The Daily Beast Podcast - This Is What Trump's Crazed Posts Are Really About

Episode Date: July 7, 2026

David Rothkopf speaks with Joanna Coles as Donald Trump heads into a high-stakes NATO summit under a cloud of controversy, after personally intervening in an international soccer dispute that critics say has tainted America's biggest match on the world stage. They unpack the growing panic among America's allies, why European leaders are quietly preparing for a future without Washington, and the extraordinary behind-the-scenes maneuvering surrounding Trump before he even lands overseas. Along the way, David and Joanna dive into the mystery surrounding Mitch McConnell's disappearance from public view, Trump's late-night Truth Social posting sprees, mounting questions about corruption, the SAVE Act, and whether Republicans are increasingly relying on procedural tactics to hold onto power. They also examine what Trump's work ethic, White House culture, and obsession with image reveal about the state of his presidency. Head to https://www.tryfum.com/BEAST and use promo code BEAST to get your free gift with purchase, and start The Good Habit today! #ad Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is Trump sitting there going, no, I'm a good president. I'm doing all these good things. But almost every single one of them is based on a lie or a misinterpretation of the facts. And that is what is keeping him awake in the middle of the night. And it's why he's sending these 67 things. The man is going nuts. In front of his. Yeah.

On the line. Oh, my God. This guy is the president of the United States. And he's pumping out this crazy memes. And they're all about racism and hate and his personal vendetta against a former president. It's a sign of mental illness. I'm Trinicoles. This is the Daily Beast podcast.

And is it a red line? Is it a red card? Is it red air lingering from the fireworks in D.C. That David Rothcorp, Monday's guest, is struggling to breathe so much to discuss, not least, where is Mitch McConnell? And why is his wife in China if he's unconscious somewhere? It's all very confusing, but we will get to it. We want to know what's happening in the NATO summit. As we record this, Donald Trump is about to get on Gryft Force One and Zoom his way to meet all his colleagues, NATO colleagues, former colleagues in Turkey. Anyway, don't forget to subscribe to the Daily Beast. We are

are a tiny, tiny number of subscriptions of 700,000. We would love to get there. And you can become a friend of the beast. Some of you complain about the ads on the podcast. You can have an ad-free experience with a subscription. It's up to you, but there are lots of member benefits. And we are independent media. That's why we can bring you these conversations.

That's why David Rothkopf and Michael Wolfe are as fearless as they are in critiquing this government. That's why we can have these independent conversations because we are independent media, and that's how you show your support. So, no more time to waste. Let's get into it. David Rothkopf. David Rothkopf. Jill Anna Coles.

How are you? How is the air quality? You are in D.C. and so many fireworks, so little oxygen. Well, I'm just outside of D.C. and none of us are leaving our homes. I know people who were living like three blocks from the fireworks, and they were watching it on TV because it was dangerous. It was dangerous because the air quality. It was dangerous because there was lightning.

And, you know, there's a story today that Trump overruled his staff and said, now leave them out there. Well, the story isn't. I mean, the story is he truth social that he said, I called everybody back. I overturned it. He's overturning the weather. He's overturning public safety. He's overturning soccer. He doesn't care.

He doesn't care what happens to these people. And so he was out there. And, you know, he didn't start his thing until 11 o'clock. And you could hear the rumbling in the distance. And you thought it was cannon fire. But, no, we've all survived it despite the Trump administration. And I really mean despite it. I mean, you know, Doug Bergam, the sector of the interior was on TV.

and he was saying, oh, no, free speech is the reason we let all these fascist, white supremacist march around Washington with flags, even as they're like arresting protesters at the reflecting pool and so forth. These guys wanted this to be as as toxic a July 4th as possible, and I think they got their wish. Okay, well, we've got a lot to get to. I want to know what's happened to Mitch McConnell. I want to know what's going to happen in tonight's soccer when we. play this. America should be playing Belgium. And of course, we've got Donald Trump having several

conversations with Infantino, the head of FIFA to try and get him to review in inverted commas, the red card decision for Balagan. But we've also got Trump and his save bill. We've got the Smithsonian as radical, radical archivists. We've got Putin-esque. We've got Putin-esque. levels of grift. We've got White House staffers asked to remove pictures, and we've got the crucible meets Wolf Hall, which is basically how the Europeans are thinking of Trump as he arrives on grift force one today for the NATO summit in Turkey. So much to cover, so little time. David, what is, where should we begin? Should we begin? I mean, I will say, The decision to call the head of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, by the president, to ask for a review of the referee's decision and red card for Balagan in the America versus Bosnia and Herzegovina match was pretty, I mean, it's got the Euros in the tizzy.

I can tell you that. Well, it's got everybody at a tizzy. It's horrible. It's corrupt. He shouldn't have done it. It's cheating. No matter what happens. It's cheating.

No matter what happens, the result is tainted. Because if the U.S. wins with this guy playing, it's tainted. If there is a controversy, and there is still, as we're recording this, a brewing controversy, maybe there's an appeal process and maybe there's not. It's tainted. It was corrupt, even sep bladder. Now, you know, the heads of FIFA are some of the most corrupt people in the world. You can tell because FIFA has offices in Trump Tower, right?

Well, they have offices in Trumptown. They gave him a peace prize. Right. Well, they gave him the, you know, they're the, they're the worst of the worst. And you'll remember also that the last World Cup was in Qatar, home of Griffith. And before that, it was in Russia, home of big boss Vladimir Putin. Yeah. Do I have to like, connect the dots here?

And so you go, Russia, Qatar, Putin. Okay. that'll make some sense. Right. Even with all that, the prior head of FIFA, Cep Blatter, which, I mean, where do you make up these names? But anyway, Cep Bladder has come out condemning this decision as crossing a red line. Crossing a red line.

If the decision is too corrupt for Cep Blatter, you've reached, you know, mafia high commission levels of corruptness. We've got UEFA taking on FIFA and SEPA. saying this is unprecedented, incomprehensible and un-fucking justifiable. I put the bit, I put the rude word in. You Weifa said it was unfucking justified. Look, they should have. It's outrageous.

And you want to know something, just as a 20-second aside, the World Cup has been great. I have watched every single World Cup match. I have it on in the background of my office when I'm going, I've watched them all. the Cabo Verde almost beating Argentina, tears streaming down my face. There have been so many great stories. And Trump digs down deep into the reflecting pool or wherever he gets the slime he's producing.

And he slimes it. You know, and that's that's what happens. Trump slimes everything. Trump slimes everything. He is the slime monster of the. the swamp of Washington, D.C. And he has taken one of the most beautiful sporting events we've ever seen, and he's tainted it.

Well, and he just can't bear not to be center of attention, can he? So you saw the whole brouhaha, the States Fair leading up to his two speeches, one at Mount Rushmore on Friday, one, obviously on the mall on Saturday at the Lincoln Memorial. And he just can't stand it when there's something else out there that's getting attention. You've got to believe in divine providence, right? I mean, I don't know, you know, everybody listening to this has made different views of this, but he goes to Mount Rushmore because he wants his face on Mount Rush. Of course, of course he does.

You know, he's going to like go, you know, we can get rid of that Lincoln guy. That's just enough room for my head. And he wants to be on Mount Rushmore. And he couldn't do the outdoor event he wanted because there were hailstones. It was like, you know, some biblical. It was like God intervening. It was literally like God intervening. I mean, biblical, no, I know, but let's just go straight to it. You say biblical hailstones. I say God was intervening. And what happens? He goes back to D.C. There are fucking lightning bolts hitting the Washington

monument. I mean, God was doing his best to send a message. Right. You know, keep this guy off the stage and then, you know, what he finally totters onto the stage for in his, like, did you see his like bulletproof booth? Well, I don't claim him having a bulletproof booth. I mean, I don't blame him. I mean, today is the day that Tyler Robinson has his first preliminary hearing for shooting Charlie Kirk. I mean, I get that Trump is much more nervous about being out and about now. I would have a bulletproof booth if I would say. No, probably because there's a department somewhere in the White House that does fake assassination attempts and he must worry about them. Okay, okay.

Maybe they weren't fake. But it was interesting. There's an article in the New Republic today talking about how MAGA, let's just leave with the facts aside, MAGA, who, you know, are very fact-based. They're not gullible at all. But MAGA, they're believing now that a lot of these assassination attempts were faked. Even MAGA's believing that? Wow.

Yeah. No, no. This is a story, New Republic. I go read it. But one of the reasons they're believing it is because Trump has no interest in investigating these things. You know, somebody goes in the reflecting pool, like an Olympic medalist, and they immediately get arrested, and it becomes a big deal, there's an investigation.

But their assassination attempts on him, surrounded by all kinds of weirdness, like he doesn't go to a doctor. There's no doctor's report. There's no wound. there's that and he's not interested in talking about it except to put it on a beam coin or whatever and so anyway maga maga thinks these are made up but he sits in this bulletproof booth and it steams up on the inside and like you know pictures can't penetrate it and it looks like he's like in some satanic lair and then he comes out and he gives a speech about himself attacking his enemies making the whole holiday about

himself at midnight. The fireworks weren't even until the next day. I know. It's crazy, isn't it? If you've tried to quit vaping or smoking and somehow found yourself right back where you started, you are not the problem. The way you've been trying to quit might be. So many approaches focus only on nicotine or they expect you to rely on sheer willpower. But vaping was never just about nicotine. It became a habit. That's why I think fume is such an interesting idea. It's a flavoured air device designed to give your hands, your mouth, your brain, something better to reach for when cravings hit.

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Thank you, Fume, for sponsoring this episode. Well, what he was really warning, David, and we must thank him for this warning is the dangers of communism. The dangers of communism coming to America, and that's what he's fighting. So he was laying out his election strategy amid the fireworks. Well, he thinks he's a genius. You've got to know. He's like sitting in the White House and he's going, oh, well, Mom, Donnie, you know, he's a socialist. He's a communist.

Let's say that the communists are coming to take us over. And they go, well, boss, you know, they're not communist. He goes, we got, it doesn't matter. We're going to say they're communist. And he goes, well, you know, boss, you're actually the one that's representing the views of the Kremlin. And you're actually the one that loves the few remaining communist regimes in the world like China and North Korea. And so you're going to accuse them of communism. And then he throws a tablet or a ketchup packet or something.

And there are more stories of him having tantrums. I think there was one in the Daily Beast recently. There was definitely one in the Daily Beast. And there was a very good piece this morning in the Wall Street Journal. We're recording this on Monday morning about the preparations for NATO and how the NATO leaders have all been having secret meetings to strategize on how to handle Donald Trump. And even how to send their own tweets or their ex post or their social media posts. And in some cases, the Norwegian premier being so anxious about not having given Trump the Nobel Prize that he gets the Finnish guy to put it out there. Instead, it's, I mean, what are your, what are your sources saying about what the expectations are for the NATO summit this week?

I mean, Trump's literally about to fly out. The expectations are low. the Europeans that I talk to are essentially looking at their watch. They're like, tick, tick, talk, this guy's going to go. We just have to make it through a couple of years if he survives that long and tolerate it. But the real subtext within NATO is how do we get along without the U.S.? You know, there was a story that broke a couple of days ago that Pete Hagseth had this big plan. and the big plan was to pull all U.S. troops out of NATO.

And this had to be stopped by the military and, you know, the Congress had already passed a law that they couldn't do it. But Hague Seth, trying to win favor with Trump, put this idea forward. And NATO knows this. NATO knows Trump is trying to blow them up at every turn. So their private meetings, their meetings without Trump are the most important ones because it's how will they survive without the U.S.? How will they survive with less U.S. equipment?

They're shifting over from U.S. manufactured equipment to European manufactured equipment. And, you know, they're expecting the worst. I mean, yet last night, just to give you an example, Trump, who attacked the Italian Prime Minister Maloney, the last time they got together saying she desperately wanted a picture with him, and then she said, well, he's lying. he put out an overnight truth social posts saying, you know, he may need a restraining order

to keep her away from them. And it's like, oh my God. Well, his crazy truth social posts, I mean, we should go through those in a moment. But if you're Georgia Maloney, I mean, what's so fascinating is you've got the battle of the two marks, right? You've got the head of NATO, the Secretary General Mark Rutka. And then you've got Mark Carney, the Canadian Prime Minister, he's saying there's over dependence on America, we have to create our own middle state. I think he referred to them in Davos earlier this year. Middle powers.

Middle powers. Middle powers. Thank you. And then Rutgers saying, you know, Trump's great. We can just flatter him. We just have to schmooze him. I mean, this has been rude as whole thing. You know, so he's like former Dutch prime minister.

And he has been the one who's the assigned Trump manager at these things. that he goes in and he flatters Trump and Trump says, oh, Mark's great, I can deal with him. Behind the scenes, I think there's a somewhat different story. They're really just killing time. Now, having said this, you know, that there is other kind of killing going on. There is a war in Ukraine right now. The Russians launched terrible attacks over the weekend. One of the reasons the Ukrainians are reeling from these attacks is they're not getting the air defense from the United States, Patriot Missiles, batteries, or from the Europeans, because the Europeans are not getting theirs replenished from the U.S. The U.S. is withholding aid from Ukraine. Over the weekend, Trump has talked to

Zelensky, talked to Putin, but basically the U.S. line is the Putin line, which is we should negotiate on Russian terms and basically seeking a kind of a solution that locks in place former Russian gains. The problem is Russia is losing ground now. And Crimea, it's losing ground in eastern parts, eastern provinces of Ukraine. It's losing ground. And the Ukrainians have become so expert. They are the world leaders in drone technology right now. They're launching drones that are hitting St. Petersburg, Moscow, into Siberia, Russian oil plants.

The biggest Russian oil plant may be offline for many months. and there are gas shortages in Russia. And so, you know, Trump does all this clown show and people don't like Trump and Trump may have a snit. But in the middle of this, there is this major war in the middle of Europe where millions of people have died where what is its stake is democracy, whether the European Union,

whether NATO will be able to survive, whether the Russians will be encouraged to continue attacking it. And the reason we're not having productive discussions on it is Trump declared at the outset, I'm on the side of the Kremlin. And so, you know, I get it. And I think the NATO summit will be a mess on its surface, and there'll be some funny stories. But beneath the surface, you've got two giant stories. One is how the U.S. has turned its back on Ukraine, and it's up to NATO to dig it out, and how NATO is planning for a future in which the U.S. role is much smaller.

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Find out more at catalac canada.ca. Luxury sales claim based on S&P Global Mobility Canadian new vehicle total registrations for calendar year 2025 for the Cadillac definition of luxury. It's just a changing of the guard, isn't it? David, what did you make of the comment from an unknown British intelligence source that really America right now was like the crucible mixed with Wolf Hall? Well, I think that's the kind of colorful thing that gets a quote, but I don't think it's very meaningful.

I mean, what does he mean? that, you know, Trump has lots of wives and he's beheading some of them? I think he... Didn't he mean that there is a sort of madness and a pursuit of enemies for the sake of it and that there's an overreach of power? I mean, funny enough, when I was back in the UK where I spent a lot of time in the last six months, I was driving past Fountains Abbey, one of the most beautiful abbees in Yorkshire. and just thinking it's a ruin of an abbey taken down by Henry the Eighth,

this he built his own church. And I thought, why aren't there more comparisons of Trump to Henry the Eighth, multiple wives, but also this sense that he can just do what he wants. He doesn't like the church that the UK has been abiding by. So he's going to create his own church, the Church of England. Well, I guess because the comparisons to Caligula are more compelling. You know, I mean, you know, people compare. them to Caligula, they compare him to the Emperor Nero.

Well, he compares himself to Napoleon and Stalin and Hitler, right? Right. That's the point. The point is he's a mad king. We've had a long history of people drunk with power behaving in crazy ways. And, you know, Henry VIII is one of them that resonates in the UK and for, you know, fans of Acorn TV or Britbox. But the reality is Trump is a continuation of a long line of what happens when you get leaders who are drunk with power and who abuse it. And the thing that's different is we have seldom seen that in the United States. You may have seen it a little bit in the presidency of, say, Andrew Jackson, but nothing that has ever risen to this level before.

And that's what makes it different, because Henry VIII lived in the middle of the 16th century and behaved in ways that, you know, his power was limited to what he could do and comparatively small army and comparatively limited resources. Donald Trump is the head of the most powerful country in the world. At least it was when he started. And he has the ability to inflict damage and to affect the lives of every single individual human being on the planet, which he has done with trade wars, with pulling back on fighting global warming, with actual wars all around the planet, with destroying alliances around the planet, with attacking people who deserve to be defended like, you know, the president of Ukraine,

and and and and and and and and and and shutting out. I mean, think that think about his big message of the past week with the help of the Supreme Court of saying, no, remember the Statue of Liberty, remember, you know, our invitation to immigrants, we're turning them away. We're going to send cations out of the country. We're going to send people who came here as refugees out of the country. We're not going to let refugees in here anymore. And again, it's another interesting thing. Talk about abuses of power that have unintended consequences. Who is now, speaking out against his elimination of temporary protected status for the Haitians. Republicans, the Republican governor of Ohio, Republicans in Dade County, Florida,

they realize these people are vital to the economic stability and growth of their regions. And so, yeah, I mean, sure, that's an interesting analogy. But the point is the real world consequences of the abuse of power of the most powerful man in the world. Okay. So we've seen the resurgence of Tom Keene, the congressman. The return of Tom Keene, who said he'd been depressed, which was why he'd missed, I think, 146 votes. So he's back, but counterbalanced by the disappearance of Mitch McComb. Do you have any insight into what's going on with Mitch McConnell?

We heard that he was found unconscious in his home. Three days later, his wife was spotted in China. The mystery continues, and nobody's seen him since he was found unconscious. Look, we've seen Mr. McConnell blackout in the middle of press conferences. We've seen him fall over. he's just an old man who's dying, right? He's on his last legs. The fact that his wife, you know, days after,

and it can't have been given that it was literally three days after he had a heart attack and was rushed to the hospital unconscious, she ends up in China. She must have left, you know, hours after this happened to him. Unless she was there all along and decided not to come back. Well, you know, maybe. It's interesting. there is this sort of other subtext, which is, you know, McConnell could be dead and they'll just keep him in place because they don't want, you know, to have a, you know, a special election, I suppose. A special election in which Thomas Massey will run for the seat of Mitch McConnell.

But it's like the cane thing. Like if a Democrat disappeared for this long, the Republicans would go bananas and they would go, where is he, replace him, get him out. Mike Johnson was like, you know, he's fine. You know, we know everything's fine and he doesn't have to show up and he can miss 140 votes. And it's one of the weirdest stories ever. By the way, for those of you who are from the New York area, Tom Cain's father was a very well-respected Republican governor of New Jersey. He comes from a pretty respectable family. But he's turned into this just terrible politician.

I guess he got depressed and, okay, so he should. have sought treatment, but he should have stepped down from his job. And he didn't do it. And they didn't want, they, they know that elections in New Jersey have been running against them recently. So they just kept them in place because they want to maintain their majority, which is razor fin. And at the end of the day, this whole year, the story of this whole year is how Republicans can cling to power when all the forces at play are moving against them. Polling is moving against them. You know, their base is aging out.

Their policy programs aren't working very well. You know, Trump is less popular every day on economic grounds, on foreign policy grant, and so on and so forth. And so they're like, well, how do we cheat to maintain power? And so you have the Save Act, what Trump is trying to force through the Congress. And you have Mike Johnson doing all this weird shit where, like, he keeps this zombie seat open. And earlier, you'll recall he, like, wouldn't seat two Democrats who won an election or Democrat who won an election. But instantly, when a Republican won an election, he seated them.

They cheat. They're just trying to cheat because they know that that's the only way they're going to be able to cling to power. Right. Well, Tom Keene is going to face a very good candidate to sort of Mikey Cheryl type candidate in New Jersey, former veteran Rebecca Bennett. She's called a helicopter pilot. I'm obsessed with all the numbers of helicopter pilots coming in because I think all these veterans have got, you know, understand what it is to lead teams of people. I think they have a sense of public service, and she's going to be a very good candidate to take him on, I think. Well, yeah, first of all, Mikey Sherrill, the current governor in New Jersey is excellent.

And that's her background. Four kids. Unbelievable. Right. Navy officer, great career. She's done great things like Abigail Spanberger in Virginia, like Alyssa Slotkin, who is also CIA operative. It was a senator from Michigan. There is this movement, National Security Democrats, who have a really important role to play. And Kane's going to lose to this woman. I'm willing to stick my neck down on. Maybe that's why he's depressed.

Maybe that's why he had to retreat for to miss 146 votes. If you're a member of his district and your congressman has missed 146 seats, you are entitled to have a special. election, I think. It's quite extraordinary. But Donald Trump knows he's in trouble and Trump put out 67 posts on truth social and we'll go through some of them. But what perhaps is the most interesting is a list of all the things that he's done that he thinks are, I guess, going to want him reelected. But the first one he started was was launched Operation Epic Fury destroying Iran's Navy, the very thing that he said he wasn't going to do, which is get involved in stupid stuff abroad. And then he goes, you know, secured the border. It's down 99.999%. More than three million

illegal aliens have left the United States under my leadership. I'd like to have that three million checks. That's such bullshit. I know. I mean, yes, go on. Well, I mean, there's too many to read. but what's sort of fascinating is what he thinks important and how he's prioritized them. And he prioritizes it with Iran. I mean, that's one way to look at it. I think the other way to look at it is like there was a Saturday Night Live character called Stuart Smalley that was Al Franken played the character. And it was like he would do these affirmations like I'm getting better and better.

And to me, this is just neurotic. This is Trump sitting there going, no, I'm a good president. I'm doing all these good things. Here's a list of the good things in case you don't remember them. But as you point out, almost every single one of them on this list. And the list is like, what, 50, 60, 70 things long. It's a lot. It's a lot of stuff.

Yeah. But almost every single one of them is based on a lie or a misinterpretation of the facts. This is the thing that is so striking is that Trump thinks he is reaffirming, but he is actually undermining because the facts don't end up for him. And that is what is keeping him awake in the middle of the night. And it's why he's sending these 67 things. But, you know, one thing I love, I got to say, I love working with the Daily Beast. I love working with you.

And one of the reasons is that the Daily Beast alone among all the media outlets that I know in the whole world is incapable of outrage overload. Every single thing that happens that is outrageous, you stay outrageous. you stay outraged. We are outraged. Because it's not the norm. It's not the norm. But the New York Times is bored with it. I mean, can you imagine the New York Times saying,

oh, there were 67 true social? But no, they don't because it's boring. It's beneath them. But the man is going nuts. In front of us. On the real side, on the line, in front of her. If you had an uncle, you know, who was 80 years old, who didn't sleep at night,

who is sitting there on true social posting insane rants against the world that are only making his life more difficult all night long, all night long, maybe with the assistance of Natalie Harp, who like, you know, provides him with notes and things so that he can post them. But what, I mean, what would you do? Well, can we just show a couple of other posts that he put up? Because what's also interesting is actually on truth social, he doesn't get that much reaction. The reaction, obviously, is when it goes off onto other, and that's because there aren't very much. Because nobody listens. True social is complete bullshit, right? I mean,

well, it's bullshit as a media platform, except the one person you want to hear from is on it, who's the president. But can we show a couple of the other posts that he put up last night? What about this one of the Obama's plane? This is him clearly rejoicing in the fact he's got a new plane. Yeah, I've seen it. And it's that one, which shows the Obama's plane covered with graffiti, including BLM graffiti, is part of his, I mean, he's got a real mental problem with the Obama's, obviously. Right. And, and, and, and, but it's also a racist problem. And he's taking these kind of urban memes, graffiti, BLM and so forth. And he's saying to everybody, look, the Obamas are black. You know, I mean, that's basically what he's saying with this thing.

And it's, you know, he thinks this plays with his base. And it probably does with, you know, the white supremacists who are marching through the streets of Washington this weekend carrying American flags and be all masked. But but to the rest of the world, you've got to say, oh, my God. This guy is the president of the United States. And he's pumping out this crazy means. And they're all about racism and hate and his personal vendetta against a former president. It's a sign of mental illness.

Right. It's a sign of mental illness. There's another one here which it's as if it's a poster. And it goes, if no one goes to jail for election fraud, what incentive is there not to cheat? Which is such an insight into Donald Trump's mind. again, hiding in plain sight. It is, and it is crazy. And because he thinks what he's saying is we need to prosecute the people who, you know,

stole the 2020 election for me. But we all know the 2020 election wasn't stolen. And the only one doing election stealing is him. And he's the one who is pardoning people for trying to steal the election for him. you know, one of whom he'll be invited to the White House this weekend from Colorado. And, you know, he is actively trying to steal the election. And he doesn't think he's going to get prosecuted for it. And he has shown you in this truth social post exactly why he doesn't think he's going to get

prosecuted for it. And it's very, very twisted. But again, this is like come back to where is the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, NBC, CBS. on the fact that what we have here is the mental dissolution of the most powerful man in the world happening in real time in front of all of our. That would be a big story, right? Like if some, like if Hannibal Lecter were standing in the Oval Office, cutting open the head

of the president and eating his brain, you'd be going, oh, yeah, that's a story. He's eating the president's brain. Well, something else is eating the president's brain. It's the same story. And we're just going, oh, yeah, just another Sunday at the office, just old crazy Don on his way to the NATO summit, unable to sleep. I mean, but I just, I thank God every morning for your lack of outrage overload. Well, we're still outraged by almost everything that Donald Trump does because he's doing it in theory on behalf of Americans, right? So I imagine when he arrives at the NATO summit that the America versus Belgian game will be ongoing.

What do you think the reaction of the other leaders are going to be? Obviously, the Norwegian Prime Minister is going to be beside himself at Norwegian's victory. As well, he should be. It was a great victory. Yeah, no, what a game. What an incredible match. But America versus Belgium with Balagan back in the game. Well, like I used to be the editor of a fairly large publication that dealt with international

issues. Is this, what are you talking about foreign policy? Okay, yes, foreign policy. I thought I was trying to make it sound bigger than that. But yes, I was the editor of foreign policy. If something like this fell in my lap as an editor, that the president is going to the NATO summit, and at the same time, there is a World Cup match between the U.S. and the country that is the host of NATO.

I mean, you know, NATO is in Belgium. It's based in Belgium. His headquarters are in Belgium. Right. And it's so this is, you know, the U.S. versus NATO football match. And the president has already called up the head of FIFA to put the fix it, you know, to say, oh, yeah, no, we got to get our guy in this game, let him play in this game. And of course, Europe, UEFA, that you mentioned.

really is outraged, just as Europe within NATO is out. I mean, as metaphors go, it's a little on the nose. It couldn't be more extraordinary timing, could it? That he's going to a NATO summit. They're playing Belgium tonight, the U.S. team. And of course, hard not to root for the U.S. team. They've had a spectacular season. I'm going to say something very controversial here. maybe hard for you not to writ for the U.S. team. But when the United States president cheats like this, I can't writ for the U.S. team. I wish the players well, you know,

but the reality is it taints everything. It makes a kind of sick taste in our mouths because there is no way. They are under, they have sometimes in sports when a weird thing like this happens in the record books, there's a little asterisk next to the name of the winner, right? No matter what happens with the US, there's an asterisk here.

And the asterisk is Trump. It's like if they win, it's because he intervened. And if they lose, it's like game three of the Knicks where he showed up in Madison Square Garden and screwed up every time. No, I was at that game and it felt decidedly different to other games. I mean, there he was asleep behind his bulletproof glass. and you could just feel the energy in the room. He was resoundingly booed when he was shown on the monitor and people started singing the national anthem.

And by the way, this match tonight, people are listening to this, the match baby over, but took place in Seattle. And there was some talk that Trump would go, but he won't go because he knows that he will get booed. And so, you know, he's intervening in some other. It's just very, it's very, very ugly, but it resonates in a hundred other ways with what's going on now with NATO, with relations with Europe, with our relations with international organizations, with corruption, with, you know, the fact that whatever Donald Trump touches is slyned, starting with the reflecting pool and now continuing to the U.S. men's national soccer deal. You know what isn't slimed?

The re-gilding of the gold statues in D.C. Have you seen them yet? I'm wearing this shirt because I feel like I'm trying to reflect those statues, valor and sacrifice, which have been regilded. I got to tell you, this is like a play on your part for the attention and love of Donald Trump. It's so. It's so is. I'm like, I'm here. I'm in gold.

I'm here and I'm in gold. What happens if the U.S. loses? to Belgium. Do you think Donald Trump knows Goldfinger was a villain in all those movies? They've got 50 pounds of gold leaf. Fifty pounds of gold leaf is going on valor and going on sacrifice, those remarkable statues. What happens if the U.S. loses? Does Donald Trump interfere again? I don't know that he will. Maybe there'll be an opportunity for him to do it. The U.S. will lose in this round or the next round. It's not in the first tier of teams. And, you know, they will have done a pretty good job. They're a better team than they used to be in the past. They move around. They've

got a couple of better players and so forth. And, you know, they've got an Argentine coach and he seems to be doing a pretty good job. And so, you know, if you're a fan of U.S. soccer, you'll be able to carry this forward. Although I must say I get a little aggravated listening to the Fox coverage of all of this. First of all, because one of their commentators, Alexi Lalas, is super MAGA. And he's constantly saying, well, this is the big breakthrough U.S. soccer has been waiting for. And I was like, where were you in 1999? I mean, you know, when the U.S. women beat the world, the U.S. women have been beating the world for a long time. You mean, if women win, it doesn't count. But secondly, you know, Fox, even in reporting this story that you're talking about yesterday,

said, well, there's a controversy because FIFA has reversed this thing. And at no point did they mention the president of the United States at Interveet. At no point did they mention the political controversy around this kind of thing, because it's Fox. And so even watching a sporting event, you can't get the facts from Fox. Well, they report you decide, David. They report you decide. They report some of what the fact is. are and then they report some lies. And I'm sure that, you know, there'll be a great documentary tonight on how the U.S. national team should win everything hosted by Maria Bartaroma. So, I mean, last night, when we're recording this, England played Mexico City in a great game.

It was very dramatic to goals by Bellingham. And then, of course, Harry Kane stepped up into the box and got what ended up being the deciding goal on a penalty kick. Are you following England? Are you a three lions fan? Of course I am. Of course I am. And now you've given me the perfect excuse because obviously they meet Norway on Saturday. So it's going to be Harry Kane,

who I think of as my friend, an Erlinghallaund, who as we know is now up there as main goal scorer. Erling Holland is fantastic. I don't know if you've been following him, six foot five, blonde, hilarious, nice, spent four years of his life growing up in Leeds. Because his father played in a British soccer league. I also grew up near there. So we

have that in common. But you've given me the perfect opportunity to use my personal photo of me and Harry Kane. I picked up what's known as an order of the British Empire and who should be also picking up his medal from Buckingham Palace alongside me. But Harry Kane, and I have a photo of it, which I am unashamed to show here. It's not often one has a personal connection to the captain of the English squad, but I'm a huge Harry Kane fan, and he was so nice.

Slow your role there, okay? Just slow your role. Why, are you going to produce pictures of you and the Norwegian? No, I'm not. I'm going to take issue with your term. I picked up an order of the British Empire. You were at like what at the McDonald's drive-thru window?

You picked one up. This is how you are blasé. Should we refer to you as dame, Joanna Coles from now off? It's not a dame, but I did get a wonderful medal. It was a really fun day. I took my sons and my parents to Buckingham Palace and the highlight for my sons and me actually was meeting Harry Kane. Wow. When was this?

Six years ago. Seven years ago? Six years ago? Seven years ago. And I haven't known this whole time. There you go, David. I feel intimidated. Next, I'll get the FIFA Peace Prize.

So, David, one of the pieces that we did in the Daily Beast last week was about the fact that Trump rarely does any work in the morning. He has, you know, executive time is what it's referred to in his calendar. But frequently, he doesn't start the day. until 11 o'clock or 12 o'clock or even later. Is this common for presidents? You've been a study, you've been a student of presidential politics for years now. When you were working for Bill Clinton, what time did he start? This is such a leading question.

It's like, is it common for presidents to fly around in planes given to them by foreign leaders? Is it common for president? Is it common for president? To intervene in a game of soccer when their teams had the red card. Well, now that you ask, now that you ask, Joanna, no, it's not common for presidents not to show up for work, you know, and, and, you know, they usually take their jobs pretty seriously. And some of them do crappy jobs and some of them do good jobs. And most of them, the vast majority of American presidents, do a mediocre job. They do a mixed job at being president of the United States. But Donald Trump is it, you know, there are a bunch of recent polls of historians to rate the president. and Donald Trump finished dead last in all of them because his record on foreign policy and domestic policy and corruption on leadership and everything is terrible. But interestingly, and I think this is, you know, maybe it's a triumph for him. He's managed to become the very

worse there is by doing the very least he could. And, you know, I saw some interview. Oh, that was talk about weird you said this to me so he does an interview with usha vance where he's supposed to be reading a children's book and i'd love to talk about that in a second but in it there was he was talking about the sports that different presidents like and he had dwight eisenhower playing golf and he said uh you know there was a putting green but i don't like to use that because i don't want the people to think i'm playing golf and it's like what kind of delusional world do you live in. He's played golf like 150 times. He spends a third of his presidency playing golf. It's not just that he gets up late. It's that when he's awake, he gets in a motorcade and he goes to

play golf. And then he goes to Mara Lago for a cocktail party. And the thing is, like, take the FIFA thing. Why does he have time to do that? Why does he have the time to intervene in this thing? Doesn't he have stuff to do and apparently he had several calls with Gianni but yes but we have an economic crisis in the US we're not creating jobs there was bad jobs report last week prices are high there's a war going on with Iran that has not been resolved there are deep rifts with some of our critical traditional allies around the world whether it's the Europeans or the Israelis there are a host of other problems across the country he's not doing anything there's no agenda he gets up somebody serves him quarter-pounders in bed

he puts on his golf tugs he put you know if he's and you can tell he's having a lazy day when underneath his white mega hat that he plays golf in you've got these long oily strands of hair hanging down we did someone asked we had a very good comment this week that I was going to refer to as someone said, does Donald Trump do his hair with an egg whisk? And I thought, what a great comment. That was from John Whitefoot. I loved that comment. I mean, just to your point about Donald Trump's hair, just looking, how does he do his hair?

Sometimes it looks like he does his hair with a dab or two of vinaigrette in it, because, I mean, he, and he just goes out on the court. His big fat belly is hanging over. There have been recent pictures. That's a picture of him the other day where his butt. extended out like an extra six inches clearly because he's wearing some kind of depends or something underneath there and and you know he goes out and he plays golf all the time no president I I sue me no sue the Daily Beast if this is untrue white no don't sue us don't sue us I'm taking that president has ever done less work than Donald Trump

who has been conscious there was a period Woodrow Wilson was in a coma. He probably did less. But then his wife made up for it. Edith basically ran, ran the show. Can you imagine when Donald Trump eventually has his physical breakdown, will Melania step in? Of course, I will. I will step in. I first lady step in for husband. Yes. Of course she will. Will you make the decisions for America? I will make decision for America, for America. Yes, I make decision. Yes, of course she'll step and she'll probably do a better, she'll probably do a better job. Well, she'll probably reverse his stance on birthright citizenship because otherwise Barron's going to be deported. He's too tall to deport.

What a weird, sad, sad story. I saw somebody in the internet talking about how Baron used to play outside the Oval Office to get his father's attention. And he just wouldn't pay any attention to him. And, you know, he was raised by like two assistants because his mother was never around. Where is his mother? You must talk about this on... On inside Trump's head. We do talk about it. I mean, she's based in, according to Michael Wolfe, she's really based in New York.

She spends her time in New York. So Trump's not working. And she's not there. This is absentee Atlanta tenants at the White House. It's a bizarre story and here's the thing I will also make this prediction here we don't know the half of it

We don't know the half of it We don't know the half of it That's a very good point Although we do know that he made $2.2 billion That came out last week since we last spoke And Melania made 17 million Well you know Melania made that great movie Which is a classic

But and you know And Trump, well, somebody asked him in the midst of all of this, well, you made 3,000 stock trades and one day, and he did all this trading the day before he reversed the tariff decisions, obviously all completely corrupt insider trading. And then he goes, well, somebody handles all that for me. And literally Don Jr. and Eric, who are the ones who handled it, were standing six feet behind him at the time that he was saying all of this kind of stuff. But again, you know, you had a story in The Daily Beast about Yvonnet,

Trump and people saying that, you know, Ivana was, you know, procuring for Epstein-like rings. And I happen to know, not because I was involved, but because I know people, that that was a well-accepted fact for a long time. That Ivano was procuring girls. Yeah. I mean, she was at least seen in this billiard in Europe seeking young girls for parties. Oh, young girls for parties. And now she's buried in Bedminster because you get a tax benefit.

Because she's buried in a fucking golf course. And you get a tax benefit from that. After she had a horrible accident in which, like every other person who posed a threat to Vladimir Putin, she fell down the stairs or off a balcony. Okay, so, David, I've been looking at the comments. We get lots of comments when you're on the show. also get lots of questions. And I thought it would be good to. Do they say nice things? They say Rothkopf is the man. I'm such a big fan. This is Daily Beast podcasting at its peak. That's from

Boomer Dragon Cat. I think that I think boomer dragon cat is a very insightful person. And I just want to say, is it Mr. Boomer Dragon Cat or Ms. Boomer Dragon Cat? It feels like a woman. I don't know, but I don't know why I'm saying that. Well, I just Ms. Boomer Dragon Cat. Thank you very much. Okay, but it's a good question here for you. And if you send in questions for David, we'll start asking them. David, will any of these grifting families go to prison? Do you think after the midterms, assuming the Democrats get in, and who knows, they may not, should they begin to start prosecuting or at least going after people for the grift,

the corruption, the levels of corruption really do? seem astonishing? They are astonishing. We've never seen anything like it. The president made $400 million, which is still a lot the year before he became president. He made four or five times that the following, I mean, it was $600 million and he made four or five times that when he became president because of crypto and all these other kind of things. And it's not to speak of the $400 million airplane with the $400 million upgrades, which he's flying around in now that ultimately he'll get to keep. or all the deals will never see that will never be reported,

what happened to all the Venezuelan oil money, what happened to, you know, all the side deals where he approved something or there was a pardon? Who got what in crypto? I don't know that we'll know. I'll tell you this. I think some people will be prosecuted. I think there will be a big battle that will ensue over

whether the president can pardon people in a blanket way or a bunch of things that were clearly illegal, whether he actually has immunity for acts taken that are not official acts, because in Trump v. U.S., that's the carve-out, right? Official acts. And I think that what you're likely to get is a lot of illegal battles that would go on for years.

Well, Trump's 80. Will Trump go to jail for this? I doubt it. Will his sons go to jail for this in the United States? States, I doubt it. Might they go to jail or might they become open to prosecution in Albania or Kazakhstan or some other part of the world? Yeah, that's possible. Will the Whitkoffs or the Lutniks or some of these others find themselves running afoul? Yeah, I think it is. But let me tell you something that worries me

about this. I was at a dinner with a bunch of Democrats at a high level. And we started talking about whether Trump should be held to account. And I mentioned James Telerico said, the first thing I do when I get in the Senate is going to be to hold them account for their corruption. And John Ossoff has been talking about holding the Epstein class to account and so forth. And all of these people who are, they're like progressives, household names, they said, I don't think we should do that. You mentioned this last week, and we had a lot of comments saying, this is terrible. This is absolutely terrible. I do remember that I mentioned it last week.

I had another conversation about it this weekend with some of the same people. And it's a fight right now. I mean, we're having a debate about this because there is a substantial percentage of Democrats who think that it's just like move on. And I personally, I don't agree. Chris Christie made a good point yesterday, I think, with George Stephanopoulos actually, saying that this is Putin levels of grift. The problem is that the public think both sides are corrupt. So, and it's baked in with Donald Trump. They understand he's corrupt. He, so in a sense, I can see why politicians, some politicians might think, you know what, actually what we should be doing to stay in power is to do. deliver for the American people and not get caught up in this. And I can't tell which side will win out in the Democratic Party. Well, you know, we do have some lessons from history, right?

The prior biggest, most scandalous era in U.S. history was Watergate, right? And what happened in the wake of Watergate? Which, according to J.D. Vance, would now be 12 hours in the news cycle. Yeah, well, he's a pillar. But I think that. That's an important point, actually. Because J.D. Vance lives numb to corruption, as a lot of people do. But who won in 1976? A candidate that nobody thought was even going to be a contender a year before. And it was Jimmy Carter, who was a governor.

But I think, more importantly for his winning, was a Sunday school teacher. and a peanut farmer. And was completely, yeah, but it wasn't the peanut farm. It was that he was unbelievably scrupulous and clean. And his campaign slogan was, we need American leaders as good as the American people. And I, you know, I don't know who it is. But, you know, some people say, well, maybe Reverend Raphael Warnock should run. Or maybe somebody's going to.

look at Talarico in Texas having a good chance. Why does he? Well, he's a seminarian. And I just think that sometimes we can't afford to be subtle. Sometimes candidates emerge and they say, no, I'm the antidote to this corruption. And I think this corruption is so pervasive that it is unlikely that anybody who's seen as establishment or seen as roughly associated with big corporate money or A-PAC money or other kinds of sources is going to win. I think it's going to be somebody from left field who people go,

oh, no, that person's different, not connected, and by no means is corrupt. And I think that's where, and then there will be some bunch of reforms that come out of that. But I think that's where are most likely to see the public expressing their revulsion at the cesspool of Maga, Washington. Hot algae summer. Not bad, right? No, that's good. That's from someone called Sinef, who very honestly says, not my joke, but it's a good line, hot algae girl summer to finish off your actually hopeful note to end on that Jimmy Carter

is a good analogy in history for what may happen next. Well, people look for somebody who's people always Americans are always looking for change. And Americans are always kind of disgusted with what's going on in Washington. And Donald Trump said, I'm not part of it. That's why he won. Barack Obama said, I'm not part of it. That's why I won. On a regular basis, Bill Clinton said, I'm from Arkansas. I'm not part of it. That's why what?

On a regular basis, the candidate who's best able to present themselves as an outsider and as an optimist wins. And that's what you've got to look for. Outsider optimism. Yeah. That's the formula that wins. And we also had a comment from a deaf, fan of the podcast saying that our captions weren't always accurate. So we looked at Spotify and

Apple and actually there's 92% accuracy. So I hope that reassures you that we really are saying the things that you're reading on the caption. You're probably reading the captions and thinking they can't possibly be saying these strange things. Yes, we are. Okay, David Rothkopf, as usual, a great way to start the week. Some hope. in there, as well as some cold-eyed analysis on the poor Europeans who are just, as you say, waiting it out, can they get through the next two years? Can the Ukraine get through the next two years? Can we get through the next three years? And as I think you discuss on some of your other podcasts, will Trump get through the next few years? Right. Right. Well, I'm sorry to hear the air quality is not good.

Stay in your home. Stay in your home, David. I'm going to stay in my bulletproof box. We all have them. Well, I was going to say, you can't get into your portion roar around this morning. I will say that your white shirt with the black jacket, a look I very much like, makes you look like a kind of Puritan judge.

It really does. It gives you this sort of Puritan type. Do you know that on the last, like, episode or two episodes ago, you said because I was wearing the head things, that I looked like one of the founders of the dead person. Yes, you looked sort of Benjamin Franklin. Esk with black. Okay, couldn't it have been like one of the handsome founders?

Not Benjamin Franklin? I think they were all handsome in spirit, David. I want to recommend Wolf Hall if you haven't seen it. The best. The best. Mark Rylands as Thomas Cromwell is one of the great... Mark Rylands is the best actor in the world. And both series of Wolf Hall are spectacular.

And of course, Damien Lewis is Henry VIII. Yep. also fantastic, but particularly the first season of Wolffall, because the second one's a little dark, but the first season of series of Wolf Hall is top five television series ever in my book. Yeah, totally agree. Mark Rylance is so good. I remember watching six episodes back to back, something I've never done before. I've never done since. It was so good. Well, I also, and Mark Rylins, just if I may, He was in this movie, Bridge of Spies.

With Tom Hanks. With Tom Hanks, right? And he played an East German who was a spy, and he was charged with espionage, and Tom Hanks was his lawyer, then works to get a swap where he gets returned. But he's in this trial, and he could be sentenced to death. And on a regular basis, Tom Hanks,

they say, well, he did this and he did this, and he did this, and Tom Banks is like, why aren't you getting angry? Like, why aren't you upset that they're accusingly of all these things? And Mark Rylance's character, and Mark Vrylinson, and Mark Vrylinson, would it help? And to me, I've like taken this for these words of Mark Rylens as watchwords throughout life. Because it was such a useful thing. Like, if I freak out right now, would it help? and I just can't get enough Mark Rylins and Wolf.

And by the way, the books are also. The books are spectacular by Hillary Mantell, who, funnily enough, I edited her, I used to edit Hillary Mantel when she wrote book reviews for The Spectator magazine, and it was always a thrill. And she was a very eccentric character who would occasionally show up at the offices, and she was suffering from a terrible disease, and she could not have been more pleasant or charming. And I was sorry that she died recently.

Jean, those books are genius. They're really good. She also has, and I have it by my bedside, a very good book on writing. Hillary Mantel on writing. It's a wonderful book. She was a supremely talented author, and Mark Rylance brings her characters to life. David Rothkoff, it's always good to see you. You've boosted my week ahead.

I can't wait to come back and discuss everything again with you next week. don't go out, as we've said. We know the air quality's not good because you're still fighting through the fog of the fireworks. Best fireworks ever. Nobody's ever seen anything like it. Nobody's ever seen anything like it.

Fireworks. It did look pretty spectacular, the fireworks, I will say. Didn't watch. Well, I watched on social media like everybody else. And I will talk to you next week. I will talk to you next week. I always love talking to. And if folks have questions,

please send them. getting the questions. And you can see more of David on Deep State Radio, his own network of podcasts, where he's in charge, where he's in charge. All right. See you next Monday. Thank you, boss. Well, write and tell us what you thought of Donald Trump's communist speech, his appearance

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