The Daily Beast Podcast - What Trump Really Thinks of Women on His Team

Episode Date: December 12, 2025

Michael Wolff joins Joanna Coles to unpack Kristi Noem’s “Ice Barbie” theatrics at Homeland Security to Pam Bondi’s loyal remaking of the Justice Department. They explore how, for the people in Trump’s political orbit, loyalty and spectacle outweigh competence. Wolff and Coles dive into Corey Lewandowski’s influence, Alina Haber’s rocky rise, Jared Kushner’s allies, and the fractures forming among Trump’s women acolytes. Behind the headlines, they reveal a presidency driven by personal power, loyalty tests, and showmanship—where the inner workings are as unpredictable as the public drama. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I think the subject of the women around Trump is an interesting subject because they have been the people kind of most willing to be abject. Most willing to kind of sign up to, you know, we are the women of Donald Trump. And we have no pretense otherwise. We are here not because we have, we see an independent woman. life for ourselves. And we understand that we are here to exist only in the shadow of Donald Trump and to try to please him as we can. Michael. Joanna. So, so much to discuss. I'm still in Abu Dhabi for the Bridge Conference where we are discussing important things about misinformation and disinformation and where the media and the tech worlds has come to discuss such things.

What a snore. What a snore. It's actually not a snore. I've never been here before. And it's interesting. And as you're always saying, it's where people come to look for money. And there are a lot of people here looking for money. Yeah, no, it would be more interesting to talk about money than it would be to talk about

media. But each to us own. Well, there's some talk of money. Polymarkets said that the first firing of Trump's cabinet, would be Christy Noam. Do you have any thoughts on this? Well, my first my first thought is that it's remarkable how long people have lasted. This is very untrumpian behavior.

The fact that all of these people have stayed in place now for coming on, we're, we're coming up to the year mark. That's a long tenure in Trump world. So I think you have to ask, well, what's happening here? What has changed here? And I think that the answer is that he has successfully hired complete, utter, total lackeys. So what you get fired for mostly is you get fired for two things, maybe only one thing. And that is for getting too much press yourself, for taking credit, for being out front of Donald Trump.

And I suppose, yes, if you disagree with him in private. But that's even less so because it's very hard to disagree with Donald Trump because he's obviously, as we've discussed, talking all the time. So it's really your outward demeanor. But all of these people have been, you know, from one to another to another to another, have been abject in their devotion to Donald Trump, their public devotion. So, I mean, which is interesting because, because, you know, none of these, these people are all subcompetent in their own particular egregious way. But that doesn't get you fired. Although we might be getting to that point, Pete Hegseth, you know, let's draw a red circle around Pete.

Pete, and I would tend to think that Pete would be the first person to go. But there are some, yeah, as you say, some betting, you know, the Christy Gnome factor. I mean, Christy Noem is a spectacular idiot. I mean, among all of the idiots and Trump has cornered the market on them, Christy Noem may be the real thing. Remember, she's the shot the dog person. She's the shot the puppy person, right? It wasn't the dog even a puppy?

The reason that she has been in this job. And remember, there was, in terms of hiring someone to hire the shoot the dog person, the puppy person, is, I mean, it took a lot of, a lot of, You know, that's a real counterintuitive move. Why did he hire Christine Ome in this role? Because she was the governor of South Dakota. Can I just raise her nickname, which we coined at the Daily Beast, Ice Barbie, because she has a way of getting dressed up for the various things that Ice make her do, or that she wants to go on and take video opportunities?

That puts her, should put her in the firing line, right now because among the unpopular aspects of the Trump administration and everything every day becomes more unpopular. But among the most unpopular things are these ice raids. Because they're caught on camera. Masked men in black refusing to identify themselves, ripping people off the street, ripping people out of their homes, ripping families apart. I mean, what's not to love? So, and she has become quite the face of that. But step back and say, well, why is she in this, in, why, why does she have a cabinet post? She has a cabinet post because she has had a long running relationship. She's married. The person she's having this relationship with is married. This person is a

long-time Trump hanger on. I think that's pretty much how we would most accurately describe him. This is a man by the name of Corey Lewandowski, who was Trump's first kind of official campaign manager in 2016. He may have even started in 2015. And then he lasted for, well, until he lasted until they pushed him out, but not before having relationships with other Trump, other Trump staffers. He is a, I don't know, he must be very attractive. He's a friendly man. I think it's fair to say a friendly man. And when you say relationship, it's important to add that Christyne Hema's denied that they're having an affair, but he travels with her wherever they go. And he's an unofficial advisor or he's an official advice. He's got a

limited number of days he can work with her, I believe. Yeah, I don't know. And I mean, I don't know. I mean, I think he is on the Homeland Department payroll, but I don't know that for sure. But he must be on somebody's payroll. In the, I mean, he was, he had worked himself back. I mean, he's, the people in Trump world are always pushing him out. They hate him. And why do they, why do they hate him? In a world where everybody hates everybody, why do they, they're united in their hatred. They hate Cory Lewandowski more. And I think that he is even more than the other duplicitous people around Donald Trump. He is even more so. And he is even more feral in his efforts to be the person closest to Donald Trump.

So, and the reason that we're talking about him is because is he the reason that Christine Ame got the job? Yes, absolutely. So this was. As a favor to him. No, and it's interesting. So he came back into the, he was outside of the campaign or had limited purchase on the campaign. But then somehow he got Trump to, to, as a kind of a, he needed a page. So, you know, Trump called up the campaign, called up Susie Wiles and said, you know, poor Corey.

So they had to make a job for, for Corey. And then lo and behold, as soon as they made the job, then Corey started to announce far and wide that he was taking over the campaign. And then he would stalk around the headquarters in Palm Beach, you know, asking people what they do, moving desks. It was, and this was, I have to remember exactly when this, I think this was in August of the 2024, the entire campaign organization became, went into chaos. Who was Corey? What was he doing here? Who did he report to? Who was in charge? Was he here because Trump wanted him to be here? Or was he here just because he's Corey and he's an asshole? And nobody could figure this out. And then finally, the campaign leadership approached Trump. And they said, basically, we're going to quit if you don't get rid of this.

If you don't do something about this. So Corey was sent packing. But to be sent packing in Trump world is a strange thing. because if you're, you don't really, even if you, even if the entire organization rejects you, you may not have been rejected by Trump himself. Because if you are flattering enough, if you are abject enough, if you are perceived as loyal in the way Trump demands you to be loyal, then you remain Trump's guy. So Corey has been pushed out.

of Trump world, but not out of Trump's own world, if you know what I mean. Okay. So Trump world is the inner circle of people working very closely with him, but then Donald Trump has his own circle of people. Exactly. Exactly. Okay. You know, that's how Rudy Giuliani in the last administration got disastrously central to

what was going on. But so, so Corey, when when Trump was reelected and then Corey, this was Corrie's piece of patronage was to get his girlfriend the job in some. Okay, so she's now sitting atop Homeland Security. Yes. And so we don't know if we can say girlfriend because they deny. So they have denied this. no one that I know in the greater universe takes that denial seriously, but they have denied this. Okay, well, we should report that they have denied it. That's a report that they have denied it.

Okay. Have they denied it? I believe they've denied it. They've definitely denied it. So, Christy Noem, background governor or former governor of South Dakota is in charge of entirety of Homeland Security. She's a, again, it's just, this is just head-smacking. A person who has no, no experience, patently, no talent, is a famous, even in Trump world,

a famous dummy. There she is at the head of a very vital part of the government in the United States, particularly of Trump's government, because immigration, essentially, which the portfolio she holds, is so central to what they are trying to accomplish. Well, so she's in charge of border security, and she's in charge of the ice raids, which, as you say, have become wildly unpopular, largely because the videos that have spread on social media are heartrending of people being knocked to the floor of these terrifying figures. in masks, arresting people of choppers coming down in Chicago late at night, and just the

performative nature of some of these arrests. You know, and this is against the background. People have a lot of conflicting views on immigration. And obviously the Democrats have botched that issue entirely and completely, arguably, allowing Donald Trump to become the president of the United States. I mean, this is his, he has made it his issue, and it remains singularly important to him. And so why would he then go about the business of completely undermining the consensus that he has achieved there by having, let's just think this through. men in mask in black who refuse to identify themselves,

who are out on the streets engaged in all kinds of extra legal, you know, gestapo-like behavior. This is going to win your friends? It's beyond me. Yeah. And also what's striking about Ice Barbie as we refer to Christyneau. And thanks to our editor, Martha, for coming up with that title.

She appears to love dressing up in costume, in the costume of whoever she's going out with. So it might be the ice people. It might be the Coast Guard. She loves turning up with a gun. She loves turning up on horseback. She loves turning up with a big American cowboy hat on and playing a role as if she's, well, as if she's a Barbie doll alongside the, I don't know if you call them troops, whatever you call them,

but alongside her employees in her department. And as if the only thing that matters is her dressing in an appropriate costume. It's quite extraordinary. And let's go back to this friendship she has with Corey Lewandowski. how that has not been, you know, I don't know, a scandal. I mean, there's some, at some level Trump has, in the Trump administration, has broken all middle class requirements. Does Susie Wiles, who's supposed to have everything under control at the White House, what does she have to say about this? Well, I mean, you know, the Susie Wiles, and this is a good subject.

and I think this is an underreported subject that Susie Wiles, who has been given an enormous amount of credit for the relative efficiency, I think you might be able to call it, of the first year, has now, I mean, there are lots of reports that she's been, that she's being pushed somewhat to the side. Oh, really? Because she's chief of staff. I mean, the first, famously the first first, female chief of staff. Right. But, you know, so her idea of the chief of staff and her, in her own longevity in this, in this, in this role. Remember, there are four chiefs of staff in the first Trump White House is because she's not the chief of staff. I mean, she has sort of set her up as the first, I would say, the first chief administrator. Okay. So she's not, actually being so foolish as to think that she has any real decision-making power, which was a bit like, isn't that what the first four chiefs of staff and the first administration

ran into, that they actually thought they were going to behave like normal chiefs of staff? In a typical White House structure, the president is the CEO, the chief of staff is the C-O. And part of the portfolio of the chief of staff, is to be the top advisor to the President of the United States, in addition to be the person who gets the training, who implements policy and who is the essential boss of everybody in the executive branch. She has not done that role.

She doesn't advise the President of the United States. She has been very careful about overstepping anyone, in the executive branch who might have a direct relationship with the president of the United States. And the thing that is, I think, has most come back to shadow her is a perception that she is interested most of all in protecting herself rather than in protecting the president. So it's a kind of, I mean, I think that that has probably helped the first year. She has been that person who is, you know, she's an administrator. She has gone out there. She has made the trains run on time, which they never do. So, but when you say she's an administrator,

what is she administrating? What does that actually mean? A meeting, schedules, when things have to be done, how do you get them done? Whose responsibility are they? You know, the person in the back room who is making sure that everybody else is on top of what they should be on top of. You know, any organization needs this kind of person. And Trump's organizations have typically not had this person, but they have had her. And she has done, you know, she's done a pretty good job. But the, I mean, her, and certainly throughout the campaign, people, people would say this, that it doesn't matter what you say about the president. It just matters what you say about Susie for Susie Wiles.

And that has now begun to, that sense that she's looking out for, that she's number one, looking out for herself, rather than looking out for Trump. which is a very hard thing to do because then you start to look after Trump and then you start to give him advice, very bad idea. Very bad idea. So why is Christine Nome in the hot seat? Why is she number one on Polly Markets list of the first to be fired?

I couldn't tell you because I would put, you know, so many other people certainly up there. You know, I mean, I think Hegsith, as I've said, should certainly be up there. RFK Jr. Oh my God. Cash Patel. Cash Patel. Don't even mention it. Pam Bondi. Again and again and again and again.

It's such a run bunch. So why should she? You know, there is that kind of thing. I mean, this would be the traditional way you look at administration. Things start to go wrong. and things are, I mean, very clearly going wrong. The polls are against him. Every election so far has been a disappointment at best for him. So you shake things up. I mean, one of the things you do that is you replace people.

I mean, that's what you do in government. A, it sends a signal. And then it also is, you know, it's helpful, gives that sense of a new start. And, you know, and all of these, I mean, certainly, certainly she's, well, you're not going to lose anything by getting rid of her. So she would be a good person to sacrifice. Okay. And then you could sort of reframe the border, which I think people believe is under control now,

and stop the ice raid so that you don't get that stream of, of very unsettling unnerving videos in the run-up to the midterms. Yeah. Does she get blamed? But again, there is that Trump thing that he takes no blame. Even he refuses the blame that might be apportioned to people around him. There is no blame. Nothing is wrong.

Everything is great. Nothing is wrong. Nothing. So that makes it very hard for him to fire somebody. And a word from our sponsors. And Michael Wolf and I are back. Where else? Inside Donald Trump's head. Well, one of the reports I saw, I think perhaps in The Beast, said that the current rumor was that Glenn Yonkin, the outgoing Republican governor of Virginia, might end up being a plausible replacement for her.

That could happen in the new year. Yeah, that seems unlikely to me. I mean, in other words, that would be going back to the first administration where you actually put out, you know, tried to find plausible people who would work for Donald Trump. So in the second administration, that the strategy has been exactly the opposite of that. Forget plausibility. All you want people who, all you want are people who are going to be abject in their regard for Donald Trump. Donald Trump is the center of the universe. And if you have any doubts about that at all, you shouldn't, you're, it's very clear, you should not go into the administration. Glenn Yonkin is a, you know, he's a ambitious politician. You know, there are a scant few ambitious politicians in Trump world. I think the subject of the women around Trump is an interesting subject because they have been the people.

kind of most willing to be abject, most willing to kind of sign up to, you know, we are the women of Donald Trump, and we have no pretense otherwise. We are here not because we have, we see an independent life for ourselves. We are here, and we understand that we are here to exist only, in the shadow of Donald Trump and to do and to try to please him as we can. Well, except there's been a bit of pushback to that, started by Marjorie Taylor Green saying she's not going to be a battered wife. And then Lauren Bobert, another congresswoman, throwing her hands up in the air and saying this is a difficult administration for women and I might drop out to.

And then Nancy Mace got actually a bit of a slap on the wrist from the police in Charleston where she'd had a sort of breakdown at the airport and been screaming and effing and blinding at people. And those three who all voted against Trump and demanded with Thomas Massey and Roe Kahn, the release of the Epstein files, seemed to be putting up a bit of resistance to Trump at the moment. Yeah, well, they are not in the United States. administration. Let's make that that distinction. And Trump has has, I mean, I think that he has, in his regard for these women, is to see them in that light. They are, they are acolytes of his, women acolytes of, of Donald Trump. I think what we've seen is that he has overestimated their

willingness to be doormats. And that's, that becomes an, that becomes an issue because he becomes resentful of that. In other words, so Marjorie Taylor Green has now become somehow enemy number one from effectively Dormat number one. Now she's enemy number one. And remember, that's that that that that that that Trump thing. It's all binary. You're with me or you're against me. If you're against me, I am against you. So, so I think think we've seen that break there. The women who are in the administration, the cabinet members, remain quiesin, let's say. Pam Bondi has not shown, has not shown any interest in an independent life. the idea of independence.

I'm not sure she would even understand it or know what to do with it. Well, and of course she has now been forced to hire your friend, Alina Harbour, who got tossed from acting as the US attorney in New Jersey, although she said strangely, you can take New Jersey out of the... What is that strange expression? You can take the girl out of New Jersey, but you can't take New Jersey out of the girl. Yes. I read, being from New Jersey, I puzzled over this.

But following in the footsteps of Lindsay Halligan, who was illegally appointed as U.S. attorney in Virginia, Alina Harbour has now been, well, she's resigned after being found that she was illegally acting U.S. attorney in New Jersey. What are your thoughts on this? Well, I mean, let's go. I mean, he's appointed these people who are patently unqualified. These are, by any measure, not top of the class people. They have, I mean, and these are, you know, the, you know, a U.S. attorney's job is a, I mean, first thing, it is a very significant job. It's a very prestigious job. And it's a, you know, it's a complicated job.

And so to put these people, and I was going to say put these women, but I took that back because, you know, I mean, he would be delighted to put in some instances, has put, and men of no caliber whatsoever in these jobs. But I think that he feels more comfortable with women than men. I think he feels. more comfortable that women will be compliant, that women will be, will have no interest other than in doing what he wants to do. And I think that's what, that's what happened. Alina Haba, you know, certainly is, is, is that person. And now, but, but, but, but, but, but, but he's setting up a kind of conflict now, a curious conflict. conflict because I'm sure Pam Bondi does not want Alina Haba in anywhere near her. First thing, she's kind of, you know, I mean, poisoned goods at this point. But now she's been, Pam Bondi is kind of stuck. They had to do something with her. What are we going to do with Alina Haba? She can't, we can't, we can't sustain her presence in New Jersey in the office in New Jersey anymore. It's, it's all kinds of, I mean, the office is basically paralyzed.

Nothing can get, nothing can get done here. We have nowhere else and we can't, we can't, there is no court that is going to say, yes, you can have Alina Haba as the U.S. attorney. So we have to do something with her. Poor old Pambod, who's got a quiver of failed U.S. attorneys because she's also got Lindsay Halligan in there who famously just lost her case against Tish James and James Coebby. Right. So what are they going to do with Lindsay Halligan? I mean, Alina Haba has been a consistent kind of what are we going to do with Alina Haba question from the first days. You know, she wanted to be the press secretary, campaigned hard for that job. Nobody wanted her to have that job.

And why was that? Why didn't they want her? to have that job. Well, during the campaign, Trump spent a lot of time trying to saying to Alina Haba, you have to clean up your language. You can't talk like that. People don't talk like that. Women don't talk like that. You know what you sound like?

Because she swears a lot? Constantly, yes. It is not as if people haven't known that she is. is a not ready for prime time player. They have. And that's why she didn't get the most public-facing job in the White House, which is, which is the press secretary. And I think- Which has gone to Caroline leave it with her machine gun lips that Donald Trump loves so much. And then she wanted to be the, the U.S. ambassador to the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. She didn't get that job.

So there's a whole set of things. And then she got the prosecutor's job because, you know, that's what Trump has done. I mean, that's way, you know, all of these people, you know, that's the, that's one of the, his key issues. I need to control the prosecutor because I have people I want prosecuted. Who will do that? And really in many instances, because he's tried again and again and everybody quits or says no, he has to put in his own lackeys, these women who are not prosecutors, who are barely lawyers, and because they'll do what he wants to do. So that's how Alina Haba got that job. But now what to do with her?

Okay. And what do we know about Broilins, the Agriculture Secretary, who this week was announcing with Trump his $12 billion bailout to the farmers because the tariffs have meant that Chinese farmers or the Chinese government have stopped ordering as much. Certainly soybeans from American farmers, they've been very badly hit. Right. Well, Brooke Rollins ran the America. First. Opaq? Yeah. Yeah, AFPI. So she ran that. And she was, and this is significant, she was Jared's person. Okay. And there was a moment during the campaign when she, Jared, her group floated the balloon that she was going to be, the chief of staff. That was an interesting moment because everybody within the campaign was like, like, where did that come from?

That came from Jared. And that was an interesting moment because the fact that she did not become chief of staff was a signal that Jared was not ascendant. People were waiting for that signal. Is Jared going to come back into the White House? House. What is the nature of his power? So that was the signal that perhaps he was not ascendant. Now, this is complicated because Susie Wiles is also a Jared person. But she had more of an independent life than Brooke Rollins, who was entirely connected to Jared. Now, obviously, she got a big job. So Jared was not without influence within the, within the, White House and and his influence which waxes in Waynes seems to be waxing again at this point. But that's the, that's the, that's the, that's the, that's the, that's the, that's the, that's the, that's the

context. Well, let's go back to Pam Bondi a second though, too, because, because, you know, I mean, Pam is, you know, is, is, is, is, is, is central. I mean, I would say that, you know, again, you know, this, the Justice Department and control over the Justice Department and control over over over the power, that is to say, the prosecution, the prosecutorial power of the Justice Department is central to Donald Trump at this, at this point. And so, and so he put Pam Bondi into this job. And, you know, again, remember, it was going to be Matt Gates. And within the Trump circle, you know, I mean, Gates, everybody was going, oh, my God. You know, because, I mean, Matt Gates has been, has had so many problems.

And, you know, I mean, drug problems, allegations. Underage sex. All of it. I mean, just in a lightweight, a playboy. you know, had... Strange looking with his eyebrows, too. I mean, I wouldn't have thought that would appeal to Trump at all, because he's not central casting for an AG.

Oh, you know, I'm not sure about that. I mean, you know, I think the perception within the Trump world was that he, that, that Gates is actually handsome, a kind of rakeish, you know, Florida playboy kind of guy. Really? I think he looks like someone from Star Trek. Well, okay. slightly out of space. And, you know, and clearly Pam Bondi does not look, as you might think, an attorney general would look if you were casting this.

But you're the one that's always saying that Donald Trump said, you know, I may not have the best lawyers, but I've got the hottest lawyers. And of course, she was one of his personal lawyers. So she was also the U.S. attorney in Florida, right? She was, yes. but virtually everyone within the White House, I mean, this is, remember, it's Florida. You know, Florida makes an exception for almost every level of competence. But they would say that the only person less qualified to be the Attorney General in Florida than Matt Gates was Pam Bondi. And again, you know, she has been, she has displayed utter abject loyalty.

to Donald Trump. So Donald Trump's, I mean, I would say a key pillar of what he has wanted to do in the second administration was to take any aspect of independence from the United States Justice Department. And let's take a commercial break. And Michael and I are back inside Trump's head. Michael, which cases did she work on for? him because Elina Harbour did the Stormy Daniels case, right? So what was Pam Bondi doing? Because I know she was his personal lawyer too. You know, people say that she was the personal lawyer, and I'm sure that this is true, but certainly in the cases during the campaign, I mean, the four indictments, I don't know,

she was certainly not central to any of those cases. Okay. But she was still his personal lawyer? Yeah, I don't know. This, I mean, this seems to be now a generic title, Trump's personal lawyer. He was a personal lawyer because everybody, everybody is, I mean, first thing, he hires so many lawyers. So it is, it is possible.

And whether that was, you know, she's, she's, you know, whenever he gets a piece of advice that he doesn't like, He calls in another lawyer to, you know, he's always shopping for advice. But none of those cases, those four indictments, was she a, was she a central point person on? Okay. But she's certainly remaking the Justice Department as he wants her to do. Yes. Well, yes. He is remaking the Justice Department and she is just going along.

I really don't think that she has any, I mean, I understand, you know, he's on the phone with her constantly, basically giving orders, do this, do this, do this, do this. Well, and we saw the truth social post he put out, which was, in fact, I think, supposed to be a text to her because it started Pam. And then it was a long list of all the people he wanted indicted and why was it all taking so long? Do you remember? Yeah, no, of course. It was really a text to him and he, to her and he then put it out on social media. No, and that was basically, he was saying, Latisha James.

James Comey. Judge Comey. Jack Smith. Yeah, all of this. And obviously Letitia James, Comey and James, those have been thrown out because of just pure, the pure incompetence of not just the Justice Department, but mostly of Trump himself and the incompetence who he has put in to supersede the Justice Department.

So even an abject justice department, he might choose to supersede that. Nobody in the Justice Department will prosecute James Comey, so will Russell Lindsay Halligan out of her bed and put her in the job, which has been nothing less than catastrophic for it. I've got to imagine what the Justice Department's holiday party can possibly be like. Do you think they still have one?

Do you think Pam Bondi sort of buys drinks. They probably do. And I think they should invite us. I would love to go. Where do you think the holiday parties are going to be? Are they in the, I mean, what is Pete Hickser's holiday party going to be like? Obviously, his wife will be there. She turns up as a, you know, the whole idea of emotional support wife.

I mean, the, just the imagination boggles at the holiday party. that must be going on in government departments right now. Just remarkable. And let's add the context here to that everybody is aware that things are going south. This is not a- Economy, people feel that prices are going up. This is not a good moment for Trump world. And until recently, it had been a very good moment.

So, Michael, we have some questions for Melania. Okay. Shoot. Here's one from Tis Gould, Melania. Do you have a social security number and when did you get it? Do you remember how much it cost, in brackets, trick question? I like that. Where did you first meet Jeffrey Epstein?

Where did you first meet Gillen Maxwell? Will you be able to subpoena, should you subpoena, some of Gillen Maxwell's siblings? She's one of seven. Yeah, I mean, if that's relevant. I mean, most of them don't live in the country. The ones who do live in the country, yeah, it's possible, sure. But didn't you think that the birthday letter had been leaked by one of her brothers?

I do. But as I say, the brothers don't live in this country. So you can't subpoena people who live in the UK? Yeah, you can, but they don't have to come. Okay. But they might want to come because they're working very hard to get a pardon for their sister. Okay, so Michael, this is from Eric in San Diego. The east wing of the White House has traditionally been used by the First Lady and her staff.

Did you agree to its destruction? Good question. We've had so many questions. We've got a very thoughtful one from a German trauma therapist. That question was a little bit. bit long to read out. Helena 17N71 says, ask Melania if her husband has the qualifications to be a leader of this great country and what these credentials might be.

Okay. I think we can get there. Okay. Jet 619. Question for Melania. How does she feel about the odd burial of Ivana on the golf course? Does she think Ivana is really in that coffin? And does she want to be buried?

Trump's ex-wife's cemetery as well. Exactly. That's a good one. Where if you're Melania Trump do you want to spend eternity? Yes. And then Stephen Pemberton wants to know, asked Melania, what are the duties of a first lady? Or alternatively, what was she told of the duties of a first lady? What is her understanding of the duties of a first lady? Okay.

Good. Thank you. And I think we know that Christmas is certainly a duty of it, and she was reading, how does Santa come down the chimney? Does he wear night goggles or night vision goggles? No, Pete Hexeth wears those. I made that joke in our last podcast, but I quite liked it. So I thought I would make it again.

It's just a strange thing to have a children's book, Night Vision goggles. Why would children know what they were? They are a tool of the military. Very odd indeed. Yes, anybody who has, would like to contribute to the upcoming deposition of the First Lady, please. We are taking suggestions. Ask what you would like. Okay, well, Michael, we'll be back on Saturday with more info. Please call your friends in the White House and find out what's happening with the holiday parties.

I'm very intrigued. Will it be like the holiday parties, during COVID at number 10 Downing Street where spads, as they are known, special advisors were taking in suitcases, suitcases full of alcohol. The entire country was on lockdown. The queen had to sit on her own the night before the funeral

for her husband of 200 years, Prince Philip, never has a monarch looked so far. frail as the queen sitting isolated in a mask at the funeral in St. George's Chapel in Windsor, and the night before number 10 led by Boris Johnson was throwing back as much alcohol as they could. The Brits party a lot better than the Americans. Any party in Washington, D.C. pales before almost any other party. So I wouldn't get too excited about this. Well, all I can say is I'd never heard of a Red Solo Cup before I move to America. Brits do take partying quite seriously.

I'm always disappointed to miss holiday parties in Britain, actually, because much alcohol is consumed, much food is laid out, always lots of hands. Yes, whereas in the U.S., the goal is to miss the holiday party. Your goal is to miss the holiday party. I think most people, if were they to be honest, you know, people go to holiday parties, you know, dutifully. Well, I hope they don't go to the Daily Beast holiday party dutifully. We are definitely having a holiday party and you are coming to it, sir. You are definitely coming to it.

It's at a very groovy club. Yep, yeah. It will certainly be the trendiest, coolest place you've been for a long time. We're going to drag you in from Amagamza. All right. Well, if you have been, thank you for joining us. Don't forget to subscribe to the Daily Beast. podcast, please join our Daily Beast community. We are independent media, so we appreciate your

support. And what else should we say, Michael? And we should thank our top-level members, and they are Sandra Clark, Methinks, Travel with Carl, Andrew Beaver, The Cappanator, Harry Clark, Dawn McCarthy, Daniel Dogglover, M. Griner, Fuller, Olivia Orlando, Herbie, Andrew Melor, Lazz Conde, Bonzo, Val Love Francesco, Andrea Hodel, Bocock, D.C., Sharon Shipley, Connie Rutherford, Karen White, Heidi Riley. Thank you all. Thank you, Devin, Anna, and Jesse. Want more great listens?

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