The Daily Beast Podcast - Why SCOTUS Approves of Calling Trump a Sex Abuser

Episode Date: June 30, 2026

David Rothkopf joins Joanna Coles as the Supreme Court delivers a series of stunning rulings that pierce Donald Trump’s carefully constructed “Golden Dome,” leaving him facing fresh legal humiliation in the E. Jean Carroll case while battles over presidential power, voting rights, and the future of the Federal Reserve intensify. From Natalie Harp’s role as Trump’s “human printer” to empty crowds at Trump’s much-hyped National Mall state fair, David and Joanna unpack a presidency increasingly insulated from reality as new reporting exposes White House rivalries, family business dealings, and growing fears of political accountability. They dive into the political fallout of mass deportations, the corruption questions surrounding Kazakhstan mining deals, and the Democratic Party’s fight over whether to prioritize affordability or accountability, all while asking what America’s founding ideals mean on the eve of the nation’s 250th birthday. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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and prove that he had sexually violated her in a dressing room at Berkdorf Goodman with his fingers. It was quite detailed. But here was a jury finding the president sexually violated somebody. It's now gone to the Supreme Court. And so it now stands. This is a matter of law. Donald Trump is a sex abuser. Donald Trump lives on the planet Trump, apart from the world, a delusional, demented, declassioning.

Fining figure who is making everybody's life worse except for his friends and his cronies. And the rest of us are figuring out now, what do we do about that? I'm Joanna Coles. This is the Daily Beast podcast. It's Monday. So it's David Rothkoff. And we have so much to discuss the empty lawns at the Great State Fair. We have the breaking Supreme Court decisions which impact everybody from Lisa Cook to E. Jean-Cath. Carol. We have Trump's crazy truth socials, just raging at everything, including Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan's new book, Regime Change, which I'm sure you, like me, are reading. And, well, the war in Iran, is that still happening? Yes, no, are they playing the markets on it?

And what is this deal with Kazakhstan, a critical mineral deal, that the Trump kids and the Lutnik kids are also getting in on. We're going to get into all of it. But just before we go into the Rothkopf zone, the reason we can bring you independent conversations like this is because we are independent media and we appreciate your support, which you can show us by subscribing to our YouTube channel or wherever else you get your podcast. There are different tiers of membership with all sorts of different benefits, but we do appreciate your support and we are so close to 700,000. By the end of the year we want to get to $1 million, but we're trying to get to $700,000, almost by the end of this month. I think we've got two more days to do it. So your help would be hugely appreciated.

So let's get into it with David Rothkopf, the Daily Beast's very own global affairs correspondent. David Rothkopf, you are in leisure way this week. I see you're taking the July the fourth holiday very seriously. I do take it seriously. This is patriotic. Is it? Because it's not in the American flag that color. I'm just pointing out. At least I have gold on. I could be stuck with super glue to the wall of the oval office by Donald Trump and I would fit right in. You'd be careful. You'll be careful because he or what's her name? His girlfriend would be putting you up against the wall. I mean, wasn't she involved in posting stuff up in the water? Probably. Are you talking about Natalie Harp, the human printer?

Natalie Harp. Yeah, I heard you did a whole thing with Michael Wolf on Natalie Harp. Well, Michael has been saying for some time that Natalie Harp is the most interesting person in the White House because she spends the most time with Donald Trump. And as we know, she follows him around with her printer. So she got the nickname, the human printer, because she provides him with printouts of all sorts of good news for him. So that even though the world appears to be collapsing, she gives him only good news. which reminds me of my anecdote of the design of Valentino, which I don't know if I've told you. I may have told it before on the podcast,

but it's my favorite anecdote of the fashion world, which was I was called in, I was summoned when I started at Mary Claire as the editor-in-chief to go and meet Mr. Valentino. And just as I was going in to meet him, and this was on the Sunday in Rome after a very glamorous party to celebrate his 14th, anniversary at the company and Annie Lennox had played and the world's celebrities were

there, everybody wearing red. I was told, whatever you do, his Italian person said, please, when you meet, Mr. Valentino, do not ask him about the war in Iraq. So this was when we were at war with Iraq, not Iran. And this was 2006 and the war had begun in 2003. And me, being a logical person, thought, oh, goodness, he's probably lost a nephew in it or something because the allies are providing troops. How terrible. I won't ask him about it.

And I said, well, why shouldn't I? Of course I won't ask him about it, thinking I was going to trigger him, you know, for some family upset. And they said, he doesn't know about it. And I was like, how can he not know about the war in Iraq? what are you talking about? It's been going on for three years. And they said, please, Mr. Valentino is a man of beauty. He live in a world of beauty.

No bad news. I want to go there. I want to go moving to Valentino's world. I mean, what? And at the time, I thought, this is insane. This is the craziest thing. Who are these fashion designers? Now I think how brilliant he just lived in a world of beauty.

No bad news. But this is the president. You know, the president of the United States. States lives in a world of beauty, right? It's the world of his own imagination. And he creates it. And you know what? It's going on in that world? Gas prices are coming down. He's beaten Iran. He's a great victor in Venezuela. He's loved around the world. He's making America stronger. Again, he's making Washington more beautiful building after building this morning in the paper. There's he's redoing a golf course.

He's, you know, and in his own mind. And Natalie Harp follows him around and hands him only things that she can find that confirm his world of beauty. And it really is the emperor's new clothes taken to its most insane extreme, because after all, he's actually the president of the United States. But I don't think reality, I mean, he's a billionaire to begin with. Well, he's got a sort of iron dome around him at this point, hasn't he, for bad news. It's just shooting off anything that brings in bad news. Excellent. Excellent analogy.

But I would use Trump's preferred alternative, which he's going to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on, the Golden Dome. Yeah, the Iron Dome is very prosaic, isn't it? Who wants an iron dome? It's for the little people. It's for small countries, bankrupt countries. For us, we have a golden dome. And he's got a golden dome around. He's got a golden dome.

And by the way, the other golden dome, the one who wants to build, completely technically impossible will never happen. But the golden dome around Donald Trump, he has actually built. Except, as I think you are going to get to, the Supreme Court of the United States fired a missile that penetrated the dome. Let's talk about that. That is breaking news as we speak, David Rothkoff. I'm so interested in this story.

Tell us what we are talking about. Well, the Supreme Court's handing out, I think, eight more decisions Monday and Tuesday. Can I just point out, by the way, it's such a bizarre system that they have all year to work on these things. And then it's like a high school essay. They suddenly hit their deadlines and suddenly they're pumping these things out. It's such a strange thing. They were working on these decisions all weekend long. Not that they've voted.

They know what the decisions are. But then they each have to write the majority opinion, the dissents. Sometimes there's several dissents. Then they edit those. And they continue to work on them right up until now. There was a time where most of us could agree on the basic facts. Now, one headline says one thing, another says the exact opposite, and somewhere in between, you're left wondering who to trust.

That's why I like ground news. Instead of telling you what to think, it lets you compare how the same story is covered across the political spectrum. Take a recent story I've been following, haven't we all, Donald Trump's plans to renovate the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. On ground news, I can instantly compare how different outlets are covering the same story. It tracks which outlets are reporting on what stories, which angles are being emphasized, and just as importantly, which stories might be getting ignored altogether. Ground news features a helpful bias.

bar that highlights a publication's political lean, ownership and reliability ratings giving you the context that is so often missing from today's newsfeet. If you're tired of outrage, algorithms and endless confusion, ground news offers a smarter way to stay informed. Go to ground.combeau for a better way to stay informed. That's ground.d. news forward slash beast. Subscribe for 40% off the Vantage Plan for unlimited access to world news coverage through my link. Don't you think that chat GPT should make them much more efficient? I mean, they can just put all the details in. They should be able to get chatty to at least write the leading decision.

Then they can edit it. But I'm amazed that Trump hasn't told them to hurry up now because AI is working. You wouldn't have chat GPT write the story about it. No, of course not. No, that's a very good point. But don't you think it's odd that Donald Trump hasn't said out loud, why aren't these people moving fast? A.I can make these decisions better. We know that AI is a better decision maker.

But what I do? Here's something substantive. And I thought about this last night. The Democrats, there is a very serious discussion among Democrats about whether the court should be expanded. And the court has been expanded multiple times. There are 13 circuits. in the United States, judicial circuits. And so there's an argument to be made that maybe there should be 13 justices,

because it used to be the same number of justices as circuits. And also, of course, the Democrats feel that if they come in and they could appoint four new justices to the Supreme Court, they can offset the current imbalance, 6-3 imbalance on the court. Didn't Joe Biden say that he was going to do this at one point? He said he was thinking about it. He said he was thinking about it. But at the very beginning, he went in, he had a high-level commission, think about the court,

and they decided to do nothing. It was very, because he was very like Joe Biden asked an institutional and like, things are fine. We don't have to do this. And remember, he was chairman of the Judiciary Committee. He's a real Washington institutionalist, right? In any event, they have, you know, they get around and then they finish it. And then tomorrow, like as soon as the last decisionist read, they like go in summer vacation.

They're like out of town. Now, because we have the shadow docket and everything, the summers are not as quiet as they once were. But it's kind of an amazing system because then they don't come back until the first Monday and October to start ruling. They actually take July, August, and September off completely. Theoretically, yeah. Now, because there is this thing called the shadow docket, which Kavanaugh wants to call the interim docket, there are cases that pop up throughout the summer. That's a new thing.

But technically, the term of the Supreme Court ends at the end of June. and does not begin again a new term until the first Monday in October. And during that period, by the way, all the staff, you know, they have interns and others who come in for the justices. They'll switch over. All the last years leave, new ones come in. They travel around the world. The justices give speeches. And then they're back for more.

Well, they give speeches. They write books. I mean, isn't they superior? where they get three months to hustle. They get, yeah, or vacay or whatever they want to do. But mostly they're out there kind of hustling. Anyway, so today we're waiting for big decisions like birthright citizenship and so forth. But they let a little one out, which was they refused to hear Donald Trump's case

in which he says they should overturn the jury decision that he sexually abused and defamed E. Jean Carroll. Now, there's two E. Gene Carroll cases, one for $5 million, one for 83 million. This is the $5 million case. And the president was arguing, I'm the president. I am important, in fact, it was an amazing argument because it was kind of like, I'm a very important president doing a very important presidency. Like, that makes it special. And therefore, I shouldn't be bothered with this old stuff. Well, they said, Nope, we're not even going to hear it. Well, he doesn't really have a channel to reclaim this.

And so it looks like he's going to have to pay the $5 million. Now, the $83 million case, he is going to go to them on that one too, and they may or may not reject it. But this is essentially, and this is the amazing thing about all of this and why I say it penetrated his golden dome, although I feel uncomfortable using the word penetrating. Do you though? Or was that why you chose to use the word?

Okay, possibly. But, you know, this is a case where E. Jean Carroll had to go before a jury. It was a civil case, but had to go and prove that he had sexually violated her in a dressing room at Berkdorf Goodman with his fingers. It was quite detailed. And then when she called him out for it and he accused her of defaming him. and he then defamed her. And the court said, yeah, he did this. The jury said, yeah, he did this.

And the jury said, yeah, he defamed her, pay her someone. And that's kind of amazing, right? I mean, yeah, we're used to it. And, you know, we have all the tapes and everything else and all the other accusations. But here was a jury finding the president sexually violated somebody. It's now gone to the Supreme Court, and so it now stands. This is a matter of law.

Donald Trump is a sex abuser. So, David, E. Jean Carroll has had this thing hanging over her since 2019. So that's seven years during which her life has obviously been upended, received numerous threats, as well as a lot of support. But she's not gotten a single penny from this man, and she lost her job at L. magazine owned by Hearst. So this is a victory for her. I mean, it won't obviously compensate for what she's been through, but hopefully she will get to see a check for $5 million, which she says she's going to give more, she's going to give most of it away, but I think

she wanted to spend some of it. What do you think she should spend it on? Look, anything that makes your life happy, you know, this is a woman who has gone through hell for this, but has stood up so that the truth comes out about Trump. And I'm going to be candid. She's a friend of my sisters. She used to group my sister's house for Thanksgiving. I know a lot of people who know her, and I've exchanged texts with her. And she's a lovely, funny woman, right?

You probably know her. I do know her. And also, I loved her documentary, which is out at the moment. It just came out, had enormous difficulties getting distribution, and is a really, really good watch about a fascinating woman, actually. And it's got great details of the 70s and the 80s and the 90s in New York. It's not all about this case. It's about a young woman living a very lively life. And after the attack, she's really not had a relationship with a man.

Yeah. And she is funny. She's bright. She's, you know, she's super energetic. It comes through in a writing. It comes through. I think she is a substack. comes through and everything that she does.

And hopefully she'll get this money, although Lord knows, you know, Donald Trump and rich people, they treat and view courts differently. They feel they can hire as many lawyers as they want for as long as they want to come up with delaying tactics. Because every time they go and bring a new case or come up with a new tactic,

they know that the other side's got to write a check. The other side's got to pay for it. And so it becomes a way of punishing people, even if they know the case isn't going to go their way. But, you know, I just think it's important to remember that right now we say all these things about Trump. And Trump lives in his Golden Dome. And he sends out true socials all the time saying everything is going to be great or everything is great or I am the greatest. And a jury in New York City determined that he was guilty of sexual abuse and of sexual abuse. defamation and the Supreme Court is going to let that stand and it's his

Supreme Court by the way Supreme Court handed out some of its other decisions this morning and one of the decisions was very much catering to Trump where essentially they're reversing a precedent called Humphreys executor and they're saying the president can fire almost anybody in the US government and so that includes a couple of notable cases where he was trying to do it and they were fighting back so again they're expanding the power of the presidency, as the Roberts Court has done, which is very alarming because they seem not to consider the fact that presidents can be flawed.

The whole reason that there was a balance of powers in the U.S. Constitution was that the founders said, well, human beings can be flawed, so let's set up a this construction. But them with their unitary executive thought, make the executive more strong, they're building it up and up. And, you know, we have this example of the most flawed human being possible as president as they are doing it. And it's really striking. They did hand Trump another defeat today, today, in which they said that the state of Mississippi, I believe, could count ballots that came in after election day, They were dated a certain way. And there was some worry that, you know, they've been giving a lot of voting rights cases to Trump,

which is to say they've been pairing away our voting rights. And this was at least one case where the voting rights. For mail-in ballots were preserved. In one case, because one of their arguments is if a mail-in ballot comes after election day, it shouldn't be counted. This episode is brought to you by Lori Al-Greve. Beauty is a powerful force that moves us. That's why L'Oreal Group has built a business that is inclusive at its heart with 100% of its brands championing diversity.

With 25,000 professional opportunities for people under 30 worldwide and 54% of leading positions held by women, diversity is a strength that helps L'Oreal Group create the best beauty products for all people. Visit L'Oreal.com to learn more. David, there was a lot of anticipation around the decision for Lisa Cook, who was on the board of the Fed. Trump went after her to try and get rid of her because she were not voting for a reduction in interest rates. This will be watched by a lot of people. What was the decision, actually?

So the Supreme Court actually had a couple of other decisions Trump won't like today. Perhaps the most prominent of these is that by five to four, they ruled that Trump can't fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook and that she can continue to remain in the job while she fights for her job. And, you know, he had wanted to do something that no president has done for over a century. And that's fire a sitting Fed governor. And they've blocked that. However, there's another principle that has limited presidents in the past called Humphrey's executor, and in a separate case, they have said to him, he can fire the heads of independent agencies. The Fed, I believe, and this is consistent with the way this court has acted, is a special case, a special kind of an entity.

And then on top of that, there was another decision he won't like, which, allows states to treat mail-in ballots in such a way that they can be counted after election day. He was wanting to limit that. And so it was a mixed bag from the court today. But the one that's going to sting because Trump is ego, ego, ego is they're refusing his E. Jean Carroll case. And, you know, it's just a matter of time before we see something on social media about that. Yeah, I mean, I'm waiting for his truth social on it. But also the Lisa Cook one is interesting because she didn't want to reduce interest rates, which we know he's obsessed by.

She's also a black woman, which we know that he's also obsessed by. And the Fed is interesting because Kevin Walsh, the new head of the Fed, who Trump is supposedly likes, has made it very clear that he's not planning to reduce interest rates. So it'll be interesting to see how long that relationship lasts. So, well, I mean, you know, it's worth reminding everybody that the Fed governor or the Fed chairman that Trump hates, Jerome Powell, the one he fired. He hired a risk. Yeah, of course. Of course.

Right. You know, so. Yeah, no, he was a hangover from Trump one. He sailed through the Biden administration. And, and then suddenly Trump has had enough of him. Yeah. So, you know, it's interesting. It's a bit of a mixed bag today.

Well, and the one that everybody's waiting for, obviously, is the birthright citizenship, which... Yeah, there's a lot of people who... I mean, we're doing this on a Monday, and it's going to come out on a Monday night, and they're going to make that decision, apparently, tomorrow morning, Tuesday. So it's risky to go out on a limb, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say, it's almost impossible to conceive of how they could overturn something that is so explicitly in the 14th Amendment of the Constitution. And so that's going to, you know, rumble Trump a little more.

But, you know, that's not a good week or month or year for Donald Trump. Everything is going wrong. Have you made it down to Washington to go to the Great American State there? I was hoping you would lead to the Great American State Fair because that leads me to a Donald J. Trump Truth Social. I know you don't spend as much time on truth social as I do. But this... I've never been to truth social.

Is that a nice place? Oh, it's absolutely marvelous. I mean, the strange thing is there's really... It's a social media platform largely made up of the president. But of course, we all follow it. But he did post something I wanted to read to you. And I'm going to put on my Donald Trump accent for this, which is really basically a nasal British accent.

So for those of you who are going to write in and say that my impressions aren't very good. Hold your fire. It's fine. I know they're not very good. I'm trying to differentiate between David's erudite conversation my questions

and the president's truth socials. Do you think people appreciate what a fantastic job we did in the building and operating of the great American state fair at the National Mall, packed with happy people and everybody loving it? Ask yourself this simple question.

Do you think that Obama spelt wrong or sleepy jokes? Biden could have done it. The answer is no. Thank you for your attention to this matter, David. I mean, he is feeling very sensitive about it. And I'm hoping that we can show a clip of Caroline Levitt, his press spokesperson, who was interviewed by Fox News. She was very happily there with her toddler, marvellous trip out for Caroline. The thing perhaps she didn't intentionally understand or unwittingly didn't realize was that behind her, well, you'll see from this clip.

Welcome to the Great American State Fair. What a beautiful day on the National Mall. First question. How are you? How's the baby? Amazing. She's great. She's at home right now, sleeping. I have my toddler son here, as you can see, Nico, and we're trying to find the New Hampshire booth.

I haven't found it yet. I'm blown away. The Ferris wheel looks so fun. I haven't tried it yet, but I'm about to. And it's so cool to have all 50 states represented and people from all over the country that have traveled to enjoy our nation's 250th birthday. There are a lot of Europeans who are visiting for the World Cup, who we have run into here looking around the 50 states.

You've been to most of the 50 states. What is the one stop that they've got to make? New Hampshire. There is no one behind her. There is no one else there. It appears to be solely Pete Ducey from Fox News, Caroline Levitt, And then a man who not once, not twice, but three times was spotted with his hands down his pants. This is a man called Manny who was dressed in the stars and stripes and sort of as Uncle Sam and finally had to be led away by police.

Thus bringing the total number of people attending the state fair down by 30%. I live in D.C. If you go down to D.C. right now. It's really weird. It's like from some other planet. Because there is this state fair and their fences all around it. You can't get anywhere and it's blocked of it. And there's nobody there. It is a ghost town.

And it's not just a ghost town. It is a cheeseball ghost town. You know, he's put up this replica of his triumphal arch. Which is made of plywood, right? Yeah, but it looks like it's made by a bunch of fifth graders in an art class. I mean, it's the, no. No detail looks ridiculous. And, you know, their Trump cabinet members going down there to try to promote it.

And there's nobody there. There's nobody there. Meanwhile, people are trying to go over and see the reflecting pool because they know that's, you know, it's a ghoulish. It's a ghoulish, it's a ghoulish tourist attraction at this point. Well, yeah. No, but it's, you know, that's, you know, you want to go back. You want to have your picture taken with that. And that has troops wandering around.

and they passed a regulation or asserted a regulation, the president is made up a regulation, that you can't loiter around the reflecting pool, right? So you can't reflect at the reflecting. Well, it reminds me slightly. I mean, people are clearly trying to get bits of the rubber or bits of the algae out. I mean, I'm surprised that some enterprise and chemistry class

from a high school hasn't gone down with test tubes to collect the water and tell us what the algae is. actually what's in it or perhaps they have. But do you remember there was that moment when the Berlin wall came down and everybody appeared to have a sort of little concrete chip which they claimed was from the Berlin Wall? I now think we're going to see the same thing of little bits of sort of peculiar rubber that people are going to say, yes, this comes from the bottom of the reflecting pool. Well, I'd certainly pay top dollar for that. But but you know, Trump put out something else over the weekend and referred to the criminal algae, which,

was kind of interesting. You know, I didn't know there was a whole set of criminal statutes for algae. Oh, yeah. You'd be surprised. Some of them breed much faster than other alges, and that's when they become illegal. I, I, I, I, I, I, I, there are plenty of single-celled or invertebrate creatures in D.C. who deserve to be held guilty of crimes, and notably Republicans on the Hill. But having said that, um, there's one thing I just want to point out to everybody, and I think we may have mentioned it last week, but the reflecting. pool was built in like the 1920s. Ever since it was built, there was an algae problem. Because if you have a big essentially pool of standing water that gets warm during the day, little single-celled algae creatures

start to grow in it. And the reason Obama put in pumps, like now we're all experts in this, but the reason Obama put in pumps and they have the water flow was because if the water flows, you don't have algae and so forth. But the point is Trump's like that, you know, that the algae was put in there as a crime. He doesn't realize it's been there for 100 years. But, you know, again, he lives in a golden dome, golden bubble. And he's just, nobody's challenging him.

Natalie sits there and laughs at him. And he goes, oh, look, a young woman is laughing at me. I must be the same old Donald. I always was when I wasn't shitting in my pants. Oh, David. Well, he's also fired off another truth social at another woman who's managed to penetrate his golden dome. And that's, as he calls her, Maggot Haberman, the writer who's come up with Jonathan Swan,

and they've written regime change, which is packed with delicious details about the White House, some of which we knew, but it's sort of repackaged. and then there's lots of new things in it. And the book is doing phenomenally well. And finally, Donald Trump has come out and attacked on it. Have you read? Well, you haven't read his truth social. But basically, he's saying it's fake news.

She's a third-rate writer, third-rate writer and intellect, who made a first-rate income because of your favorite president. Just in case you don't know who your favorite president is, he then puts in capital letters, me. She was wrong about me on the elections, though she knew I was going to win big, big. She was wrong about me on the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax. And on he goes, on he goes, which is exactly the kind of truth social. You need to sell a book.

So I'm sure that Maggie Haberman. He's doing a great job for her. And, you know, the reality is this. He answers her calls when she calls. Oh, of course. They all do, right? They all complain about fake media. J.D. Vance is one of the biggest complainers, and yet he's constantly on.

the fake media. No, no, and he, I mean, you know, we all have friends who are journalists because like a few months ago, his number went around and everybody got his private number. And so then they were like, oh, should I call it? And so I, you know, friends who like call him. And he like talks to them. And then if he sees what they're doing, he doesn't like it. He goes, oh, you're being bad.

I'm not going to talk to you again. And then he talks to them again. But, you know, and Maggie Haberman is the ultimate example of this. And, you know, people talk a lot. I talked a lot at the last episode, you know, access journalism. When should they publish the story? That's part of the story. But, you know, it's not just journalists with access to the president.

It's presidents with access to the journalists. Presidents want to have these journalists available, but they're beck and call so they can get out their message. And Donald Trump still, 10 years into this delusional political life of his and 30 or 40 years into his public persona still thinks he's so charming that he can persuade anybody that what he says is true, even if all the evidence is against it. And if you look at that true socially you read, he's like saying, well, she said the Russia thing was true and it wasn't. But the Russia thing was true. All the things he's denying actually were true. And you know, this book is doing well because it's well reported.

And we're learning about the divisions in the White House over the Iran War, for example, and that he got pushed back from the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who he sort of put in place as his own, you know, sort of hand-selected general, right? And J.D. Vance was against it. And then he's got all the stories about Trump playing Vance against Rubio. and all the dysfunction in the White House and the dysfunction between Trump and his wife. And so, you know, if you're interested in this kind of thing,

this book is the book to read. But, you know, A, there's no evidence to suggest that it's wrong. These are two of the best reporters that there are out there. And B, isn't it interesting that he attacks Maggie Haberman and not Jonathan Swann? Isn't it interesting? I thought that, too. Well, he goes after women all the time. One of Donald Trump's patterns is attacking women, particularly women of color, who he always calls low IQ.

But, you know, look at him as attacking Caitlin Collins in press event after press event. Donald Trump's relationship with women is unbelievably dysfunctional, as, you know, Natalie Harp will learn to her dismay. You know what I did think was interesting was the details about Steve Wittkoff, actually. I didn't realize that Steve Wittkoff had lost a son to drug overdose, to a drug overdose. That seemed sad. Well, Steve Whitkoff. Look, Steve Whitcuff is a New York developer who has made a lot of money, who has a reputation in New York as being a kind of a sleaze bag. Hey, y'all.

It's Kelly Clarkson with Wayfair. Ever order furniture online and wonder, what if, like, what if it doesn't hold up? That sofa was four days old. You should have ordered from Wayfair. With Wayfair, there's no what-if. Just style you love and quality you can trust. Visit Wayfair.ca. Wayfair, every style, every home. So he's very similar to Donald Trump.

The book says actually that Steve Wickoff got the idea of becoming a real estate developer because he started off as Donald Trump's real estate lawyer. And then he, I mean, looked around and thought, I could do this. He obviously thought, well, if Donald Trump can do this, I can do this too. And now he's his chief negotiator. Look, if you see a baboon making, a billion dollars. You think, well, if a baboon can do that, I can do it. But you know who else is making a lot of money? And which is another big story in the new... Oh, yes. I know who you're going to say.

Well, but, you know, Whitkoff's kids are going, you know, they go to negotiation. And in the lobby of the hotel and they're negotiating, Whitkoff's kids are negotiating deals. Howard Lutnik's kids are doing the same thing. And there's a big story today in a country that is not unfamiliar those who followed Trump scandals, Kazakhstan, about a mining deal, which Trump as the president got a concession for the U.S. on a mining deal, and it is going to a company that is doing business with his kids and Lachnick's kids. And it's like, I mean, it's just overt, crazy corruption. And the president of Kazakhstan sort of appeared to just say Donald Trump. is the new Messiah. This is an extraordinary deal for Kazakhstan. This is absolutely marvelous, right?

These are authoritarian leaders who are often, you know, cut corners in their own business dealings. And so they feel a lot of affinity to Trump. And, you know, you go around the world, particularly in these marginal places. And that's where Trump has done his best. And, you know, it's not a big surprise that Ivanka, Trump and Jared, you know, they want to build their island super resort for billionaires in Albania. It's not because anybody wants to go to Albania. It's because they think they can get the government to do the deal with them. And the same as what has happened in Kazakhstan. And there was a real estate deal in Kazakhstan that Ivanka Trump was involved with in the past. And so, you know, it's just very, very interesting how overt this

corruption has become. But I would, you know, I would just, wave a little bit of a red flag and say, you know, the Supreme Court in their famous and infamous Trump versus the United States of America case, which was ruled on in 2024 in June of 2024, and essentially gave the president immunity while he was in office, gave him immunity for all of his official acts. It does not give him immunity for unofficial. It does not give him immunity for unofficial acts. And the Constitution of the United States is very explicit that the president cannot take remuneration from foreign governments or domestically.

There are two clauses. They're called the emoluments clauses. Which means that this kind of corruption where he is actually making money or his family is making money from this can't be described as an official act. because it's explicitly prohibited by the Constitution. And I think that, you know, we are going to get into a period, assuming there are fair elections and Democrats win control at least of one of the houses. We are going to get into a period where there are going to be investigations into Trump,

where he is legally vulnerable. And I think that's the reason that he is obsessed with trying to find ways to cheat going into November. And it's on his mind. And last week, just a couple of days ago, there was this almost unbelievable case where the president of the United States had the opportunity to sign a bipartisan bill, solving one of the big power, or helping us address one of the big problems the U.S. has about housing. And he said, nope, I'm not going to sign it until you do the Save Act, which is this act he wants Congress to pass, which would allow him to bar a lot of people from voting.

And he's willing to trash among the very few things that he's got that's an actual legit achievement because more important to him is cheating in the November elections. And that can only be because he thinks that if the elections go the other way, he is vulnerable. He is vulnerable. And, you know, it's not just his insecurities, as we've seen now with this E. Jean Carroll thing. the President of the United States has done bad things, and when it gets put in front of juries or put in front of courts, he gets found liable for them. And he's afraid. Yeah, we had Congressman Jason Crow from Colorado on the podcast last week who said the minute the Democrats win the

house, they're going to start inquiries into all of this. And the critical mineral deal with Kazakhstan is quite interesting because it's for tungsten, that stuff which is in bombs, it goes on the tips of bullet. It makes things everything that just, just that bit more lethal. And of course, it could prove to be one of those deals that actually is just a bit more lethal for Donald Trump and his family. It could if these people are held accountable. And I have to say, one thing that troubles me a little bit is, like I was at a dinner with a bunch of big, sort of Dems, whose names who would have heard of, over the weekend. And there were several of them who are active, strong, intelligent Democrats saying, oh, I hope we don't get into this accountability.

It's a distraction. Focus on affordability. Don't go hard at Trump. And I was like, are you kidding me? And they were like, well, you know, we impeached him before and what did it do? And I was like, Well, actually, the first impeachment helped influence his loss in 2020. Let's remember that, you know. But there is a movement among some establishment Democrats not to focus on accountability. And there's a movement among rising Democrats like Tala Rico and some of the more progressive Democrats to focus on accountability. And that's that's a story to watch because.

if they focus on accountability, if the investigations happen, it's not going to be just Trump. It's going to be Trump and Don Jr. and Eric and Jared and Barron and Ivanka and Steve Whitkoff and his kids and Howard Lutnik and his kids because corruption in this government has become a family affair. You know, surely the Democrats must be trying to connect the corruption to taxpayers and the money that people put into the system. The American, the IRS is not set up as a place for American politicians and their friends to loot.

Well, that's right. And, you know, the average American who is sitting there going, I can't afford a full tank of gas, or I can't afford to buy food, or I just got kicked off of health care because the Obamacare subsidies went away, is saying the president made billions of dollars by being president, his family is making hundreds of millions of dollars through these side deals, that can't be fair. And I think, you know, it cuts to what, to me, is the core issue in the coming election and in the 28 election, and that is most Americans believe, and that's the reason they elected Donald Trump, but it didn't work, fix it. Most Americans believe the system is rigged against them.

They believe the system works for rich and powerful people. and it doesn't work for them. And that doesn't mean, you know, Democratic socialists have all the answer. Anybody who goes and solves problems for real people listens to real people and solves their problems is going to be seen as the antidote to a system that doesn't seem to give a shit.

And that's where the political, you know, all these people talk about labels and this and left or right. All that it's meaningless. People just want a government that in some way is going to be responsive to them. And, you know, in 1932, Franklin Roosevelt ran. And, you know, it was in the middle of the Depression. And what he said was, we want to make the government work for the people.

And that, you know, was a watershed moment. And, you know, John F. Kennedy ran in 1960. And he said, we want to make the government respond to a new generation. And I think that was a message. that you've heard subsequently from Bill Clinton or Barack Obama. And somebody's going to be the one to connect and deliver the message that I actually can make a difference in your life. And I will care more about you than I will care about Elon,

or I'll care about Eric and Don Jr. Or Peter Thiel or whoever. Well, the other thing I wanted to ask you about was, I mean, not only do people elect the rigor in chief, but they also elected someone who blames other people. So the other Supreme Court decision, which came down last week, meant that Haitians and Syrians got stripped of their temporary protective status, which means that there are 350,000 people living in the country who could be deported.

They're going to be given the choice to either be deported or to reapply for a status which they, in all likelihood, won't get. And because they're Haitian and because they're Syrian, there's a sort of sense in which they're more identifiable than if these were Europeans or white South Africans who at the moment appear to have the only asylum status coming to the US. Does this also become an election issue? I mean, we have Mark Wayne Mullen on CNN on Sunday

talking about how these people now are going to be offered the opportunity to go home, they're going to get a ticket, and they're going to get $2,100 to help them settle back either in Haiti or in Syria. Or do you think that people won't care if they get sent home? I mean, 350,000 people are a lot. Honestly, I think people will care. And you could tell when the decision came down. And it was a ridiculous decision where they dismiss. missed the idea that there were racial undertones to what the president said, even though he said,

you know, Haitians eat cats and dogs, right? And Justice Kagan had a footnote to the decision, which is extremely powerful people should read it, in which she enumerates all the racial undertones to this whole thing. And as you say, you know, one of the ones she enumerates is he refers to Shihull countries and he refers to Haitians eating cats and dogs. And he says, the people we would like that have in our country are people from Norway or Denmark. Right. And it's like, well, what do they have in common, right? It's not herring. It's that they're white. It's not herring. It's not hearing. And but and they're eating the herrings. They're eating the hairigs. Yeah, it's good and it's good for them. But, you know, it's like letting the South African whites who

are at risk of anti-white farmer genocide, which is not a thing, right? But Elon put it in his head or and here you have it. But Mark Wayne Mullen bragging about a Trump at the same time did a true social saying we're deporting more people than ever. And yet who's protesting this? Mike DeWine, the Republican, conservative Republican governor of Ohio says this is terrible. These are people who contribute to our communities. Large groups, including Republicans in Florida, where Haitians have settled and are vital parts of the population. of Dade County at every, you know, the economic underpinnings of the entire state, they're like, no, if these people go away, it will cost us dramatically. And I think we're at that point

where people are seeing good members of their community, torn out of their community. Remember Trump said, we're going to get the worst of the worst. As it turns out, a tiny fraction of the people who get deported were actually ever committed to crime. Well, and in fact, statistically, immigrants commit fewer crimes than people who have lived here for, you know, generations. And also there's an economic cost because they contribute taxes, they contribute to the government. And it will actually net, net cost the United States on an ongoing basis to deport these people. And so, yeah, I think that's going to be an issue. I think, again, I think the issue is, you know, the old favorite.

Am I better off today than I was four years ago? Am I better off today than I was before Donald Trump? And when you say, am I? You mean, am I making more money? Is my job more secure? Is my family being taken better care of? But also, how's my community? How's the community am I living in?

Are, is the infrastructure better or worse? Or the schools better or worse? Are we safer? Are we less safe? Are my neighbors feeling good or are my neighbors not feeling good? And, you know, I think the message that Donald Trump is sending right at the moment is the one that he accidentally, the truth he accidentally told a couple weeks ago, when he said, I don't care about the price of gasoline. I don't care about the inflation, right? Right. I don't care about inflation. And of course he doesn't. He's a billionaire, and he doesn't really

care about inflation. And the average American cares. And this is the dividing line issue in U.S. politics always is do the candidates credibly seem to care and credibly seem to have the kind of character where they can actually do something about it? And I think within the Democratic Party, there is this sort of subset where people are worried about some of the leadership who act incrementally and are too inclined to compromise. And they feel that hasn't worked. And the reason people are critical of that is it hasn't worked for them. And they want people going to stand up and fight because they think that's the only thing that's going to start fixing some of these big problems that real people have. And so, you know, Donald Trump lives on the planet Trump in his golden dome, apart from the world, a delusional, demented, declining figure who is making everybody's life worse except for his friends and his cronies.

And the rest of us are figuring out now, what do we do about that? And, you know, that's, you know, where, what are we, four and a half months from the election? election. In a matter of weeks, we're going to go to the polls and we're going to determine whether we want to keep going with a guy who is disconnected in every possible way from the American people and is twisted, deformed in his character, or do we want to take another course? And, you know, the polls suggest people want to take another course. David Rothkopf, what a way to spend a Monday, a rousing conclusion. What do we do about this?

We podcast about it. We talk about it. We excite people about it. There is this new group of moderate House Democrats who've written this letter saying, I think it's called the Promise to America saying we're capitalists, we're not communists in response to the Democratic socialists. Okay, this is not a group, okay? This is Tom Swazzy and some other guy.

and they're saying, oh, yeah, we're capitalists, we're not socialist. Because why? Well, because I think their donors are saying to them, oh, my God, oh, my God. We have to protect capitalism at all costs because we're actually corporate Democrats. And I, you know, I just think people are freaking out over the wrong thing. David, what a resounding start to the week. I can't wait to discuss the rest of the Supreme Court decisions with you next week. And what are you doing for July the 4th?

Writing articles for the day of these. Excellent way to spend your time, sir. Excellent way. Because I have to say, we're coming up on July 4th, the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. And the contrast between what they had in mind and what we've got right now is striking, infuriating,

nauseating, and so extreme as to be almost unbelievable. Because we have this would-be king, and he's a lunatic, and he's a thief, and he is abusing people, and he's doing almost every single thing that the people who started this country said was a problem. And if you go, take the Declaration of Independence, read it. There are 27 grievances in the Declaration of Independence. that they had with King George. 17 or 18 of them in a conservative count, all 27 in a more generous count,

work for Donald Trump in the way that they worked for George and 3rd. And so, you know, the president's commemorations and the nonsense of state fair and, you know, nobody's showing up at his concert series except Cash Patel's girlfriend. And Lee Greenwood, don't forget Lee Greenwood. Yeah, well, yeah, no, he's the only one who's proud to be Maga. But all of this stuff is happening, and they're flops, but there is a big thing happening

on which we all should reflect on, which is really worth reflecting on. And that is we've got to fight this revolution all over again, you know, if we're going to go and live up to those traditions. And we are not guaranteed the outcomes that they talked about. Democracy is something you have to do every day. And so to me, that's what we've got to focus on. And so we'll try to help focus on that. I will say when I look at you like this,

because of the way your white T-shirt is sitting and the shape of the earphones, you look like a figure from 250 years ago. It makes you look as if you've got one of those old powdered wigs on. It's a strange affect. It's a very strange affect. Anyway, David, I will talk to you after July the 4th. And as you say, democracy is the thing we have to fight for every day. They really could have used a Jewish signatory to the Declaration of Independence. There is no Shlomo Washington that we really needed to have.

David Rothcob. That's why we love doing a popular. with you. I will see you next Monday. Enjoy your, well, I will enjoy reading more of your columns for the Daily Beast, where you can be found several times a week writing, passionate, brilliantly argued, packed with information columns that are beautifully written. Thank you so much. Enjoy your holiday. Welcome back to America. Thank you. Thank you. I will say I was very glad to land back on American soil. Yes, because we have air conditioning. Well, you've Air conditioning, but also you forget that everybody, I think, fantasizes Europe and thinks that it's just, you know, very chic people with short haircuts sitting around drinking little cups of coffee. But actually, people in Europe are pretty depressed too.

Yeah. And there's a big debate now in France where you were, where the right is taking the position that they need more air conditioning. Yeah, if I were a political party right now, I would be taking that too. It's all about... The pro-air conditioner. Free air conditioner is for everybody. In the past four days in France, I think 1,400 people have to sound... I mean, some insane number.

It was actually like being caught in someone else's fever. It was as if you took on the mantle of an ill person. It was so unbearably hot. It was quite strange. You just sat there and sweated. And on Saturday night, we went out for dinner. I was staying with my older son. and we went out for dinner with a colleague of his,

and he'd booked the restaurant specifically because it had AC. He'd looked through whatever the Yelp was in French, Le Yelp, and looked for restaurants with AC. And when we got there, we were led upstairs to the sort of open attic of the restaurant. And, of course, the AC had broken. So we sat upstairs with all the risen heat, had a delicious meal, but nevertheless sweat pouring down us. It was something to behold.

Anyway, it's following us here now, but as you say, we have air conditioning. Yeah, this week is going to be brutal. It's always brutal, David, in New York. It's just a different kind of brutality. Excellent to see you. Talk to you next Monday. I love our Monday conversations with David Rothcop.

He's so well informed. He talks to so many people, and he has such a strong point of view. Anyway, if you have been, big thank you for joining us. don't forget to press the subscription button and a big thank you to our production team John Romero, Ryan Murray, Heather Passaro, Rachel Passer, those surnames are so similar, and Neil Rosenhaus. So the good news is we have so many Bee Beast tier members now. There are

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