name, James Fishbeck. Yeah, it's Fish.

Right, we have James Fishback. Weirdly sounds Jewish to me. It sounds like something you would order from Barney Greengrass. I'll have a quarter of fishback. Anyway, he's now running in Florida. It's unlikely he'll win. He's running for governor, but he's got a surprisingly high support

among young men in Florida, who I think have seen the bombing of Gaza and didn't feel great about it. I don't think that they've, I think they're just anti-Semites. Never underestimate how much that is just a primitive, emotion that when tap just emerges. Well, it's scary that it's emerging in the way that it is, and that it's, that flame is

being fueled by Tucker Carlson and Megan Kelly, and who's the other one, Nick Fuentes? Yeah, no. And again, you know, that is a, you know, that's a, it is a Trump, Trump gives permission to this. Now, it's just an, a Trump irony that he suddenly finds himself on the other side of this issue. Right. But, but, so what's inside Trump's head about Jared being Jewish and his daughter having converted to Judaism? You know, I don't know. I think he thinks, you know, Jared is good with money. Well, it turns out he is good money.

Yes. You know, I think, but I would look at this actually in a different way. Jared is good at playing his father-in-law. That's the Jared secret. That's why Jared is the only real success of the first. administration. He is, again, the son-in-law who ate the father-in-law, and he's as adeptly managed Donald Trump. And I think he's also managed to hold out the possibility for his father-in-law that there is a lot of money in this. Right. So they're giving themselves up to public service,

but at the same time, enormous financial opportunity. Yeah, and it is a kind of, kind of thing. It's almost, I mean, Trump is explicit about this. Just because this is public service doesn't mean that he shouldn't also benefit. That if you, I mean, I've heard him on this. He goes on at some length. You know, if you, you're not going to attract good people, as though he's good people, into public service if they can't, you know, make money off of it. Right. Right. Which I'm sure is, it's very much true. And then Jared has done this interesting, you know, jujitsu of not having gone into the White House once,

and he could have gone back in this time, could have possibly gone back in as the Secretary of State and decided not to. So he's outside of the White House, but within, and therefore without the, without the issues of being part of the White House, but at the same time having incredible power in it. Right.

Well, and being able to use Trump's foreign policy in as much as there is a foreign policy to raise yet another fund. So let's not forget, two billion from the Saudis, Trump won, Trump to five billion. Right, and then in the middle of this war with all of the raising money from all of the people in the region, as they say.

Right, in the Gulf states. Yeah, that Trump was surprised, got bombed by Iran, which brings us back to the beginning. Okay, so while you were away, we received a gift from a viewer slash listener, which I'm now going to present you with. It's kind of incredible. I've never seen anything like it. And it's by someone, this is from Frank Manson, Frank, thank you. He was hoping it would cheer me up after my hip surgery, but it's for the two of us. I'm struck. So for people listening who can't see it,

it is, is this a monkey or a chimp? It's a sort of monkey face done as Donald Trump with a huge wedge of hair. It's a sort of plaster cast and underneath it says DJ Epstein. Okay, who's hanging this up in their house? Well, I think we should hang it up in the studio. I want people to see it.

It's magnificent. And it's sort of plaster. Anyway, Frank, thank you very much. We've literally never had anything like this before. When it came, all I wanted to do was show you, but you were staying at your posh hotel in London. But maybe we should encourage for... Art projects.

Yes. Art projects. We want crafts, arts and crafts. We do have poems. And we had someone, first of all, a lot of people wrote in to say, actually, there have been three versions of Allquite on the Western Front as movies. So no one thinks Donald Trump read the book. They all think that he saw one of the three movie versions.

So thank you for that. Then someone sent in a marvelous description of Donald Trump's hair, which I just want to read to you. Here's the line that reminds Dinger 154 of the Trump lunatic. His eyes were hollows of madness. His hair like moldy hay. Moldy hay, I thought was a very good description. Moldy hay would be a good name for a band.

I've also got a limerick from Sweden, which I got on the way. I've got some more limericks to read. The once was... This is the limerick from Sweden? This is a limerick from Sweden. Can you do this in a Swedish accent? There once was a lady, Melania, who story turned oddly to mania, when Wolf wrote a book about terms of a pre-nup, no one could save her, insinia.

I thought that was quite good. That's not bad, is it? I mean, it's not my best accent. Someone here called Dinger 154 says, we should read the poem, The Highway Man, by Alfred Noyes. Have you read that? In school, a long, long time ago. Okay, then we have someone called Lewis Hamilton that sent us a limerick.

This is a good one. Our president with no humility built us a ballroom facility. And then for an encore, he started a war, Operation Epstein Futility. Not bad. What's that guy's name? Louis Hamilton. Lewis Hamilton. Yeah.

Could it be the Lewis Hamilton? I don't know if he can drive cars and write limericks at the same time. That would be a multitask. And then we have, obviously, one from Garfried, still our limerick lorite. Trump bellowed we're crushing Iran. When Vance and Rubio ran, Wolf told Coles with a smirk,

this whole thing won't work, but Jared's already got his hand in the pan. There you go. Garfried, thank you. Do we want to ask people to subscribe? Yeah, but I never understand this. So you subscribe? How do you do this?

You just subscribe. You just go to the box where it says subscribe and you press subscribe. I've never seen this box. Well, it's because you never go on YouTube. Unless you're going on secretly to watch yourself, which I don't think you do, but perhaps you do. Yeah, I don't, but I should. You should. Anyway, please subscribe.

Leave us a comment. My favorite part of today's conversation, well, there were so many favorite parts, but I do think the Tucker, Megan versus Shapiro and Luma is a bizarro. Bizarro fracture in the MAGA base, but hopefully it fractures the whole thing apart and allows space for other people. I mean, I think it's, it potentially is incredibly destructive for the Republican Party. And I say this not only because that would be good news, but just as a, from an analytic standpoint, that, I mean, it kind of goes one of two ways. Either that anti-Semitic streak really just rips them apart. or it turns out again that everybody is an anti-Semite

and the Jews once again are cooked. I wonder what it says for Josh Shapiro. I don't think so. I don't think so either. I think Americans will reject that. I think Americans will completely reject it. I absolutely agree. I mean, we have to hope for the best.

No, I mean, I think that this is a kind of that weird retro thing that that's, that's, that's kind of dead on arrival. I mean, it seems, it seems horrifying, and it seems like there is, and you can catch the undercurrent of this, young men and whatever that is, but it's not good for the Republicans.

Well, it's not good for America. It's not good for anybody. All right, so join us, become a B-Be Beast tier member, where you get lots of extra content, and dinner every other night with Michael. And that's it. You can thank our team now, I think.

Oh, and you've got to, please, please subscribe to our substacks. Michael's is called Howl, and mine is called Primal Scream. You just go to Substack and look for Michael Wolf or Joanna Coles. So, we will see one Saturday for our next episode of Inside Trump's Head. And who knows, the Maga Base may have split apart by the show. then? I think they have split apart. I think that's what we're seeing. Right. We're actually watching that happening in real time. Exciting. Very exciting. And where is J.D. Vance? 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. Thank you. The team without which, Ryan, Rachel, Heather, Neil, I've forgotten somebody. Devin. Devin. How could I forget Devin?