The Daily Beast Podcast

David Rothkopf joins Joanna Coles to sound the alarm on Donald Trump’s jaw-dropping betrayal of America, from pumping money into Putin’s war machine to potentially helping fund attacks on U.S. forces. As Trump’s administration embraces authoritarian tactics and threatens a televised execution, Rothkopf explains how the president is torching America’s global standing. Plus, Marco Rubio’s presidential ambitions collide with the growing scandal engulfing Kimberly Guilfoyle in Greece, while a disastrous Republican debate performance and a suddenly competitive Senate map raise the stakes for the midterms. With Trump’s own party growing nervous and a wave of damaging leaks threatening to bring down one of his most controversial appointees, the cracks in MAGA’s grip on power are getting harder to ignore.

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Kurt Andersen and Joanna Coles revisit the Donald Trump that Spy magazine spotted 40 years ago: a blustering New York celebrity who claimed he could master nuclear missiles in an hour and a half. Andersen explains why Trump was a joke then but became president, and why today’s thin-skinned tech billionaires deserve the same sharp scrutiny. They consider what a midterm defeat could do to a president who craves attention, then size up JD Vance, Marco Rubio, RFK Jr. and the Republican who Andersen says would make a far more formidable candidate. The conversation turns to Pete Hegseth and the Iran war, Andersen’s increasingly plausible vision of an American breakup and the Kimberly Guilfoyle revelations that seem written for the pages of Spy.

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Michael Wolff and Joanna Coles turn their attention to Pete Hegseth, as the Secretary of Defense is facing mounting criticism over the Iran war while quietly positioning himself for a presidential run. They break down his latest State of the Force speech, which Wolff argues was designed to flatter Donald Trump and win over the MAGA base, and Joanna traces Hegseth’s tough-guy rhetoric back to his time in Iraq. As the war drains American munitions and the midterms approach, they consider whether Trump will make Hegseth the fall guy. But Wolff sees a strange possibility: the louder the calls for Hegseth’s removal become, the less likely Trump may be to fire him. And if Hegseth does lose his job, that may only accelerate his campaign for the next one.

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Joanna Coles and Hugh Dougherty dive into Trump-world’s latest chaos, from Trump’s Nobel Peace Prize humiliation to Pete Hegseth’s chilling talk of live-streaming a military execution. John Ossoff delivers a brutal debate performance as Democrats eye the midterms, while a Texas candidate vanishes from the campaign trail. Plus, Kimberly Guilfoyle is engulfed in a jaw-dropping scandal that could spell trouble for Marco Rubio. From Trump’s bruised ego to MAGA’s money trail, the week’s political drama just keeps getting uglier.

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Michael Wolff and Joanna Coles are counting down to the midterms—and the Trump world is already positioning itself for what comes next. Marco Rubio appears to be launching his 2028 presidential campaign with a grandiose pitch to save Western civilization, while Michael predicts Trump and Rubio may need a new “big thing” to distract from the Iran war, impeachment threats, and mounting investigations. Meanwhile, Kimberly Guilfoyle is engulfed in a stunning new corruption scandal involving hundreds of thousands of dollars as Trump’s political operation increasingly looks like a pay-to-play enterprise. Plus, the Senate map is suddenly tilting toward Democrats, a resurgent measles outbreak threatens RFK Jr.’s political ambitions, and Michael explains why Trump’s team—and Trump himself—may be far more vulnerable after the midterms than they appear.

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