The Daily Beast Podcast - Trump Secretly Admits Top Goon ‘Is Crazy’

Episode Date: March 29, 2026

Michael Wolff and Joanna Coles dive into a chaotic stretch where Donald Trump’s impulses collide with global consequences, revealing a president driven less by strategy than by instinct, ego, and narrative control. From openly contradicting his own stance on mail-in voting to stamping his name on the dollar, Wolff and Coles track a pattern of behavior that prioritizes dominance and attention over consistency. As the Iran war enters a volatile phase with no clear objective, Wolff argues there was never a real plan—only improvisation now spiraling into risk—while Coles probes whether there’s hidden logic behind the scenes or just confusion layered with bravado. The conversation sharpens around Trump’s reliance on storytelling to survive political damage, his fixation on grievance as midterms loom, and the growing cracks inside his inner circle, from RFK Jr.’s instability to rising doubts about key figures tasked with executing policy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This could not be a worse situation and a more, more of a malfunction of a situation than we have seen in a very long time. This is a window on exactly who he is and on his serious limitations as a president and as an intelligence. There was no goal. It was like we have a lot of we're stronger than they are, so we'll be able to come out of this looking better than they do. We'll be, we'll win. How could we not win? There was never a definition for him of winning, except winning, winning.

Michael. Joanna, you're back. Where were you? I was in Montana. I was in Montana. I was breathing in some yellow stone. inspired by Taylor Sheridan's shows. I'm big into his new show Madison, actually,

partly, well, entirely because of Michelle Pfeiffer. Thank goodness he's brought her back. I don't like his portrayal of female characters. I love her. So you like this? Everything I've read about this, Madison makes it sound terrible. Well, all you have to do is watch Michelle Pfeiffer. The question is, it's not about the show.

It's about do you like Michelle Pfeiffer or not? Because if you do, you just, it's like watching an Instagram video of her. It's just fantastic. It's all about her hair, a sunglasses, her coat. So I take this that you like Michelle Pfeiffer. I love Michelle Pfeiffer. I'm so grateful he's brought her back from. Where was she?

I don't know. Yeah, how do you even remember Michelle Pfeiffer? Yeah, a casino. Yeah, a long, what are we? The 80s? Maybe, maybe. Anyway, she's back and I'm thrilled. and the show itself.

It's like all his shows. It's kind of cartoony, but beautiful countryside. He's the only guy working in television. And he's not doing the familiar L.A. or New York tropes. It's something fresh. Anyway, that's not why I went. I think those are called Trump tropes. Trump tropes.

Okay, they may be called Trump tropes. But I'm back. I'm excited to talk to you. I miss the whole show. Sharpie thing. When we were talking before the podcast, I suggested we did the Sharpie thing and you were like, you are so out of Dutch. That's been everywhere. We're not doing that. We're not doing that. So, Michael, are you going on a No Kings protest? Yeah, the children are looking forward to it. Yes. Where are you going? We will be there. East Hampton. East Hampton. I was once in the East Hampton Book Hampton store on Main Street when a ton of trucks came through waving. flags and they were all Trumpers and they were all hooting. And it was oddly ominous, actually. I've always thought, oh, I wouldn't be impacted by something like that. And it was oddly, oddly sinister before the election. Yeah, the Hamptons, which you would think is a, is a Trump free zone. That is not

actually true. And Long Island is quite a, quite a Trump enclave. Oh, I think there were lots of Trump Fundraiser, lots of Trump fundraisers in Southampton. Well, the billionaires are not on their trucks with their, with their Trump flags. True. That's another segment, another demo. Well, we should do that, the billionaires for Trump, actually. But I know you've got things to say. I know you've got things to say, not least that why are we paying any attention to what Trump's saying, because we can't avoid it.

but he just makes no sense whatsoever. It's one thing after another, none of which holds together. Yeah, I mean, I think it's been an interesting Trump character a couple of days. I mean, I mean, the Sharpies are a point because that was like, oh, my God. You know, there was this moment this week on this voting. So, I mean, Trump has been adamantly, of course, against mail-in voting. against mail-in voting. And without concern, he mailed in his vote to Palm Beach.

And he was followed by his wife also mailed in and his son who mailed in their votes. And obviously people said, wait a minute. And effectively his response was, and let me not overstate this, but I think the response was, I can do fuck all that I want. And really, let's just kind of clear the debris here. That is what he said. That is the rationale. I'm the president of the United States. I can do this. And the fact, and the fact, that I am opposed to this for everyone else has no bearing on what I do. Now, how that has not become, how the country does not respond to that and say, holy cow, wait a minute, this is really not how it is supposed to be on no King's Day, let's add. But he is transparent about what he is doing here. This is what you're buying, America. the world, this is what it is.

I can do what I do. I can do fuck all because I can. Well, and also it's a sort of hypocrisy in the olden days. I don't even know when the olden days were that would have appalled people. And do you think it's just that people are saturated by this? Actually, the interesting thing is there is no hypocrisy here. This is not, I mean, he is not saying, he's not inventing a rationale here. I mean, he is saying, I am, I am, I have, I can do anything I want to do.

Of course. Why would you think otherwise? Well, that's hypocritical and it's one law for you and it's another law for me. But the bigger question is, why don't people care? And is it because they just assume this is baked in with Donald Trump? And ultimately he might be good for taxes or he might be better for them. and they just put up with the kind of nonsense and the noise. Is that what's going on here?

Yeah, I suppose it is, but even within that context, I think you have to ask. Again, actually, part of the answer to that is that he has disastrously low polling numbers. So it is not. I mean, the country does recognize this and say, holy cow, I mean, what is going on here? I mean, this is, we're in this exceptional moment and we have to make a decision about it. I mean, this was also, no, go ahead. No, I was also just going to say that I do think with the war in particular, he seems to have lost his messaging ability. Well, let's not go. Don't go to the war exactly because I think that there was this other example, which actually goes, goes.

is more thematically adjacent. Yeah, thematically matches the, I can vote where I can do any kind of voting. And this was, I'm going to sign the dollar. I'm going to sign the dollar.

I mean, I am going to put my name on the dollar. Which is the first time an American president has done that, to be clear, for those who don't follow the patterns on the dollar bills. So, and again, why are you doing that?

Why are you doing that? There's only one reason he is doing that because he can. Well, and because he wants dominance over all things. And I know you just clearly said, don't go to the war. I'm going to go to the war in terms of what did he say yesterday at the investor conference he was speaking at? Well, you know, the straight of Trump. I mean, who moves?

No, yes, exactly. I mean, just the naming, which we've discussed ad nauseum on this podcast, but the idea that he would then name the strait of Hormuz, a wonderful name that we've all just got our heads around, to the strait of Trump or the strait of America. We're negotiating now and be great if we could do something, but they have to open it up. They have to open up the straight of Trump.

I mean, Hormuz. Excuse me. I'm so sorry. Such a terrible mistake. Fake news will say, he accidentally said, there's no accidents with me, not too many. If there were, would have a major story. Well, I'm going, though, I am going to suggest that there is irony there,

that he was, that was a moment, and they do occur of Trump self-awareness. I put my name on everything. So I will suggest that I'm going to put my name on this. So that was Trump actually at his best. When you are with Trump, quite often he will hit a note like that. And you will think, okay, there is, he gets it. He gets who he is and he is playing that. So I would say that was an example of that.

All right. That's a generous interpretation. But he goes. You know, you think that he does this and then he forgets that this is irony. Irony then becomes practice with him. Okay. So what's going on inside his head this week? the Save America Bill has not passed.

He's been voting in the mail, as has this entire family, something he says he's against. And we're in week five of the war. It's week five today. Those are probably different things. I mean, I think he didn't vote in, he voted by mail. I actually think probably because he's lazy. I mean, he's saying, I don't want to go on. I could do this, but it's so much easier to do this by, by mail.

So fuck all. Forget the fact that I am waging a campaign against this. Because in the end, and this is a Trump thing, he is lazy. He doesn't really care. He doesn't have a lot of follow through. And if it's better for him, he's going to take the easy way out, almost always. So I think that was just an example of that. Yeah, I'm going to catch flack for this, but I don't care. And do you think he cares about the fact that a Democrat, a young woman called Emily Gregory, won the seat that Mara Lago is in, despite the fact that Trump endorsed her opponent? I don't think he cares that much. I mean, I don't think he cares about a lot. He cares about himself. Are you paying attention to me? And even that woman who won that seat, you know, if he's in, if that's in, if that's, if that's. story becomes about him, which it has become about him.

He's happy. He's happy. He's fine with it. Okay. So, so the war is also about him, although it's, we're now, it's five weeks since America first started its bombing raids with Israel. What is going on inside his head about the war? Well, I think he's desperate about this. I do not, I think he does not know what to do. So it's a moment by moment thing of what, well, let's try. try this. We better do that. Why didn't somebody tell me about something that they, no doubt, did tell him about? I think it's improvisational at the maximum. But I don't really think it's, I think improvisation is a nice way to think about this. I think he's out of control. I think that

there is that there is no one in charge here. I think this could not be a worse situation and a more more of a malfunction of a situation than then we have seen in a very long time at a high level of government and of policy. I mean, I think it's a, I think it's, I think it is extraordinary. I think that this is a window on exactly who he is and on his serious limitations as a president and as an intelligence. Well, I still think the confusing thing is we don't know what the goal was. Was the goal regime change, was the goal to stymie oil to China? I disagree. That is clear. What we know is that there was no goal.

The goal was haphazard. There was no goal. It was like we have a lot of, we're stronger than they are, so we'll be able to come out of this looking better than they do. We'll be,

we'll win. How could we not win? And winning, there was never a definition for him of winning, except winning, winning. Okay, so I have a slightly different point of view based on on a conversation I was eavesdropping with someone who talks to

Trump every day or has been talking to Trump every day since the war began. And this person was saying that in fact, of course, there's a plan. It's ridiculous to think there wasn't a plan. There's a six-week plan. We're now... Since you were eavesdropping, you owe nothing to this person. Can you say who it is? I can't say who it is because that might actually compromise them, but he said, of course, there's a plan. Trump is sticking to the plan. No one expects, the plan has been there for some time. The Israeli intelligence is the thing that allowed them to suddenly go for it because they realized that they could decapitate the Iranian leadership. That Trump has, in fact, stuck to the

plan, even though it doesn't look like he has, but he actually has. They're way ahead in terms of omic capacity. We're all waiting to hear the plan. Well, the plan was to decapitate leadership and have regime change. And the regime change is the bit that hasn't yet happened. And no one knows if the Iranians are going to protest. This is ridiculous. Let's look at this plan. The plan did not account for the fact that 20% of the world's oil would be effectively embargoed. The plan then did not account for the fact that even if you kill the top level of leadership, the regime itself stays in place. The plan did not then apparently account for the fact that this nuclear material remains out of reach and will require. boots on the ground to get it. So let me see a plan there. What is the plan to kill the to kill the guy? Yes, we killed the guy. But that has that in itself has accomplished nothing except a dead guy.

Okay. I think the plan was to remove the leadership and now we have a negotiation window, right? Which is supposed to start this week where the Americans. No, no, no. Actually, that was not the plan unless he's unable to remember the plan and to keep on message. So we were unconditional surrender. That unconditional surrender is exactly the opposite of negotiation. Well, what we do know is Donald Trump talks too much and he says whatever is in his head in the moment. That doesn't mean we're not still on plans. So basically what's happened is this is what was being argued. Basically what happened is that you overheard a some. somebody who's on board with Donald Trump, who obviously has a need to support this. And there are lots of people, remember, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the,

the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, is, you know, feels they are getting what they have always wanted, um, except, except, except everything's going wrong. But other than that, they have wanted to in a full-scale, mighty invasion of Iran, which they have gotten. Okay, that's not who I was talking to. I was talking to someone who, by nature, of what they do, actually remains neutral, but is involved in it for all sorts of reasons. But you were eavesdropping, not talking.

I was kind of eavesdropping. I'm just clarifying, yes. I'm trying to be subtle here. I was kind of eavesdropping. and we've largely demolished the military in Iran. What we want back is the enriched uranium. And there's now a window for negotiation, which was part of the plan in as much as there is any plan once you start bombing a country.

And clearly no one understands what's going on with the leadership. And if anyone tells you they do, then that's not true. They don't. Clearly nobody knows what's going on with the leadership. And it's unclear that the Trump... So let me just finish. It's unclear who the Trump people, i.e. Jared and Steve Wickoff, are actually negotiating with at this point. But you just said there was a window of negotiation.

There's a window for negotiation, which we know Trump has extended to April the 6th. Right. But we don't know who to negotiate with. Right. Right. Right. But we also, right, but they must be supplying someone to negotiate with. We just don't know who it is.

They, the pronoun is the problem there, they are supplying someone. Who is they? Well, the IRG, the current leadership in as much as it is. Except we don't know who that is. That's part of the unknown unknowns. That's part of the unknown unknowns of war, isn't it? So there was a paragraph in the Times story, I think, I think yesterday. that jumble of emissaries, a friend, a family member, a dove, and a hawk reflects Mr. Trump's improvisational approach to foreign dealings and his disdain for career diplomats and their often cumbersome protocols.

The picture is further muddied by Mr. Trump's stream of consciousness commentary on social media and before the TV cameras, during which he declares, revises and sometimes reverses his threats and demands. Okay, that paragraph, that is, that is trying to create a, a kind of reasonable, even within an unreasonable situation, a reasonable context for understanding this. He is doing things in a different way than other people would do it. or other presidents would do them. And this is confusing to people, but nevertheless, it's a, it's an approach. I mean, it's essentially not that different sounds like from what the person you were

sitting next to was saying. But I think that there's another way. You take these same facts in this same description and you say, oh, my God, this person does not know which end is up. This person is wholly incapable of doing what he has to do in the situation that he is in. This person has completely lost the plot and we are in deep, deep shit. Right. Clearly.

And let me hit the New York Times again, as I so like to do, is that they just don't have the language. They have to, in it, it's like forcing the square peg into a round hole. You know, although we see this very clearly and can define this and describe this, yet we still have to come up with a paragraph in which we are not saying, holy mackerel, this is the end. The end of what? the end of logic, reason, and of sense and sensibility and of any advantage that we might possibly have been able to come out of this with over. We're done. We're cooked. I mean, the problem is that because Afghanistan and because Iraq went so badly, there is a perfectly logical school of thought of of, well, well, we had all these diplomats and they had a plan and it all went wrong.

So why shouldn't we just have Trump go in and bomb the shit out of Iran? There's definitely a school of thought around that. And it's hard to argue that the Iraq war was a good decision from the American point of view. Well, it's not exactly a school of thought of a prestige school of thought. No, but there are plenty of arguments to try a different way of bringing a country like Iran. No, there are not. There are not plenty of arguments. That is really ridiculous. I mean, all of those arguments have been made, you know, I mean, I think you can say for the last 50 years. And they don't work. They are effectively World War II arguments. I mean, they are they are something that doesn't, you know, that in situations in which you are, it is not, it is not. not principally about one army defeating another, then this whole strategy and this whole plan doesn't work. And whatever happens, you end up creating infinitely more problems.

Well, the point I was trying to make was that if you send in two business guys who sell their skills as we're deal makers, right, and we're going to go in and we're making a deal and we don't care about what diplomats did in the past, we don't want to know that history. of the country, we're going to go in and make deals. The assumption is that the Iranians also want to make deals and also make deals in the same way that Kushkov, as we've nicknamed Steve and Jared, want to make deals. And what's obviously clear is there is no meeting there. The Iranians in 50 years have shown that the one thing they don't want to do is make deals. Yeah, exactly. Well, that's my point. That's the simple point I'm trying to make,

that there is enormous dismissal of the experts and the people that understood the culture and the history and why Iran is like it is. So Trump is trying to do something different, arguably a good thing to do where the problem is he's Trump. And you send into business guys to do a deal in a country where they don't do business like anybody else does business. And that's the problem. I've lost track of the side that you're on at this point. I'm not really on anybody's side. I'm trying to understand it. And if I were a Gulf say... What's the argument that that you're making, that's what I've lost here. Well, I think the argument I'm trying to make is I'm not quite sure how this gets resolved.

Yeah, that's the problem. That is the problem. I mean, you're not supposed to go into this situation unless you have a pretty good idea how you can get out of it. Well, what do you think, what do you think he thinks is going to happen? Literally doesn't know. I thought, I think, I think from the beginning he thought, well, okay, fine, you know, we're going to bomb and I can declare victory. And then that became more and more and more difficult. And he may, he may just decide I'm going to do that at any point, of course, but he will have achieved to date he will have achieved nothing.

And so that will cost him. And any situation is now, I stay in and that's going to cost me. get out and that's going to cost me. So what do I do? Answer, I don't know. But it's Donald Trump, so he doesn't really even have the capacity to say, I don't know. All right. So what do the people around him do? Because now we're hearing that no one wants to negotiate with Kushkoff anymore and that they want J.D. Vance and they might want Marco Rubio. So then what happens? Because we know that J.D. Vance didn't think any of this was a good idea. So this is, this is, this is. good for him in one way, for his political capital, this is a good thing for J.D.

Yeah, I don't know. I mean, I'm not even sure that that is true. I think the idea of who we're hearing are the players is a, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, is, the blame around. Nobody wants, nobody wants to take responsibility for this. And it's Trump pushing people in front of, in front of him, who is, you know, these, these become his shields. And then I think that there is probably a reasonable amount among these people of desperation for themselves. We got to figure this out. We can't let Trump do this. because that's a catastrophe. So somebody else has to step up here and try to bring some acumen and some reason to this

situation. Well, he's extended the window for potential negotiation. We don't know with whom through April 6th, right? Having said there was no room for negotiations, it was 48 hours. They wanted unconditional surrender. There's also an issue of his leverage there. You know, I mean, he went into this saying. if you do not negotiate, we're going to wipe out your infrastructure, which is, I mean,

which is in a major precedent, probably a terrible precedent, which is being opposed by everybody else in the Middle East, including the Israelis. So he set up, this is a straw. He set up leverage which he can't use. Right. But he does that all the time. He just says anything. I mean, you know, if only he would just shut up.

I mean, you have talked before. In fact, we did an entire special on the fact that Donald Trump will not stop talking. He can't stop talking. It's also what audiences want. They want to go and hear him talk for the most part. His rallies, he can talk for 90 minutes, two hours just talk, talk, talk, talk, talk. It becomes, it's less of an issue during a campaign rally. It's more of an issue when he's talking about war.

If you're one of the Gulf states neighboring Iran and you're trying to glean any kind of logic from what he's saying, you're not going to get very far. But still the price of oil goes up. So there are, I mean, usually or often he can talk and it doesn't really mean anything. I mean, he produces a headline and that is the reality. But now the reality is the price of oil. Well, and also whether or not, you know, if you're in China, you can get as much oil as you need. I mean, it's good for Russia, right, because they're suddenly pumping out more oil, but they can't. I mean, there's a whole theory going on that this is all done to squeeze China, that they've stopped Venezuela's oil.

They're trying to control oil coming out of Iran. Russia can't produce enough oil for China. This is a backhanded way of getting a China. Well, it gets at us, too, because oil is set on a global basis. I mean, so that is, you know, also a completely ridiculous thing and will defeat Donald Trump. So the logic here is, oh, I'm going to do this and it will solve that problem, but I'm going to go down in flames because of it. So it makes no sense. You know, I mean, the price of oil at now at $1.10 or going to $1.20 or going to $110, going to $120, going to we don't know, a barrel is unsustainable here.

It's just unsustainable from a political standpoint. I mean, the politics of this is staring. even for Donald Trump, he can't ignore that. And it's possible that Trump sort of doesn't care anymore. He's almost in a kind of spiral. You think that's possible? He's in a sort of death spiral? Or he's just lurching moment to moment as normal? Yeah, I don't.

I mean, I suspect he's looking, how do you play this in a Donald Trump way? Who's going to be my enemy? And I think he's probably starting. already to conceive of this as he conceives of the next season's show, he's going to lose the midterms in a really substantial way. So he's now setting up, I mean, you can only read the Save America Act, which is not going to pass as a way to set the stage for blaming this on voter fraud, which has worked for him in the past, and he always returns to what he has, what has

worked for him in the past. So I think that that's what he's now. In his mind, the narrative is, is, is, is, is being reshaped and he'll reshape the narrative to his best advantage. Well, what do you mean it worked for him in the past? That became a fulcrum of his, of his, um, 20-24 Kim. I mean, in a way, that was the through line of his campaign. They stole the election from me. But the, I don't agree with that at all. I agree that he was using it as a theme, but they lost the, he won the election during that catastrophic debate when Biden didn't appear to be sentient.

And then there was, then it took the Democrats a month. I completely, I completely, I totally disagree with that. For one thing, there are two parts of the campaign. There's the primary campaign where he wiped out every other Republican. Well, it was largely Ron DeSantis, right? Who's thoroughly unpleasant, unfortunately, competent government. Well, it doesn't matter. I mean, it was Ron DeSanto's.

I mean, there was a series, it doesn't matter. Nobody else was willing to run against him, except Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley and a few other whose names are forgotten to history at this point. And partly they did not run against him because he had set up this election thing as a thing. All Republicans had to agree with him. They all had to bow down to that. There was no Republican who was saying, hey, wait a minute, this is a total fraud. He didn't win.

Quite the opposite. They were all forced to make a ritual bow to that, which set him up as the essentially the de facto candidate. He had to be the candidate because they stole the election from him. Right. But in the general election, the reason he won is not because the people who came out to vote for him thought that he should have won in 2020. They came out because the Democrats had a series of missteps from the catastrophic debate. It took them too long. It took Biden too long to step aside. They didn't have an open primary.

Biden anointed someone and she couldn't get the momentum she needed. This is not true. You know, yes, the Democrats were weak. But Trump was remained strong and remained competitive from really, from the get-go of this of this campaign. Could the Democrats, could the Democrats have have won if they had handled the Biden thing? Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure. There's always more than one factor here. But certainly the, the, his claim of the 2020 thing, the consistency of that theme, his willing to stand up to that, even how no matter how wrongheaded it was,

and then to stand up to the trials that the Democrats, to the extent that the government and mostly the Democrats put him on trial, created that thing. That was Donald Trump. He certainly wasn't running away from that 2020 election denial gibberish. Well, I agree it's total gibberish. I would just argue that the trials that people remembered were the Stormy Daniels trial and the E. Jean Carroll trial, and it turns out people don't think that's disqualifying to be a candidate or to be a president. And I just think it was about prices, Michael.

All those trials ran together. Well, anyway, it doesn't matter. That is, he has certainly, he has certainly always gone back to the, to the 2020 defeat. He consistently brings this up. It is something that he believes has consistently worked for him. He worked for him because he believes it. He is an aggrieved person. He got the presidency back because it was stolen from him. That's the Trump narrative and that's the narrative he will return to. They're stealing the election from me.

And the midterms are just, you know, just them once again doing the same thing. Okay. Before we started this podcast, you disappointed. appear to get another cup of coffee. And I think you've had seven espresso this morning. You are completely on fire. That's just because I'm wiping the floor with you. You haven't thought of this,

thought any of this through. But it's not. It's not my coffee. It's your logic. Okay. I agree that to him, this is an important thing. And maybe he believes it,

maybe he doesn't believe it, that he actually lost the 2020 election. I don't think it's a factor for why people voted for him in 2024. But I do understand that he's anxious he's going to lose the midterms and he's sowing the ground to do all sorts of things around doubt over the election process, which is as damaging as anything you can do. And maybe he uses it as a moment to bring ice into the polling stations. Who knows? I mean, I get that he's doing it. I just don't think that the public buys it. I don't think that's why they voted for him

because they thought he lost the 2020 election and that he's rightfully the president. Well, the public is not going to buy because they're going to actually vote against him in the midterms. But the public becomes enthralled by his or wrapped up into his narrative because he's very good at this,

because he repeats it constantly, because he appears to believe it. because it's something that sustains him. So again, it's just that this is what's on his mind. What's in his mind is I have this situation, a bad situation. I have this war. I have the fact that I'm going to lose these midterms. What do I do?

Trump is not someone who responds to political exigencies with by revising his policies and and in a, with a political logic, he responds with a narrative logic. What's the story I can tell about this? What's the story I can tell about this that justifies me, that positions me against someone that, that, who will be my enemy and that person who, who ideally will, I can, who will be unpopular. I can make them unpopular. So therefore, I share an unpopular enemy with my, with, with whoever I'm telling the story to. I mean, that's how Trump operates here.

So in terms of what he's thinking about, in terms of these problems, that's how he'll respond. He'll, he will not respond with, we need a new war strategy. We need a new electoral strategy. He'll respond with a new story. Right. Right. just a new plot line. So one of the things that clearly people are going to feel very strongly about, I think, by the time we get to the midterms, is what's happening with the health department,

with RFK. You've said that he's already being pushed into the background. We know that people want vaccines for their children. Yes. We know that people think he's, that RFK Jr. turns out not to have been a great hire in that role. No, and I know that he's been calling around and saying, and saying to people, you know, I hear people say Bobby is crazy. You think he's crazy? Trump is calling around and saying this. I thought he meant Bobby was calling around and saying, I hear Bobby's crazy. Am I crazy? Yeah, that would be. Now, Trump is saying that, do you think he's crazy? You think Bobby's crazy? So that is always, that sign, those calls, when you can track those calls and he asked the question that he, that, and you know the answer he wants.

Yeah, yeah, no, I hear he's a little crazy. Yeah, he seems a little crazy. This VAC stuff, he really goes too far. He goes too far. But then I have a more, more, a more interesting tell on this. He's then been saying positive things about, about, about, this kid running for the seat in New York, Schlossberg. Donald Trump has.

So Donald Trump is recommending or saying positive things about the nephew of RFK Jr. who was on the side of his family who came out and attacked RFK Jr. He said this is a terrible idea. Exactly. So he's been saying, you know, so his, the kid who's running, he was running. can't quite get the name, Schlossberg. The kid who's running for New York, he says his uncle is crazy. It's not his uncle. It's his mother's cousin, but this is Trump. Okay, his mother's cousin. Whatever. It's hard. That family, it's so extended. It's impossible to know.

And then Trump has been saying he seems that, that guy seems like, like maybe he's the, he's the real, the real thing. You know, he's the grand. son. So it's all in that, in that, you know, mixed up in that Trump's, Trump's Kennedy mind. But it actually sort of sounds like, and certainly this one person in New York who I spoke to who had this conversation with, with, with Trump, that he's kind of enamored with this kid. That's so interesting. And of course, Jack. This is Jack Schlossberg, who is the Grands. He's running for District 12, Jerry Nadler's district, which is Manhattan. It's probably the best congressional district in the country in terms of influence business and also range because you have very poor districts and you have very wealthy districts.

Right. And Jack Schlossberg is Caroline Kennedy's son, so the grandson of JFK. Of John F. Kennedy. And who, of course, lost his sister, Tatiana in her mid-30s. who got cancer and who wrote once it became clear that she was dying and there was no treatment that could help her, a devastating essay in the New Yorker criticizing her uncle, not only for changing vaccine protocol for babies, but for all the damage he's done with science and cutting back on science and medical research programs.

Yeah, no, no. So to put this, I mean, the Trump thing is clearly. you know, RFK is a problem. Let's push him, push him this way. And then to praise the cousin who... So I think he would be then maybe first cousin once removed. Yes, whatever the relationship is. But, you know, the other Kennedy family member who's running for office would be...

Who has very publicly criticized RFK? Jr. I'm sure the poor guy does not want a Trump endorsement, but it really sounds like Trump is, Trump is tickled by this. But what is going on then in RFK Jr.'s head when he starts hearing whispers of this? I mean, who's telling him this? Who's saying, oh, you should know that Trump is, Trump is not best pleased. This isn't going well. Yeah, I mean, I'm sure it's top of mind. And how he plays this, I don't, you know, I mean, that's a mind that would be hard to get into, actually. Well, and it's half, it's been half eaten by a brain.

Yeah. So the little bit of the brain that is left, is it paranoiding out at this point? Does it, is it? Well, I think that from RFK standpoint, he has to, he has to, he has to, figure out whether whether his base, RFK's base, is the anti-vax base, and whether he speaks to that, continues to speak to that, or whether he tries to pivot away from that. From a political standpoint, I would say that he should probably double down on it. He might have to leave the administration, but that's his, now his brand is.

Clearly, the anti-science, anti-vax. Yeah. Smother yourself and beef tallow. Yeah, and that's a MAGA, you know, that certainly exists as a MAGA core in the MAGA core. It's hard for me to understand why MAGA women, for the most part, don't want their children vaccinated. And you're asking me this? It seems totally, I am. What's happened to?

Is it Casey Means, who is supposed to be the new surgeon general? Yes, also having problems with the confirmation. This is a big, you know, this is a side show, another side show that is certainly not good for Trump. Okay, so final quick inside Hegsef, inside Hegsef mind. I mean, I thought of it this morning because since Mark Wayne Mullen has moved into the Department of Homeland, security. They've removed all the big pictures that Christy Noem put on the walls of herself in all her various different costumes. So as Coast Guard, as sheriff, who knows what she was doing, all her cosplay, which led to our nicknaming her Ice Barbie. All those pictures have apparently gone.

Hexeth is someone who put up lots of pictures of himself and his wife, his emotional support animal, as he tells everybody he's no longer going to drink in this job and he's now running the American military in a state of war. No, I think that's, I think the big question for the big Hexsith question, the obvious Hegsseth question is, is he's still drinking? I mean, every story that you hear about Hegsteth is about his drunkenness. I mean, his, the stories prior to, to, um, prior to his confirmation of Secretary of Defense slash war.

Exactly. No. And I, and I remember, I mean, Roger Ailes, who I used to speak to often, would, would constantly, um, chorto. And he was annoyed by Hegsus drinking and the stories about, about Hegsus drinking. Um, so that's a question. I mean, and, I mean, that would be a. thing to have spent your life as a drunk, then to become the Secretary of Defense and say,

I'm not going to drink anymore and actually not drink anymore. So it's a kind of, let's put this question out. Who has seen Hegseth with a drink recently? Let us know if you have. We should ask. There's always something, I mean, you and I both worked actually with an alcoholic, who I didn't realize was an alcoholic, but the tell was that he always had a can of Coke in his hand. And I only found this out because as part of his 12-step program, he rang up to tell me that to apologize and say you may not have realized, but when I had that can of Coke, actually, it was, there was lots of vodka in it. And I was thinking... Well, he didn't call me. How come I don't get an apology? Well, I don't know why you don't get an apology, but it explains why he fell asleep in meetings. That was

something that people noticed. But I was thinking about when Hegeseth addressed the group of generals. Do you remember when he called in the generals from all over the world at enormous expense and lectured them about being fat? And he was drinking coffee at the time. And I remember thinking that's such an odd thing to do. It's one thing to drink water when you're addressing a big crowd. But he made some illusion to the coffee while he was talking.

And it made me wonder. And obviously, I've zero idea whether or Pete Higg said is drinking. But to your point, if there is anybody out there who's been working with him and knows that he is still drinking, that will be interesting for us to know. But, no, that's an interesting. I mean, you should never drink coffee when you're giving a presentation. I mean, first thing, it's incredibly sloppy. Well, it was coffee, wasn't it? He referred to it.

Didn't he have a coffee in his hand and he put it down? And drinking coffee, you have to kind of, I mean... Especially when you are lecturing a group of incredibly disciplined people sitting in front of you. The fact that you have to kind of lean on your cup of coffee, it's just bizarre. And I know that people are going to criticise me for calling his wife an emotional support animal. But the fact that she is taken into meetings, the fact there are pictures of her on the Pentagon walls, seems to me bizarre. Bizarre? Well, the whole Higgsith story.

I mean, can it be more bizarre? I mean, the, you know, the co-the weekend co-anchor of a television show is elevated to be the a drunken weekend co-anchor of a television show. But why did Roger Ailes put up with it? I don't understand why Roger Ailes would know that Pete Higgs-eth had a drinking problem. and sort of let it continue. Why didn't he say, go and dry out and come back when you're sober? Well, I think he had a lot of problems with a lot of people there, including his own problems.

But, you know, I mean, Ailes always thought that everybody who was on television was a flawed and broken person at some level. And Hague Sith, remember, it wasn't as if he was a network star. He was just a, you know, a kind of fox face who he would put on the weekends. Not a, I mean, not anyone of consequence at the network. Right. Well, he's of consequence now. Yeah, no. I mean, just to look at that, how that happened and it's just part and parcel of what has happened in the Trump administration. Okay, so we both better get out there to go and to go and protest on no Kings Day, I think. I think there's only one solution we have to hurtle out into the spring sunshine and stamp our flag.

By the way, I bought an American flag the other day. I like the fact that you have an American flag hanging from your house. And I do think there is a whole move to reclaim the flag. It shouldn't just be Trumpian territory. Well, we've got it. We fly it all the time. Yeah, no, it's good. I've got one too.

I've got one too now. I'm going to fly it too. All right, Michael, a feisty podcast today. We have no idea where we'll be next. Well, we'll have no idea where we'll be on Tuesday with the war, whether or not there'll be in negotiations, who they'll be negotiating with or who will be doing the negotiation from our side.

Meanwhile, meanwhile, Russia and Ukraine continue with no apparent solution and everybody's forgotten about Gaza. Till next week. Okay, till Tuesday. And if you have been, thank you for watching.

Don't forget to share this episode with a friend. Leave us a comment on YouTube. 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. Thanks to our production team, Devin Rodgerino, Ryan Murray, Rachel Passer, Heather Pissarro, Neil Rosenhaus.