The Daily Beast Podcast - Why Billions Won’t Save Trump from Crushing Defeat

Episode Date: October 28, 2026

Michael Wolff and Joanna Coles debate whether Democrats can take the Senate as the midterms approach, with Wolff predicting a sweeping defeat for Trump and Coles warning that Republican money could still make the difference. They turn to a new House Judiciary Democrats’ report on Trump’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, including allegations about their ties to the modeling industry, and ask whether the story will finally affect voters. Wolff also discusses Princes and Thieves, a new book about Jared Kushner’s dealings with Persian Gulf leaders, and says its author contacted him after Kushner threatened legal action. From Elon Musk’s election spending to the money flowing through Trump’s family, they trace what a Democratic Congress might investigate. #ad Go to https://san.com/insidetrumpshead to get the unbiased truth on the stories that matter, only on the Straight Arrow app. Let’s exit the echo chamber. Read the House Judiciary Democrats' staff report here: https://democrats-judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/democrats-judiciary.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/2026-10.hjc-dems-staff-report-epstein-and-trump.pdf Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I think the Democrats are going to win the Senate. Trump is going to lose the United States Congress. I just think the feeling has coalesced into quite a consensus that Donald Trump is a seriously bad guy. Finally, interesting when the obvious becomes obvious to everyone. The velocity of the contempt for Donald Trump. There really is a chance that it will overcome all of that. The Republicans have limitless money. It doesn't matter how much money you have.

The contempt for Donald Trump overwhelms that. Michael. Joanna. You're Michael Wolfe, author of four books on Donald Trump. You're Joanna Coles, who runs The Daily Beast. Thank you. And we are here to go inside Donald Trump's head to figure out what on the earth is going on in the president's head, because it's all become about him. So, please like, share.

and follow this podcast with your friends, with your frenemies, with your colleagues, with anyone you want to talk about politics with. And on election night, we are going to be live. We're going to be live in our studio. So please send us your comments, your questions. Unless we're dead. Well, don't say that. Well, I'm just trying to think. I mean, you never know what these elections go.

they could, I mean, it could be, I think it's going to be actually a very good night, but it could be bad. I'm slightly more cautious because I've thought previous elections were going to turn out better than they did. So I'm now much more suspicious of the polling and so many of the races are so tight. They are so tight and well within the margin of error. We will be here talking you through them or talking ourselves through them. We're going to start at 8 p.m. on election night. Eastern time. In the studio talking for hours.

Obviously, we'll have constant updates from our newsroom, which is right outside the studio. Yeah, no, no. We'll give the news, but what we want to provide, obviously, is context. Then what we want to think about is what's in Trump's head. Yeah. As his world possibly collapses. As his world implodes. We are back in the studio.

from Los Angeles. From Los Angeles. That was so much fun. Having a live audience, now it feels here we are in the studio, but where is our crowd? No, I could do that every day. That's embarrassing to say. We need an audience as much as Donald Trump needs an audience. I can see, listen, I can see the attraction.

It's intoxicated. Anyway, thank you. Big thank you to all of those who came out. We had so much fun. And I love the meet and greet where we actually got to meet people. It was so fun. Yeah, no. And it's really nice to look out over a sold-out crowd.

Yes, it is. Sold out. Oh, yes. Those are magical words. Sold-out. Yes. Anyway, we've got six days now until the midterms. Jesus, what are we going to do afterwards?

Oh, we're going to wait. Actually, I think it may well be a totally new world. So we can. Let's not go there yet. Okay. Well, let's assume that by the end of next week, we'll have a sense of what's happened in the House and what's happened in the Senate. And the candidates are off. It's really the candidates are on the starting blocks because this is the beginning of 2028.

Yeah, no. I mean, and it will be the candidates on the starting block under the thumb of Donald Trump or not. Or not. or not. And also it will be J.D. Vance, Marco Rubio, Hexeth, R.F.K. Jr., plus another crowd, all beginning to pull away from him. Or not. I think they will all be trying to separate. Well, I think. I mean, let's say, what do you think is going to happen? So, I was in Texas for the weekend. Admittedly, Austin, which is supposedly... The old I was in Texas for the weekend. Yes.

Is it an old one? I don't, I think I've never said those words before. Anyway, I was in Austin, admittedly a blue dot, but I will tell you the people I talk to who are living and working in Texas said, Texas right now is kind of great and nobody thought that James Tolariko is going to win. So, who knows? There you are on the record. We're going to remember that. I think he's going to win.

Okay. I mean, I think Tala RICO is going to win. I think the Democrats are going to win the Senate. I think it's going to be that the United States Congress is Trump is going to lose the United States Congress. Does that mean that suddenly the most important man becomes John Fetterman? Does John Fetteman hold the balance of power? I don't think so because I think it will be, I think the Democrats will get 52 seats. You really do?

So you think Susan Collins is going down? I do. You think Troy Jackson is going to win over Susan Collins? I do, but she doesn't have to. You know, I've changed. They don't have to. There are so many seats now that are up for grabs that they can lose that seat. Okay, they can afford to lose Susan Collins.

Do you think that Abdul Al-Sayed is going to win in Michigan? I do. I do. I actually am not sure he's going to win. No, okay. this is so you don't think the Democrats are going to take I just want to want a record here you don't think the Democrats are going to win the Senate I actually don't think the Democrats are going to win the Senate I think obviously they'll win the House by serious

majority there there is but I do not think that they are going to win the Senate I think the Senate hangs in the balance there it is America log that I will probably be completely wrong and it will be a massive lose to not. The girl from Yorkshire. Yeah, who doesn't think the Democrats are going to win the Senate. I don't think I don't know why I do. I don't know why I'm feeling this way because I have.

Because it's a beautiful day outside. It's a crisp all day. We are feeling optimistic. And I just think the feeling has coalesced into quite a consensus that that Donald Trump is a seriously bad guy. Finally, the obvious, it's always interesting when the obvious becomes obvious to everyone. I agree that he's a bad guy. I am just concerned that people aren't, I know what you're, you're, I think Elon Musk has put an enormous amount of money into people getting out the vote. You know, the operations on the ground for the Republican Party are really

extensive. All of that. Absolutely. But that's the velocity of the contempt for Donald Trump, that it is, that there really is a chance that it will overcome all of that. That money doesn't, there's basically the Republicans have limitless money. So if the Democrats win, that is against, I mean, that's a marker. It doesn't matter how much money you have. The contempt for Donald Trump overwhelms that. Yes. And I think that James Talleyco has done a very smart thing to pivot to say he's running against Musk,

that Musk has poured over 250 million into Texas alone. And Tala Rico is now like, you know, Musk is trying to buy this election. I think that's all very effective messaging. I just, I just didn't hear it actually. You haven't seen the Texans I spoke to. You haven't seen the Musk movie yet.

No, I'm dying to see the Musk movie. And my promise to you is that I will see the Musk movie before Saturday, so we can talk about it on Saturday. That's, well, does that mean that I have to see it? I don't have four hours to sit in a movie theater. Of course you do. You can settle into the East Hampton or the Sag Harbor movie. houses, both of which are delightful and let it wash over you.

Unless my children are ready to sit with me in a four-hour documentary about Elon Musk, I'm not going to be able to do it. Well, it depends how good the movie is, right? At 11, your daughter's 11, right? Yes, and she could do it, but my five-year-old not likely. Why can't your five-year-old watch Toy Story 5 in the neighboring in the adjacent room? because you get arrested. I suppose you do.

Well, anyway, I actually am dying to see it. And I think this election has become about Elon Musk. We can vote Donald Trump out. We can't vote Elon Musk out. His money is everywhere. There's now, you know, rumors that he's invested a billion dollars into David Ellison's new Warner Brothers studio. I mean, he's cropping up everywhere. I think later on in the, in today's episode, we're going to talk about a

book about the Amarades who did exactly the same thing. With unlimited money, they set out to use that money to influence American opinion and to buy America's leaders. Well, to buy Jared Kushner specifically. Well, they would have bought anyone, yes. But Kushner was the easiest to buy yet. Staying informed of what's going on in the world is overwhelming and with good reasons. in a time of media bias and mistrust, it's tough to know what the truth is. That's where our sponsor, Straight Arrow, comes in. Straight Arrow focuses on the facts and context behind the stories that matter.

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Go to s-a-n.com slash Daily Beast to get the unbiased truth on the stories that matter only on the straight arrow app. Let's exit the echo chamber. So we're going to talk about Jared Kushner and their book Princes and Thieves, which immediately sent me down the song, Gypsies and the Thieves by Cher, which we can't. play, sadly, because it would just... It's too expensive to play. We have the book. Yeah, we have the book. Michael's even read the book.

And I've read the book. I've read the book. I've read the book. I've spoken to the author. I'm very... I mean, this is one of the most important books of the Trump administration. Great. And this is said by a person who believes he has written four of the most important books

about the Trump administration. Yes, that is praise indeed, actually. He should have that on the paper back. jacket. All right, so we're going to talk about that. We're going to talk about corruption and whether or not the largest story of corruption, whether or not it's a sleeper issue. You saw your friend Barack Obama now back on the campaign stage campaigning his heart out in Michigan. Yeah, very powerful. I mean, what a good campaigner. I mean, it feels historic when you see him on the campaign stage, I think. So we're going to talk about that and whether or not corruption is now

resonating as an issue, which it really hasn't been. And then, of course, we could talk about Venezuela and the fact that I think perhaps unexpectedly Maria Machado is back in Venezuela. More problems for Trump. Yeah, more problems for Trump. And possibly Marco Rubio, just as he was limbering up to set himself up for 2028. And most importantly, your old friend Jeffrey Epstein, back and haunting the president in a report that the Democrats have produced, which is, what is it, 57 pages long I got through, or 53 pages, I got through 27 of it. The House Democrats on the Judiciary Committee have issued their own reports, essentially, what would be called a minority report.

Okay, which is very effective. Well, it's very compelling, yes. I mean, you sent me. text saying read the first page of this. 27 pages later, I looked up and it's so compelling to read. And it's really a compilation of all the complaints against Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump. I mean, I think that the effective thing about this is, is it makes the case, and in fact, let me say it is the case that I have been arguing for many years now, that when you, in order to understand who Donald Trump is, you have to understand his life in the

1990s with Jeffrey Epstein as his BFF or wingman or whatever. Someone, he was all, I mean, they, together, they pursued girls and money. And most specifically models that there are. obsession, their mutual obsession, their fundamental link was about models, models, models. They were a, it was almost, it's almost a, I think probably a fetish that they were, they weren't interested in women per se. They were interested in women who were models. And they had a network of modeling agencies. This is Jeffrey Epstein, Donald Trump, and then three or four characters in Europe, Paulo Zampoli, who owned ID models and who Melania insists in her book introduced her to

Donald Trump. But according to this report, it's highly likely that Jeffrey Epstein, as you have always maintained, introduced Maloney to Donald Trump. And as Maloney has threatened to sue me on precisely that issue. Right. So I'm going to read from the first page, I'm going to read from the executive summary, and I really recommend reading this entire document. It is really compelling. And frankly, horrifying by the end of it, or only halfway through, 27 pages in, I was just like, this is horrifying. I just don't think I can read anymore. The historical record shows that Trump was a close friend and confident of Epstein. Trump flew on his jet with Epstein's victims and made shared references to lusting after young women. We know all that. The record shows

that Epstein and Trump worked with other predators like Paolo Zampoli and John Casablancus, exploited the thin veneer of professionalism offered by the 1990s modeling industry to lure victims into their orbit. The evidence, much of it's still hiding behind redactions in DOJ Volz, shows that Trump lied about kicking Epstein out of his Mar-a-Lago club and strongly suggests that Epstein introduced to Trump to his wife, Melania. The evidence demonstrates that Trump has lied about the nature and extent of his relationship with Epstein dozens of times, incriminating behavior for someone who supposedly has nothing to hide. And it's an indictment of the Epstein Files. No, I mean, it's, to me, it's fascinating because basically that is a summary of exactly

what I have said over now many years. And this story has gone this way and that way and this person trying to, you know, the Trump administration has said, no, it's those people. And Trump has said, not him. And then there's all of the lies that Trump has spun, including that Mar-a-Lago lie, which I have flagged again and again in which the New York Times still always kind of says, this is what Trump says. You can stop at the New York Times. It's not true. Trump did not expel Jeffrey Epstein from Mar-a-Lago. And it actually, I think it makes this, this report or this version of the story, and of course, is a version of the story, but it makes it makes it easier to understand.

You know, this idea of sex trafficking, I've always thought confuses everything. And what it is is this model thing. They were in business. They were their network was this model network of these were girls who wanted to be models. They were, they thought Epstein and Trump were offering them something. And then this became the, this became this. I mean, it was for the girls, it was about careers for Epstein and. And Trump, it was about exploitation.

It was about power. And a lot of these girls were 14. They were being brought from Eastern Europe and Russia with the promise of what appeared to be a very exciting, glamorous future. And they were all very pretty. The thing that they had in common was that these were exceptionally pretty girls or photogenic. So they had an opportunity to be a model. Some of them went on to be models.

Most of them ended up either exploited or doing sort of terrible modeling jobs. for which they got paid almost no money, and then they filtered out of the industry. So again, these stories, this whole story, this long story of Epstein and Trump is difficult to understand. And people say, and they've said to me for years, as I've been telling this story, well, you don't mean Donald Trump was interested, was a, was a, was a, was a, was a, you don't mean he was interested in young girls. And everybody goes, well, that's, I have, he's the person.

President of the United States. I mean, it seems that the leap of understanding that that's required there is, I suspect, too great. But what is not hard to understand is that they were in this world of models. They were in business to be in this world of models. They made money from it, and they exploited it. And they did this together. And that was the life of Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump for many, many years. Right. And they were passing girls to and from each other. And there was a premium on taking someone's virginity.

That I don't know. I mean, I don't know. You can see it. You can see that, you know, with one particular girl, Jeffrey Epstein is furious that Donald Trump says he's had sex with her and he goes on to rape her according to this document. And we should recommend everybody should read this because it's such, as you say, it just ties the pieces together. so you can understand how they each set up modeling agencies.

It just creates a world in which once you separate that and say, this is the world, this is the environment, this is the, this is the climate, the social climate in which they function. It makes sense. And you can say, Jeffrey Epstein is a bad guy. and focus there. But the real focus, I believe, is that should be on that Donald Trump is the president of the United States. He became the president in the United States. And this is, this man, again, Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump, one ended up in the darkest prison, the other in the

White House. And that is the story that's going to confound history. It's very well put together. A lot of women contributed their stories to this and a lot of people have been instrumental in helping Jamie Raskin who authored the document or under whose egress this comes out in making sense of what is a complicated narrative. And of course, we go back to the interview with Todd Blanche and Gillesne Maxwell in Florida

where he specifically warns her of talking about a particular thing. And actually, I read that transcript and sort of read over that, didn't understand the significance of it. I feel compelled. The report is compelling and everybody should read it. But I also feel compelled to point out that this is a report on the part of the Democrats. It is basically a compilation of putting together press stories, many of them clearly, clear in their bias.

And so again, this is not in any way the last words, but it is a portrait that is certainly worth reading. Well, it's certainly worth reading. And also, of course, the timing you have said for some time, why aren't the Democrats using the Epstein story? Why aren't they using the Epstein files that Donald Trump and all his podcast is down? Mbonjino, Kash Patel, all demanded be released. And then, of course, the minute he got into office, they didn't want to release them.

And then, you know, Pam, this is also, this is also, and this is part of the context of understanding this, they've, the Democrats have released this in the week before the election. Of course, right. Now, having said that, I'd also like to recall that we released, you and I released, in the week before the 2024 election, essentially material tapes from Jeffrey Epstein talking in recordings about essentially saying exactly what this report is saying about Donald Trump. And what effect did that have? No effect at all. It has taken so long for people to understand the Epstein story is a real story.

and a real reflection on Donald Trump. It's just taken much longer than anyone would have expected. And again, let's emphasize that it is a reflection on Donald Trump. So the Epstein story, you can go this way and that way about it. And there's all kinds of important components and all kinds of people are involved in this in doing things that clearly should not have been done. But really that pales before the fact that Donald Trump, a man at the center of this story, became the president of the United States. Right.

And we should doubt that Donald Trump, of course, denies the allegations, but no wonder he has his people running the DOJ. Of course he denies these allegations. I mean, it's such a funny thing when people say, well, Donald Trump denies these allegations. allegations when we know that, of course, he would deny these allegations. And of course, he is the world's greatest liar. We're going to flag up the address because I cannot recommend you reading this document highly enough. We will put the address on the screen if you're viewing. And if you're not, we will put it in the description, the episode description box to make sure that you have the opportunity to read it.

I want to go to the day after the election, and this is related to the Elon Musk of it all. What happens? Let's just assume that my gut is right on this, and the United States Congress is taken over by the Democrats. What happens to all of the corporate suckups we've met for the past two years? almost two years now. And with Musk leading the pack, obviously. Do you mean what do the Democrats decide to do? Well, I think what do the Democrats do?

But I'm more, I'm almost more interested in what these guys, I think they're all guys. You mean what Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Sergey, Brian, Jeff Bezos. Yes. So in such a, you know, on their belly fashion, what do they do now? How do they? Well, they do what CEOs always do, which is they pivot to the Democrats. And I'm sure that most of them have been playing both sides all along. I don't know. You know, this is. I mean, these are, these examples are pretty abject. Remember, these are the guys who show up in the White House sit around the cabinet table and offer Trump humiliating. Congratulations and praise. What do they do now? They swivel to the Democrats. I mean, they're answerable to shareholders, right? The reason that they're going to Trump is not because they love Trump.

It's because they've got a business to run and they don't want Trump to interfere and say, guess what, we're going to slam extra tariffs on you and China. Well, they have a credibility problem, to say the least, that you think they just ignore that and everybody just ignores that. I think people look at the stock price of the business and they think, wow, Facebook or meta, I think they look at Apple and they think, thank goodness, I bought Apple shares three years ago. And what happens when they are hauled before Congress, which they all inevitably will be? I think they will say, look, we were put in an impossible position. The president made it clear if we didn't do this, it would be bad for business.

And I've also supported the Democrats. I mean, remember, there's all sorts of lobbying going on in the background that we don't see, but we know that there are all sorts of lobbying efforts going on with Democrats and all sorts of funding of Democratic candidates. Well, and so you think that, which is to say, are you saying, that the Democrats will punt because they want the corporate money to? Yes. That's exactly what I'm saying.

Well, that's an interesting thing. So we're at this interesting moment. the Democrats want the money or will they want the, will they want the, will they want the, you know, the votes really that they might get for a continuing tsunami of Trump contempt? What is more valuable to them? I think they're going to want to do business with Jeff Bezos. They want to go into business with Apple. I think it's, I'm not sure.

that that's true. I think the political money, the political value is on the side, will be on the side for months and months to come of damning anyone who was associated with Donald Trump. Well, and I'm sure that you will find CEOs having clashes with their schedules when they're supposed to be seeing the president or when the president wants to see them. I think you will see far fewer of those events, those state dinners where Donald Trump shows off the essentially people from Silicon Valley. I mean, it'll be very interesting to see what happens with the wealth tax in California and whether or not that gets passed.

That's become a political hot potato for Democrats in California. But I think you're going to see, as you are with politicians around Trump, a separation. And I think I'm going to see with CEOs. I want to ask you about that wealth tax. Because why do you think that's a hot potato for Democrats? Because a lot of unions in California are against the wealth tax. Yeah, I mean, who do they have to vote for? They don't have Republicans to vote for.

Our friend Steve Hilton is not going to be elected because of this wealth tax or because of anything else. Although I'm very fond of Steve. Well, we both said, in fact, I got some criticism in the comments saying, you're a friend of Steve Hilton. How could you be? Well, we're both long-time friends of Steve Hilton. And actually, I think he's run a good campaign. I love Steve Hilton.

Focusing on the issues that actually matter to people, which is, you know, my son, who I spent the weekend with, lives in Los Angeles. And he came up with what I thought was a very good line because he was talking about the homelessness in L.A. And he said, you know, he's lived in the first world. He's spent time in the third world. And he said, L.A. is really the fourth world. It's like first and third world together, but the level of homelessness and degradation. And there's nothing progressive about this. This was a line that Daniel Lurie, the mayor of San Francisco, used in his campaign,

that is nothing progressive. There are no progressive values about homeless people dying on the streets from drug overdoses. And it's a long, it's so overdue that someone resolves this issue. Well, I couldn't agree more. but I want to just find the segue there. The segue there is the Democrats. I think Steve Hilton's been very effective on focusing on the issues which impact people in California. I don't think he's going to win by any chance,

but I think he's focused in on the homelessness and the degradation for people living on the streets and the fear that people have as they drive around L.A. I, I, I, what do I want to say here? I want to say yes, absolutely. Oh my God, we're not going to agree. No, we're not going to agree. Because, I mean, everybody is focused on that issue. But the problem is no one has been able to solve that issue.

So, and as much as I like Steve Hilton, and I do, do I think Steve Hilton could solve the issue of homelessness in California? Well, I tell you what you do see. I'm not even going to answer that question. I tell you what you do see and what people in San Francisco are saying is that the mayor there has made a remarkable difference. And it's true that you would go to San Francisco five, six, seven years ago, which I used to do regularly. And it was as if you were in the zombie apocalypse. There were so many people.

You know, that terrible thing that when you've had too much fentanyl, it causes you to do where you basically stand. No, I don't, Joanna. All right. Well, you basically bend over standing. It's as if you have fallen asleep, standing up and bending over. It was truly shocking the level of it in San Francisco, and you simply don't see that anymore. Okay. I hope Daniel Lurie runs for president at some point because he seems highly, highly competent at getting that city sorted out.

Can we move on to this other subject, which I find totally fascinating because it has been so glaring. And so, I don't know, difficult to, difficult for everybody to grasp, maybe because it has no clear characters and it's all about money. Trump has made since he came to the White House for this second time between $2 and $4 billion. Let's just say that again, between $2 and $4 billion. You said he had a number, which was $100 billion. He wanted to leave the White House having made $20 billion and with deals in place that would yield him $100 billion when he returns to Mar-a-Lago for his family, that this was his oligarch dream. So for his family, who've essentially abandoned him, his wife is no longer there. He didn't go to his son's wedding. But they have not abandoned his money.

I thought you were going to talk about these pictures. We can come back to corruption in a minute. But can I just, I want to display these fantastic pictures. For those listening, I'm actually pointing to pictures of Don Jr. in full camo gear with a Mongolian guide. He has gone hunting in Mongolia. It turns out this is a trip that he took in August with his friend, the oligarch Omar Klemlev, who paid for his wedding.

Turns out he also paid for him to go on a hunting trip. My friend Umar. Umar, Umar Keremlev, who didn't attend the intimate wedding, but paid for the wedding party and showed up and is inadvertently, because he was clearly left out of the official pictures, but inadvertently crops up in some of Bettina Anderson, John Jr's new wife's friends, Instagram posts, the tall man at the back. Okay, this is just, we're segueing into this corruption issue. There is a fantastic picture of Don Jr. here in full fur hat. He's got a falcon. I think that's, is that a falcon or is it an eagle clutched on his arm with a man in full Mongolian dress? It's just fabulous. I really hope people can see these pictures. If you only listen, it's worth looking on YouTube for these pictures because they are fantastic. Anyway, let's get back to the. Corruption. Yeah, the level of corruption. Corruption. The problem is the word corruption.

Everybody hears the word corruption and that's like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Although you know when Barack Obama talked about incompetence and corruption, it got a huge cheer. Yeah, no, I think people, I mean, apparently, I mean, the polls are showing that this is finally emerging as a significant issue, which God knows it should. And maybe it is part of Elon Musk emerging as an issue. But this is, I mean, we have a White House, which is ruled on every level by how much money can be made. This is just pure money.

I mean, Donald Trump is the rap on Donald Trump is most often an ideological rap. But the truth is that the ideology, what does it mean to him? It is just, it is the backstop for how much money he can make. Okay. Well, the other person that apparently has been making gobs of money, and we already know that he got $2 billion from the Saudis to set up affinity partner, his private equity venture investment fund is Jared Kushner. I know you've been reading.

Okay. Yeah. Let's, let's, okay. Here is, here is the book, which I think is one of the most important written. to date other than my own, about the Trump era. And it's this book, which is really about Jared's, Jared Kushner's relationship and through Jared, his father-in-law, Donald Trump's relationship to the Persian Gulf wealth. I mean, and so you can set this in a, in a larger, a larger context. One of the things that has happened in this the past decade or so, probably

decade plus, is that all of this money in the Persian Gulf, and specifically in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, the United Arab Emirates, is that this money, so much money, so much, so much free cash has become a central magnet of the world's financial system, the world's, the world's commerce. Everybody wants Persian Gulf money. Because, why? Because it's available and it's unlimited. it. So that became when when the, when Trump came into office in 2017, bringing along his son-in-law from who with, with his relatively scant experience in the real estate business and having owned a small newspaper in Manhattan. That's basically Jared's. New York Observer, which was essentially a real estate magazine?

Well, it became a real estate magazine under Jared. Prior to that, it was not. It was a, it was a kind of, you know, kind of interesting gossip lifestyle sheet on the Upper East Side. He bought it for influence and then was annoyed that it wasn't making money. And so he tried to turn it into a real estate sheet. But at any rate, they came into the way. White House knowing nothing about nothing about nothing, including nothing about diplomacy, nothing about the organization of the world order. And suddenly, Jared, you received the portfolio of the Middle East. I mean, this is extraordinary. Jared Kushner, a person without any experience whatsoever receives essentially a mandate from the President of the United States.

Go deal with this issue. And he becomes almost immediately a pawn of the money in the Middle East. And can we say a pawn and a beneficiary? Yes, well, upon and then he became obviously enamored with the money in the Middle East. Although he is then has an official position in the White House, he is still functioning essentially as a person, not without an official position, a, you know, a business guy, a hopeful business guy. I need money. I need capital.

In that four years, he makes relationships with the money in the East, with the key figures in the Middle East, which would be. MBZ, who runs the United Arab Emirates, and MBS who runs Saudi Arabia, the two princes. And then reaps the benefit of when he is out of the White House, starts his own fund, fund wholly based on Middle Eastern Persian Gulf money. And then in this next administration comes back in, but even here, I mean, he understands it's much easier to function if you're not an official. So he is within this White House has all the power of an official and none of the responsibilities

of an official and is crafting instrumental in crafting the policy in the Middle East which will benefit him and the Trump family. Well, and one of the things, I haven't read the book, but I did read Fintanautil's review of the book in the New York Times today. And one of the things he says in it is that actually it leads up to the war on Iran because the UAE hates Iran. They also hate Qatar. Jared is trying to play them off against each other, as is Trump. And essentially, this is part of what drives Trump's bombing campaign on Iran. Yeah. So anyway, this book, there's a couple of interesting things now about this book is that Jared has, of course, of course, responded and say, this is,

this is categorically untrue. This is insanity. And actually, Matthew Cole, the author of this, this book, who I don't know, but who called me when he was doing research for this book. So I am a minor source in this book. But he also called me yesterday. And because the book is coming out, Jared is threatening him. And so he called me and said, well, what do you, you know, he's threatening him with legal action. Yeah. And he is, and Matthew Cole said, you know, I just, whatever, because I've gone through this, whatever advice you can, you can offer. So I think I I offered him a little advice. I mean, I said, you know, this is when, when, when, and he was doing some television yesterday

and say, what do I say when, you know, when they say, well, Jared says this isn't true. And I think, and again, that's one of those, one of those things that people say in the, the media feels it has, it has, it has, it is compelled to give. equal weight to that kind of denial. I think he's also been incredibly arrogant about previous layers of diplomats, which we know the State Department has been hollowing out. There are all sorts of ambassador jobs which haven't been filled. His arrogance sort of saying, oh, these are all experts.

They're people who've studied the history of these places, but there's nothing like a business deal to pull people together. the way to get peace done as he and Steve Wickehoff, as you frequently pointed out, was Trump's golfing buddy, have trotted around the world and consistently failed to deliver this anywhere. Right. And part of the point of this book is that they did become pawns. They are being played by all of this money. I mean, the other thing that Matthew Cole told me is that is that when Jared came out and said, this is not true and I'm going to sue you. That Matthew Cole's appearances on CNN were immediately canceled. So once again, and I mean, that happened,

that happened in my last book, that that's exactly what happened to me. And once again, the media on this runs scared of the Trump administration. They just run scared. They're just, they're just cowards. They're, I mean, what, I mean, you just have to sort of shrug, which I discuss this with Matthew Cole. There's there's nothing you can do. They are going to do the most on their belly things. Well, what I find interesting is it's published by Simon and Schuster, which is now owned by KKR, right? KKR bought it last year. So I wonder if KKR will come under pressure from Trump or from Jared to either bury the book. And it feels like it came out and it suddenly came out. Vanity Fair had an excerpt of it. I didn't know about it. Did you know about it?

Well, I mean, I know about it because I've. Oh, because you've spoken to him, of course. But it feels like it came out sort of under the cover of secrecy. Well, that's how that's how these books. That's how you try to publish these, these books. So the other interesting. The first thing about it is that there are apparently screen grabs of Jared's phone, right, which is presumably what gave Simon & Schuster the confidence that this was real. The Dutch intelligence discovered that the Russians had hacked Jared's phone and then had screen grabs of activity on the phone. Yeah, no.

I mean, I think the, I mean, the glowing review in the New York Times today will help the book. I mean, it's that kind of thing. Everybody stands back and says, oh, you know, I mean, everybody is afraid, especially CNN, especially CNN. Well, what is your advice to Matthew Cole? Because when you were in that position with all or nothing, you went on to Instagram. I just said, I'm not going to do this anymore and converted myself into, and with the aid of my wife, by the way, into, you know, built a social media platform. I mean, you cannot trust any of these traditional media platforms of, you know, media companies, which are owned by other media companies, which are in turn owned by other media companies. which are ultimately owned by the Saudis and the Amaradis.

Right, right. Well, this might be a perfect time to say, we are independent media. Please subscribe to Inside Trump's Head on The Daily Beast. And CNN, by the way, it has been acquired by a company. It's been acquired by Paramount, which I think they've changed now to Skydance was the original company. Warner Brothers and Paramount. So CBS and Warner Brothers, which includes CNN, are now part of the same company and the, with an enormous amount of Persian Gulf money that's involved in this investment. So do you think Jared does sue?

I mean, he's certainly making noises about it. He issued a very strenuous denial saying it was insane and outlandish. Of course he won't. I mean, he can't sit for a deposition. I mean, can't be asked publicly about these things. So should Matthew Cole welcome his, you know, say, bring it on. Let's get together. Yes. Bring it on. Yes. Bring it on. Absolutely. Okay. So princes and thieves. And the review in today's times by also another incredibly good writer. Fintan O'T?

Yeah. Fantastic writer. Okay. For most of the history of professional sports, there was a wall between the game and gambling. Then suddenly it was everywhere. Ontario is all in on sports betting. Make every moment more with fandom. But that wasn't supposed to include the players themselves. Rackers for, Jonte Porter, is under NBA investigation.

Athletes are the perfect gamblers. Understood. The Big Bet. Available now on Spotify. So we're not the only people having elections. It's the Israeli election today as we're recording this. So too early to know what's going to happen. We have the results of Brazil and Serbia on Sunday.

What do you think is inside Donald Trump's head about these results? I just flag my own substack piece that I wrote this week about what I characterizing now as the age of the age of assholes. With Vivek Ramoswamy being being number one, a number one example, but obviously Trump is a glaring example. And with the thesis being that it used to be that that politicians sought some amount of moderation and tried to be somewhat sympathetic in their presentation. And now the opposite has happened and obviously influenced by Donald Trump. But Vivek Ramoswamy doubling down on that horrid advertisement in Ohio. This is the ad where he uses Amy Acton, who's his opponent's mother, from whom she was estranged,

because Amy Acton's stepfather had raped her. Right. And also J.D. Vance, who has tried to transform himself into quite an asshole. But also Netanyahu, another clear, I am going to be everything that so many people are going to hate about me. I am going to basically brand myself by being hated by so many people. And what about Bolsonaro? You could add him to the list to. Absolutely. Absolutely.

But Bolsonaro, so the question now is, do we see this shift? Is Vivek Ramoswamy going to lose? I believe he is going to lose. Bolsinaro or the son of Bolsinoa. has lost, surprisingly lost. And I think, I mean, many, many people thought, oh, my God, here we go again. But no. In Serbia, the Serbian strong man defeated by a student movement, I mean, it's sort of, I don't know.

Are we, is this a shift? Are we? Well, and the fact that both of them conceded, I sort of feel certain that Donald Trump was on speed dial to Bolsonaro saying, don't concede, don't concede. There was some sort of shenanigans at one point. He didn't concede immediately, but then he did. The Serbian strong man conceded. What will happen with Netanyahu if he doesn't win? It may not be a conclusive result. No, it will probably not. I mean, there's a lot of people running. I mean, it very well may be that he will yet once again, that assholeism will prevail and Netanyahu will still be in place. I don't know.

Well, talking of assholes, Victor Orban, is now the Americans' choice to lead the UN. And, of course, China's choice, and it looks like, well, clearly actually Russia's choice to run the UN. So he's running for that alongside, I think the other front runners are two women, and one from Costa Rica and one from the UAE. That's even, I can't fathom that. So the U.S. is, our person is Victor Orban to run the United States. Do you remember famously, famously campaigned for, and Victor Orban, surprising, still lost, even after J.D. Vance strutting around on stage.

and then paging in Donald Trump. Do you remember the whole performance? Donald Trump knew he was going to lose, which is why he sent J.D. Vance. And now, Machado, the key opposition figure, is returning to Venezuela. Maria Corvina Machado. She has returned to Venezuela. Now, let's remember the setup there is, okay, we deposed the leader. We invaded Venezuela.

throughout Maduro. Nicolas Maduro and his wife, who are now sitting in a Brooklyn jail. Yes, and then took over. So we have been as anti-democratic as the Maduro people were before us. Well, and then we installed his number two, Delci Rodriguez, to run the country. Exactly. So we've just created our version. It was Maduro's kleptocracy, now it's ours.

But Maschato, a legitimate political, a democratic political figure has now returned calling for elections. Elections will be, will deeply, inevitably disrupt Donald Trump's plans for Venezuela. Well, and does this also pitch Marco Rubio against Donald Trump? here because Marco Rubio does appear to want elections in Venezuela, doesn't he? I mean, at one point, Mershedo was actually stopped from returning. And the American stopped and said to stay away. We don't know what Marco Rubio wants at this point. Marco Rubio at this point is a, exists only in the shadow of Donald Trump.

Does he get out of the shadow? Does he want to get out of the shadow? Has his entire belief system changed? Apparently people's entire belief systems can change, J.D. Vance being changes again and again and again. I don't know. This is going to be a very complicated thing for the Trump White House to play, making it more, if they lose the United States Congress, even more complicated. So what do we think for Machado's chances of having a free and fair election?

I think they're inevitable. You think they're inevitable? Yeah. I mean, whether this year or next or beyond Donald Trump, yeah. I think they will do everything they can to stop doing that. Absolutely. But, you know, but we're seeing, and I think we're beginning to see the Serbia, the student movement in Serbia, fascinating. Mm-hmm.

Okay. Well, we'll be back on Thursday to figure out what's happened in the 48 hours between now and then. We do have, however, two limericks, one from Garfried and one from Edd's. From Garfried, with a 50-mill wink, he anointed Alina. Haber, while the critics cry foul and the talking heads jabber. I think we might be talking heads jabbering. For her silence was gold and her scruples were sold and the lesson is clear, be a leaner grabber. Jesus. Pretty well done. Very good. Another point of corruption. There's so many points of corruption here in this administration. Actually, I think we can go over. Everybody in this administration is is corrupt is on the take.

Well, we have Corey Lewandowski finally being investigated by the DOJ for his links to all sorts of contracts, right? He didn't get paid as Christine Nome, who was the secretary or their... But that becomes another doubling down on corruption. Donald Trump is... Right. ...doesn't like Corey Lewandowski, is punishing corruption. Laurie Lewandowski.

In order, so his way of punishing him is to prosecute him. Comey, we haven't discussed. James, Comey, for the third time, for the third time being indicted by the DOJ, the former head of the FBI. No, I mean, there is something, and this goes to this thing, Donald Trump gets something in his head and neither sense nor logic can get it out of his head. Well, didn't you say it was because he couldn't stand the fact that Comey was. so much taller than he is. Well, that is, yeah, for whatever reason, it's Comey, Comey on the brain for Donald Trump.

And so every time the Justice Department prosecutes, tries to prosecute him, gets thwarted in this, then they go back because Trump is saying, because he doesn't deviate. Do it, do it, find something else. Well, and Todd Blanche is doing exactly what he's doing. No, in Todd Lynch, I want to talk about that. What does, maybe we should do this on Thursday, what does a Democratic Congress do with Todd Blanche? Well, do they relentlessly subpoena him? They relentlessly, they do relentlessly subpoena. They investigate him. And, you know, there's a thing, you know, you obviously can impeach a president,

but you can impeach all of the people who have, are in their, jobs because of because they've been confirmed by the United States Senate. Right. And again, you think of Todd Blanche, you know, if someone had told Todd Blanche at the age of 15, you're going to be attorney general of the United States. He'd have probably been so thrilled and excited. And then he would never have believed it when he said Donald Trump is going to be your president and you're going to be required to do exactly what he tells you to do.

No, I can't get into Todd Blanche's head. That's a... Even for you, it's a... That's a moral... That's a moral confusion that I can't... I can't penetrate. It's a journey too far. All right.

One more limerick from edits. His rallies have descended into purest inanity, nonsense and farce laced with profanity. And when the very verse... Notice in November his majority is dismember, he will kiss goodbye to whatever is left of his sanity. I have something to add, which I've been meaning to add. And it's about whatever is happening, the level to which Donald Trump has degraded or... Started making noises.

He's become completely disinhibited. Is that what you're looking for? Or whatever is... Yeah. I mean, whatever is happening, whatever this transformation, which is either rage or age or... I don't... Or stage? Yes.

But... And one of the things it has been accompanied by is profanity. Mm-hmm. And when I was talking to Jeffrey Epstein about Donald Trump, he said Donald Trump, I mean, among his, he had a lot of, a lot of phobias, a lot of things. He didn't like people who drank. He didn't like these kinds of, he didn't like people who didn't wear suits. But he didn't like people who swore and he never swore. That's interesting. So it's the increasing, it's the creeping, I think, I mean, according to Dr. John Cartner, frontotemporal dementia that's beginning. And it's

what is far back. I mean, it's also, you know, also rage, fresh. and then the theater of it all. Does he find that those lines play? But you must have seen those clips where he's just making strange noises. Yes, I have. I mean, and you can see when they pound the crowd. Sometimes I feel I'm just making strange noises. Michael Wolf, I have talked to you nonstop for the last two years. You haven't made a single strange noise.

You may have come up with the occasional strange statement. but you don't make strange, guttural, animalistic noises. I feel I do. You actually don't. I mean, you can see the people in the crowd behind him, and inadvertently, you know, that it's shown on stage. This isn't good for Republicans. And they just look embarrassed for him.

I mean, and you see, in particular, there's one guy that the cameras focus on where he's just like, what was that? What was that strange? noise. It's Trump says something about, you know, and I appointed the governor. And you're like, what? What was that noise? It's the beginning of the end is that noise in so many ways. Michael, always good to talk to you. We'll be back on Thursday with more journeys inside Trump's head. Always good to talk to me, always talking to me. Michael's always talking. I think if I'm not there,

you're still talking. When I leave this studio, you're still here, just talking into the microphone. Making noise, strange noises. Making strange noises. If you have been, thank you for joining us. Don't forget to subscribe to the Daily Beast podcast, wherever you get your podcast. Leave us a comment. Do you make strange noises? What do you think Donald Trump's strange noises were actually about? And a big thanks to our production team today led by Ryan Murray, John Romero, Rachel Pasa, Heather Bissarro, and Neil Rosenhaus. 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.