The transcript explores the complex dynamics within Donald Trump’s orbit, using Kimberly Gilfoyle as a central case study. Gilfoyle, a former Fox News correspondent and associate of Don Jr., is portrayed as a symbol of the Trump world’s transactional and morally ambiguous nature—her dismissal is framed as both strategic and personal, reflecting deep animosity from the Trump family. The narrative highlights how Trump’s leadership style is built on demand, extortion, and control, seen in his financial dealings and media manipulation. The new press secretary, Katie Zachariah, is presented as a carefully curated image—reminiscent of Fox News figures—emphasizing gendered, conspiracy-driven media aesthetics. Elon Musk’s unprecedented $300 million donation to the 2024 campaign is analyzed as a transformative force, potentially shifting political power toward wealth-driven influence. Trump’s ongoing relationship with Russia, his disregard for defeat, and his focus on personal power and visibility are central to his strategy, especially as midterms loom. The discussion also touches on the absurdity and incoherence of Trump’s actions, from the proposed live execution of a soldier to his aggressive outreach to Putin. Ultimately, the show presents a vivid, satirical portrait of a political ecosystem where ambition, money, personal vendettas, and media spectacle dominate, with Gilfoyle’s story serving as a microcosm of the chaos and moral ambiguity at the heart of Trump’s world.
Kimberly Gilfoyle is a reflection of so much that goes on in Trump world. Donald Trump sets the model for this. It's gimme gimme gimme. We can't believe we've gotten into this position where we can effectively extort money from everybody. Why are we hanging Kimberly? She's low hanging fruit. One of the answers there is that she's low hanging fruit and the other answer is that they can't stand it. I mean the Trumps can't stand her. I think they've been asking this question for a long time. How do we get rid of her? How did Don Jr. ever end up with her? This has been a desperate, her climb, a desperate and indefatigable, just clawing up. Relentless. Michael Joanna. We are back in the studio. Thank goodness. Back from your travels. How was London? This is Inside Trump's head. By the way, if you haven't joined us before, we go thrice weekly into the president's head to find out what's going on there. What is going on there? Jesus, I don't it becomes it's the question is is he is this a moment of panic? Is he really facing the first stages of facing the end? So the midterms are coming. It's going to be a disaster for him. What does that? How does that affect him? And I'm not I'm not sure because he doesn't he is not affected by the things that other people are affected by like defeat because he's never defeated and so therefore this whole idea of of what he's going to do to avoid defeat is kind of off and we should talk about this because it's off target. It's off topic for him because yeah, exactly. And and he is because he's never defeated even if he is defeated. Therefore, he doesn't really have to necessarily compensate or or prevent his defeat really, which is and if you look about what if you look at what he's doing, it certainly seems that that he's not trying to win. Well, if you look at his rallies, there are lots of empty seats. We do not want empty seats at our live performance at our rally at our rally. Next Tuesday in LA at the Terra Grande Ballroom, October the 20th, please, but your ticket if you haven't already got it, they are selling fast. Oh my god, it's Tuesday. Yeah, it's a week today. It's a week today. The midterms are three weeks today, but come and join us. Terra Grande Ballroom be stop hub slash ITH live or go to ticket master and tap in inside Trump's head to book your ticket in LA downtown. If you need a trip, couldn't be a better excuse than to come and see us and you can get a meet and greet with me and Michael. Delighted. Yes. Meeting and greeting you. Introduce yourselves. Why not? Why not? Why not? Give us your feedback on the podcast. So today we've got, well, we've got big news today, big news that was announced. What an exciting first press conference for Katie Zachariah, the new White Tast press secretary. We've got Trump's insane diesel moratorium, whatever he's doing with Russia and Ukraine. Who knows? They don't know. Nobody knows except. Question always at the center of Trump's political career. What is he doing with Russia? Right. Right. We've got Elon financing the Republican Party, incredible amounts of money. It's also very bizarre, isn't it? I feel like the way we describe Elon Musk as the richest man in the world is like a sort of fairy tale. It's like one of those children's books when you open the thing and you go the richest man in the world left his house for a walk in his garden or whatever. It's like, how do we, how do we know he's the richest man in the world? I thought Putin was supposed to be the richest man in the world. And this sort of moniker that stuck to him. Anyway, we're going to be. Well, I didn't know. I mean, I think in in fairness, he is even richer than Putin might well be. I mean, he really, this really is. He's very, very rich. I mean, that's why we're talking about, we're talking about, you know, he's putting what, $200 and almost $300 million into this campaign. He put $300 million into into the 2024 Trump campaign. This is, and I think we should spend some time thinking about this, that a vote for Trump or a vote for the Republican Party is a vote for Elon Musk. That's kind of in a way, who we're electing. That's alarming. That's very alarming. And is 15 children or 18 children or 200 children? Yeah, who knows who knows? Oh, and we've also got sure I cannot believe we haven't discussed this. Yes, because you are away. And I want to hear how your trip went. The live execution that Hegseth has said, are they going to be charging for it? I looked at some comments online on our thread, and it was all about, oh, of course, they're going to charge for it. This is just a money-making thing for the Pentagon. I mean, obviously, I know ironic comment, but Hegseth's dreaming the execution. Nevertheless, let's come to the execution of Kimberley Gilfoyle, which was Katie's Zacharias, first press conference. First of all, let's discuss Katie's Zacharias, the new press secretary. Well, let's discuss that your belief that who was that guy who was you thought was going to be hiring? Well, to be fair, you always maintain Trump was going to hire a young woman. She's 41. That's not young by Trump standards, actually, is it? But I thought possibly Scott Jennings. I have never heard of Katie's Zacharias before. As a matter of fact, you're, I didn't answer your, because I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, I was, listen, reading Arya Emmanuel's book, which I found riveting. So I overlooked your text about what did I know about Katie's Zacharias, but the answer is nothing, absolutely nothing, except that she is the model of what Trump would order up, you know, a, a younger woman, considerably younger than he is, with long, blonde, long hair loose, extension, always loose. Right. Always lose good point. It's a, it's a weird thing. He doesn't like hair pulled back. Why is your hair pulled back? You want to let it go? You want to just let it out. This is what it really looks like. Well, it's beauty contestant, right? This is what they all do in those patterns that he used to own and the, in the modeling agencies that he used to run. It's what Melania has a lot of hair. Yeah, a lot of hair that she hides inside like, it's like a nest. She pulls it around her. Falls the season that everyone gets busier more calls, more customers, more chances for something to slip through the cracks and staying ahead means having just the right system, not working harder. That's why today's episode is brought to you by Quo, spelled Q, U, O. It's a business phone system built so you never miss a call. All your calls, texts and voice mails live in one place. So anyone on your team can pick up a conversation, see the full history and respond fast. Quo's optional built in AI agent handles after hours calls answers questions and even book supportments so you never miss a lead even when your team is offline. Set up in minutes on any device, keep your existing number and add teammates as you grow. No IT, no hassle. Money is always on the line. So always say hello with Quo. Try Quo for three plus, get 20% of your first six months when you go to Quo.com/beast. That's Q, U, O.com/beast. So Katie Zachariah exactly fits the, she's the central casting candidate for this job. So when you suggested that it would be Scott Jennings, Scott Jennings. Yeah, that was always a nice. I don't think he's had a man since Sean Spicer and as we pointed out in the Daily Beast cheat sheet, which is a brilliant newsletter to start your day. By the way, written by largely Hugh Dockety and sometimes Nick O'Hine, who runs our office in London, they pointed out even Sean Spicer was played by a woman on SNL, played by Melissa McCarthy. Otherwise, they've all been women. His press. Yeah, no, that's that's what he want. I mean, he's very, very forthright about this. The person who is out front, the person who is on camera, the person who is representing him should be like a woman on Fox. I mean, that's right. Right. Right. Right. So she is like woman on Fox full of conspiracy theories. And they often go, they go to Fox afterwards. Right. Which is where Carolin Lever has just gone. Right. Carolin with a K. Right. And the press secretary, the last press secretary from the first administration, whose name is now. Kelly Meckner, many, whatever you pronounce it, went off to Fox. Right. I think there were a lot of young women.
circling for this job and Scott Jennings lost all that weight. What was Katie Zacharias first piece of news in her vocal fry? The death of KG. Let's hear it. We have asked Ambassador Gelfoil to resign. She has been a wonderful asset to the team and we wish her well. She's got that vocal fry cultural cringe goes up at the end of the sentence. It's a weird way to say this. We've asked not for her resignation. We have asked her to resign as though she might have a choice. Well, she might be Gelfoil. I think she might. They asked me to resign. I said no. How a listen? The question here is what has she got on the trumps? What is this? What's her next move? Is it a book? Let's just unpack this because the timing and the drip, drip, drip of the stories about her was kind of fascinating. It felt coordinated, even though they came from different sources. Yeah, no, I've been trying to figure this out. This has largely come through. It matter of fact, entirely through the Wall Street Journal. So it either means the Wall Street Journal got a hack of some sort. Always possible, of course. When you say a hack, you mean a hack of her text? Yes. Or it's a leak. But even the leak is, how do you leak someone had to get a hold of her texts? I mean, this is what was leaked are a set of conversations she has had with, well, people she was basically trying to get money from or people who appear to be her boyfriends. So where did this come from? In the journal in three stories now, I think, gives us no window into that. Well, Eric Dieter's provided them with the texts that he had with Kimberly, where she's like, stop papering this, use signal, you're going to bust my ambassador shit. We don't know that that he provided them with that. He said that. What did he say? Do you remember why I decided to talk? The way I read that was that they confronted him. And then he said, you know, he essentially confirmed. But so the idea that he provided that I don't see what would be his first story. So the first story was about her friendship with a guy that people assumed because he was so omnipresent that he was her chief of staff turns out he's a lobbyist for a Greek energy company. And the suggestion by the journal was that they were in some kind of relation to right. And Donald Trump called him out and said, gosh, he is very good looking. Yes. Then the second story is the Eric Dieter story of the Maga Donor, who she asks to pay off her $100,000 Amex bill before she's confirmed as ambassador. And then the third story is about how she was throwing her weight around at Davos. We should include in the first story that she was threatening Greek stability by saying at a dinner table, you know, the American government can bring their Greek government down with a flick of my wrist, basically. And then leaks that at Davos, she was behaving like a monster. She fired her security detail for not bringing her ice cubes at four in the morning. She didn't like the way one turned left when they were driving. So those feel like they're from disgruntled staff as those latter ones about her bad behavior at Davos. Yes. Okay. But I don't know where the first ones came from. I mean, the first ones to say, I mean, and I don't think the Dieter's thing came from him. I mean, it seems like he's confirmed it. But why would it be in his interest to? Well, because he'd pay to three hundred thousand dollars and got nothing from it. And he was, he reminded me of that guy from network. I'm mad as hell. And I'm not going to take it anymore. Well, except for the fact that he sets himself up for an investigation. So I don't see why he would want to come clean on that unless he was forced to come clean on it. Because I think that he refers to himself as a Kentucky outlaw. And he's been, you know, he lost his law license. And he said he didn't care. I mean, everybody cares. And he's also, he's also trying to get his taxes fixed. So this doesn't come from him. Okay. He was confronted and had to confirm it, but didn't come from him. So where did this, where does this come from? Why did someone? I think it is. I mean, okay, the background on this, you know, and the, the background is, is, is, of course, Kimberly Gilfoyle was at Fox. She was to my knowledge, the only woman who has been metued for a set of, for harassing her assistant and then her male assistant and a set of dick picks, which went widely through, through the Fox newsroom. And Fox, interestingly, on their digital channels, didn't cover this story at all about Kimberly. I mean, they'll have to cover the fact she's been asked to resign. Okay, so then she goes on. She leaves, leaves Fox. She wages a campaign to get into the Trump White House. That actually does not succeed, except for the fact that she succeeds as becoming the girlfriend of the president's son, Don Jr. This is during the first administration. I mean, while she was briefly involved with Anthony Scaramucci before she got involved with, with Don Jr. And then we should also just remember she was the wife of Gavin Newsom. I know it's such a, it's such a anyway, it's just such an extraordinary story. And it's an extraordinary story of the kind of, of let's find the words for this of the, of the rank, if not comical ambition, possessed by so many people in the Trump world. Right. Matter of fact, you know, so all of this, all of these revelations about her trying to get money from this person and trying to get money from that person and dismissing this country and that country. The truth is that almost everybody in the Trump orbit, you could pin similar things on them. So it would be interesting to see all of their emails. But I think the other thing is that Kimberly Gillfoil, in a world where everybody hates everybody, the person they hate most is KG. The person they hate most. Why would they hate her the most? I mean, I, I agree she's actually a fascinating story. But what she'd done to really, you know, she, the people they hate most are members of the Trump family. Okay. So her tenure as a member of the Trump family, I think helped engender this, this, this real animosity to her through, throughout, there's nobody who has, I was going to say there's nobody who has a positive word to say about Kimberly Gillfoil, but it's, it's worse than that. It's worse than that. I mean, everybody has the most terrible things to say about her. There was a very interesting exchange between her and Eric Dieter's, the Magadona, who she demanded a hundred K off, where she's talking about Bettina Anderson, Don Jr.'s new now wife. And there appeared to be an overlap there. And she's furious, Kimberly is furious about it, as you would be. And, you know, does a whole, the old overlap, and there's a whole thing about how she says Bettina's been sending pictures of herself and bikinis to the daily male. It's real tabloid stuff. So what does she do now? Does she resign? And, well, this is the, I mean, she has to resign, right? Well, she has, she has to resign, but what does she do now? I mean, and remember, she was cast out. Well, she was cast out to keep her out of the way. Yeah. I mean, she was, you know, I mean, she's already faced many, many chapters of ignominy, cast out of Fox, cast out of the Trump family, cast out of America basically. So, you know, I guess she keeps going. Well, she has the money from the house that she bought with Don Jr. in Florida. So, and I think that was about six or seven million dollars. So she has a small, ten million dollars. She got ten million dollars. Well, no, the house, oh, yeah, sold at 16, I think she got around seven. She is a perfectly substantial by any normal person's accumulation nest egg to survive here. She can't complain. She doesn't have any money because she has money from the house. Well, she has been complaining that that's why she wanted the guy to pay her $100,000 amics. I know, but that's because they hadn't yet sold out Florida house.
Now, she's got the money from Don Jr. from the joint sale of the house, or he bought her out of the house. But I wonder what she's going to do now. Does she stay? Is she suddenly less appealing to the lobbyist from the Greek energy company? Because she can't deliver in quite the same way. I would say much less appealing. Much less appealing. What can she do? We don't know. But she will do something. She's not going to slink away. So how much does she have on the Trump family? What does she know? We don't know that. So the question properly asks is, do you think she has a lot on the Trump family? Answer yes. There was a moment actually in the early stages of her relationship with Don Jr. when she went around saying that that that Trump had made a pass at her. Okay. Well, that's useful. That's useful. So what are they going to do with her? We want to know, we want your suggestions, actually. What would you do with Kimberly Gilford? What would you ask her to do? She's what? How old is she? 5758, I think. Also a lot of hair. She could chop her hair off and sell it for extensions to someone else, possibly the new press secretary. That will be weird. The new press secretary ended up with Kimberly's hair in her own hair, dyed blonde, obviously. That's a new press secretary. Have hair extensions. Of course, she has hair extensions. Yeah, she's got four children. And given that Carolyn Levitt decided to spend more time with her family after having a second child. And she's got a slightly older husband, I think he'd probably said, this new one has decided to spend less time with her family. No, she bringing her family to Washington with her. But I think she is the inevitable result if you're that if you become the press secretary. Right. She's not going to see her four children at all. Let's be clear. So there are only three questions she took at the press conference, one from Brightbot News, one from Fox News and one from the Daily Mail. Let's hear one of the questions to her. The idea of night spending evenings with my kid is kids are is completely unacceptable. So my president, excuse me, my husband, that's a good one. My husband is out here. My president, my husband, my president, my husband. You know who's going to win? I always think it's an interesting one when the phone goes. Or if the phone goes twice and it's your president or your husband, which phone call do you pick up? I think she's going to be picking up the president school. I would say we would everyone would pick up the president. Except not you because you don't like it when it calls. When he used to call you, you'd say the whole house ground to a halt because you were like, oh, here he goes again. And he would just keep on talking. Yeah. I mean, after after a number of times this and then it's it just, you know, you just can't you cannot get him off the phone. Does he leave a voice? I would start doing it putting him on the speaker so everybody in in in in the house would be like riveted. Yeah, it's just great. So that when Louise your daughter grows up, she'll be able to write, you know, my memory of my childhood in the Hamptons was growing up with Donald Trump's voice echoing around our wooden drawing room. All right. So she looked nervous. She's got a domestic, you know, she got a lot going on because she's got to move four children, which is a lot from California to Washington. I'm sure she'll have some help. And she's got to deal with Trump who is in his, well, he's in a crazy sense. Well, I mean, in her defense, everybody would look nervous on the first day out in front of this. And and in really she has no preparation for this. I mean, this she comes out of nowhere. This is like, you know, as though a set of pictures were displayed in front of him, which I'm sure is the case. And he said, let's pick this one. Looks looks I like the way this one looks. Right. And then suddenly she's shoved out in front of in in in front of the Washington press core, which is not a comfortable place to be. Of course, she's going to be nervous. Of course, she has to relocate her, her family. This is a big job. You're this is this is a career making job. If you don't blow it, she can go to Fox. So she used to be on OAN America's own network, America one network, which is even further right. No one has really been on OAN. Okay. Well, I'm just saying really exist. Okay. It's just a rumor of of being on television as was Natalie Harp on OAN. That's right. I wonder how Natalie Harp feels about Katie Zakaria Zakaria. Well, she feels feels whatever Donald Trump feels. Oh, excited. Yeah, I mean, like this is I mean, I mean, I she's not threatened by this if that's what you're saying, because this is not a real job. This is not a power job in the Trump administration. Right. But it can take you on to Fox news. It can take you on to Fox news. Okay. And she's joining him at a time when Trump is even more unstable than normal, because he's losing. Well, we don't. I mean, that's again, he doesn't see losing the way other people see losing. All politicians see all politicians other than Donald Trump acknowledge that they live in a world of winning and losing. And you will lose. There's just no no political career in which you do not lose. Donald Trump doesn't see it like that. There's no political career in which he sees himself or is able to see himself as having lost witness, of course, 2020 when he did lose, but never acknowledge, never admitted, never understood that he had actually lost. So we'll go into the midterms and that's one of the issues. How will this play? Right. This is going to be a substantial loss for him. How does he play that? Does he blame everybody else? Well, of course, he'll say, I will. Of course, he of course he blames everyone else. And of course, he doesn't accept it as has his loss. But then he has to deal with with a with with a house of representatives that he that he has no no control over and more and more likely a Senate that he has no control over. So how how does he deal with this having lost a a significant amount of his own power? How is he dealing with Elon Musk? Do you think he's calling Elon and saying a need you to put more money here there and everywhere? Whereas Elon just deciding this or Elon's people just deciding it. I mean, he's given 278 million, 158 million to the Senate leadership fund, which is just to give that some perspective on that. It's more than the Democrats have raised all together in one quarter. That's just one check from Elon. No, it's extraordinary. And I don't think I don't think the the American political system has yet absorbed this this kind of development. I mean, what happens when someone is rich enough to I was going to say by the election, but it's even it's even in a sense it's greater than that. It's enough enough money that everybody in the Republican party becomes beholden to Elon. Granting him enormous power. Now now remember, he did this once before. We've seen this play out in 2024. He put close to 300 million dollars, a similar sum into Pennsylvania. And partly because of that, perhaps more than primarily because of that, he was given a seat, the probably the most powerful seat in government ever given to a civilian. This was not part of government. Yes. And you know, that lasted for three months, three or four months, and then it was a complete breakdown. Well, he accused Trump of being in the Epstein. Yes, of of of of everything, they completely broke down. That was a meltdown one afternoon, a complete meltdown. So, but not before he dismantled USAID. Yeah. No, I mean, had phenomenal power for that period of time. So, effectively, he's buying himself. I mean, let's assume Elon is not doing this for free. And of course, there are other benefits. He gets, I mean, his business is significant parts of his business, his trillion dollar business. Well, briefly trillion dollar business was on the basis of government contracts. Right. So that's that's there. That's that's a given. But he also wants things for himself. What can, what, what can you do for Elon? What can, what, what does Elon personally demand? Babies. What if they just said everybody has to have a baby to eat on mass? It's like one of those biblical stories.
where everybody has a baby and has to give it to the king. - But I think it's also, you know, he wants, there's a sense in which he doesn't have a broad vision here. He doesn't, he isn't playing the long game. He's playing a game I want it now. Give me, give me attention, give me press, give me important second only, modestly second only, to Trump himself. - Right. - So this is what happens. So I mean, well, I'm gonna, I'm gonna parse this a little more here because Trump won after in 2024 and then Elon came into the government. So what happens now when he puts all of this money into these races and there isn't a victory? - Well, it's Trump may blame Elon. - Oh, that would be interesting because it's possible that he gave us too much money. He gave us too much money. He gave us too much money, right? Because it's facilitated 6.5 million doors knocked on apparently by his America pack. Do you remember when he left, when he had the big fight with Trump and he was gonna set up his own party, then he set up a pack, the America pack. And then of course Trump's got his own super pack. It's a lot of money. It's a lot of money. - It's actually true. What happened to Elon's party? - Oh, it just faded away 'cause I'm sure he couldn't be bothered to do it or it Trump persuaded him otherwise. But it's become the America pack 'cause it was gonna be the America party. - Now Tucker has his own party. - So we've got Elon had a particle, the America party, which seems to have disappeared, but he has a big pack, which is facilitated 6.5 million doors being knocked on. And their goal is to get people, not moderates, but Republicans or sort of people that don't really vote. I think what Donald Trump would call the uneducated. I love the uneducated. - They're technically called low propensity voter. - Thank you, low propensity voters. That sounds much better, doesn't it? Than the uneducated. - LPVs. - LPVs. That's, you've got the terminology down. All right, LPVs. So 76 million he's put in to get out the Republican vote in seven battleground states. So it is possible that his money could push those very tight Senate races. - No, in the forms of the Republicans. - The post analysis of this, of the midterms will involve how, what is the effect of the Republicans extra, extra electoral efforts? That includes the redistricting to jury mandering in several key states. It includes, well, it includes the Trump threats of impounding votes that they think are dubious. It involves sending government agents, ICE agents to polling station. All of these kinds of things. And then on top of that, Elon's money. And it actually isn't just Elon's money. I mean, even without Elon's money, the Republicans have vastly more financial resources than the Democrats. - Well, and he's also brought X to the table, right? X, his social media platform, formally known as Twitter, which was a real factor in the UK election. I mean, there's been all sorts of efforts in the UK to try and ban X or figure out how to deal with Elon. He's deeply unpopular there. I don't know why the Democrats haven't been using Elon more as a weapon in this election. 'Cause he's, you know, incredibly unpopular. - A good question, and I don't, because they're Democrats. - Because they're Democrats using your line. I'm taking your line. It's a good one. - So, and how do you think people feel about this live streaming of the execution, this is Hegseth's idea? He said this on a podcast. I wonder if like Trump, it just fell out of his mouth. - Well, I'm gonna go, this is not gonna happen. This is just, you know, this is just more, this is just the Trump-alone thing. This is, this is, this is grab the news cycle. What's the news cycle for a day? Then we'll take a live execution, and then we'll, and then we'll figure out how not to exit, how not to live stream this tomorrow. - But there seem to be a genuine outcry. I mean, I don't understand what base this would play with. - It doesn't make any difference. It is, let's go back to the fundamentals here. Good press, bad press, doesn't matter. - It's just all press detention. - It is, the Trump political formula is that attention is zero-sum. If he gets it, others don't. So we've had this live execution dominated the news for how many days, you know, I mean. - Not a day and a half. - Yeah, but of course it would. It's totally astounding. It's completely, it makes everybody rethink everything they have ever thought about life in the United States of America, but then it will go away. So that's what you do to get a day of news or two days of news, three days of news, and then they'll think something else goes on. You just do a deal with Russia and-- - Okay, so let's talk about the deal with Russia. The deal with Russia that Trump has done for Russian diesel to bring down the cost of diesel here, which has gone up because of his war in Iran. And the fact that not enough oil is getting out of the straight of whole news, despite the fact he claims we control it. - We actually don't. - Let me give a theory here that this is what, from the beginning of his political career, what he has wanted to do is develop a close relationship with Vladimir Putin. I think Putin provides a model of the kind of politics or the kind of authoritarianism that he understands. If I wanted, I should get it. If I say it should be true. And also a model of the oligarchy that he imagines. I should be able to make money out of this. You become the president of the United States, you should be paid for it, handsomely, which he has been, but even more handsomely. He's been frustrated in this relationship by first the Russian investigation in the first administration, and in the second administration by Ukraine. And remember, he was going to solve the Ukraine war overnight. I'm gonna, one day in the presidency, no, I bring peace to Ukraine. And then I can get on with my ambitions to be Vladimir Putin's friend, okay? That didn't, that he was frustrated in that by the fact that the Ukrainians proceeded to fight a success quite a successful war against the Russians. Now coming up to the midterms, coming up to the moment when he doesn't have a, he won't have an election to worry about. I mean, even to the extent, and he doesn't really worry about elections, but the some extent, he does. And remember, the Republicans, the Republicans are very queasy about, about co-zying up to, to Putin, or at least many of the, many of the traditional Republicans, Lindsey Graham rolling in his grave right now. But he doesn't have to look toward an election anymore. He doesn't even have to look to, likely he doesn't even have to look toward keeping the Republicans in the house or the Senate happy because they're not gonna have any power. Likely what he is looking toward is now two years to make this relationship with Putin to bring it home. And this is the first stage of it. And he's going to go, he's going to leave the White House, return to Mar-a-Lago, and the oligarchy is I think is gonna be very important to him. That's what's going to fund this alternative White House that I believe he's going to set up in Mar-a-Lago. - And is he also trying to build up resources to fight what will be inevitable court cases against him, against his family, against all the investigations that seem inevitable? - Yeah, I don't think it's a very big issue with him. I mean, I think first thing he has already budgetillions of dollars and budgetillions more where that came from. - You said when you talked to him in 2016 and you said, "Why are you doing this?" He said, "I want to be the most famous person in the world." Does he now, if you've already become the most famous person in the world, - Now do you wanna be the richest person in the world? So that's his next goal. - Yeah.
And that is very much connected with this Putin thing. I mean, there's a lot been a lot of speculation. What does Putin have on Donald Trump? And God knows, yes, it could be something to, I think we've discussed Steve Bannon always thought he had his college transcripts. - Right, which would be, well, and you said, when we discussed the things that Trump is most afraid of, being thought of as stupid, it's amazing that those things haven't leaked if they still exist. But I do think it is more than Putin having anything on him is that Putin provides this model for what he thinks government should be. And also this access to the world's unbanked fortunes, really, I mean, there is money out there he knows and Putin has access to it. - Right, and he wants access to it. He just wants to be much, much, much richer. - Exactly. - The most important part here is that this is at the expense of Ukraine. So he was out there, you know, he's been forced and you can see how resistant he is to having to say good things about Zelensky and Ukraine. - Well, this was kind of-- - The regime has always been. But and now he is back to where he began. I mean, he has always been, you know, that's Zelensky guy and get him out of here. And he has no hand to play. And then he's been forced because you, because Ukraine has been so successful in waging war against the Russians. But now he's gone, we're waving that away once again and Zelensky is the enemy. - Right, so just coming back to Kimberly Guilfoil in a way. - Let's keep coming back to Kimberly Guilfoil forever more. - It's such an irresistible arc of a story right now, but in a sense, given what Trump is doing, what Kimberly Guilfoil is doing just seems like shadow of what he's doing. Why does he think a little past? This is a new story, it's a couple more days and then we'll just leave her there. - Good question. I mean, but I think there are two points here that Kimberly Guilfoil is a reflection of so much that goes on in Trump world and she is. I mean, Donald Trump sets the model for this. It's gimme, gimme, gimme across the board. We're using this position where we can't believe we've gotten into this position where we can effectively extort money from everybody. You have to give me money. And the Elon thing is kind of, I think this works for Elon, but Elon is also being extorted here. So the question, the question, why are we hanging? - Why are we hanging Kimberly? - Well, that's true. - Kimberly is a character. People love her. She's been very effective for us in Greece. - That's one of the answers is that she's low hanging fruit and the other answer is that they can't stand her. I mean, the Trumps can't stand her. I mean, she's a, she's a, I think they've been asking this question for a long time. How did Don Jr. This is like we can, they can't even, everyone is holding their nose. Don Jr. whose wedding was paid for by a Russian oligarch. And Donald Trump says he said to him, "You have to pay it back." He claims he's paid it back. If anybody's got a copy of the check, we'd love to see it. - But, but we're KG. - Poor KG? - I feel a little bad for her actually. I mean, this has been a desperate, her climb, a desperate, indefatigable, just clawing up. Relentless, relentless. And then that line, "You're going to cost me my ambassador shit." Oh, yeah, yeah. - I mean, I mean, just thinking how preposterous that she became an ambassador. - Not really under this regime. - Well, actually nobody has become an ambassador under this regime. - Right, there's 105 ambassadorships still to go. And then, of course, there's Jared Kushner's dad, Charles Kushner, who's swinging his legs from the ambassadorial seat in Paris. - I wonder if they'll find her another job. - Oh, they might do to keep her. - Yeah. - They might do. 'Cause they gave Kristi Nome, who was a problem, a new job, didn't they? Part of the, what was it called? The American Shield or some bogus thing that they did. And Kimberly looks like Kristi Nome. So that might trick a Trump and he might think, "Oh, we have to do what we did for Kristi for her." - No, I'm talking about Kimberly, in terms of having her advice or a question. - Her climb up, her climb up the Trump greasy poll has also involved having her face entirely remade. - Right, and they both had very close male advisors that they traveled everywhere with. Final question, there was a column in the New York Times by Jamel Buie. Trump is begging to be impeached. Did you read it? - I did read it. Do I remember it? Not exactly. He was begging to be, it was really the headline was, I think, as I recall, a little misleading. It was like he's begging to be impeached. I don't know, you tell for which I, it was. The theme of it was should the Democrats impeach Trump if they've been the house slash Senate? Should they go after Trump with investigatory zeal or should they just get on with trying to deliver for the people? And it's that how right, how? - All right, and they stood, so his, he's a big liberal, so his conclusion was, yes, they should impeach. - Yeah, he should be impeached for a third time. First time was Ukraine, second time was January the 6th. And all I have to say is, and how did that work out for your Democrats? - Fair, all right, we've got two Limericks. We've got two Limericks, one from Garford, our regular Limerist, at the state of the force Pete perspired for the next White House chair, yes, fired. While the armor is thinned and the midterms rolled in, and each fire Pete cry made him more hired. Bit of scanning going on in the last line there, Garfrey, but good, that was a good one. And then edits, who's rapidly encroaching on Garfrey's territory as our limit gloria. A presidency racing right through the red zone and heading straight into the dead zone. Now he's building an arc, and if I may be so dark, it may one day make a most excellent headstone. Very good edits. Michael, we'll be back on Thursday inside Trump's head again. I wonder what's going on in Kimberley's head. - Well, we may find out. - Do you think this does play badly for Gavin Newsom? - I have no idea how Gavin Newsom explains, explains having been married to Kimberly Gilfoyle. Unless he says, well, I actually once had a friend who said that none of us should be held responsible for our mates. (laughing) - Maybe that's what he should say. I don't know. - But how, I mean, again, this novelistic, I mean, a novel isn't enough to contain someone like Kimberley, but the irony is if, as is rumored, the reason she left Gavin Newsom, I think he says this, doesn't he? Was that he seemed too small, his ambitions too small for her, were he to become president that Kimberley bet on the wrong horse? - Yeah, no, there could be a lot of irony here. - But it is the idea of this character having stripped everything out of her life except ambition itself, which is obviously novelistic. - I don't think she stripped everything out of her life. She's got a very close lobbyist friend. No, but even those, all her romantic relationships are about her ambition. There is nothing. I mean, maybe she has an interior life of. - Of great toughness and softness and grace. And, but we don't know. What we see is a life devoid of everything, except the need to get the next thing, go up the ladder to just to kill, to. - Well, Katie Zacharias said, we have asked Ambassador Guildfoyle to resign. Michael, Joy to have you back in the studio. Joy to have you back on American soil. Do you like my new notebooks, by the way? I picked these up in my favorite bookshop in, where is it, Summerland called Godmother's. It's a very good bookshop. I like this one, mostly just whining.
and this one business bullshit. You have novelty notebooks. They're not novelty notebooks inside they're just, but I like the final book. In actual notebook does not have a saying on the front of it. Is that true? But they're kind of like your t-shirts. Yeah, they just add add something to my day. So we actually have one of our production team told me this was an interesting story and I don't know why he held this back for so long John Romero I'm talking about that he actually met Donald Trump that he was part of a team that filmed Donald Trump. Donald Trump didn't look at him apparently throughout the whole thing because he was John felt that he was too well wasn't important enough. So Trump formed over the lead producer, John was in the in the background of the team, but at the end Trump very generously sent them down to Trump shop and said that he could pick out a tie and this is the tie that he picked out. Jesus, that's our our fine. Can we show it close up actually? Let's look we've got here. Donald J Trump signature collection, the signature collection, which I guess is this kind of crazy signature. Anyway actually I thought I didn't think it was that bad. Really? Yeah, I thought it was okay. Terrible. You thought it was terrible. You think it's terrible. No, Jesus. It's very, very long. How long would it be if you put this on? Can you just, it's very, very long. It would be really long. I think it would be quite long, wouldn't it? I could, I could. Well, not with a big old wins or not. Oh, the big old wins or not. Anyway, John, thank you for bringing that in for us. I think we should add this to the paraphernalia we have in the studio. Okay. A Trump tie, genuine Donald Trump tie from his signature collection. Yeah, we don't know where this was made. If anyone knows where Donald Trump made his signature collection, it could be like his Joss bank. Is it pronounced Joss bank? Joseph A bank. Oh, Joseph A bank. Yeah. I didn't understand that. I thought he was wearing Zenia suits and then it turns out he's wearing a cheap suit. A Joseph bank. I mean, that's a cheap suit. Yeah. Made in China too. Yeah. Made in China. If you have been, thank you for joining us. Don't forget to buy your tickets for Michael and I live next Tuesday in LA October the 20th at the Terragram Ballroom, which is down to LA. We've got some tickets left, but they are going fast and don't leave us with empty seats. We do not want to look like a Trump rally. And a big thank you to our team. John Romero, Ryan Murray, Rachel Pasa, Heather Pizarro and Neil Rosenhaus. So the good news is we have so many B beast tier members now. There are too many names to read out and we really appreciate your support.
Podcast Summary
Key Points:
Kimberly Gilfoyle is a symbol of the power dynamics and personal vendettas within the Trump world, reflecting Donald Trump’s “gimme, gimme, gimme” model of gaining influence and money.
Her removal from the administration is framed as both a strategic move—due to her being "low hanging fruit"—and a result of deep personal animosity from the Trump family, especially Don Jr. and Donald Trump himself.
The revelations about her financial dealings, including requests for $100,000 from a donor and threatening actions at Davos, appear coordinated or leaked, with the source potentially being a disgruntled staff member or a hacked text exchange.
The new press secretary, Katie Zachariah, embodies Trump’s preferred image
Elon Musk’s massive financial contributions to the Republican campaign—over $300 million—raise concerns about a shift in U.S. politics, where wealth and influence are being bought, potentially making the party beholden to him.
Trump’s political worldview is rooted in zero-sum attention and power, where losing is not acknowledged, and his actions—like the proposed live execution or Russia deals—serve to dominate the news cycle.
Trump’s long-term goal appears to be building a relationship with Vladimir Putin, viewing him as a model of authoritarian power and a source of unbanked wealth, with plans to return to Mar-a-Lago to establish an alternative power base.
The narrative around Gilfoyle mirrors Trump’s broader pattern of leveraging personal ambition, transactional relationships, and public humiliation to maintain control, even as he faces political and institutional instability.
Summary:
The transcript explores the complex dynamics within Donald Trump’s orbit, using Kimberly Gilfoyle as a central case study. , is portrayed as a symbol of the Trump world’s transactional and morally ambiguous nature—her dismissal is framed as both strategic and personal, reflecting deep animosity from the Trump family. The narrative highlights how Trump’s leadership style is built on demand, extortion, and control, seen in his financial dealings and media manipulation.
The new press secretary, Katie Zachariah, is presented as a carefully curated image—reminiscent of Fox News figures—emphasizing gendered, conspiracy-driven media aesthetics. Elon Musk’s unprecedented $300 million donation to the 2024 campaign is analyzed as a transformative force, potentially shifting political power toward wealth-driven influence. Trump’s ongoing relationship with Russia, his disregard for defeat, and his focus on personal power and visibility are central to his strategy, especially as midterms loom.
The discussion also touches on the absurdity and incoherence of Trump’s actions, from the proposed live execution of a soldier to his aggressive outreach to Putin. Ultimately, the show presents a vivid, satirical portrait of a political ecosystem where ambition, money, personal vendettas, and media spectacle dominate, with Gilfoyle’s story serving as a microcosm of the chaos and moral ambiguity at the heart of Trump’s world.
FAQs
Kimberly Gilfoyle is seen as 'low hanging fruit' and a target because she is a high-profile figure with a controversial past. The Trumps reportedly can't stand her, and her presence is viewed as a threat to their power dynamics within the network.
The leaked texts suggest she tried to extort money from various individuals, including a Greek energy lobbyist and a donor. These revelations indicate a pattern of financial manipulation, which aligns with the broader theme of 'gimme, gimme, gimme' in Trump world.
Elon Musk is heavily involved by funding Republican campaigns and political efforts. His financial support, such as $300 million to the 2024 Trump campaign, has led to speculation that voting for Trump is effectively voting for Musk, giving him significant influence over party politics.
The idea of live-streaming a military execution is viewed as a farcical and politically absurd proposal, likely intended to generate media attention. It reflects Trump's pattern of seeking headlines through controversial or extreme actions.
Trump doesn't view political loss as a failure. He believes in a zero-sum attention model where his success comes at the expense of others. He doesn't acknowledge defeat, which shapes how he handles political challenges like the upcoming midterms.
Katie Zachariah represents the typical image Trump wants: a young, blonde, energetic woman with a media-savvy, conspiracy-prone style. Her appointment signals a deliberate effort to project a specific ideological and visual image of the administration.
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