The Daily Beast Podcast - Why Trump’s Stupidity and Grift Is Dooming Him

Episode Date: July 6, 2026

In this special episode of the Daily Beast Podcast, Joanna Coles shares some of her favorite recent conversations: from Jennifer Welch’s unfiltered breakdown of the personalities driving the Trump administration to Kurt Andersen’s fascinating look at how America’s culture helped create the perfect stage for Trump’s rise, and Stephanie Ruhle’s sharp analysis of the economic fallout from global conflict. Along the way, they unpack the loyalty tests inside Trump’s orbit, the uneasy relationship between power, wealth, and influence, the politics behind spectacle, and why the consequences of today's headlines reach far beyond Washington. It’s a collection of some of the podcast’s most insightful, provocative, and revealing moments. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is the largest collection of broken people in our lifetime. These are all untreated broken people on full display. It's flagrant incompetence on full display, and I think Trump loves it. Failing at even this inconsequential stuff like the great American state fair feeds the correct view that, wow, he's kind of incompetent, isn't it? Bread and Circuses, as has been said, leaders for thousands of years, it's fine if you've got the breadth. But just the circus alone and giant ballroom is for rich people and giant tax benefits for rich people and giant crypto scams for rich people, while I can't afford meat at the grocery

store, that doesn't go down so well. I'm Joanna Coles. This is the Daily Beast podcast. Happy 4th of July weekend to our American viewers and listeners. America 250. I am going to break out into Alexis. Wilkin's songs, if I could remember any. Maybe it's Lee Greenwood. Anyway, we're bringing you a very special episode of the Daily Beast podcast today featuring some of my favorite conversations from

our fan favorites. But before we dive into the show, you know what's coming. Please take a moment to share this podcast with your friends. Invite them to subscribe to the Daily Beast's YouTube channel. And you can become a friend of the Beast, which has all sorts of of special perks. So you'll be hearing first today from Jennifer Welsh. She's the co-host of the hit podcast. I've had it. And one of our favorite guests on the Daily Beast podcast, she explains why she thinks Trump is in his deathbed confession era and saying what he really feels about his cabinet members. Her thoughts on the upcoming midterms and why she's predicting a blue tsunami. One important note, This conversation was actually recorded in late May right after Donald Trump wrapped up a particularly

sycophantic cabinet meeting. So sycophantic, even he didn't fall asleep in it, which is why we unpack it at the top of this chat. Jen Welsh, I'm so excited to see you. I'm so excited you're here in the studio. There's no one I'd rather talk to. I thought we could go round the cabinet table and you could tell me who you in yesterday's meeting was the most sycophantic. Okay, I have to go with Marco Rubio because he knows better. Does he know better? He used to.

He used to. He used to know better. Yes. But the fact that he's now as obsequious as he is, does that mean, does that cancel everything he's done before? Yes. I think we have to cancel everything they've done before. Right.

Because then it means he didn't believe in anything he had done before. He didn't believe in his stance that Vladimir Putin and Russia were not our friends. And now he's over in Alaska while Trump's standing on the red carpet with military leaders rolling out red carpet for Vladimir Putin. And Trump's standing there clapping like a seal. Marco Rubio looks starstruck when he meets him. And it's like American weakness. Marco Rubio is one of the weakest members of that administration because he's so breakable. He's so breakable.

Okay. What about Pete Heggseth? Pete Hegseth is just not very smart. And yet he went to Princeton. How can he not be smart if he went to Princeton? A lot of the people in this administration are sadly in an indictment on Ivy League. A lot of them are really well educated, but I think even Ivy League schools can produce dipshits. And Pete Hexeth is a walking, breathing embodiment of that. Maybe he's a good test taker.

Maybe he's a responsible steadier, but critical thinker, great mind. He's none of these things. He's a Fox News narcissist that has inner child issues. He needs to go off and work on little Pete. Right. Right. Letters to himself to his inner child with his non-dominate hand and figure out what is so broken in him instead of acting out all of his brokenness onto the American public. What then, talking about writing notes to himself, I'm always fascinated. Do you know when the camera manages to get the notes they've been writing, Scott Bessence notes, resilience, and then Operation Economic Fury with a little arrow by it. So he's writing himself notes so he knows what note to hit with the president. Yeah. I mean, you know, Scott Besson,

as one of these gay men that is carrying water for the patriarchy. And he's going to be one of the first to drown. And of course he has a bank account that could choke a bowl. And so that parachutes him a lot. But it's a- Because what's he got like 600, 700 million, I think? It's not quite a billionaire. Yeah.

I mean, he's got enough. I mean, in a pinch, he's going to be fine. Right. But it's fascinating to me how they have talking points. they have to praise the president. I think I saw a report. I can remember it was the New York Times or Washington Post. They analyzed all of the cabinet members' speeches. Yes, it was the times. One out of every six sentences is praising Donald Trump. I mean, what an indictment on the entire cabinet that every six sentences. But can you imagine if we're podcasting here? Joanna, that lipstick looks great on you.

You could do that, though. I would be fine if you did that. I need to at a tone for calling you Joanna. You do. You need to attend. Dinner is on you next time. That's right. But what if you're in the room, I mean we've all been in corporate meetings like this where, or you know from your days in television, you know from your days as an interior designer, the obsequiousness and watching other people being obsequious and them trying to outflatter each other. It just seems pathetic. It really is pathetic. Ruth Ben Guiat, she is a professor at NYU, a scholar on autocrats. And she says this is a feature of dictators of autocrats. They pick people that are easy to break.

They pick people intentionally that are obsequious. Okay, hold on, easy to break. What does it mean easy to break? So, like, look at Marco Rubio and the humiliation ritual that they do with him. Did you see where they recently had him? on Air Force One in the same Nike outfit that Nicholas Maduro was wearing when they captured him. I did not see that.

They put Marco Rubio in the same jumpsuit. Right. And that Steven Chung that runs... Right, the comms guy. He took a photograph of Lil Marco and posted it on the White House social media stuff, which is a humiliation ritual. They put him in those shoes that are too big for him.

Right, the floor shime 148. dollar shoes. Yes. And so these people are very easy to break. Like Christy Noam, the fact that she had murdered her dog. And nobody ever talks about the goat, Joanna. She also shot a goat. Right. And then that is a sign for Trump that, oh, she's perfect for me. You know, he says himself, I don't want to hang around with winners. I don't want to hear somebody talk about how great they are. I love hanging out with losers. And I say that Trump is entering his deathbed confession era. So he's starting to say, all of the quiet parts out loud. He's saying, I love hanging out with losers.

He likes to be the big dick in charge. He wants everybody to kiss his ass. And they don't feel secondhand embarrassment or the cringiness of all of that. So, and why don't they? Are they just glad to be in the room? Yes, I think this is the largest collection of broken people in our lifetime.

You've never seen a group of such broken people before. This is like if you went to a rehab facility with a triple diagnosis of a personality disorder, meth addiction, inner childhood trauma, all of the things. Gambling addicts. Sex addicts. They're gambling with their futures. Yes. And you're sitting around in the circle. And I have experience with this.

My husband is in recovery. And so I've been to a family week. And no disrespect to anybody who is struggling with addiction. or anything. But these are all untreated, broken people. Right. On full display. It's flagrant incompetence on full display.

And I think Trump loves it. Where do you think he is with people like Howard Lucknig and Besant who've made a lot of money? I mean, because he admires them in a different way, doesn't he? Doesn't he love rich people? He loves rich people, but I think he's also jealous of rich people. I think these people are completely disposable at any minute, and they know this, which is why they humiliate themselves on national television at these cabinet meetings.

They know if I do not say Trump is so great. He has unleashed the golden age, all of this jet stream of bullshit. They know that he will pick them up and put him in the trash can. And so I don't think any of his relationships have any depth or any meaning other than you tell. Tell me how great I am. Right. You get humiliated even for one of the richest men on the planet. Let's talk about Jeff Bezos and the interview that he had recently where he said Trump was more mature and more measured in the second term.

And he had some good ideas? Objectively false. Objectively an idiotic, detached, obsequious statement. And then I'm like, there's never been a billionaire class against. the having billions of dollars, than this existing class of billionaires. When I used to hear this six or seven years ago, billionaires shouldn't exist.

I didn't think that much of it, whatever, and they made their money. I get it now. There's something that happens when you exploit people that much. You become so broken that then you get to have all this fuck you money and you're kissing Donald Trump's ass.

Like, what's the point of it? Right, what's the point? The other thing I think is interesting about Jeff Bezos, and I go back and forth on this, because I can't live without Amazon, is the showing off of the money that there is something so antagonistic about showing off in the way that he and Lauren do? And do you remember the foam party? And also, if you are the second richest, third richest, who cares, person in the world, why would you have that guest list to your wedding. You could have anybody. You could have Nobel winning scientist. You could

have mathematicians. You could have astronauts. You could have the people that have changed humanity. And instead, you go for reality television stars who've really contributed very little, apart from skim, that skim, not bad, skims is pretty good. But apart from skims have contributed very little. You have Leo DiCaprio, who looks so embarrassed to be there. He's got a baseball walk out over his face. He's trying not to be there, but also wanting to be there. Right. And I just think, why wouldn't you reach higher? Because Lauren Sanchez Bezos, she likes to thirst trap. These are vapid people. It's not even that deep. Do we think he's even really good friends with the people on the guest list? No, of course not. They didn't know some of the people in the guest list, right?

She had to buy her way into the Met Gala, and it is so pathetic. that she wants to be famous and in her pursuit of being famous, they're now infamous. Is her, because you've probably met Lauren, I've met Lauren. I've never met her. She's actually very warm and funny and smart when you meet her in real life. And there's a big disconnect between that and the way she somehow appears as a kind of trophy bimbo of the highest order. And yet actually when you talk to her, she's funny, she's warm, she's warm, she's

clever. She's not like that. And I don't know why she's cultivating that image of someone, the sort of thong snapping nature of it all. I just find odd. I think it's really odd, especially when you contrast it with his ex-wife, McKinsey Scott Bezos, who is spending money, hand over fist on lifting up the marginalized. She sent tens of millions of dollars to Mills on Wheels. Hasn't done one interview about it. She spent hundreds of millions. HBCUs. She has, she's an incredible philanthropist. She's what we think we would do if we had billions of dollars. Do you think it's just, I can't believe we've now got into comparing Jeff Bezos's wives, but it's, there's something interesting about how much fun it looks

like he and Lauren have, even though they're screamingly showing off, which to me just feels like why do you need to do this? Why do you need the attention? It's only, going to be bad for you? I think, you know, the relationship started in an affair. So it started in very insecure footing, right? Right. Right. So then the, I think it was the inquire, didn't they publish? Right. National Enquirer published, yeah. The text messages. And I think it published a bit more than the text messages. Yeah. And it was, you know, I think that's embarrassing. She's the other woman. And as, as you know, you can meet people that in social settings are confident and warm and engaging, but it doesn't preclude them from being broken or toxic.

And her behavior is objectively, it's just not even that deep. It's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's opportunity. This man has money that's unfathomable to stand up for, let's just say the LGBTQ plus community. What would this woman be wearing all? I bet she has, you know, four or five gay men that help her throughout, all the stuff that she goes to. And she and her husband are funding fascism, funding ice.

It's repulsive. It's disgusting. And yes, people on the one hand can be warm engaging. I mean, clearly she is. She scored a big fish. But at the same time, she's still broken. She's a broken thirst trap who has this moment. Right now to me, I'm looking for people that have conviction. There was a guy who won a scholarship a couple nights ago. Oh yes, CBS scholar. And he stood up to CBS, a man who doesn't have any money. And he stood there and had conviction about Barry Wise and the Ellison family completely ripping up 60 minutes and throwing it into the trash. And he does this, but Lauren and Jeff Bezos can't.

He gets on television and tells the world that Trump is mature and measured. I mean, it's the patronizing nature. that they're treating the public with is so repulsive to me. Right. All right. So let's go back to the cabinet table. Do you think because four women have now left the cabinet, three of them fired in theory Tulsi Gabbard resigning because of her husband's illness,

do you think that's taken on a new frisson of danger for the people around the cabinet table because three people have now been fired and one left under personal circumstances, but everybody said she was about to be fired. Yeah, I mean, it's hard to, I mean, I think when I think about Trump and what goes on with the cabinet meetings, I just think rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Like the country is sinking. He is dismantling everything that we held dear, institutions. The swamp that he talked about, he's installing, a real swamp.

So I don't know. I worry about who would replace these people because I think they'd, would be worse. But yeah, I think we're really heading off a cliff. Trump said at that cabinet meeting, he doesn't care about the midterms. He's talking about the fact that Iran thinks they can wait him out. He backs Ken Paxton in a move that may well impact the Republicans losing the Senate because John Cornyn, who's been there for the last three terms looked like he would win again, possibly against James Tullerica, the Democratic candidate. Is Trump just now sailing off into the wind? I mean, he and Maga, have they just lost the plot

at this point? Completely. I mean, I think we see that Trump is finally doing what he wants to do. He did learn from Trump 1.0. Remember when Susan Collins, Senator from Maine, said, I think he's learned his lesson. He did learn his lesson. He learned how to get rid of guardrails. He learned how to kick out all the adults in the room. And we're in a very, very dangerous place right now. Anyone with him surrounding him, I don't think he gives a shit about the country. He believes the White House is his personally. He believes the Treasury is his. He believes the Attorney General, the acting Attorney General is his personal attorney, which he used to be. He doesn't have. Todd Blanche. Yeah, Todd Blanche. She doesn't have any instinct that he needs to provide for the country. I do think it's good news because I have said he's

in his deathbed confession era. So some truth starts to get out. And when he says, I don't care about the midterms or we don't know why, but always the opposing party wins during the midterms and nobody can explain it, that to some extent he's acknowledging that there is going to be a blue tsunami, but I'm very worried about red states. because the governor, Governor Abbott, he will very easily send in whatever he needs to do, whether it's state troopers or whomever, to just get ballots. And I'm very worried I think Tala Rico could win for the first time. I think Texas could deliver a blue senator.

But I'm worried about these Democratic governors, Secretary of States, Attorney Generals that are all Trump sycophants. not cheating for him. Because we know he's going to make the phone calls. We know that from Trump 1.0. Right. We know he'll do that. Right. And we saw Brad Rassenberger in Georgia who held up when Trump said, I need 11,000, when he called him and said, I need 11,000 votes was like Mr. President. That's not how it's done. Yeah. Trump's sort of retribution and vindictiveness against people who stood against him seems to be playing out in the primaries, at least. When you think about the moral collapse on display, broken, breakable people. Let's review. The tolerance of sex crimes is a feature of MAGA. It is a feature, not a bug. Right. It seems to be a feature that if you're a member of the MAGA movement, you don't care about sex crimes against children, against women.

So they sexually assault and then Christian signal to get out of it. It is a feature that MAGA is the party of sexual depravity. How will you be celebrating 250 years of America? I won't be. I know. I know. The horror. Patriotism has to be earned, you know, and when we see our government killing civilians in the street, zero investigations, the murderers that killed Renee Good and Alex Pretty, no investigation, no accountability, put back out into this terrorist regime ice. We have this president who is using all of the good name, whatever good name,

America had for his own personal enrichment. You have a Democratic Party that is disjointed. Some of the Democrats play patty cake with the fascists. Some of them actually try to stand up and be an opposition party. I want to celebrate like the kid who got the scholarship who called out CBS. Like that, that's the America I like, where we cheer for the underdog, where we shine a light on injustices, where we write wrongs. Right now we're celebrating the villains. There's nothing. It feels so anti-American to celebrate the villain. And all of the villains, everybody in the White House, they're all dirty cops right now.

So I don't want to celebrate. 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. And who brought us an unexpected moment of lobson old chic, well, none other than the author Kurt Anderson, whose book, Tale of the Century I Love. No one is better than explaining the crazy carnival hucksterism of America and the kind of conspiracy theories and the crazy religion than Kurt, who's tracked it over the last, well, the last 250 years.

No one better to get into the history of it, the madness of it, the brilliant. of it and the magic of what makes up America, all of it, all of it. Kurt Anderson, the man who created the phrase, the fuckening of America. And I couldn't help thinking, and I don't know if this is me being a snob, and I want to get into this conversation with him. Yes. But when I saw the erection of the octagon on the south lawn of the White House for the UFC fight, which Donald Trump has chosen as his cultural emblem for the 250th anniversary of America.

I couldn't help thinking, oh, Kurt Anderson foresaw all this with the fuckinging of America. Is that what's going on here? I think in his case, yes, it is. But as I wrote in my book Fantasyland, there is a long history and much of it fine and good. I mean, America is this motley creation of ordinary people. and small D democratic multitudes, right? So it's not all bad and I love country music and I like boxing and you know, so it's not exactly a snobbish

you know oh my god, censoriousness. It is this idiotic, highly politicized use of of pop culture symbols in this case in this really debasing way. You know, I don't know if you saw the movie Idiocracy if your listeners have, but... I'm sure lots of people have seen it. I mean, people mention it in the comments all the time. Well, and it was this Mike Judge, a great filmmaker, animation guy, whatever, director, created this film that I thought in 2006 was terribly over the top about this future

where America is run by idiots and morons and kind of, you know, reality show carnival-like freaks and show business. Well, here we are in so many ways. Indeed, people mention your comments. I, starting in 2017, couldn't get idiocacy out of my head. Anyway, the president in that movie is this, you know, showbiz madman who, like, shoots,

shoots a automatic weapon around Congress and and dresses in this current WWE costume. Well, right. And the UFC, by the way, in addition to, I mean, unlike professional wrestling, it's absolutely real. I mean, these people are really fighting. It's a show, but they're not faking anything. Right. So there's that. So it's not Hulk Hogan?

Well, but it's not Hulk Hogan, although they're characters, but it's real and it's legit. But it is a descendant of WWE, WWF, the McMahon Empire of showbiz wrestling, in which Donald Trump years ago was a character himself, literally, got up on. Right, I remember he would get under the ropes and get up on stage, right? And fight Vince McMahon and everything. Well, now, of course, his Secretary of Education is the separated wife of Vince McMahon, sex trafficker and sexual. Salter accused. Linda McMahon, who's in charge of basically dismantling... Linda McMahon.

Linda is dismantling the Department of Education. Yes. That was her task. The richness of the ironies. She's the Secretary of Education, this person who made professional wrestling as huge as it became in the 80s and 90s. It's remarkable. So it is...

But it is this cage match of people who, you know, can fight well. But it's basically its attraction is that it has no rules, has very, very few rules, unlike boxing or actual normal, old-fashioned Olympic sports. This sport was invented in the last 30 years for this purpose of show business. So it's, you know, I mean. And you can do anything, right? You can kick, you can bite, you can.

You can bite. You can't buy okay. So it has some rules. It has some rules. But you can, you know, it's... But isn't the goal to get someone in a chokehold so they go to sleep? Well, you know more than I do if that's the case. I know what?

I don't think they don't, I don't think, I don't know, I don't think people become unconscious during the fights, but it is all but that, I think. But the symbolism of him using the ultimate fighting sport to show him. himself as the ultimate fighter in theory for the American people, but really for himself. Indeed. And as he's pursuing a stupid war, more than stupid war, a war that is hurting America's place in the world in all kinds of ways and making us look weak and incompetent and having a cartoon figure secretary of war out there like some, you know, animated character. talking about how great war is and how wonderful our war fighters are. It's all of a piece.

It's the same comic book understanding of and presentation of the world and the way they think about how the world ought to work. So you have written, I mean, you mentioned Fantasyland, which is a fantastic book explaining America's obsession with storyland and conspiracy theories and religion. I mean, what did you see in Donald Trump when you first started mocking him at Spy magazine, which you were a co-founder of with Graydon Carter? What was it in Trump?

And I know we've talked about this before, but I can never get enough of it. And by the way, we have to come on to your lobster roll chic in a moment, which people wrote about in the comments last time you were on. But what was it specifically? specifically about Donald Trump that you spotted 40 years ago? All of his features, salient features today, the Braggert, the bully, the liar, all of it. The craving to the point of what looks like addiction to me, attention, all of those things. I mean, you know, later on and while we were doing spies, then the, you know, oh, let's execute

these accused defendants who were later exonerated. So the Central Part 5. Exactly. So it wasn't initially any of any political thing at all. It was just, God, what an asshole this guy is. And what, so that was it. And he was, you know, as we were starting spy in the mid-late 80s, as New York was kind of coming back from bankruptcy and all that. He was, and he was this extraordinary character in this

also moment where tabloid newspapers had suddenly become a big deal in New York City, especially, as well as American culture. And he got them both to cover him relentlessly. And it was, he was, he was putting on a show. And, you know, and, you know, we were, I don't know, at least jeering from the, cheap seats, you know, and doing journalism and trying to expose him for the liar, bully, brag it he is. When he was still purely a joke, he was just a rich boy who had built a couple of buildings and pretended he was king of the world and talked back then, starting in 1988, about being president, starting in our first issue of spy, where he was saying, I could negotiate the

missile, you know, arms control treaty with Russia in a... hour. I know everything I need to know about missiles. So he was the guy. He was the guy, that guy already. Right. Right. And then just explains me one more time and then we'll come on to your lobster roll weekend where, what is it about America that produces a character like this and that people even knowingly, we know he's a braggar, we know he's the liar, we know he's the bully, all that stuff still buy into the story of him. What is it about America that needs to live in those narratives? Well, there's various kinds of fictions and narratives that all people, but exceptionally Americans,

I mean, we talk about American exceptionalism, and that is one of our extreme ones, is we can make our own truth and live our own stories and invent our own lives, and that's why we come here from other countries. We'll start afresh. Guilty as charge. Well, and create a new version of ourselves, create a new country. So it was, as it was working well, you know, had a good side and occasionally a bad side. The bad side was kept in check by, oh, the Enlightenment founders, for instance,

and their descendants ever since until the last half century or so when, you know, the fetters came off and things kind of went off the rails. And so this, it was, it was as though we had this chronic condition, which had its good sign. And America was fun. And America was more interesting than, say, Canada. Or, you know, it was, you know, and full of interesting oddballs and various, you know, ethnicities and characters and all that. And so, you know, I think, for instance, and in terms of precedence, President Andrew Jackson, great populist Democrat, small D, and I guess large D.

And I think who Trump has sometimes modeled himself on, he has a portrait of him in the Oval Office. Well, he, you know, was a horrible, genocidal person as regards to indigenous Americans for one thing. So I'm sure Trump, to the degree he knows about that, thinks that's great. But he was, but he was also this actual military hero, general or anything. Anyway, so he gets elected president.

And his first inauguration, he opens the White House, you know, the fairly new White House, to anybody wants to come, you know. And it's 20,000 people show up in a city that probably didn't have a population of 20,000. Right. And obviously, pre-social media. Yes, and pre-high security and pre-everything. Right. And they trash the place, basically.

They fill it up. They trash the place. There are too many people. President Jackson himself gets pushed up against the wall. Well, his people, I mean, you know, no secret service then, somehow managed to get him out a window and he escapes. And then they lure the crowd out of the White House. And again, it's winter, it's March, with barrels of whiskey and ice cream. So, I mean, talk about an American iconic event.

So, you know, we'll see what happens on when, what's it called, UFC, freedom fights, 250 happens, or the Great American State Fair thereafter. In Toronto, every arrival is a statement, and nothing says it better than this. Cadillac Optic was the number one selling luxury EV in Canada for 2025. Find your rhythm across a seamless 33-inch display and an immersive 19 speaker AKG surround audio system. This city demands agility, and Optic delivers with precision to make every drive extraordinary.

Let's take the Cadillac. Find out more at Cadillac Canada.ca. Luxury sales claim based on S&P Global Mobility, Canadian New Vehicle Total Registrations for calendar year 2025 for the Cadillac definition of luxury. Right, well, so the Great American State Fair is supposed to be this huge concert, which several artists agreed to do,

thinking it was going to be like a national state fair. Like the bicentennial was 50 years ago. Right. So Martina McBride, the Commodores, Florida, Millie Vanilli, who knew they were still going. Michael's of Poisonianney. Oh, really? Yes. Okay.

And now it turns out they're all pulling out because, as you say, as you mentioned at the beginning, Trump is able to politicize anything, and they discovered it's actually basically going to be a MAGA concert. Yeah. Well, and they immediately pulled out, which has to be, you know, a humiliation and embarrassment and causing lots of shouting around the White House and panic. Because I believe this thing was announced on Wednesday. They started pulling out on Thursday. You know, I mean, so.

Right. Yeah, one wonders what the conversations between Rick Grinnell, who is part of it, or whomever was organizing this in the White House and the representatives and agents of these performers. Like, as you're suggesting, I'm sure they were told, oh, no, it's just, it's the great, it's the 150th, it's great. It'll just be a national celebration, as opposed to, inevitably, because of, what Trump and MAGA and Donald Trump's obsessive posting on his site indicate is that it is, indeed, a Republican MAGA event and would be, it will be. Now, it seems a little disingenuous that they had no clue of this inevitability, but maybe they don't pay attention.

A lot of people don't pay attention to the news. I don't know. I can imagine people listening to this or watching this can say, oh, look, there's so many more important things to talk about. the world economy is being ruined. As we mentioned, America's place in the world is being diminished. There's a horrible war going on that we can't seem to get out of

that made no sense to, and now the choice of the world's... Well, hello, we've held up 20% of the world's fuel. Exactly. All that, all these consequential things, they could say, why are you talking about this silly stuff? Well, it's summer is one reason. But, you know, I mean, what's interesting it's part of

it is consequential because it's why here to for he has been so popular because so many people like him and vote for him, especially not necessarily the hardcore because hey this guy is fun, this guy's entertaining. My belief is,

and I've seen focus group results to show that it's true, is that lots of, say, the younger people who don't pay that much attention in news and maybe we're even aware of Trump first term. This guy is running in 2024. Hey, this is kind of, this guy is interesting. He shakes it up. I like watching him, unlike other politicians. That's been a huge part of his power and success is the entertainment. So talking about his attempts at, you know, entertainment at,

you know, indulging his mania to build and fix the reflecting pool and, and overpay and no-bid contract for that and all this, like, just all this, like, let me do this, stuff that he can just do and order, as opposed to, you know, negotiating with Congress, to pass legislation or negotiating with Iran to stop this madness. He can just order it done and to see it. So it's consequential in that way because it's part of his governing power has been, but here it is, along with trying to do things that, you know, some Republicans

are objecting to, like pay $1.8 billion to people such as to January 6 rioters, are substantive things causing problems, but failing at even these inconsequential stuff like the great American state fair or, you know, is like, wow, it feeds the correct view that I think is spreading among more and more and more people that, wow, he's kind of incompetent, isn't he? You know, he's not, you know, here we are trying to, this authoritarian who can't even make the trains run on time, you know. It's, it's like, what is the benefit to the public? Because the public are willing to forgive all sorts of weirdnesses if there is a benefit. But if there is no benefit, if they're paying higher prices at the pumps, if their neighbors are being

picked up by ice, then things feel destabilized. And I think that's what makes people anxious. Correct. And bread and circuses, as has been said, of leaders for thousands of years, is fine if you've got the bread. But just the circus alone and giant ballroom is for rich people and giant tax benefits for rich people and giant crypto scams for rich people, while I can't afford meat at the grocery store, that doesn't go down so well. One of the things that you tweeted out this week has been knocking around the internet, but I wanted to just revisit it because it's extraordinarily prescient. It comes from Mad magazine, and it's Donald Trump as the Wizard of Odds.

When did this come out? January in 1991, and of course, I was well into my adulthood verger on middle age. by then. And so I was unaware of this in Mad, but it's extraordinary. I mean, I was, we were in the middle of doing spy and, and having our own coverage of showing Trump's bullying and duplicity and corruption. Corruption and deeply cynical kind of criminal view of the world. Well, here he is, the premise is, it's one of these standard, you know, eight panel cartoons about, about Donald Trump. He is advising, he is the wizard, as in the Wizard of Oz, advising the Tin Man and the Scarecrow and the Lion and Dorothy what to do,

as of course famously ended the Wizard of Oz. The Wizard does. And instead of saying, oh, just believe your courage or believe you're smarter, all the things happens in the movie, he says, ah, don't be a sucker, you know, you don't need a job, scarecrow, jobs are for suckers. Or tin men, you should. What? You're plastic. You've got to be replaced in plastic. It goes on or not just encouraging them to lie, cheat, steal and be a cynic It's with specifics about you know, it's just a ring so true

I had no idea. I mean like hats off Who ever wrote this? 35 years later. I don't know if you're still alive Who ever did this madman cartoon? But you saw the future. You saw the future and I want to refer people to your you tweeted it, right? So you X'd it out. What is your ex account called? It is called KB. Anderson.

KB. Anderson. It's worth going and having a look at the whole thing. Or blue sky, if you prefer blue sky. And I can't remember what my handle is on that. But there I am. Okay. I once had a blue sky account. It's all to, you know, threads, blue sky, all of it.

And then you just, I just. And now they're substack. You've got to get there, too. I am on substack. But I'm saying, oh, on the notes part, they're like. Oh, you should post this on substack notes. Well, I should. You definitely should.

Yeah, I should. Maybe I did, yeah. Anyway, wherever you get your socials, you should look for this because it's so prescient. It's alarming. But let me read a bit. I mean, he tells the scarecrow. Jobs are for losers, scarecrow. Get into junk bonds or any real estate schemes.

Or get control of a union's pension fund. Better still, become a televangelist. There's a world out there just waiting to be taken. There's a world out there just waiting to be taken. And even better in a thing that, you know, we wouldn't have done in spy then not because it would be too edgy because I just wasn't that aware of it. He sits, you know, Dorothy down on his knee and basically is grooming her like, hey, when you're old enough, you know, he can, that was just when his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein was beginning of course. Yeah, yeah. Like, no, shades of Epstein.

I mean, how about this? Stick around and I'll put you up in a penthouse with a limo and ten ground. a week in spending money in a couple of years after you fill out, you could be my steady bimbo. What an invitation. I mean, you know, I mean, no, it's, it's, it's, it is remarkable. This spring, denim gets a softer, lighter update. Introducing old Navy's drapey denim wide leg, a new fit that moves with you. It's everything you want denim to feel like for summer. Easy, breathable and effortlessly cool. With a fit that creates natural movement and a, a wide leg that feels modern, not overwhelming.

Plus, that signature, wait, for this price? Moment. Old Navy's drapeed denim wide leg. And then we have Stephanie Rule, the new host of money, power and politics on MS now, who really understands how this war has impacted inflation, which Donald Trump says he doesn't really care about, but I think he probably does care about it. And we know that Republicans out there standing for election against. again, really care about it. Nobody's better than Stephanie in explaining it. So let's get into it

and how the grift, yes, the grift, the grift may come for Donald Trump in the end. Stephanie, you're a brilliant observer of the economy. Trump's war in Iran seems to have had much more of an impact than he would have expected, not least because the Iranians have close the strait of Hormuz, something that any basic wargaming would have shown you was about to happen. What is the impact on the American economy first? And then let's talk about the global economy. And then let's talk about the market. Because we have always said the market and the economy are not the same thing, but now more than ever. And as soon as he launched into this, every big investor I spoke to was like, this isn't going to last more than five days. And I mean, big, sophisticated

investors. And the funny thing is, they continue to buy his line the whole time. Every time you talk to someone, they're basically like, I just talk to him, or I just talked to Howard, or I just talk to Scott Besson. They're wrapping this thing up. Trump very clearly wants to wrap this up. Of course he does. He promised not to do it forever. He jumped into this ignoring intelligence, which is why our NATO allies said, we're not jumping in with you. You didn't tell us. You ignored intelligence. He thought this could be another victory like Venezuela was. I saw the president, the day of the state of the union, I had lunch at the White House, and the president has sort of just come off.

It was right around the time of Venezuela. And he was sort of, you know, he loves talking about the strength of the military and the beautiful soldiers in their might. And that was joyful for him, right? You had people in Venezuela partying, you know, celebrating in the streets here. I mean, all over the world, he wanted to have that again. And you're actually watching him now try to leapfrog over Iran and talk about, well, guess what? Cuba is right around the corner. You hear it from Marco Rubio. Leap frog over Iran. What a great phrase. So talk to me about the impact of it, because this is not a war that's being measured in body bags.

It's being measured in the price at the pump. And look at the price of the pump, not just here, but around the world. Like we're actually seeing jet fuel shortages around the world. We see gas prices have gone down a little, but they're still very high. Food prices are high. Talk to the American farmer. Talk to the American farmer. Talk to the American farmer. who needs diesel, which is high. Who needs fertilizer, which is high. And the president, you know, he wants to talk like, well, affordability is an old-fashioned term. It's not important.

This is really hurting the president. I would argue that economically, or even across the board, before Iran, I think the president was really happy. I think he existed very much in a gilded cage at the White House and at Mar-a-Lago, surrounded by an administration who truly, you know, bows at his altar, and surrounded by business people

who are making an extraordinary amount of money, whether on their own or they've got government contracts now, but that's who's rolling at Mar-a-Lago this term. But step away from that and go to the American people. Go to Trump's actual voters, right? Go to my mother, right, who voted for Donald Trump, who she believes Donald Trump when he says there's a caravan of criminals coming from South America

and they're going to attack your grandchildren and steal your job. She's going to believe that because she doesn't see it. But you cannot lie to the American people or any people about our lived experience. And my mother knows exactly how much her groceries cost, how much her gas costs. And so you're watching all of these Republicans just sort of on pins and needles. How many times have we heard from this White House Trump's going to go on an economic tour? He can't.

He doesn't have a message. And the market is doing extraordinarily well. Corporate profits are super strong. But even if you look under that hood, it's the massive tech companies. It's the magnificent seven. If you talk to lots of Fortune 500 companies that are not in the tech space where they're not booming because of AI or they are impacted by the tariffs or mass deportations, many of those companies are suffering.

And if we see any sort of puncturing, which I don't necessarily think we will, in the AI superpowers, then it's going to be devastating. But also only 50% of the American population are in the market. Correct. So that's fine for rich people or people who feel that they're taking care of and they have financial security. But we know that the other half don't have even $500 in case of emergency. And we haven't even talked about health care, right? At the end of last year, before we spent billions and billions and billions on this war,

Republicans' argument was we do not want to spend a dime continuing. on Obamacare subsidies. It's time for them to expire. So there's so much news out there. We don't even talk about the fact that American people have seen their health care premiums spike, and they are struggling. And what's interesting is we had, coming out of COVID, right, we had a K-shaped economy. The rich were getting richer and the poor were getting poorer. Joanna, this has been supercharged. And I don't just mean the rich. Think about the richest of the rich are so unimaginably wealthy. Now, we now have the American oligarchs. Right. No, we're about to get our first trillionaire with the SpaceX IPO and Elon Musk. And it's not just Elon. With the SpaceX IPO, we're going to have a

whole slate of new billionaires. And while one might say, you know, well, you know, I'm mad that they're so rich, but what does that have to do with my life? Here's where it does. Because now that investor class is donating so much money to these campaigns, right? We're 16 years. out from Citizens United, where you can now have an unlimited amount of corporate dollars in political campaigns. And you've got the wealthiest of the wealthy people, now that we live in a Donald Trump world, who understand that politicians are transactional. Donald Trump is completely transactional. And so, you know, when John Cornyn lost his primary in Texas, people said, well, Ken Paxton's not going to be as good at raising money. Yes, he is. He absolutely is,

right? When Thomas Massey lost his primary in Kentucky, it was the most of the most of the money. most expensive primary we've seen, the majority of people writing those big checks have never set a big toe in the state of Kentucky. But now that we have created these massive American oligarchs who have more power and influence than we have ever seen business people have over policymaking, I think this is a game changer. I think this Eat the Rich sentiment is not being led by a group of Democrats. I think it's being led by Americans who are saying, this country doesn't work for me. And many of those Americans are the original mag of voters who Donald Trump appealed to because he said, you feel forgotten? You feel that there aren't jobs for you in

this country? I'm your guy. And now many of those people who don't necessarily have a political affiliation or not with Donald Trump anymore are just saying, this country, this world doesn't work. I'm ready to break the system. So do you think the impact of the big, beautiful bill, which enabled even more money to go to billionaires and high net worth individual? as they're referred to, and took, you know, raised the healthcare premiums of millions of people and lots of people chose not to renew, as you know, for Obamacare. Do you think that has actually a knock-on effect in the midterms? I don't think it has a direct knock-on effect.

I think your average person, even your informed person, isn't digging that much into the Big Beautiful Bill, but they're just looking at life, right? They're just saying, my life doesn't work for me. And they, listen, journalism, I would say great journalism is alive and well and strong as ever. Every single day, there's another story out there about the Gryft. There's another story out there about World Liberty Financial and the president's crypto business or the president suddenly, you know, buying thousands and thousands of shares of companies that he just met with. They're suddenly saying, you should buy a Dell computer. And then Michael Dell gets a nine and a half billion dollar government contract.

and their stocks up 30%. People see that, right? They don't necessarily dial back into what was in the big, beautiful bill, what tax breaks were given, but they just say, hold on. You're the person in office. You now finally have the supreme wealth

you always said you did. A specific group of business people are wealthier beyond belief, and I'm not. This isn't working. And I don't think that's unique to President Trump. Listen, what hurt Joe Biden, what hurt Kamala has.

is that people were still struggling economically and they look and see and they say who's in the White House and they blame that person. What's unique about Donald Trump is the reason many of these people are struggling economically is a direct result of his policies. He also seems to think that people don't care. I mean, he says that people don't care about the grift. We know that he's made at least two, possibly three or up to four billion dollars in this second presidency. And he openly says people don't care. They just don't care. I don't believe that to be true. However, I think there are two things that have to be, that Democrats have to be focused on,

and it's affordability and accountability. Like, he's not wrong. There is such a flood of corruption that we're potentially seeing or grift. And a lot of people say, we'll say like, what about Nancy Pelosi stock trading? Or what about Hunter Biden?

Those two examples that I gave are like this compared to the mega-gold. Like, just even think about the presidential pardon industrial complex that we have right now. It's gargantuan, and he's not wrong that people's eyes are glazing over and they can't even follow it all. That's what I mean, we literally have a segment on our show that we do nightly White House for sale because I want to make question mark. I want to make sure every night we're covering it and it's in one cohesive place so we don't

forget it. But it is on the Democrats, and I'm not saying I have a tremendous amount of confidence for them to say, this election is about affordability and accountability. Here's what we are going to do to make your life more affordable. And here's what we're going to do to actually demand accountability, right? It was Tim Miller who said it. They need to co-opt a Trey Gowdy from what Trey Gowdy did with the Benghazi hearings. Democrats need to birth their own Trey Gowdy to say, we're going to look at every single one of these things and we're going to pull you guys in and have hearings. It's also what Petta Magyar did in Hungary, right, where he managed to make it clear that the corruption under Victor Orban actually had an impact on the regular population because Orban had had a grip on that country.

And yet it was one of his own people that started his own party that was able to connect the population to the corruption and why their lives felt worse. That is the best example. The one CEO we've heard even marginally talk about this was Jamie D. Diamond. When J.P. Morgan did not write a check for the ballroom, he said, Trump's not always going to be in power. He didn't say this thing smells to the high heavens, but he said, I don't want to be in a situation in the next go-around, in the next administration, when they turn around and they say this is corrupt. So when he said that, and I agree, I mean, you're like, finally someone is saying something like this, and he's very clear about what he thinks.

why does this seem such short-termism, especially for the tech guys who are sucking up to Trump like this? Do they not think there will be a Democratic president in their future? So I would say two things. So first, I think when Jamie Diamond said that and we said, why don't more, why don't other people do that? Well, they don't. Because soon after saying that, Trump sued Jamie Diamond, I think to the tune of $5 billion, J.P. Morgan and him personally. And that was because they decided to debank him after January the 6th, correct? Correct, correct.

Which, by the way, if you ever understood sort of the very basic banking rules of K.Y.C. Know your client. Right. You have to understand the person who's banking with you where they got that money from, where that money was made, how it's being used. And if you cannot answer that question, then you should not be banking with them. Things that could have been applied to Jeffrey Epstein when they were banking him. We're moving swiftly on.

Why didn't, why don't more of the tech people seem to think, like, there's going to be a Democrat in the House at some point? I'm going to have to account for this. So I think they have never had so much access to power. They have never had so much control, right? I mean, I almost said Donald Trump doesn't know what AI stands for, but it's extraordinary. Well, his education secretary didn't know what it stood for. She thought it was a source. Yeah, Linda McMahon.

Think about how much influence they have been able to have over the president. AI is going to change every element of the way that we live. And Donald Trump is basically given carte blanche in terms of regulation. And so I think, like, they're going to go while the going is good. And I think many of them in the Elon Musk averse have so much power and influence. I don't know that they think it's going to change. And listen, I don't know that Democrats have clearly shown what accountability looks like. Look no further than social media regulation, okay?

But almost more than laying blame to the billionaires or the business people, I lay it on lawmakers. Because lawmakers, not across the board, but for a quick check of $25,000 here and $25,000 there, show me the massive legislation that you saw either party passed over the last 15 years when it comes to social media. media. An industry that we know has had devastating impact on our lives. So you knew both Scott Bassett and Howard Lutnik before they became Treasury and Commerce Secretary respectively. Were you surprised at how sycophantic they've become? This is a great question. I mean, Howard is a salesman. Howard is not an economist. Howard is a salesman. and it's a, Cantor Fitzgerald is a middleman, it's a broker's broker.

I mean, I would say I'm more surprised by Scott when people say that like, why does Scott get tongue tied on TV? I think he's tongue tied on TV because he knows many times when he's on TV. He's not being honest. Certainly not when he talks about tariffs, that's for sure. I think, I mean, when they sit around the table and they go, oh, Mr. President, you are the greatest president, oh, Mr. President, how can I lick you more? Correct.

I was just surprised by that. No, it's stunning to see it. That's when I'm like, wait, are we in North Korea? But we should look no further than the transition, right? Howard Lutnik and Linda McMahon, who wanted to be the Commerce Secretary before Howard said, B-boom. He said very clearly, the number one job qualification in Trump's second term is loyalty to Trump. So while when I watch it, I watch in disbelief that these people who have,

lots of credibility or lots of success would bend like, I'm like, why would you know you're on television? Like, why would you do that? But I think we knew that going in. I mean, it was a knife fight for all these people to get these positions. And now that they have them, they're not letting go. If you think back to Trump's first term, there was one meeting where he brought these CEOs in. The business round table. Yes. And it was not the official business roundtable, but it was like his business advisors, right? And I remember Jeff Emmel was there. And he made... Who at the time was running GE? Yes. And he made Jeff tell them, Jeff, it was like, tell them the story of when I hit a hole in one. Actually, it was two holes in one that day.

And I remember watching, like, Jeff Immel, just like, I'm watching his face as he's just like, yes, Mr. Brett. You know what I mean? He's like, I'm at the White House. What am I going to do? And I remember that day being like, these CEOs are not going to last on these councils. And sure enough, they didn't. That is such a quaint, distant memory of like, yes, you hit a hole in one. Now, it's like, when did you get great at being perfect, Mr. President? And they all just go around the table and say it. It's just remarkable.

So he's gone after the Fed, has famously gone after Chairman Powell, gone after Lisa Cook on the Fed board, set the DOJ on her to try and find discrepancies in how she claimed things for her mortgage. Kevin Warsh is the new Fed chairman. Highly qualified. Right. So does the same thing happen to him? Is he going to be able to maintain the independence of the Fed?

So he's in a more unique position than Scott Bessent and Howard Letnik, that he's not part of the administration, right? He is part of the Fed. Now, Kevin Warsh does want to make big changes to the Fed. Right. It was a blood sport getting this position. He wanted it before he got what he wanted. If I were a betting woman, it was funny when his confirmation was getting delayed and delayed, I thought, I kept saying, I'm like, I bet he wants it delayed.

I bet he would love for this thing to get, the further it gets to the midterms or past the midterms, when he actually has a little bit of room. I don't know what he's going to do, but it's going to be very. tricky for him because inflation being where it is, Donald Trump wanting rates to get cut, and inflation being where it is, this isn't, even if Kevin Warsh wanted to do it pre-war in Iran, even if he wanted to do it six months ago, it's tricky. But it's funny, like people dog, especially like on social media, people will dog on me because remember when you said Scott Bessent was qualified? Scott Besson was qualified. He is qualified. It doesn't mean he's doing the job, right?

he doesn't mean he's doing the job. Honestly, Kevin Warsh is super qualified to do this job. He's highly respected, right? I mean, he's been in the government before. He spent the last number of years as Stan Drucken Miller's partner. Stan is one of the greatest living investors that I can even think of. What Kevin is going to do, how he's going to manage the pressures of Trump, that remains to be seen. Well, and we've talked a lot on this podcast about the real skill of surviving around Trump, is managing Trump, is not thinking. that you should actually do the job in hand. It's all about how you manage him.

And the job is almost immaterial. And that's actually, when you think back to Trump 1.0, there's the books and the stories of, you know, them, you know, playing three-card Monty, you know, Gary Cohn and Jared and Mnuchin with like trying to hide some, you know, they don't want Trump to see this or they don't want Trump to do. They're taking things literally off his desk.

Literally off his desk. But part of that is those were guys who were qualified for those jobs. They understand the. content at hand, we're in a different world. The number one, and I'm not talking about Kevin Washington, people in the administration, the number one qualification, as I said, was loyalty to Trump. Right. So if that's your number one skill set, I'm not even sure that you know what you're going to push and pull and take from. We don't have the, the Cal, right, remember, Peter Navarro is super close to the president and the president's sons at this point. In Trump 1.0, Gary Cohn and

Stephen Nucon wouldn't even let Peter Navarro work on their team. They sent him to go work for Wilbur Ross and hope that Wilbur might be napping when he was at work that day. Now, you've got the likes of Navarro in the inner, inner circle. And so it's funny, many of these people, and remember, Peter Navarro was chosen. Jared Kushner found him doing an Amazon search looking for, is there somebody, an economist or someone who covers the economy out there whose views mimic Trumps? And that's how they found Navarro. And this is on tariffs in particular. in particular.

And then you remember, in Navarro's books, he had fake quotes from a person, from a made-up name whose name was like a derivation of his name. It was Ron Vara. Yes, yes, right? But this is my point of like, this is who we're dealing with. So Kevin Warsh is a totally different caliber, a totally different quality.

And the Fed does have clear separation. He knows, Kevin Warsh knows, that the Fed's independence is a crucial point. part of American exceptionalism and the strength of our economy. It's the reason international investors want to invest their money here. At the same time, he would like to reimagine the Fed, and I'm guessing his hope is that his reimagining the Fed aligns somewhat with what Trump wants him to do, and he can move forth. We'll see. So goodbye from me, from Jen Welsh, from Kurt Lobster Sheik Anderson, and from Stephanie,

money, power, sex, politics, all of it, rule. We'll be back with David Rothkopf tomorrow and he will start off your week with a bang. If you have been, thank you for joining us. 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.