The Daily Beast Podcast - Weak Trump Losing Physical and Mental Grip: Wolff

Episode Date: November 30, 2025

Michael Wolff joins Joanna Coles to probe Donald Trump’s newest — and perhaps most perilous — level of weakness. From a fraying inner circle to the small, telling humiliations Trump tries to hide, Wolff traces how the former president’s aura of dominance is thinning just as legal threats, foreign crises, and a faltering presidency converge. Wolff walks through how Trump’s allies are suddenly keeping their distance and how MAGA power brokers are beginning to hedge. It all leads to the question that hangs over this episode: has Trump finally reached the point where weakness, not strength, defines his movement? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I think we're saying a new weakness in his hold on the Republican Party. He looks terrible. Wherever he is mentally, I think we've seen some evident weirdness. The weaknesses we have here are his physical health, his mental health, and then his hold on the party itself. Michael. Joanna. Did you have a good Thanksgiving? Yeah, I had the same Thanksgiving I've had year in and year out over the course of my life.

I don't think that's true, actually. I mean, I've known you through a couple of wives, Michael, so I'm pretty confident that's not true. The wives change, the children grow older, new children appear, grandchildren appear, but fundamentally, the Thanksgiving stays the same. The wives change, the children grow older, new children appear. That literally sounds like the first few lines of a poem. I'm trying to think who it would be, not William Carlos Williams, possibly Philip Larkin. Yes, I would say it's of a long novel. Oh, of a long novel.

Okay. Or the novel of this podcast. Okay, we need to start to remind people that if anybody is in New York and cares to come and see us live, we will be at the 92nd Street Y on January the 21st. I am told that tickets are selling fast. So if you would like to come and see us live, feel free. Go to 92ndstreetY.org, I guess, and book your tickets now. Yeah, and I've done the 92nd Street wise quite a number of times.

It's actually a great venue, so we should have a nice evening. Well, I've done it once, Michael. I've done it once. And I loved it. And I love our live audiences. We loved our event at the city of the Museum of New York. and we're excited to see more people. It seemed to be a testy Thanksgiving for Donald Trump.

He was back to his insults again. He called Tim Walsh. Remember Tim Walsh, anybody? Barely. Barely. He called Tim Walsh retarded. And as we know, he was yelling piggy at one reporter last week.

Then he called Katie Rogers at the New York Times, ugly inside and out. And then he called another reporter, stupid. Are you stupid? So what do we think? Did he just have too much sugar? Well, you know, I think we have to remember that he has insulted people across the last, what are we at now, 11 years.

So I'm not sure that is an indication of anything other than the fact that he is Donald Trump. I feel like they're coming faster and milfurious. I wondered if he'd had too much lemon, I don't know. I've been around a lot of Trump insults. They come, they come, they seem predictable to me. But let's assume, because I think that there is other, other, there are other reasons to think that we are seeing a new level of weakness. And, and that's because he, he looks terrible. He does look terrible. He looks terrible. Wherever he is mentally, I think we've seen some evident weirdness. The, you know, the fact that he can go, and it would seem in the course of a day, from being a Putin booster to a Zelensky booster, that he can go from Mamdani, you know, we're going to deport the guy to we're going to embrace the guy.

I mean, I think that he's traveling very quickly between. between the extremes of these issues, as though, A, he doesn't know what he stands for anymore, or B, he forgets. So, I mean, I think that there is something curious there. And then both could be true. I mean, they're not mutually exclusive. He could have forgotten what he stands for, and he could have forgotten that he's forgotten what he stands for. Exactly. Exactly. And then there's, I think, I think we're seeing. his a new and really, and this is for the first time, a new weakness in his hold on the Republican Party. And, you know, that's Marjorie Taylor Green, but, and then I found this interview with Mike. What's his name?

I can't remember. Mike Johnson. Mike Johnson, the leader of the house with his dear wife Kelly. Yes, I can never remember this guy's name. I mean, it's one of those, one of those generic. Well, it's just a very ordinary name. Generic names that nobody seems to have anymore. And he seems like, Mike Johnson seems like a guy who nobody is anymore.

You know, a regular old white guy doofus. A regular old white guy dofus. Who, I think I watched the same interview. It was a podcast. he talked about his aim being to uphold the institution that he's head of, which I found reassuring. And I felt that he was trying to indicate to anybody listening. And I don't think there were very many people listening, apart from perhaps you and me, that he understood it was under threat and he was going to do his best to uphold its value. I thought that that interview

indicated that he was having a nervous breakdown. Oh, interesting. Say more. I mean, he basically said, my life is falling apart. I can't really, you know, this job is way over my head. Nothing is going right. I mean, it was a kind of a bleak picture. And I wondered when I saw this if other people in that Trump orbit of necessary loyalty and fealty experience the same thing, that it is incredibly unrewarding, that, All that it gets you is grief because you're a kind of pinball.

Just you never know what Donald Trump wants. You never know what he's going to ask you to do. You never know what breach you're going to have to step into. You never know how foolish you're going to look. Well, he said at one point, I jotted this down. We have a joke, meaning him and his wife Kelly, who was doing the interview with him. We have a joke. I am not Speaker of the House.

I am a mental health. counselor. And he talks about people calling him at 1130 at night that he was completely overwhelmed. And then I thought this was an interesting quote. So maybe I'm coming around to your point of view. His wife was asked her observations of him in the job and she said he overestimates what he can get done. Yeah. I mean, which way. I mean, I don't exactly understand, understand that except as a way to say that he's not getting anything done, that he feels behind the eight ball all of the time, that he has no mastery over the job that he holds, which obviously makes sense. Remember, and this is back in, this is, I mean, he gets, he, he, he gets this job in the fall of 2023, and he is nobody we've never heard ever heard of before. He's not a leader in, in the house. He's a, he's a, he's a, he's a basically nobody congressman from a right conservative right-wing background, but even that is not

particularly notable. And he's there by default. Right. He's last man standing after Kevin McCarthy has, I think, 14 votes and they all go against him. And then there were subsequently others, others who fell by the wayside, and suddenly it is this person that we've never heard of, person who's kind of patently unprepared for, this is a big job. I mean, it's a major management job. And then on top of that, you are not only managing your House caucus, but you're having to manage the president of the United States, who is actually managing you. Right. Donald Trump has openly said, I'm the president and the speaker, which is rather disillusioning, I would imagine, to Mike and Kelly Johnson. That episode, which I'm, which I, which I, which, I, which,

It's just among the many, many things that have been forgotten. There was a moment in which Donald Trump was. He was not a member of Congress and he was not even the president then, but it was like, well, I'll be speaker. And you mentioned the perks and they're asked what the perks are and neither of them can think of anything. And then he goes, there's not a lot of perks. And then he goes, well, the speaker's balcony. And then he describes the night that he was elected, his family come to the office.

And they all have sandwiches on the speaker's balcony. And you're like, oh, that's not much of a perk. Although then he said that he'd gone to a UFC fight and he'd met jelly roll and kid rock. And that was a huge perk. And I was like, ooh, that doesn't sound like a huge perk. No, no. And that one, he was ordered to go to that fight because, you know, Trump, I mean, that's one of the things that they do in the White House is that they like to turn out people loyalists for these events that Trump goes to, especially the UFC.

So, no, I mean, it sounds like the worst job in the world, but I also think that it is representative of the what other people feel. I mean, the Marjorie Taylor Green thing is among everything and among the objections that she, that she, may have had, you sense her incredible weariness of having to deal with Donald Trump, of whom she's in now, you know, she's gone from the greatest loyalist to open rebellion. So, and I think that we are seeing this more and more throughout the Republican Party. So the weaknesses we have here are his physical health, his mental health, and then his hold on the party itself. So I'd say that this is a possible inflection point. Well, there was also a report last week in Punchbowl news, co-founded by the estimable

Anna Palmer, that Marjorie Taylor Green was the canary in the coal mine, that there were actually several other Congress people planning to step down because they too had had enough. And they're getting a ton of doxing online. Their families are threatened. I don't know how much of that is actually by just bad foreign actors and it's not real. But the good news for Marjorie Taylor Green is she has apparently, after five years in Congress, she's not leaving empty-handed. Marjorie Taylor-green is resigning her seat two days after she's eligible for a pension from Congress. I think most people would resign their jobs. If they are going to resign, they would wait out the days before they receive their pension. I mean, I think that there's a larger discussion, at least online, and I have no insight into this, about the amounts of money that she may have made during her tenure as a congressperson.

I think Laura Lumer is, you know, doing her Laura Lumer thing about this. But what I would say, and again, I don't know the details of that, but what I do certainly appreciate is that the Trump White House is going to go to war as it does with all of its antagonists with Marjorie Taylor Green. So they're going to set her up as an enemy, and they're going to try to take her down, whether rightly or wrongly. Well, Laura Luma, I think, claimed her as yet another scout. Laura Luma's been slightly below the radar for the last few months, but she popped back up and went Lomered after MTG resigned. She also said, and this was a post on X last week, it's all about the money for her, always has been. she's doing this for the money. Expect to see her portfolio explode between now and January 2026, Marjorie Trader Green.

You know, and I'm sure that that is, you know, Laura Lumer has always had a carried on a Soto Voce conversation with the president. and is it possible? Is it likely that that is, that she is there channeling an irate president? Of course. Interesting. Well, we'll be watching to see what comes out about Marjorie Taylor Green's portfolio over the next few months. But what we can say is she entered Congress with her family business, a construction business. We know she'll get a full congressional pension, but it would be very interesting to, know what else. We don't know that that was the worth of the business either. I mean, I mean, we've seen this reported, but believe me, as someone who has had his net worth. What is your net worth? Well, I have seen mine, it was, my net worth is scant, but I have

seen it rise to, um, um, extraordinary heights on, on the, on the internet. Um, so, um, all right, well, we'll rely on, I discount most internet numbers. All right. Well, we'll rely on the White House to release Marjorie Taylor Green's gains during her five years in Congress. I think that's, I think you're right. That's exactly what they're going to do. And we encourage them to. I'm very curious. Tim Walsh responded to the retard comment by saying, release your MRI results. I mean, there's always been called for Trump's, Trump to be more transparent. Release your taxes. Release, he releases nothing and it has, it has no effect. But, you know, I think that we are starting to see a variety of issues which go to the heart of the contradictions

of the Trump contradictions and which are both emotional issues and oddly unifying issues. And it begins with Epstein, of course. I mean, Epstein is an issue of the right and the left. And it is an issue that continues and continues. And I think that's part of what has to happen here in terms of the opposition, a kind of focus on these things. Now, I think the economy, affordability, whatever the word we're using is coming strongly into the picture, which uniting both sides. You know, life costs too much money. I mean, nobody is happy.

Nobody perceives the economy as getting better. everyone perceives the economy as getting worse. Except the very rich because the markets have been on fire. Right. And even worse. I mean, that's glaring when the very rich thinks things are getting better and the rest of us think that they don't. That means that makes it feels like things are even getting worse. In other words, it is an issue.

It is a, you know, it is a flaw in the Trump. sent that Trump's sense of indomitability and of that Trump ability to always change the subject. The other issue that I think grows more and more every day is the cruelty issue. Now, you know, there are two sides on the immigration dispute and there will continue to be two sides there. But I think what there isn't a, what there aren't two sides on is the the ugliness of these mass guys in black, ripping people out of their homes and away from their families and to see video of it, rather now constant video. So again, that seems to be just another issue. Epstein, the economy, the cruelty issue that are, these are not partisan issues. I think they are rather

unifying issues. And I think that they are issues that are, that are, that are, that are, joined to Donald Trump. I mean, and then the other, the other issue, too, which I think gains traction every day, is the grift issue, that it is Trump, his family, and his friends are clearly in it for what they can get until they can't get it anymore. And that is, is, again, one of those issues that unites everybody. This is, nobody is looking at this and thinking, thinking you go guys.

The Democrats have rightly been criticized for all sorts of reasons. Very notably, they have had no response really to the Epstein affair. Joe Biden didn't ask for a release of the files. It was less of an issue then. But why do you think that is? And what should they be doing? Why didn't the Democrats press that issue? Why wasn't it a campaign issue?

Why wasn't his friendship? Honestly, I think that they didn't know it was the issue. I think they've been uncomfortable with talking about the issue. It's like why the media never made it an issue. Why this story has waited for so long? And I think the answer to that is a level of, of discomfort with the story. But is it discomfort because Bill Clinton also took a lot of rides on Jeffrey Epstein's plane

and they don't want to bring it back to the Democrats? Or is it just the general icky nature, which you've mentioned before? I think it is the general ickiness of it. I think it is the, you know, the Clinton, the Democrats thing. And I think that both that as to the probably the overriding issue here, you know, I think I think people believe Donald Trump. You know, I passed them in the hallway. Instead of understanding that it was the window that opened, that gave you a view,

the true view of Donald Trump's character. It is the character issue. You know, and I think we've gone. I think there are two sides of this. There's the conspiracy issue, which many people have embraced about the Epstein affair. But then I think it is, and I think it becomes clearer and clearer, especially when Donald Trump tries to move further and further away from it or hide more and more of it, that it is the Donald Trump character issue. He's a dirty dog. And he's been able to mask that

for a long time. It was kind of one of those, those, you know, unknown, known issues. Everybody knows it, but yet somehow he's been able to change the subject when it's, when it's, when it's come up. And has, and I think that that has, he's, he's less and less able to change the subject on Epstein. And Epstein is more and more in issue about Donald Trump's character. And a moment from our sponsors. And Michael Wolfe and I are back inside Trump's head. I'm not sure people care about his character though, because we've known, as you say, he's a dirty dog. It turns out that, you know, he's cheating on Melania shortly after she'd given birth to Barron was in fact seen as a qualifying factor.

People like the fact he'd spent the night with, or actually not even spent the night, had a couple of hours with Stormy Daniels despite his denials. I don't know why he didn't just lean into it. Well, I think I think that these things are, I mean, you're absolutely, you're absolutely, right. But what is the, what becomes the silver bullet? You know, what becomes, you know, there's a lot of things that people, that people know or think they know or pieces of it, and they don't crystallize until, until a moment. That's the moment which becomes a scandal. And the connection to Epstein is the objective correlative of Donald Trump's character. The fact that he may well have known what was going on at Jeffrey Epstein's house in Palm Beach. He indubitably knew

what was going on. They were the closest of friends, of which I have obviously said many, many, many times. You have. And now that has become clearly one of the key issues. What did Donald Trump know about Jeffrey Epstein and when did he know it? The tipping point for his character. But that is just one of these issues that I think sticks to him. I mean, the economy, he's not going to escape the economic issue. And then the economic issue is kind of broader. And again, goes to Donald Trump personally, which is he doesn't know what he's doing. And I think everybody has that sense of this. Tariffs today, tariffs not today, threats today, threats not today. And inflation, does he really understand that?

You know, again and again, it is on him. And the economy, you know, basically falls on anybody who is the president. But then the broader context of a president who more and more shows that he's, you know, he's just not capable, certainly not consistent. and that probably means he's not capable of dealing with it, especially as things get worse and worse and not better and better. I agree with you. And also the physical manifestation of his exhaustion and his whiplash on subjects is so obvious,

particularly in his face. I mean, his eyes, his eyes are barely open. And I'm not talking about when he's dozing off in the chair behind the desk in the Oval Office. I'm talking about just he's sort of peer. hearing at people the videos that came out from Mar-a-Lago where he appeared to be having Thanksgiving, he just looked like his eyes were almost glued together. He could barely force them apart. Well, you know, of course. I mean, he's a 79-year-old man who doesn't take care of himself. And to the degree that Mike Johnson might be experiencing all kinds of the pressures of the job

and the whiplash of dealing with Donald Trump. I think Trump, after, I mean, he's done this for a year, and it has been an extraordinary year, probably the most extraordinary year in the history of the American presidency. I think there are two things. He emerges from this year as a incredibly dominant character in this moment in time and in this job.

But the dominance, I think, and I think this is what we're seeing, has had an enormous price. It's had a price on him physically because it really demands, has demanded this, you know, this obsessive, I mean, just living in this middle of this drama every day. And then it's exacted a price on so many people around him, Mike Johnson. of it all. When he came in, he said, oh, Russia, Ukraine, I'm going to solve it on my first day. You know, this would never have happened if I were president. We seem to be going back and forth more whiplash on what's happening with his envoy, Steve Wittkoff, the former Manhattan real estate developer. And where are we with that? There was 28 points now those seem to have been knocked down.

Whitkoff, who is central. Whitkoff is essentially the Secretary of State, although they're are many secretaries of state, including his son-in-law, who I believe does want to be the secretary of state. Well, and who has miraculously appeared in the middle of the Russia-Ukraine negotiations, despite having no official role? None whatsoever except the bag man. But Whitkoff is a famous, in New York circles, a famous dummy. So this dummy, one more of the dummies, that Trump has elevated into positions that are, you know, that honestly, and let me say this, not stopishly, demand a bit of intelligence.

Well, and also a man that doesn't bother to take notes when he's meeting with the Russian president. So he comes out, gives a report of the conversation, which turns out to be different from the Russians. understanding of the situation. Doesn't like to take anybody with him. He likes to go on his own. I mean, it's very, very strange. Whitkoff is a lackey. And he's doing, trying to give Trump what he wants. Now, Whitkoff is, I think, in a difficult place here because I'm not sure that Trump knows what he wants. Well, doesn't Trump just want an announcement saying, I'm going to get the Peace Prize next year, because now I've solved the Russia, Ukraine. Ideally, but he doesn't know if that demand, I mean, at the same time, he wants to be, wants Putin to like him.

We don't know why this has gone on for a very long time. It has always seemed dubious, certainly, but suspicious also. And that theme continues. You know, I want to be Vladimir Putin's friend or equal or, Well, is it because he just admires Vladimir Putin's control over his country? We don't know if he admires, if he admires Putin. If Putin has something on him, we don't know. But at the same time, then suddenly this then goes under,

other people take this over, and we are no longer a Vladimir Putin, but boy, we're now trying to give the Ukrainians what they want. And what the Ukrainians, what the Ukrainians want is not going to satisfy what the Russians want and vice versa. So we've had a week or 10 days of activity and nothing has changed. Nothing, nothing has changed. So we're gearing up for not only your own case against Melania, but the Melania documentary. For fans of her book, Melania, which as we've pointed out before, nobody is thanked in, no editor is acknowledged, no researcher, no fact checker.

Literally nobody is acknowledged in the book. It's as if the book just arrived on the scene and it's tethered to nothing other than Skyhorse publishing, which obviously also publishes Bobby Kennedy. We've got the Melania documentary for which she got paid $40 million by Amazon coming out in January. 70% of the back end, $10 million corporate sponsorship. Daily Beast Watch Party. That's all I'm promising. We will figure out how to do a Daily Beast Watch Party when it releases and Michael will be doing commentary

and I will be throwing in my own comments too. But what I was coming to was the director, Brett Ratma, of the Rush Hour series. Was it the Rush Hour series? Yes, but let's, I mean, paint the picture. So Brett Ratner has been one of the more among the many egregious Me Too cancellations in Hollywood. Brett Ratner has led the pack, speaking of dirty dogs. I think there was a breathtaking number of complaints against him. a limitless it would seem.

And so how he came came to be the director, I mean, he's an action film director. So, and now he's the director of this hagiographic, soft focus. Bezos, suck up. Yes, picture of the first lay. A, so a couple of questions. A, why would he possibly do that? Okay, he's out of a job. But.

Well, and I think he wants proximity to power, right? Well, yes. I mean, but what do you get from proximity to power? What we now know that Paramount Pictures, which is run by the Ellison family, who are. Larry Ellison of Oracle fame and his son, David Ellison. Exactly. So who are allies of the President of the United States. They, they, in the last, what, 30 days, 60 days accomplished a very difficult merger of various motion picture companies, including Paramount, which also owns CBS, which depended on the goodwill of the president of the United States.

And so, now, Brett Ratner, also a new, a new. new ally of the President of the United States because he has made the first ladies documentary has now had his cancellation cancelled and is in the rush hour series rush hour four I believe has just been signed up by Paramount Studios. Kaching, Kaching for everybody. So you're asking what did Brett Ratner get out of this? he gets his career back and he gets a sequel to Rush As 1, 2, and 3. Yes.

I mean, Ratner has been one of those very, very successful movie show business entrepreneurs of attracting a great deal of money from around the world to finance these action films, which actually have a long history of, in fact, very, very well. And once more, our sponsors. And Michael and I are back. Where are we? Of course, we're inside Trump's head. So he's a, what, he's a cash machine for investors? Well, he's a, he's a Hollywood machine. Why do people invest in Hollywood? That's a complicated issue because usually it actually doesn't really return. But there are other rewards.

status, women. It's a, if you can play that game, it is a very lucrative one in Brett Ratner, was very good at playing that game until he was faced all these allegations in that particular moment in time, which seemed to have finished him off, but apparently not. I'm surprised we haven't seen any Brett Ratner emails in the Epstein files. I feel like someone would have been referring to him.

I've never seen knowingly seen anyway. Yeah, no, no. Epstein and Ratner knew each other. I don't actually know. I know that they did know each other. How seriously I don't know. Well, I've never knowingly seen a Rush Hour movie, and I'm not planning to, but I will watch his documentary of Mulani.

Perhaps he'll include, you know, action shots of her staggering in her stilettos across the lawn to Marine Force One and suddenly it takes off. No, I think she has a potential as a superhero. All right, Michael, it's time to go off and have our turkey sandwiches, I believe. We're recording this on Friday morning. I haven't had breakfast yet. I'm going to have a turkey sandwich for lunch with some cranberry sauce and a little bit of stuffing. from the box

from my catered meal which was brought by friends and which was delicious I was so relieved not to have to cook it a lot of people thought that you were wrong to criticise me for being excited for having a catered meal

in our comments I'm just saying well because it's a country of you know of takeout diners because nobody cooks anymore that's you know the the the cruel

fact of being a modern American, except for me, by the way. Yeah, you do cook and you cook very well. I was actually defending to a couple of commentators your cooking because you do cook very well and you take it very seriously. I just feel I had years of feeding children and so much as I love cooking enormous meals for friends, I was quite happy not to have to this year. I just have to add not as many years of feeding children as I have had. Well, true, because I I didn't have a second family. Your choice, my friend. Your choice.

Or as many mouths. Definitely true. I couldn't possibly have afforded to have that many mouths. Because you don't have an internet net worth. I don't have an internet network. I'm not entirely sure I have a net worth at all, actually. But there we go. So, if you have been, thank you for watching us.

And please subscribe to the Daily Beast podcast. us subscribe to us on YouTube, on Apple, on Spotify, wherever you get your podcast, and don't forget to leave us a comment. We read them. I try and answer as many as I possibly can. I'm trying to think the other criticisms of you, Michael. I think there was one saying that you were accusing me of liking bland food because I was British and they didn't agree with that.

Do you think that's a British person? I hope so. I hope we have some British listeners. And I know we have a lot of shout out to Sydney. We have a lot of viewers, oddly, in Australia. I think it's because when we put this podcast out at 9 o'clock in the evening on YouTube, it's 9 o'clock in the morning in Sydney or thereabouts. So, anyway, down under, thank you.

Also, it's really not true because the most popular meal in Britain now is, I think, chicken Vindaloo, which is pretty damn spicy. So it's not true that British people like bland things. It's true that a lot of British cooking is bland. Yes, but a British curry is distinct. from actually a curry. You know what makes it distinct? It's pretty spicy, though.

It's bland. You think it's... It's not bland. It's so not bland. Anyway, we can disagree to disagree, but I am going off to have a turkey sandwich. I'm feeling on the edge of blood sugar low. I've just been texted our B-Beebeast members,

and I am always fond of reciting their names. Honestly, it's a very good gift for a friend. at Christmas or a relative at Christmas, a subscription to the Daily Beast podcast and a Bee Beast Tier membership. And what you get with that subscription is me reading your name as though it is a piece of poetry. I would actually listen to you reading the phone book, as they say. That was very good. And we really appreciate their support.

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