The Daily Beast Podcast - Why Trump’s Biggest Weakness Is About to Doom Him

Episode Date: September 18, 2026

Michael Wolff and Joanna Coles examine Donald Trump's growing political troubles as rising prices, escalating tensions in the Middle East, and his own economic policies threaten to make affordability his biggest liability ahead of the midterms. They discuss Trump's pressure on the Federal Reserve, the consequences of his tariffs and war policies, and why his administration's approach may be fueling the very problems he claims he wants to solve. Plus, Melania Trump's surprising enthusiasm for AI, the latest turmoil at the Kennedy Center, and the court's refusal to let Trump put his name on the building. They also take a closer look at Kash Patel's purge of senior FBI agents, the changing standards for joining the bureau, and Lee Greenwood's wife's nomination as ambassador to Barbados. As Trump surrounds himself with loyalists and pushes aside voices that might challenge him, Michael and Joanna consider whether his own decision-making is setting the stage for a political reckoning. #ad Ready to reach your goals? Visit https://hims.com/ith to get a personalized, affordable plan that gets you. #ad Try QUO for free plus get 20% off your first 6 months at https://www.quo.com/BEAST. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's hard to see how he benefits from anything he has done, period. From the war to the economy, to health care, to immigration. All of these things are net negatives for Donald Trump. At the top of this list is this affordability issue. This is on Donald Trump. This is of his own making. The wars of his own making tariffs are of his own making. they are the kinds of things that contribute to raising prices, inflation, in other words.

So Donald Trump has screwed himself, which he does over and over and over again. Michael. You know, Joanna, you just called me before we came on the air, Mike, which is something only my grandmother has ever called me. I don't know where it came from. I had a flash of North Carolina. At any rate, Joanna. Michael, all I can do is put it down to, I got up at half past four Eastern time this morning to get to L.A. in time to record our podcast.

So just put it down to lack of sleep. I didn't know. I liked it. I liked it. Let's do that. You call me Mike from now. Okay. All right. I'm going to call you Mike. And I'm going to call you grandma. And I'm going to call you grandma. I've never met anyone less like a mic than you. But anyway, we once had a producer that called you Mike, and you were like, you were so discombobulated. Anyway, we have a lot to discuss. We have a lot to discuss today, not least Melania's enthusiasm for AI as the rest of the world has a complete free coppelips about AI.

Melania is out there with young people encouraging them to embrace AI. We will definitely come to that. Fencing going up around the Kennedy Center because if Donald Trump can't have his name on it, then none of us can go and see anything there. What else are we talking about, Michael? Well, we're going to get to his Achilles heel, which is affordability. Affordability. Does he have two Achilles heel?

He might have two Achilles heels. Yes. He had only, yes. And isn't that how he got out of the draft? Ha ha. Very good. Very good. Yes.

He's got bone spares on both his Achilles heels. I was thinking you were going to say the Forever War. But I know. I do think that this is the thing that, I mean, all of the other things which he might somehow, because he's Donald Trump, escape in the midterms, these prices, which keep going up and up and are kind of rather astounding if you see them over not just the inflation, 3%, 4%, 5% inflation, but really look at this over a relatively short span of time, but nevertheless, a number of years,

you see that people are getting, are hurting, getting smacked, all of us. Yeah, I feel it. Every time I go to the grocery store, I went down to, I had a friend in from England. I went to make her, I thought I'm going to cook. And I thought it'd be much cheaper than going out for dinner. And actually, by the time I bought the ingredients, it didn't feel like cheaper at all. Anyway, so we're going to talk about Kevin Walsh, basically raising the interest rate. The one thing that Trump was on Jerome Powell, the previous chairman of the Fed, you know,

he kept going on, you've got to lower interest rates, and now his person is raising them. So we'll talk about that. I think we should do the midterm, the polling too, because I think we're at this moment starting to gain some potential clarity about the extent of the wipeout to come. Now, this is obviously optimistic on my part, but the numbers seem to bear this out. The numbers seem to bear it out. We could also talk about Cash Patel. Cash Patel with his enormous eyes that look as if they're slightly crossed.

In the committee firing chair where I course audience of one, but it turns out that he, well, we'll get into it, but he's managed to fire 1,200 agents. And then, of course, they've reduced the qualifications for joining the FBI. So if there's anybody listening out there who wants to join the FBI, this might be your moment. And then let's finish with my favorite story, the Lee Greenwald's story or the Mrs. Greenwald's story. Mrs. Greenwood, Lee Greenwood. But we have to remind people, Michael, to come and see us live at the Terregram Ballroom in Los Angeles, L.A., on Oxygen, October the 20th. And if you'd like to book tickets, come and meet us. You need to go to beast.pub slash ITH live. That's beast.pub slash ITH live. And you can also find tickets on

Ticketmaster. And of course, don't forget to subscribe to the Daily Beast wherever you get your podcasts. Michael, take it away. And we will be doing an up to the minute on the midterms. So we'll see if we're feeling good or feeling bad. But in-depth coverage of the midterm moment and what we have to look forward to, which will be either, which it will be either way existential. Yeah, because it's the most important election. Although, isn't every election the most important? Well, every Trump election, yes. I mean, every Trump election is transformational. Yes, it is. It is. And you know what else is transformational, Michael? You led me there. AI. Well, AI, who has a news supporter, that intellectual powerhouse, Melania Trump.

And she may be supporting this because her book, Melania, appears to have been written entirely by AI. You always say this. You always say this because nobody is down. I am the only one who has read the book, cover to cover. I skimmed it. I skimmed it. I skimmed it. It is true that there is no single person thanked in her book. It's very strange.

It's very strange. But she's out there talking enthusiastically about AI and how it's the future. Do you think that she's enthusiastic? I never think she's robotic herself rather than necessarily enthusiastic. She could be the nearest thing we've got to an AI, First Lady. Let's listen to the clip. Shortly, I will visit your classrooms, and I cannot wait to see what you have been learning. I'm especially excited to hear about your work with AI.

As you begin new school year, Remember to take your education seriously. Stay curious and always challenge yourself. Now, of course, she didn't write any of this. And it's very likely that she is seeing this for the first time as she reads it or seconds before when she does the quick run through. I mean, remember, she is the first lady who once gave a speech in 2016. at the Republican Convention that turns out to be

a speech that was plagiarized from Michelle Obama. Of course. I'd forgotten that. I'd forgotten that. So she doesn't give a lot, there's not a lot of importance given to the words in front of her. Well, it was probably also aided, if not written by AI.

Don't you think? Yeah. Well, no. I actually know this, that this would have been negotiated from the White House. So this would have been on the calendar that she was doing this event. And then people in the White House would have lobbied. Let's see if we can get her to talk about this or that or whatever is on the White House agenda or whatever they think it would be a good look for the First Lady to talk about. And they would have thrown out a lot of things.

And someone on her side, not necessarily her, would have said, oh, yeah, okay, AI, that sounds like it will make the first, it will make her sound smart. We'll talk about AI. If weight loss has felt like a losing battle, this summer can be different. Skip the guesswork and try weight loss by HIMS. HIMS now offers access to an affordable range of FDA-approved GLP-1 medicine. medications, including the Wagovi pill and Wagovi pen. With Wagovi at Hymns, you can lose up to 20% of your body weight when combined with diet and exercise. It helps regulate your appetite, eat less and keep weight off. And Wagovi is the first ever GLP 1 pill for weight loss, so there's no needles needed.

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Wagovi is the registered trademark of Novo Nordisk, A-esque. To get started and learn more, including important safety information, Wagovi clinical study information and restrictions, visit hymns.com. I wonder if Mark Beckman, her advisor, is involved, because she's really only got, I think, five staff at the White House, right. I did think when she said shortly, I will visit your classroom, it sounded like a threat. I wonder whether or not the children. the entire book. I recommend the book, Melania, as an example of what books will be like in the AI age. There is nothing. There's no wrinkle. The surface does not break for a second. There is no personal detail, no tonal indication of who you are and what your personality might be. It is just as smooth as the smooth this ice, as she sometimes seems.

Well, and could be similarly said of her documentary, which gave nothing away, and yet gave quite a lot away in the absences of what she talked about. It occurs to me, so she has this show coming up on Amazon. Actually, I think it's effectively a series, many Melania shows, which they are probably now filming and they probably thought, oh, let's have her talk about AI for this show that will make her give her substance. So this is probably a setup which she will then monetize. Okay.

So we'll see this in the reality show that she's doing. You think we'll see this all over again, her with the robotic hand? I mean, I don't, does she have, I mean, the president in his His family have interests as AI goes so their net worth grows. That's a good line. That was a nice little almost with the, almost worthy of a limerick, Michael. Yes. And so does Melania have a stake in the Trump's AI interests, possibly?

It's also possible they decided to do this speech 10 days ago before the AI Freakopelips as I'm calling it. I don't know if that's a word. Also, very, very, yes. Like, I think, I think likely, because why would she want to get in the middle of this particular controversy? So the timing. Why would she actually want to be, and why would she be want to be on the side of her husband? She usually is very careful to, um, to keep her distance. Well, anyway, she was at a North Carolina school hugging children. So I'm sure. that you're right that it will, we will see that in one of the episodes of her show, which frankly I can't wait for on Amazon. I'm sure it'll be an absolute knockout.

So we think that basically the reason she's talking about AI, it was, this was decided before everybody started saying that AI was going to kill us because she sounds for Melania extremely enthusiastic about it. It's all your future AI's, all going to help us. She's not saying anything about the recent warnings that it's going to kill us all in 10 years time. Children, you better crawl under your desks. AI is coming for you. Oh, there's an active first lady drill.

Yes. She did say, of course, we need to be vigilant, but this is our future and we need to guide them and teach them what is available. If not, they will stay behind and we need to be the first. first in the United States to lead? Yes, the China card. The China card. The Kennedy Center.

I'm really interested in this because... Well, she's also on the board of the Kennedy Center, right? I wonder if she was at the meeting or on the... Did she phone into the meeting? Yeah, well, it was a virtual meeting. This was a meeting that we heard about. We got the details from Joyce Beatty. 76, Congresswoman Ohio is having a moment in the sun because she said that she, so she's an ex-officio member of the board.

And she said that Trump, when he came on the virtual meeting, which was scheduled for an hour, to deal with the fact that he had lost the right to put his name on the building. and we should just step back a moment to say that Congresswoman Beatty sued over Trump trying to put his name on the building. And the court came back and said he definitely can't do that. There is no room for him on this monument to a slain president. Anyway, she says that he threw a tantrum. Hold on. The court has said that two times. So the court said this that it could not be the Donald Trump.

and John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Donald J. Trump up and John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. And then they tried to do that it would be, that it would say something like the Kennedy Center renovated and, and who knows what else by Donald J. Trump. and the court has ruled that they can't put that on the side of the building either. I think that ruling was just yesterday or the day before, and that's probably what this meeting they had was meant to address because he has been threatening, more than threatening. I mean, he has basically said, so let's go. I think we did this the other day, but it's it's too wonderful not to do it again, that the Kennedy Center is in, financial extremists because of because when he put his name on the building, there was a flight of both performers and audience.

Now he is saying that unless a way is found, if away isn't found for his name to go on the building, he will not raise the money to solve the problem that was created by his efforts to get his name put on the building. So that is the situation at the moment in the Kennedy Center, and the courts have now said, no, you absolutely cannot have your name on the Kennedy Center. So he is saying, then no more money for the Kennedy Center, it goes into, we don't know, into some place we can't imagine, including, but including bankruptcy, quite possibly. and it is closing down, as closed down. Right. And in fact, today they put fencing around it. As we're recording this, they put fencing around it.

But what Congresswoman Beatty told MS now actually was that Trump came on the call. He threw a tantrum and then she said, now I'm going to quote her, it was the most unprofessional thing that I've ever witnessed or been a part of. He went into name calling, everything from trying to say that I was an obstructionist, I was dumb. He said, I think you're incompetent, and I said, I know you're incompetent. So, you know, childlike meeting. And she wasn't running an iPhone. We don't have a recording of this.

You know, these. Why don't we have a recording of this? Alas. That would have been an amazing thing. That would have been an amazing thing. thing. Yes, please, anybody out there listening who has a recording of this meeting, please send it to us. And why doesn't everybody record meetings they have with the president? Yeah, I do.

You do? So, yes. Do you have some tapes so you can play us? Of the president? Sure. Yeah. Michael, we should do that. We should have some clips. We should do a show devoted to clips from him that perhaps you've used. in your books? Let me think about that.

I mean, it's, I resist doing this and have always resist doing this because, why? I don't know why. Because I'm a writer, not a, not a podcast producer. But who knows? Here I am. Well, I never thought I'd be. Right. And I suspect that you might not be able to find them.

Oh, well, that's always something. Not precisely. Okay. Well, it's definitely worth thinking about for a future episode. But we should also speak about affordability. As you said, it's... No, but before we get there, because I think that there's an interesting thing,

they've put this fence up around the Kennedy Center. You know, they put this fence up like they do in construction sites, so you can't see what's going on. Now, we know that Trump is perfectly capable of bringing bulldozers in and bulldozing buildings that we might otherwise think of as protected, if not even, sacrosanp. So is it possible behind this fence that the Kennedy Center is going to be turned into rubble? What a terrible thought, but you're right. Look what happened with the East Wing.

Nobody thought that that would happen. The East Wing, it's hard to imagine anybody doing that apart from Donald Trump. And as you say, it's always... Remember, and the thing here is you're not given any warning. This happens in the dead of night. Right. And also it's the old New York developer trick that you just take a building down because once it's down, you can't rebuild it.

So I suppose he could take it down. I wonder if he would find a construction crew to do that, or if I suppose, you know, people get paid to do it, they would do it. Yeah, well, he's already done this. I mean, he's already taken down half of the Whitechrist. Bring in the same crew that did the East Wing. So then this thing is, if there is no more Kennedy Center, could he then erect the Trump Center?

Isn't that what the ballroom is? I feel like the ballroom is the Trump Center. But maybe he wants more than one. In the world of Donald Trump, you know how many buildings were named the Trump, this, that, the other thing in New York City? Mm-hmm. Oh, what a terrible thought. But you're right. We should make sure that Farrow Tomazin and Sarah Yule Weiss and David Gardner are our team in D.C.

We should have one of them camping outside the Kennedy Center at all times in case bulldozing machine. jeans come in. And, and, and then? Well, at least then, at least then we'll be reporting on it, right? Well, perhaps she'll, one of them will stand in front of it. Then they'll get arrested for obstruction. Think about the last time you called a business and nobody picked up. What did you do?

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line. Always say hello with Quo. Try Quo for free. Plus get 20% of your first six months when you go to quo.com slash beast. That's QUO.com forward slash beast. The Kennedy Center is not playing well for him. People love JFK. Obviously the memorial is to him. still feels terrible about what happened to him in Dallas in 1963. The Kennedy Memorial was a beautiful memorial, a wonderful world-class art center and Donald Trump. It's hard to see how he benefits from anything he's done around the Kennedy Center. Well, it's hard to see how he benefits from anything he has done, period, which is where we are heading in, we are certainly taking the measure.

of that in the midterms, from the war to the economy, to health care, to immigration. All of these things are net negatives for Donald Trump. But perhaps the thing that may be at the top of this list is this affordability issue, which cuts across. There's, there's, there's There's almost no ideology attached to that, no partisanship. It's just things are way more expensive than people believe they ought to be. And when that happens, you look for someone to blame. There's one logical person to blame and that's the president in the United States. In all fairness to point out, it is not just Donald Trump.

This is, this is, but Donald Trump, the buck stops here because he is the president. So since 2012, the prices of, the price of beef has gone up by 90%. Bread, 46%. Alcoholic beverages, 31%. Furniture, 20%. New cars, 25%. And people's salaries, wages have not. Close, 9%.

The only thing that generally has gone. gone down in a basket of the things that people deal with on a continual basis are appliances. Appliances are cheaper. Hmm. Not the new iPhone. Not the new foldable iPhone. That's not cheaper. That's $2,000.

Are you going to get one? A new iPhone is a new product, new features, new this, that, the other thing. I mean, if last year's iPhone was a win up in price, which it may well have been, I'm not sure. And without any change, without any improvements, that would be something. But a foldable iPhone, whether people buy it or not, I don't know, is apparently an improvement. But anyway, off topic. I think those devices make people conscious of the price of things because they have an

inbuilt obsolescence. So you know that your iPad is only going to last you two years or three years max. So I actually think that bringing out a new foldable phone for people at $2,000 makes people think, what, what, that's expensive. That's very expensive for a phone. At any rate, this is on Donald Trump. And it is not, and the price of, we're also talking about the price of the price of oil, which underpins a lot of this. The price of oil has now hit, I think, I think. last week hit the Brent crude price, $107.

So we're over that $100 mark, which was, which has been the market, the crisis point. Now we're over the crisis point. So, and with no, with all indications are that this is going to get worse. The war is, the war is. now we are not, we are only occasionally shooting in this war, but it is a war that has, in which the Iranians have been able to shoot back at us in a different way, which is to make the price of oil more and more expensive. The Houthis have now closed down, let's see if we can, if we can get the name of that, yes.

The Bab al-Mandab straight, which isn't quite as fun to say as the straight of Hormuz. But Bob Al-Mondab also commands a significant part of the world's oil. Oil will get more expensive. It will get more expensive this week, then next week, than the week after, up until the midterms. Right. And, of course, we've got an English. increase in interest rates, which makes it much more expensive for people to buy a home because mortgages will go up. And the thing I'm sort of puzzled about was that Donald

Trump has made this whole thing about interest rates must come down. He tortured Jerome Pole, the previous Fed chair over this. And then he finally got his guy in, although Jerome Paul was his guy from the previous administration, finally put in Kevin Walsh, who then set about increasing interest rates. Now, of course, he's doing that to control inflation, but it's the one thing that Donald Trump keeps saying he wants to lower. I mean, he wants to lower inflation and interest rates. Well, he wants to, yeah, but he keeps saying, I want to lower interest rates because he

understood there's a visceral reaction, I think, to interest rates going up and more. mortgage rates going up and it stops the housing market. It's harder to sell your head. No, it's terrible. Politically terrible for him. But what he is saying is that, I mean, classic, classic, you know, I would, I would prefer the short-term gain for myself rather than the long-term gain of lowering inflation. So, I mean, it is right now that he is focused because he knows that this is so detrimental to him. But he can't do anything about it. I mean, that's how bad things are.

He hasn't, he hasn't. And remember, part of the part of this is of his own making. The wars of his own making tariffs are of his own making. They are the kinds of things that contribute to raising prices, inflation, in other words, which means that interest rates have to have to go up in order. for inflation to ultimately come down. So Donald Trump has screwed himself, which he does over and over and over again.

I know. People talk about his comeback and his winning the second administration as if this was the biggest political comeback, which certainly was a big comeback and unexpected in some quarters. But also, as you've always made the point, he has the ability to self-destruct, and that's literally what we're seeing him doing. Trump is self-destructing with his own policies.

No, and you can say this. He came into office with this. I mean, that whole first year of catching everyone off guard because of him charging ahead in, I can do what I want because I am the president, I will do what I want. No one will stop me. And I'm going to do it as fast as I possibly can, which he did. But the problem with all that is that that means nothing is particularly thought out. Do this.

Do this. Do this. And which means that a year and a half later, you're reaping the benefit or reaping the opposite of the benefit of not having thought out, pace the cause and effect here. You do this. It's going to have that effect. And that is all now biting. him in the ass as we approach the midterms in seven weeks, less than seven weeks.

Don't you wish you could just hit skip on the worst parts of your life? You know the same way you can skip an ad? I get it. I'm Siaiaia and I live in Ice Cove. I've made some questionable decisions that didn't end up the way I planned. And today I'm still figuring it out. Somehow things usually get worse before they get better. Apparently, that's how I roll. So bundle up and come along for the bumpy ride. Stream a new episode of North of North Tuesdays on CBC Gem. Yeah, it's under 50 days now, I think. And also he surrounded himself, and we've said this before, with incompetence, with utter

incompetence. So we've got a war that we're not winning. And we've got an economy that's not winning right now. And we've got Cash Patel at the FBI. We've got Cash Patel at the FBI. He has done a Heggars. He's pulled a Heggers and he's fired a lot of their top people. He's fired 1,200 agents with an average of 22 years service for each of them.

So taken out a really senior layer of FBI officials. Well, I mean, let's compare that also to what Heggers has done at the Pentagon, taken out layer after layer of senior officers in the United States military. So what's happening here? I mean, both of these guys, Kash Patel and Hegsseth are not acting on their own. What they are doing is trying to please the President of the United States who is saying, fire everybody. I don't trust these people.

They're against me. fire them, fire them, get rid of them. They're the deep state. Fire them. And that's what that's what Cash Patel has done. That's what Hager's has done. Again, not having, I mean, it's as though they don't really exist in this equation except to get the blame for it because they are doing exactly what Donald Trump tells them to do or what they believe they have to do in order to gain Donald Trump's favor? Well, if there's anybody out there and you want to join the FBI, you will be interested to know that the qualifications have somewhat changed. Used to be very strict to be able to join the FBI. But now it turns out you're allowed to be accused of sexual harassment. You are

allowed to have stolen from your employer. And strangely, beastiality has been ruled out as a disqualifier. Beastiality What was the language for this? I don't know the precise language. I was just struck by the word beastiality and wondered how it would come up in a job interview.

Anyway, the good news is it's not a disqualifier. So, you know, if animals are your thing, perhaps the FBI might be your thing. I know Mrs. Greenwood is your thing. I don't know. I was wondering, how you were going to segue from that.

And I was going to let you twirl out in there. Yes, Mrs. Greenwood, Kimberly Greenwood. Now, Lee Greenwood, you will know, and perhaps you will serenade us. I'm not going to do that because you're so rude when I sing. You're so rude when I sang. Although I did do a little of Petula Clark on Tuesday, which some people appreciated, Michael.

Really? Yeah, a couple of people liked it. No, that's a pity like. No, a couple of people said you were rude and that I had a nice voice and I could hold a tune. But I'm not going to sing proud to be an American because I'm not going to give you the satisfaction. So Mrs. Greenwood has just been nominated to be the ambassador to Barbados. Is she taking Lee Wings? with him, with her?

I imagine she is. I don't know. Barbados is lovely. I'm rather envious, actually. I would like to be ambassador to Barbados. Yeah, no, no. But, well, you have to be, you would have to be the spouse of the president of Donald Trump's favorite beyond far and away of any other musical act, Lee Greenwood.

Lee Greenwood, and of course he loves LeMise because LeBiz was the first thing he put on at the now ailing Kennedy Center. Now, was Lee Greenwood's song did it before Donald Trump was that in any kind of currency? I don't remember. Yes, it came into currency after 9-11. Lee Greenwood came back after 9-11 because it's a very moving song. It's less moving when it's attached to. Donald Trump, of course, but it is a very moving song, proud to be in America. You find this song moving?

It's interesting. I think it's a moving. I always find songs about America moving. As a recent, an immigrant, I find, and the star-spangled banner, I just start crying. I mean, it's the only thing that can reduce me to tears. And you're the only one, apparently, it can reduce to tears. Look, I'm even wearing a star. This is the perfect outfit for this conversation.

But I wonder if she'll take him. Maybe he'll do a, he'll write songs about Barbados. It's a beautiful island, so I'm very jealous of them going there. But just let's add this. I mean, it is true that there are in past presidencies, ambassadors have, presidents have doled out certain ambassadorships as a kind of, as a kind of favor. But I think that this is a, this is a, I think even Trump has stretched the boundaries of credulity with this one.

Well, we're not planning to do a takeover of Barbados, so it's not like she's being asked to pick up diplomatic relations with Cuba. I suspect that there's a fairly cordial relationship with Bob Ados. Do you think that she could stir up trouble? I don't know. No, it probably requires no no finesse or skill set at all. Nevertheless, it's still, this obviously is part and parcel with the pattern of Donald Trump's appointment of cross all jobs in his administration. Who gets them?

people who have no credentials, experience, and bring nothing to the job at hand, except that, I don't know. I can't even think of these. He says, what does Donald Trump, what goes through his head? What are the most inappropriate? I mean, what we should do is we should open this up to comments. Who are the most inappropriate people in their jobs? Because you could argue it's Steve Wittkoff and Jared. But no, what then, I mean, Steve Wittkoff and Jared are, I mean, at least they have had jobs.

They've had some success in life rather than Pete Hakesh, rather than Bobby Kennedy Jr., rather than Cash-Battel. I mean, you can go down the line. It would be, it is much easier. It would be much, much more easier to isolate one person who might be reasonably qualified for the job in this administration. Okay. Who is the person qualified for the job? Well, I mean, you know, Marco Rubio, no particular favorite of mine, but anyway, Marco Rubio is a political professional in who has a job in this administration.

Almost virtually nobody else is. Well, nobody else would take the jobs, I think, right? Well, you know, Jesus, I don't know. Is that the reason? No, I don't think that's the reason. I mean, clearly in the first administration, there were people who took, who were, had had, had, had, records of success before they went into the administration. They were people who theoretically

could have advised, given the president in the United States, advice that he might have benefited from. In this administration, there are none of those people. There are none of those people. Why? Either because they wouldn't take the job, but I don't think that's the reason. It's just he doesn't want that advice. He doesn't want people to say, hey, have you really thought this through? hey, there might be a different way of looking at this. Hey, that is a really, that is going to really turn out very badly. None of that. He doesn't want to hear any of this, which is why after 18 months he is now dealing

with all of these failed policies. I mean, one of the reasons. But the other reason is that he is not just that there is no one to tell him that he shouldn't be doing this, but because he literally does not want anyone to tell him that. Well, it's less than 50 days to go until the midterms, and America will have a chance to say what it thinks about him two years into his second term. Don't forget to comment on your favorite part of the conversation. Who do you think is the most competent cabinet member out there? And again, don't forget to come and see Michael and me live, the 10th.

Peregram Ballroom in L.A., downtown L.A. on the 20th of October. And it's all you have to do is go to beast.combe slash ITH live and book your ticket. And I'd rather hear your opinion of the least competent. That's because that's harder. I think it's easier the least competent. No, who is the least? What do you mean? Out of these, you're going to pick someone.

you think Hager's is dumber than Cash Patel or Cash Patel dumber than RFK Jr. This is a hard, that's a hard competition. It's a race to the bottom. If you have been, thank you for joining us. And a big thank you to our production team. Brian 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. Don't you wish you could just hit skip on the worst parts of your life? You know, the same way you can skip an ad? I get it. I'm Siaya and I live in Ice Cove. I've made some questionable decisions that didn't end up the way I planned, and today I'm still figuring it out.

Somehow things usually get worse before they get better. Apparently, that's how I roll. So bundle up and come along for the bumpy ride. Stream a new episode of North of North Tuesdays on CBC Gem.