The Daily Beast Podcast - Why Pathological Trump Just Made a Major Blunder

Episode Date: September 22, 2026

David Rothkopf joins Joanna Coles to explore the latest chaos inside Trump’s White House, from the unprecedented standoff between the president and the White House press corps to the growing influence of Natalie Harp and Trump’s obsession with controlling his media coverage. They also dig into Trump’s looming UN appearance, his delicate balancing act with Saudi Arabia and the Houthis, and the bizarre FBI controversy over bestiality rules that has become a symbol of the administration’s increasingly unconventional approach to government. Plus, Rothkopf takes aim at Pete Hegseth’s vision for a hyper-masculine military, Trump’s proposed national-security projects—including a bizarre triumphal arch—and the deeper frustration he says is building among America’s national-security professionals. As Trump heads into a week of high-stakes meetings and global diplomacy, Rothkopf explains why the spectacle surrounding the president may be funny one moment and dangerously consequential the next. #ad Get 15% off OneSkin with the code BEAST at https://www.oneskin.co/BEAST   #oneskinpod #ad If you’re ever injured in an accident, you can check out Morgan & Morgan. You can start your claim in just a click without having to leave your couch: https://ForThePeople.com/DAILYBEAST Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This episode is brought to you by Animals. How far would you go when someone threatens everyone you love? Who can you trust? From Academy Award winner Ben Affleck. Animals stars Affleck, Carrie Washington, Jillian Anderson, and Stephen Young. When a Los Angeles mayoral candidate's son is kidnapped, he and his wife are pulled into a web of deception, forced to make choices that could tear their world apart.

Watch Animals only on Netflix on October 9th. Rated R. The president decided that he was going to ban what he called fake news networks, including CNN and MS Now. He felt he could get away with this. And apparently Natalie Hart was behind it. Bad idea, right? He's done this before. White House correspondent.

They finally said enough's enough. This hits Trump where it hurts. He's about to go to New York City for the UN General Assembly. He wants to get credit. He wants to be the center of attention. All he wants in life is to be on TV. It's his obsession. If Trump stopped being covered, he would start wondering about his own existence.

I think he doesn't believe he exists unless he reads or sees about himself on TV. I'm John Nicole. This is the Daily Beast podcast. It's Monday, so we must be talking to David Rothkoff about what else beastiality, what on earth is Kash Patel doing, letting people who've been, well, accused of and prosecuted of beastiality into the FBI. We're going to be talking about the new triumphal arch and why is Trump turning it into a military installation

with snipers and drones ready to launch at any moment? And we're going to be talking about the Washington Bureau chief of Fox News coming out and saying, guess what? All the other networks are joining with solidarity with CNN and MS now and they're not going to cover the president. How is he going to get out of this? what is Natalie Harp going to tell him to do? Well, let's get into it before we do.

Just a reminder to subscribe to the Daily Beast podcast if you haven't done. And also subscribe to the Daily Beast if you want moment-to-moment updates of what on earth is going on in this increasingly crazy world. Smash the subscription button wherever you get your podcast, Apple, Spotify, YouTube. And don't forget to leave us a comment on YouTube on your favorite part of the conversation. There were so many favorite parts for me talking with David today. So no time to waste. Let's get into it. David Rothkopf is back with us.

And David, you have a new body part. And I'm not telling you what it is. I'm partially bionic at this point. So people will get the sense. I'm improved. Okay. Well, you're new and improved David Rothkopf with a bionic hip. I'm going to tell people in case they're confused between.

hips and knees, but congratulations. Just like you. I emulate what you do, Joanna. And I think the fact that you're turning the whole crew here at The Daily Beast into Bionic warriors is kind of amazing. I'm making everybody have a hip replacement. It is the most incredible surgery. I do feel like I have two new legs, even though it's a bit of an effort. But it's amazing that you had it done so fast. Here you are back with us. And we're recording this on Monday morning where, Fox News, Washington Bureau Chief just announced, effective today, the TV pool will not be covering events designated as pool coverage of the president. Significantees at Fox News, David, can you explain for people what this actually means and why it came about and then don't let us forget

the Natalie harp of it all? Yes, well, that ties to everything these days. But You know, the president decided that he was going to ban what he called fake news networks, including CNN and MS Now. And he felt he could get away with this. It was a fit of peek. And apparently Natalie Hart was behind it. She was playing for him some coverage, and he didn't like the coverage. And somewhere in the conversation hooked up the idea that he would ban them.

Bad idea, right? He's done this before. last term, you did it to Jim Acosta of CNN, who went to court and got his past reinstated because, though, you know, there is the First Amendment still. And, but nonetheless, Trump has done this. And it finally moved one of the slowest responding, most sort of pusillanimous organizations in Washington to action, which is to say White House correspondents. Because they have watched week in and week out as he has abused women, particularly, Caitlin Collins of CNN and others, and they haven't done anything.

But finally, this was a straw too much. CNN is one of the pool reporters. And so the other pool networks who are involved with providing coverage of the president throughout the day, they send camera people around, and then they share the video from that with the other networks and then with the rest of us, they finally said enough's enough. I think it's very interesting

that the organization that announced it was Fox because, of course, it's got this long association with Trump. But, you know, the most important thing is this hits Trump where it hurts. He's about to go to New York City for Unga, the UN General Assembly. He wants to get credit.

He wants to be the center of attention. All he wants in line. life is to be on TV. It's, it's his obsession. And I think as a result, you know, we're on the taco timer, right? It's how long before Trump folds on all of this? Because they didn't say they're not providing coverage today. They said they're not providing coverage indefinitely. And there is no plan for replacement coverage. So let's just back into this a moment. He and Natalie Hart are sitting there. And she's repeated. do we think playing him clips, perhaps she's got a little loop of all the negative things that

MS Now and CNN have people saying about his policies. Where do we think his chief of staff is in all this? Because Susie Wiles, she's back. Happily, she's cancer-free. I mean, this was a really bad move to try and ban CNN and MS now. And we know that the president has, or we're told the president has walls of television wherever he goes. As you say, he lives to be on television. His cabinet meetings are televised, even when he falls asleep.

We know he finds them boring. So I'm not sure why you would think they would be good television. But nevertheless, the cameras are there pursuing him wherever he goes. Do you think there will be internal fury at Natalie Hart. for not seeing around the corner of what banning MS now and CNN would actually do, that it would amazingly, as you say, it's a pusillanimous organization, but actually prod the White House Correspondence Association into responding in kind. I don't think the response from the professionals, such as they are in the White House,

is going to be good, notably from Susie Wiles, particularly if she reads The Daily Beast piece on the background on this, on the Natalie Harp. And as we know, the White House reads The Daily Beast all the time. They're obsessed with the Daily Beast, possibly because of Natalie Harp. But, you know, you can just imagine late at night, Natalie Harp is there saying, I am your only true follower. I'm the only one who loves you.

Here are some nice AI slot pictures of you with your shirt off. You look very attractive. And these mean people out there coming to get you. And they're in the bubble, the Natalie Don bubble of how he wants to be perceived, how he wants to be loved. And she just plays to all of his worst impulses. And of course, Susie Wiles and the others, you know, they get phone calls from members of Congress all the time. And members of Congress, are going, folks, there's an election in 40-odd days. You can't be doing this. You can't be making life worse for us every day. I saw a story this morning someplace that was talking about how, you know, Republicans are starting to say, well, Trump is toxic because his approval ratings are down in

the 30s. They're falling on some issues. They're in the 20s. This is bad, bad news coming up to an election. And Susie Wiles is the shock absorber who gets those calls. And so I'm sure she is super unhappy with this. I can't imagine she and Natalie are besties. But frankly, the other sycophants in the White House all want to be, you know, up in Trump's drawers like Natalie is. And I think they're jealous. You know, I think everybody's jealous of the fact that this 35-year-old woman has found the inside track to the president by playing to his absolute obsession with how he is covered in the media. I think if Trump stopped being covered, you know, if this media blackout, this boycott kicked

in, he would start wondering about his own existence. I think he doesn't believe he exists unless he reads or sees about himself on TV. You've probably heard us talk about One Skin before for their best-selling skin care, but now they're bringing that same breakthrough longevity science to their scalp serum. OS1 hair, whether it's stress, hormonal shifts, or just getting older. Hair changes can happen to everyone. And that's exactly why One Skin built OS1 hair. It's a daily serum powered by the proprietary OS1 peptide that actually works on the scalp where health begins.

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slash beast. That's 15% off. Oneskin.com with Code Beast. And after you purchase, they'll ask you where you heard about them, please support our show and tell them we sent you. So we know from previous appearances at the UN, and as you said, it's the UN General Assembly meeting this week where all the heads of state come in, or not all of them, but most of them, come in and discuss issues of world affairs. This is not usually Trump's finest moment. We'll remember from last year the elevator sticking, then his telepromp. broke down, and he blamed the teleprompter on some kind of conspiracy when, in fact, it turned out to be his own team.

So is it possible that for the Republicans out there fighting for their seats, it's better for them if Donald Trump isn't on television 24-7? You are so right, you know, but who's going to tell him that? You know, Trump goes to Unger and gives these speeches that evoke, you know, you know, sort of late stage MoMA Gaddafi, where they sort of go on and on. And the teleprompter is really that important because he's making stuff up. And he likes to say things like, I'm the best, and you all know I'm the best, and they laugh at him. Right. I mean, the audience in the UN General Assembly laughs at him. And as far as the teleprompter breaking down, over this past weekend, Mark Carney,

the prime minister of Canada, had his teleprompter broke down or something like that. And he made fun of Trump. He, he, he, he, he, he, he does not miss an opportunity to make fun of Trump. But Trump, I think, saw this week as an opportunity for him, uh, to gain some points. Like, uh, you know, he'll, he'll, he'll, he'll meet with it, you know, Net Yahoo and, and, and that'll give him some points. Or he'll meet with Zelensky and, you know, put more pressure on him to stop attacking, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, Russian... Diesel facilities, yeah. Yeah, well, I mean, he put out a true social tweet this morning saying that Ukraine has to stop this,

because, of course, the price of diesel is going to continue to go up. In fact, Russia has now announced that they're going to continue ceasing shipments of diesel past the end of September, which will probably take them right up to the election. Very bad news for Trump. Needless to say the Ukrainians are not super sympathetic to Trump's please that they stop. on this because they'd realize they have leverage.

But he thought he would have all of these things. And then, of course, later this week, on the heels of this meeting or on the fringes of it, he's meeting with Xi Jinping, his most important meeting of the year, where he will see the most powerful man in the world and hope that that would somehow elevate him. Well, what if that doesn't get covered?

Or what if it gets less coverage than it normally gets? He's going to hate that. So my guess is, you know, long before the Xi Jinping meeting, we're going to have an accommodation with the White House correspondence. Yes, I would assume that very possibly before this podcast actually goes out, which it does on an 8 o'clock on Monday night on YouTube, that it may have already been resolved because, as we know, Tacco Trump, Trump always chickens out. The idea of him not being on television is interesting, but it's also one of those things that many people who comment on YouTube

on our podcast often say, why don't the TV correspondents just get together and say, we're not covering you anymore? We're not going to cover you when you lie, when you make things up on the spur of the moment. So it'll be a very interesting standoff. And I wonder if there are conditions that the White House correspondents ask for other than CNN and MS now being allowed back in the pool. No. Because, you see, you see, this is a two-way street. Yes, it may be pathological that Trump doesn't think he exists unless he can see himself on TV. But it's a pathology that's shared by all the people on TV. If you're a TV newscaster and you're not covering Trump and you're the White House correspondent, you don't exist either. You're not relevant. And so, you know, they all want to come to an accommodation on this thing because that's their bread and butter.

So in the intervening hours, what do we expect? As you said, Trump is coming up to meet Zora Mamm Darni at Gracie Mansion, the New York mayor. Do we assume that doesn't get covered? Or does it get covered by citizen journalists with their cell phones? I mean, what are we expecting here? Look, it's all going to get covered, whether it's citizen journalists or it's Mike Lindell's Peoples Network or it's, you know, you know, New York One or one of these things. You know, there are a lot of people out there with video cameras. There'll be a lot of people covering the stories. The stories will get covered. The question is whether there will be as much video of the president as there usually is. And there's another more serious consequence of this, right? The reason that the pool covers the president 24 hours every time he's out when he's moving is what if something happens? You know, that, you know, it sort of creates a public record of the president. events, and if there's an attack on the president or he says something dramatic or something,

it doesn't get covered. So, you know, yet another reason for them to try to find an accommodation for all of this. And, you know, I suspect all of this will get covered. To be honest with you, I mean, you look ahead at the UN General Assembly, what's Trump going to do? He's just going up there to thump his chest. You know, he's going up there to say, hey, look, my economy's doing great on Wall Street. And everybody goes, yeah, but not anywhere else. Or, hey, I've solved a lot of wars. As you say, well, actually, you've started a lot of wars. And the ones you've solved aren't actually ever. You know, or, you know, I'm the greatest president of who ever lived. And look, there's a picture of me and George Washington. And they're like,

Mr. President, you smell a little funny. Go change your diaper. I mean, it's, this is, it doesn't work for him in the way that he thinks it's going to work. And so as you say, it may be better for him to have less coverage, not more. And do you think at this point Natalie Harp is his sort of Rasputin-slash-Svengali figure? Well, I don't. The idea that Natalie Harp is the Rasputin of Trump is a beautiful twist on this whole thing. I think she's more like his binkie. You know, he's more like his comfort blanket.

where, you know, the world is being mean to me, Natalie, say something nice. And she goes, well, you know, that new darker brown share of hair, shade of hair you're wearing is so very manly. Or, you know, Mr. President, is it true that you won your club golf trophy for the 17th year in a row? You must be an incredible athlete. You know, she provides him with sort of confirmation that the bullshit he is spewing is actually true. And that's essential. She does the work of a spouse, actually. Traditionally, she does the work of a spouse, but the... Of a trad wife. Not of his, not of his spouse, who, you know, as far as I know, you know, they communicate, you know, via their staffs.

Which is the perfect... I think that's what we do too, David, isn't it? We communicate via our staffs. We're in constant contact, Julia. I'm constantly getting emails from you, revealing new insights into the world. Text, David, texts. I don't do email anymore. Nobody does email anymore. All right. So the other thing I want to ask you is, does this mean that Trump's refusal to help Saudi Arabia? What's happening with all that? Can I take your foreign affairs lens and focus it on the Middle East? Because, A, we're hearing that more people have died in the bombing on Iran than we're being told. And we know that the Pentagon has new accounting for deaths associated with Operation Epic Fury. But also now Saudi Arabia finds itself dragged into the margins of this conflict.

They've asked America for help. And Trump has said, no way. I'm very curious about what's going to happen to Jared Kushner in all this with his affinity partners, which is, as we know, invested in largely by the Saudis. Well, I don't know. I think Jared will come out okay. You know, Jared has been a failure at everything he's done, and he's now worth billions of dollars.

Which, you know, I mean, that's a nice kind of life, right? You don't do well enough to get in the college. Your father sends Harvard a check. You go to Harvard. You know, you become an advisor to the president. You can't even get a security clearance. None of the things that you initiate really pan out, and you get to set up a $2 billion hedge fund. You say you're not going to work for the president again. You become his principal

diplomatic advisor, more money into the hedge fund. Jared falls, fails upward, right? That's his thing. As far as the Saudis go, I think it's quite interesting because they thought, you know, the first trip Trump ever made as president was to Saudi Arabia. They feel that they have this super close relationship with Trump. And I think they thought, well, they can translate that. And, to him stepping up and helping them, when the Houthis start targeting their oil pipeline that goes to the Red Sea, which is kind of their way around the Strait of Hormuz. And Trump has decided to lean away from that until today. Now, this morning, Trump, and this is Monday as we're recording this, Trump got on the phone

with the president of Yemen. And I think you need to remember that Yemen, very poor country, has been in a civil war for a long time. And the president of Yemen runs a government, which is sort of favored by the Saudis. But the Houthis, which are supported by the Iranians, control a lot of the land and have a lot of power. And the president of Yemen essentially said to Trump, please step in and save us from the Houthis. Now, why would Trump take this call just to say no? He could just as easily not have taken the call. Taking a call like this gives you the predicate for some kind of action.

I don't know if the action is public. Maybe it'll be some kind of covert action against the Houthis. But my guess is he will try to give something to the Saudis for all the reasons we know, which is they're paying off his in-laws. They treat him well. He likes the way they're treating him, et cetera, et cetera. Well, Grizzly, your dog seems to think that it's very much in the public interest for America to go into, to help the Yemeni president. That is such a brilliant segue.

Because I love my dog, but not in that way, Joanna. And I know you want to get to the bestiality story, but you're not going to get there through. through my dog grocery. I do want to get to your dog, but just before we do. If a chef came out in a restaurant and said, I've never actually cooked this before, but how hard can it be? You'd probably head to another cafe. Because when something really matters, experience isn't a bonus.

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So do you think that Trump will come to the aid of the Saudis with the, you know, with the hooties? I think they will give them something. It is very bad news for Trump for this pipeline to be shut down for too long. Does that mean Navy SEALs? Does that mean some other kind of support? You know, I don't think Trump wants to go with some big public military action. But he might. And again, the whole point of this call this morning, it's usually one of those calls where he say, well, the Yemenis asked me to step in. I could hardly say no, right? That's, you know, that's why I think at the end of the day he'll do something for the Saudis, something to strike out against the Houthis. And look, you know, he has people in his orbit on his cabinet. saying that this war might last throughout, not just the election,

throughout the rest of his term, you know, the current thinking is that this will just fester on, possibly for years as, you know, one of those forever wars we were never going to get into again. And, you know, at the center of it is fighting Iran in her proxies and among her proxies that is most important as the Houthis. And so sooner or later this will, the Saudis will get some satisfaction.

Okay. Well, we'll watch this space. As we were watching, John Kennedy last week, the senator from Louisiana, discussing with Cash Patel, Kash Patel reducing the qualifications to join the FBI. For those who haven't seen this clip, well, what can I say? It's kind of magical. It's what these committees are special. supposed to be like, I think. And John Kennedy is proving to be one of these committees best players.

At this stage, he's a bit of a national treasure. Let's play the clip. What about the bestiality? Same thing, because the regs wrote it up in a fashion before I arrived that addressed prostitution, bestiality, and trafficking. They were there before I got there. Tell me what it said before. It automatically disqualified any individual who participated on even, Through side of it. Obviously, we are never going to hire the criminal. The side of what? The bestiality? Yes. So you disqualified the animal?

Well, I don't think we have great canines, but we're not going to disqualify it. I understand. I'm trying to understand why you did this. Where does one go with that? Where does one go? Cash Patel's eyes, if it's possible, got even wider, even wider. So that I think somewhere their vision sort of crosses over. I don't know how man sees, but those were big eyes. Well, first of all, you know, I think you captured it perfectly. It is kind of magical. But, I mean, you know, we're going through a rough time. And, you know, here is this southern senator with his, you know,

Foczy accent. Drawl, right. And he's like, so what about the beastie out? It's like, you know, words you never thought you'd hear in a hearing. And then, you know, Cash Patel comes back with his lame excuse. Well, they used to prohibit people who engaged in bestiality. And we wanted to undo that. And it was like, why?

Why did you want to undo that? You know, somebody came to Cash Patel. And, you know, while the press is not covering the president, and maybe they could spend their time finding out who this is. Somebody came to Cash Patel and said, you know something, boss? I think it'd be a good idea if we allowed people who were involved in Beastility into the FBI.

And Cash Patel said, oh, yeah, that's a good idea. And they said, well, they're going to question you. It's okay. We're going to stand up for this. This is a good thing. Now, that's a good story. Like, who wasn't, right?

But there's an even better story, which is who went to that guy and said, you know, we had to kick Bob out of the FBI because of the beastiality. And that's just not fair. Because I want to know, because there's always approximate cause, right? There's somebody who, because of relationship with a chicken or a duck or a sheep or a donkey or something, you know, didn't get to be a law enforcement officer.

And in Cash Patel's law enforcement operation, if you're in a barnyard, you happen to fall in love with one of your coworkers, you get to be an FBI agent. I mean, it's so out of its mind insane. And yet, inside the FBI, and I think that, you know, there is actually something serious here. Normally, in a bureaucracy, everything gets vetted by lots of people. So normally, when you're like changing the regs on what gets to be an FBI gene, something goes through many layers of approval. And one by one, these people said, yeah, peastiality, good idea.

Good. We'll get the bestiality crowd. Fantastic. Great. But this is, you know, bad management manifesting itself in a ridiculous way. And who's advising, Cash Patel? Why on earth couldn't they have seen this coming? I mean, you would have thought that word would trigger everybody.

I mean, it's pretty fast. that they're encouraging agents who frequent prostitutes. They're not hiring the prostitutes, but they're hiring the men that frequent the prostitutes. I mean, that seems pretty crazy too. But the FBI is now going to stand for the federal beastiality investigations. I mean, who could have advised Cash Patel on this? It's just unbelievable. You're a genius.

And if you are not selling federal bestiality and investigation swag on your website by tonight. I know. You're missing a huge. And listen, this is what maybe, maybe actually Cash Patel is hearing those rumors that he is going to be fired. He was a t-shirt salesman. That's what he did.

He hawked t-shirts before he joined as the director of the FBI. Maybe he's setting himself up for a whole new line of t-shirt sales. Look, earlier in this process, somebody said, well, why would you do this? It said, well, you know, sometimes people go to countries for sex tourism where the sex is legal. And I'm like, this is who we're opening the FBI. Right. And those are the people we want joining the FBI. And of course, he fired, what was it, 1,200 agents with average service of 22 years.

So, and we've mentioned this before. But, and he fired them for following the law, right? I mean, they just were doing their jobs and enforcing the law. as it is written, and instead of them, he's replacing them with the Beastiality Patrol, which is like, holy shit. But this is what happens all the time. You know, they get rid of air traffic controllers. And so first, they bring in this wave of air traffic controllers who are video gamers,

but that's where we'll get them. And they hired them all because they were good at video games. Today, if you lived in Washington, D.C., and I've got to tell you, my wife is freaking out because she travels so much about this, they announced that they're instituting AI-assisted air traffic control in D.C. area airports. So they're just getting people out of the picture altogether. And so one by one, you know, those got... So they're bringing in AI and animals. AI and animals.

But because those, you know, they don't, the problem with people is they have their own opinions. If they have their own opinions, they might be opposed to Trump. Then they're not loyal. So what do you want? You want people who will be loyal to Trump. Well, if I let you in after your bestiality, you're going to be loyal to me because I know about your beastiality. And if you're an AI and I can get you to be written the right way, you're going to be loyal to Trump. And so we are, I mean, talk about the race to the bottom.

We are ending up with a government of bots and bestiality practitioners because those are the ones who are most likely to be loyal to this rapidly decaying president. This episode is brought to you by Animals. How far would you go when someone threatens everyone you love? Who can you trust? From Academy Award winner Ben Affleck, Animals stars Affleck, Carrie Washington, Jillian Anderson, and Stephen Young. When a Los Angeles mayoral candidate's son is kidnapped, he and his wife are pulled into a web of deception, forced to make choices that could tear their world apart.

Watch animals only on Netflix on October 9th. Rated R. You sent me two very funny memes that for those who haven't seen them, we should just flash up on here, inspired by Senator Kennedy and Cash Patel's exchange. Obviously, 50 Shades of Hay, hilarious. And then reference to the Coldplay concert, the couple that got outed by the camera. I mean, again, just hilarious. And the way they've made the goat look shocked, so clever. So props to AI for some good memes, I will say.

There's a lot of good. I mean, we have to admit, I don't know about you. But every once in a while I'm going through Instagram or TikTok or whatever. and I get some, an AI video, Barack Obama beating the shit out of Donald Trump, or, you know, world leaders playing tricks on Donald Trump. And it's funny. It makes my day. So, you know, AI slop is one thing. But, you know, this is, we're living in a remarkable moment that nobody could possibly have predicted.

Even, you know, this one changes one of the big memes of the, of the Trump presidency because it's always been said that Trump doesn't like pets, but apparently apparently he's welcoming in the bestiality crowd. And of course, the Pentagon brought in Logan and Jake Paul, the fighting brothers, to talk to the Pentagon, to talk to soldiers this week and giving them a sort of bracing a kind of there's nothing better you can do than die for your country. Each one of you matters. Take this moment and be proud of yourselves for what you. you do. This is the greatest country in the world. Truly, we are blessed to be born here, come here, and we should never take that for granted. That's what God created us for is to lift

each other up in the hard moments, to be there for each other in the hard moments, and to come together as a collective and fight for good. That's why this country was formed. We should never forget that. Yeah, and also, you know, this is all part of Pete's. problems with his own masculinity, right? I don't know what Pete's masculinity problems are, but they're deep, right? And so he wants a super masculine military. And there's some reports that he gets, you know, input on this from his pastor who says, we don't need to have women in this and let's be tougher.

And, you know, he wants everybody to work out, nobody to be low tea, and everybody to be muscular. Do you think, David, do you think that's why he doesn't appear to have been able to replenish America's munitions stash? I mean, we've run out of bombs, but maybe he's so obsessed with warrior status. He thinks it's just going to be man-to-man combat. He hopes it's man-to-man combat. You know, Jake Paul and Logan Paul, these are fake fighters, right? They go into a ring for a few minutes. They fight.

This is not what you do in a war. where you're there slogging through, where the collective technological genius of nations is devoted to your destruction, where geopolitical issues are at stake. These two things have nothing in common with each other. But Pete Hegseth, like Donald Trump, is play acting at being Secretary of Defense.

And, you know, he thinks he's starring in some, you know, I don't know, hallmark drama about the guy who brought masculinity to the Department of Defense. And the reality is he's not addressing issues that you might if you were a real Secretary of Defense, like, do we have enough munitions to fight a war? There's a story today in the paper about how costly it will be for the military to retool in order to put into place Trump battleships, a technology for fighting wars, which was obsolete 100 years ago.

Okay? I mean, it's insane in the same way that the bestiality is insane, that we're going and embracing something that, you know, a missile, a drone, a drone attack, a missile attack, electronic warfare, any of these things can make a ship like this incapacitated. That's why we don't do it. Let me just ask you something. And given how long it takes for any of these things to be done, do you think the military

is just, or the deep state military, I should say, is just waiting for the midterms to just push this off? Not just the midterms. They're waiting for Trump to be gone. Right. Because they know these things will not happen. Golden Dome will not happen. By the way, they also know that millions, tens of millions of dollars will be.

spent on these projects that don't happen, but they don't care so much about that. The military, I happened to talk to a general over the weekend, and he was talking to me, not about what we're talking about here, but yet another thing that Trump did over the weekend, which was he announced, and again, this is up on the bestiality scale of lunacy, right? He announced that the triumphal arch that he wants to build in the middle of a traffic circle in Virginia, next to Arlington National Cemetery, at a height of 250 feet, in the flight path to National Airport, Trump has decided, and he announced this weekend, that at the behest of the military, he is going to turn that into a national security triumphal arch, where there will be sniper positions on the top,

drone launching pads, and it'll be full of ammunition. Now, this is so nutty on so many levels. First of all, what is he expecting? An attack from Virginia? I mean, seriously. Secondly, do you want to take your kids to, you know, view the monument that has the sniper positions on top? Thirdly, drones on top of the thing, you know where the drones would be launched directly into? The incoming traffic at National Airport. It is directly on the flight past the national airport. Of course, none of these things are the reason he's doing it. He thinks that he's going to get legal pushback for forcing through this ridiculous project at a cost of tens of millions of dollars to the American people who can't afford food,

can't afford gasoline, don't have health care. And he wants, in order to do that, he wants the power to do it. And where is he going to get the power to do it if it's a national security project? Somebody in the White House is determined, and I think the Supreme Court's given him a little encouragement in this, that if something has to do with national security, then he as chief, executive and commander-in-chief, can do whatever he wants. And so he's like, yeah, let's turn this ice cream stand into a national security ice cream stand. And that's why the ballroom all of a sudden became a national security

project with drone launching stations on the top and and with, you know, all sorts of armaments and defenses within it because he felt he had more latitude to act in this way. Well, isn't this also, David, didn't he also say that he had been advised by a general that this is what they should do with it? I mean, of course, we don't know who the general is. He's just making it up, I'm assuming. Well, he suggested that he had been advised by people in the military. And this general that I was speaking to of retired general said nobody said this.

That he was willing to bet. Nobody in the military said this. Nobody in the professional military said it. You know, did Pete Hegson say, hey, yeah, that's a great idea, boss? Yeah, but Pete Hegson is, you know, civilian. He's not in the military. is it possible that some former military nut job like Mike Flynn or somebody said this? I don't know, possible.

But from my friend who's, you know, very more respected and been in the military, his whole said his, he read that and Inslee said, this is total bullshit. Yeah. Yeah. This is total bullshit. They, that didn't happen. And, you know, I think it's very, very hard for people to fully appreciate the degree to which, the professionals in our government, you know, my experience is mostly in the

national security site, the professionals in the national security space, the military, the intelligence community, the FBI, people at DHS with national security responsibilities, how much they hate this president, and how much of their day they spend looking at their watch, counting down the minutes till he has gone. Because he has debased their professions. He has made the country at greater risk. He has made a mockery of what they do. He has fired many of the people they respect the most. And I would say right now that the morale within the U.S. National Security establishment, broadly, top to bottom, is at its lowest point since, I don't know, Valley Forge. you know, when they were freezing to death in Pennsylvania during the Revolutionary War.

It is just, it is a point of despair and disgust and mockery that runs incredibly deep. And you've seen it recently, you know, not too long ago Trump went out and he spoke in front of people, I don't know, at NASA or Space Force or one of these places. and he was like try to politicize the whole event, and they're not going for it anymore. They're not going to be drawn into it anymore because he lies too much, and he's hurt them too much. And you brought up something we didn't talk about really at like a minute ago,

which deserves some discussion. Because I think of all the things that he's done, the one that has triggered in a serious way, the people I know in the military the most, is lying about the number of people who are, killed and injured in this war. He lied about the causes of the war. He lied about the benefits of the war. He lied about the costs of this war. He's lied about everything in this war. But the one thing you don't lie about is this human sacrifices, the young Americans who go off and fight,

who lose their lives, the families that are shattered. That's something all presidents throughout our history from both parties have always treated with the utmost respect. And they view this as statistics, PR, disposable, variable. Well, it wasn't a war that day. We weren't calling it a war that day, so he's not a war casualty that day. And these stories outrage them, even if they don't, even if the country yawns, these stories outraged the professional military in a way that We don't appreciate it. I don't think Trump fully appreciates. Well, I'm sure Trump doesn't fully appreciate it.

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Watch animals only on Netflix on October 9th. Rated R. I wanted to also ask you, I mean, his obsession with having snipers and drones everywhere, and as you say, the East Wing and now the triumphal arch, I totally get why he's trying to claim that they are national security issues, and that's giving him some sort of legal, needle to thread so he can get these built without traditional congressional approval. I wonder if it's also that he at 80 years old in his ninth decade with three visible

attempts on his life is also increasingly paranoid. I mean, this recalls the sort of America of the 50s and the 60s when everything was about the communist threat, which is an era in which he says. still lives, I think, in his head to some extent. And his paranoia here, I mean, who wants, as you say, who wants to take their children to an arch? No one would go and see the Art de Triance in the center of Paris if there were French snipers on the top. But the idea of these being active military installations, it just, to me, it speaks of a sort of paranoia that comes from someone who understands he is a target.

Again, I think his main reason for doing this is to have the legal latitude to do it. I think you're right. I think he is paranoid because in the case of all of these things, what they talk about is, for example, with regard to the ballroom, the east wing of the White House, is this is for the protection of the president. And even the people on the hill will say, well, you know, we can't. We can't put our president at risk. There are many more threats today than there were before.

He's at risk on a daily basis. We need to protect him. So this is not national security. This is sort of presidential security. Because, you know, obviously, you know, if we get to the moment where troops are coming up the George Washington Parkway and turning onto the Memorial Bridge, we're in deep trouble, right? We're not going to be saved by snipers on top of a triumphal arch that nobody can remember why it was built.

But the reality here is perhaps it is tied to Trump's own experiences with mortality and, you know, these assassination attempts or whatever they were, perhaps that is an element of it. And look, you know, I mean, we've seen pictures of him on golf courses with, you know, armaments all around him. There have been just incredible precautions to keep this man alive. But, you know, having said all that, they probably would do more to preserve the life of Donald Trump by cutting off the Big Max than they would by putting, you know, snipers on tops of Triumphal Arches. Yeah, we've got another AI picture here that is pretty good with the Triumphal Arch.

Can we show this? This is by Ryan Teague Beckwith. pretty funny, which is what essentially Trump is thinking of doing. It's just, it's remarkable. It's remarkable, David. He talks about a golden age. You know, it's the golden age of corruption. It's, you know, there are a lot of names for it.

But, I mean, one of the things is we have entered a level of absurdity that it is unthinkable. I mean, it is murder for satirists. You know, how do you make fun of the bestiality thing? How do you make fun of triumphal arches that are transformers and turn into weapons? How do you make fun of a president who's only listening to a 35-year-old who, you know, obviously had a psychotic break at some point in the past few years? And, you know, is now the president's personal stalker. You know, he's hired his personal stalker into his office. Yeah, I was kind of looking for a stalker.

You know, it's like, what are the traits you're looking for in a partner? Well, I'd like someone who's obsessed with me, you know, who sees me delusionally. I'm sure he's like there on Tinder or grinder wherever he looks for these things. And I say, is there a category for stalkers? Oh, yeah, Natalie. She's pretty good. But we live in an absolutely ludicrous moment. I know.

We really do. We really do. one of these things could turn into disaster. And, and, you know, in some ways, I feel like we're all like kids in a family where the father is an alcoholic abuser. And we're hiding in our bedroom. And some of the stuff we hear is him crashing around the living room and knocking stuff over, and we think that's ridiculous. But we also know at any moment he could burn down the house. And that's the problem with Donald Trump. He is ridiculous.

He is clumsy. He is incompetent. But he's also the president of the United States. And so at any moment, any one of those things could turn into a world war, a global financial crisis, an economic crisis at home, a pandemic. and we would all pay the price. And that's this kind of duality that we have to struggle with every single day. Oh, goodness. And it's only Monday, David.

It's only Monday. Well, hopefully by the time this podcast goes out, the press and the president will have resolved their difficulties and we'll get to see him. Or maybe we don't want that. We want to see him less. Let's hope they've resolved their difficulties by the end of the day and that, you know, all those world leaders coming to the UN will get to resolve some of the, what is it, 65 global conflicts going on right now?

Yeah, in the U.S. is, you know, he's the peacemaker president, which is why he announced last week that we're going to give more 2,000 pound bombs to Israel than we've given the country in many years. It's going to be something. We'll watch it super closely. And maybe you and I talk, you know, when he meets with Xi Jinping. Yes, which in theory is happening this week. Though maybe Xi Jinping doesn't want to come if there aren't going to be cameras.

That would be very interesting. It gives a White House Press Association maximum leverage. This was not the week to ban everybody. Shez Jinping comes with his own media, believe me. But Xi Jinping knows that he's going to get a warm welcome. He's not going to get any. Trump has already said. This is amazing.

right? Xi Jinping, China is helping Iran attack Americans, target Americans. And Trump has said, well, I don't blame him for that. That's the way the world works. We do that. It's like, what? He's like giving him a free pass on this. And I think what will come out of it is Trump and Xi Jinping will meet. And they say, you know, AI is a big thing. We should get together and talk about AI. And they won't talk about AI and they won't do anything serious about AI, but they'll announce that they're going to talk about AI. And that'll be the big deliverable. And they'll hug each other and say we have great relations. Yeah, Donald Trump just loves to say he has a great relationship with all these tyrannical figures.

Well, David, maybe we'll come back and talk about Xi Jinping and the China visit later this week. For the meantime, let's watch the space and see if there is coverage of Donald Trump coming up to New York today and staying, I'm assuming, at his apartment in Trump Tower. Perhaps he'll see his wife. and perhaps we'll see him at the UN. You could just imagine. She was on the last plane out of town last night. Yeah, she was probably like, I want to be here.

Although she often turns up at the UN. She has turned up at the UN before, and she once gave a speech at the UN. Yeah, and she was stuck on the escalator last year with him. That's right. She was. Yep, she was. So perhaps she will be back.

In fact, we should see if it will be her accompanying him or if it will be Natalie Hart. Natalie Harpers with him at Camp David over the weekend, again, a visit that lasted, I think, less than a day. Well, he hates Camp David. Yeah, of course. There's no gold toilet flushers and, you know, all the kind of stuff that he likes. No, it's the hell of log cabins in a beautiful place. No, no, he doesn't like nature.

He doesn't like history. You know, he doesn't like, you know, moments of silence where he can think about his life and reflect on the future. So Camp David is not for him. I don't know why he's gone there. So he's gone there a couple times now. Yeah, well, he goes very briefly and then he leaves, doesn't he? All right, David Rothkoff, let's pay a particular attention to what's going on this week. I wonder what Earth will be on CNN and MS now and Fox. They will have nothing to play. They will play all the same things. They will say all the same things. They will have video from different sources, it will have no effect on them whatsoever. David, what is it saying on your t-shirt?

I can say, I can see, you're leaning back now. I don't know if you're doing it provocatively. I am, I'm a big dill. What does that even mean? My wife had to give a speech in Minneapolis a couple weeks ago, and she went to the Minnesota State Fair. And apparently at the Minnesota State Fair, it's like many state fairs, there's a lot of pickles. And she thought, that this was a hilarious joke, big deal, like big deal. Right. And I said, anybody who sees this is going to think that it's off color and that I'm actually saying something else.

And, of course, the first moment you saw this, that's what you thought. Because that's the way your mind runs. Well, I think that with the bestiality moment, American sort of pop culture is disintegrated even further. This is just low-grade pickle humor. Low-grade pickle humor. This is just a pickle and with a little blue ribbon. It's very sweet.

I think more visits to the Minnesota State Fair. No, that's bad. Everything's fried. I think she came back with a cardiac condition, just from visiting. Sounds delicious. Deep fried funnel cake and mask bars. Yes, please. David Rothkopf, enough, enough already.

It's Monday. Good luck with your hip exercises. I hope you're taking your PT very seriously. Look, you said do this. My hip was fine. But I thought, well, Joanna's done it. I'm going to. You're leaning to one side.

You may not know, but you're listing to one side. So I'm just warning you. No, I've been doing that for a long time. To the left. I've been shifting, leaning. Very good. Very good. All right, David, we will see you next Monday.

Maybe we'll see you before then. Let's see how the week pans out. Okay. Have a good week, Joie. Thank you very much. Big thanks to our production team, Ryan Murray, John Romero, Rachel Passer, Heather Pissarro 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.