US voters abroad. Have you got your ballot yet? All states are now sending ballots to overseas voters. So if you want to vote this year, you should request your ballot right away. Go to votefromrabraud.org and click "Request My ballot" as to receive it by email. Questions? Ask our support team directly. Don't miss this chance to shape the future. Don't delay. Votefromrabraud.org Everything in the Trump administration is for sale. The store is always open for a transaction. If you want a pardon, if you want introductions, all of that is available to you if you pay. This is pay per play for really everybody in the administration. And everybody in the administration is spending a lot of time as Kimberly Gilfoyle is trying to figure out how they can get money, how you can create a somewhat legal, somewhat acceptable context for taking this money. Also, not leaving a paper trail that will hang you for taking this money. Michael. Joanna. For new people joining us here today, welcome to our 175th episode of Inside Trump's Head. I think it's clear where we are. I'm Joanna Coles and this is my co-host is. I'm Michael Wolf. And it's 25 days to the election to the midterm cycle. 25 days. Oh my god. So little more than three weeks in the middle of October. So there could be a surprise any day or maybe the surprise is that there will be no surprise or the surprise is that the Republicans are just going to be flatly wiped out. Or the surprise is that they won't be and then we will be surprised. Then we will be surprised. We should remind people that it may be 25 days to the midterms. It's only 10 days to you and I appear at the terracran ballroom in downtown LA. Go to beast.pub/ithlive. Ith for inside Trump's head live or ticket master. We are appearing together. It's a live podcast taping on October the 20th. Come and join us. Come and join us. And feel free to subscribe to the Daily Beast podcast wherever you get your podcasts. We are independent media and there are all sorts of tiered memberships where you get extra content from Michael. Dino with Michael. A holiday with Michael who is currently in London having a blast. Always a good time in London. And I'm very envious. You're in a much grand hotel than I am. I am in San Francisco and I'm staying at a modest hotel. Let's say that and no room service. So I found this morning in the spirit of foraging a squashed clementine at the bottom of my bag and a crushed bag of nuts which I mainlined like a hungry squirrel. So you ate them both. You ate the crushed clementine and nuts. Well, okay, great. So I'm fueled up. I have an observation that I want to call attention to because it was for at least for a moment I was shocked, which is that at a point yesterday when I was scrolling down what what well I would call the front page of the New York Times. I did not see one story about Donald Trump, which you know I really thought that was a a unique experience certainly for the past since the second term began and actually a kind of a unique experience over the last 10 years. So I wonder if that's a sign. And then I had dinner with somebody last night journalist by the name of Rachel Johnson. Oh wait a minute. I know Rachel Johnson, Boris Johnson, sister, everybody knows Rachel Johnson and and she said no one in London is talking about Donald Trump anymore. So I don't know. Have we have we reached the point of no return for Donald Trump? Is that true that people aren't talking about Donald Trump anymore in London? Perhaps because well, who are they talking about? Are they talking about the new British Prime Minister Andy Burnham? Yes, today I had breakfast with David Cameron, another former British Prime Minister referring to Boris and actually he made quite a good joke. He said, you know, there were quite a lot of ex-British Prime Ministers. So I'm glad that you're having breakfast with me. It was a small group to celebrate a rather good podcast he's done on Alzheimer's disease, not because he has it, but because his mother had it. But it's sort of interesting to see what do you do if you're a young ex-Prime Minister? And did he speculate that Trump might have Alzheimer's disease disease? A very good question. How did I not ask him that? I should have asked him that. Though you seem firmly in the camp that doesn't think that Trump has dementia. Or I'm in the camp to think that Trump has always had dementia. So if you've always had dementia, then you can't really get dementia. Trump has. It's his own thing. I did think when he, and we slightly underplayed this, I think, when we talked about it on Tuesday, possibly because he had literally just happened as we were, I think, recording the podcast. But his sort of, you know, take out LA, take out San Diego. It's a small price to pay. As you're always saying, he's just says what's ever in his head. I think there's broader implications to that. And you know, I do not think that actually that's what he, that's what he was saying or that's what he meant to say. But I think it's a very clear window into how Trump thinks. So I think we should come back to that because that is, that's the direct road into Trump's head. Okay, so we shall come back to that. And of course, who was, who was working out furiously in San Diego yesterday, who clearly didn't want to be taken out by the Iranians. He exits. So we can talk about Pete a bit later on. And I think in fact, we're going to come back and talk about Peter greater length on Saturday because he really is a pool hanging over this midterm elections. But we're going to talk about Marco Rubio. We're going to have a second visit to what Kimberly Gilfoil is up to in Greece and all sorts of financial shenanigans going on. We're going to talk about yet more measles now for 40 outbreaks of measles in the US, a disease that really had disappeared by the beginning of this millennial. And of course, the shifting Senate races and the knife edge and the 40 or so seats definitely in play. And for those who know that when we read, we grow, which is the message from the second lady, we have a new episode with Gary Player, the golfer, odd. Why would he be reading children's books? And of course, there's always a new episode of your health and human services, the Acritory Robert Kennedy and his new food video, which is a one pot chicken thigh meal. Where should we begin? I think you should begin in the Hellenic Republic, Michael. I think we should begin with Marco Rubio. Yeah, let's begin because Marco Rubio is beginning and what he is beginning is his campaign for the presidency. And let's remember in 25 days, the midterms come, which means in 26 days marks the beginning of the 28 of the 20, 28 campaign for president. No sleep for the weary. That would be no sleep for the weary and and we'll come on to this and we're going to go into it in a bit more detail later and then again on Saturday. What usually happens after the midterms if the incumbent president gets a shellacking is that he makes some cabinet changes. So both headsets and it now appears Marco Rubio are quickly using the platform they have to put their hand up and say hello, I'm going to inherit the macabase. Right. And that's what exactly what Rubio was doing. He was, actually, it's a curious claim. He was making his claim for the macabase in the midst of the Iran war or a war that he's going to be whatever he does tarred with. He is the secretary of state after all. And the Iran war is, well, it is unpopular with everyone, but maybe even more so with the macabase. If healthier looking hair and skin have been on your mind, this might be your sign to stop putting it off. I received the Irish store Elite and Illumina face mask and what I love is how easily they fit into your routine. The Elite is comfortable enough to wear while working oraching TV and it uses 300 lasers and 200 LEDs to help regrow thicker healthier hair. You may have noticed I have grown my hair recently. The Illumina is lightweight, cordless and takes just 10 minutes. It's 360 Medical Grade LEDs combined.
red, infrared and blue light, with the ability to use all three simultaneously to target fine lines, dullness, breakouts and more. So whether you're focused on fuller looking hair, healthier looking skin, we're just building a routine you'll actually stick with. Irostore makes it simple to upgrade your self-care from the comfort of your own home. Irostore is offering some huge discounts on their red light therapy devices. Right now you can save on customer favorites like the Irostore Elite Helmet and the Illumina face mask just head to irastore.com and use code beast that's
[email protected] and please support our show and tell them we send you give your skin and hair the upgrade they deserve so you can feel confident and refresh. So he's over there for the US Greece strategic dialogue which is known it's six year and really reflects the fact that actually Greece is becoming a more strategic player. They are of course also needing to upgrade their military and so they are in the process of buying F-35 fighter jets from the US and of course Kimberly Gilfoil is there as their ambassador former girlfriend or well former fiance actually we should say of Don Jr former wife of California Governor Gavin Newsom a romantic stretch which is very I mean even in novels it's hard to understand a romantic stretch quite that elastic and as you pointed out the last time we talked about her she's very much a becky sharp type character from Fakare's Vanity Fair but just to go back to Marco speech for a second he's really positioning himself as I think it's fair to say the savior of western civilization. You know I don't I mean I thought that was a little kind of I mean he's trying to position himself as both respectful of Donald Trump and more intelligent than Donald Trump. So which is not that hard if you think about it of course but you know this whole speech was cast and God knows I mean I I could see the the team having to write this speech you know with Greece as the as the functional metaphor for western civilization I mean it was ridiculous it was preposterous I'm sure Marco Rubio knows nothing about about about the glory that was about Kepernicus and right and he gives the speech on the nicks which is of course the he's got the path number behind him and it's the sort of cradle of Greek democracy that's where he gives the speech that's the symbol of it. Right so it was it was staged and tone deaf and Marco Rubio has always been kind of tone deaf because he's uncomfortable in his role he's actually Marco Rubio is a foreign policy wonk unfortunately for him a neocon foreign policy wonk and and you know clearly they're trying they're trying to encompass that make him sound grander than he is because he isn't very grand and and also at the same time not offend Donald Trump. Now it's actually a good idea you talk about the history of Greece Donald Trump is going to just shut that out I don't care Greek's great and but but this is the one he had to make this speech at this moment because now it all begins he is going to run for president I mean so this is very you know very clear very forthright the only thing that he did not say in this speech was announce his candidacy but it is surely there which makes almost everything he said in this in this speech completely irrelevant it doesn't matter it's just about I am giving the big speech. Well here's just how significant he was taking it there were four four state department video cameras I'm taking this from the Washington Post including one that mounted on a crane for cinematic shots of of him on the next you would have thought they could use a drone actually why would they need one mounted on a crane you should have just had had a drone but perhaps they haven't got that in the state department perhaps we've run out of drones Michael perhaps we've run out of drones and perhaps you neither you nor I know anything about cinematography. I tell you what I do know having done this for years at fashion magazines when you hire a crane my friend you are into thousands of dollars and I do know that you can rent a camera a drone camera for much less money. Well just think about this this this footage is going to be the basic footage of his campaign so they're making an investment here in you know this is in the production details of staging a campaign that they want to look they want to want this to look like he is the heir apparent he is inevitable so and he's so the duel here really is between his production his production details and JD Vance's production details who will have the better production and Pete Hegseth don't let's forget Pete um yeah but Pete's Pete is going to be Pete is going to have to be a come from behind Canada's seat so these are the two these are the two leaders and you have to if you're going to be the leader you got to look like the leader. Okay the only thing I would say is we're paying for this this is the state department making these videos for Rubio this is not Rubio putting his hand in his back pocket and producing it's not even him hustling a congressman like the Greek ambassador but just to go back to his speech for a second uh this is one of the things he said and as you say I'm sure Donald Trump the minute he heard this just tuned out but this is Marco's signaling for the future we have much to learn from the men of ancient Greece they knew that there was nothing selfish or wrong about law my god oh my god no anything selfish or wrong about fighting to defend its interests above all else hello mage hello mage I mean who wrote a speech I could go on the next decade we can discuss this this is one of those prompts that would be good for a 14 year old essay the next decade will write the story of the next century the course we take will determine whether the west maintains its place at the head of the world or resigns itself to a future of atrophy servitude and decline yeah this is this is all AI stuff I mean whoever the speechwriter was typed into AI what's the relevance of of of ancient Greece to today's military problems that's the prompt and and and then they've picked out pieces of this to put into this speech okay well he's done a drive by of liberal values I'm just going to throw that he goes that liberal excess has lowered standards to ensure that no one will lose so I was I was listening to this speech and I suddenly had a theory about what's going to happen what's good for Marco Rubio and probably also what's good for Donald Trump post the midterms so for Donald Trump he's going to need something what does he do I mean he's got these huge problem and can't get out of this war in Iran it's a problem for Rubio too but he's also going to need something that holds the attention of the world because he's Donald Trump without that attention he's not Donald Trump so it is in his mind and and this is what one of the things that he says around to his aides constantly is what's a big thing we need a big thing I need a big thing get me a big thing big thing big thing they make fun of this big thing as though it's one word and Marco Rubio is also going to need a big thing what is the thing that gets him distracts from the war in Iran what is the thing that he can that he can something in this administration with which he can brand himself that isn't the war in Iran so what is this thing this big thing for Trump this big thing for Rubio would you like me to tell you is it Cuba they're going to invade Cuba that is exactly what they are going to do right because that's Marco's thing too he's the child of Cuban exile parents right there they are going to be the liberators of Cuba and they need a war that they can win and and I suspect they can win that war and and I think that they can win that war with alacrity and they can then say we are we have saved Cuba no other American president in what are we talking now 70 years has done this and more than 70 years 80 years and
and we have done this. And it's going to distract from everything else from the impeachment that's gonna come because the Democrats control Congress to the investigations of Trump's family, to all of this nightmare of things that is gonna come down on Trump's head, they need a distraction. This is gonna be it. - Do you think the American people care about Cuba? Do enough of them. I understand that Marco's base in Florida where he was a senator before Secretary of State. I understand there's a big cubal exile community there. But do you think this plays writ large in America? Doesn't it just remind people of the failed war with Iran? - Well, yes, I mean, when we're mind us of that and we will try to remind other people of that, but the victory, especially for Donald Trump, you claim something is victory and you know, and remember, considering all of the other things that he might do disasters, he might get himself into. This is probably what they think of as an easy win. I mean, enough that I'm at all by the way recommending that they do this, this seems as foolish as anything else and as fraught with problems. But you know, I think I can see this happening. I can see Donald Trump leaving the presidency in 2029 and I can see the Trump boys opening a casino in Havana. - Of course, of course. Right, what would it be called? It could be a crypto casino. It will be called Trump Havana. - Trump Havana, Trump Copic Havana. Yeah, of course it will. Of course it will. Yeah, and I'm sure Jared and Ivanka have already scoped out twin properties for their property. Yeah, it's Suzanne Island in Albania, which of course they discovered when they're friend with the yacht that they were staying on. They all went swimming and they found this amazing island. It was completely deserted. Yes, it was deserted because it was the nature reserve. And amazingly, amazingly, I still find this incredible story. Jared and Ivanka's determination to colonize said island and this beautiful, beautiful refuge for flamingos has actually caused the biggest protests in Albania since the Second World War. And the poor president of Albania who thought he was doing a good job by sucking up to Trump's relatives has now put his own career in in jeopardy. Anyway, I totally meandered off the way because we're really talking about Marco Rubio and Greece. - And let's segue there because I think Marco Rubio's head must be exploding that he has, having staged this coming out, I'm the man of great seriousness, and I am the-- - I am Mount Olympus, I'm Mount Olympus of politicians in a Donald Trump government. - Yes, and I am a presidential timber. And then he manages coincidentally to intersect with Kimberly Guilfoyle. - So we have to give a shout out. KG, as they say, in the Trump circles. - KG, KG, okay, we're going to give a shout out to Dana Matioli, Drew Hinshaw, Rebecca Borehouse, and Joe Parkinson of the Wall Street Journal. They have been on this story about three weeks ago, they did an incredible story about how Kimberly Guilfoyle was basically hustling as fast as she could as ambassador to Greece and aligned herself with a lobbyist for an energy company. - How many reporters does it take to screw Kimberly Guilfoyle? I think might be the joke here. - Why are there so many reporters on a story? Jesus, you know, anyway. - Well, anyway, it was a very good story and it really focused on her relationship with this lobbyist with whom she's spending so much time that people first assumed he was her chief of staff and then as Donald Trump pointed out when he saw them both back in the US, he's very good looking. So they appear to be spending a ton of time together and now another story has come out by the same team at the Wall Street Journal. Let me read one of the, well, let me read you one of the texts and then we'll go into the story. - Let me just separate this. The story last week was a devastating story, a story of enormous corruption and the kind of thing that obviously should provoke, a whole series of congressional investigations. I mean, just there. This is and should be death for an ambassadorial career, a political career, any career. But then there's another story which is entirely different. It's not a follow on story. It is an entirely separate chapter of corruption. - Yes, and we should point out in the previous story in the Wall Street Journal, it also became clear that Kimberley appeared to be threatening the Greek government itself by suggesting that America could cause real unrest in Greece and the Greek, I think it was defense minister took enormous umbridge to that understandably. So she's not proving as popular there as she once was. Anyway, I'm going to read one of the texts from this story and then let's explore what's actually going on. This is a text from Kimberley to a businessman called Eric Dutters. Eric, I really wish you would stop papering all these things. It's really dangerous and not helpful to you or me while you could simply just call me on signal. What could she be referring to, Michael? Why doesn't someone want someone to contact them or text them? - Yeah, and just to point out that all of the Trump people use signal. I mean, everybody reverts to this. I mean, actually, I think I might have exchanged a signal or two with Kimberley-Gill foil. And just to make clear, signal is an encrypted program and the messages you set the messages to disappear. So what someone says to you, you're pretty much, I mean, at least if you're relatively disciplined, you set it and people will not, there will be no record of your messages. - Right. - The alternative is regular electronic communication which you do leave a paper trail that will hang you. - Well, it appears that Mr. Detters, who wanted, oh, it's D-E-T-E-R-S, how would you pronounce it? Is it Dieters? Dieters? - I would say Dieters, but I don't know. I never heard of this man before. - Okay, well, he's a businessman and he ran and fails to get a congressional seat. But he's asked Kimberley for all sorts of things. - He doesn't seem like a very big businessman. Does he own a couple of pizza joints? I mean, so, I don't know. This is not, this is not all spacious. He does have tax problems, however. - Well, inevitably he's got tax problems and he's paid Kimberley over the last three years for her lobbying efforts to a help him with his tax benefits. And then incredibly, what I love about this story is it's got great details about what this businessman wanted, but he wanted to go on Tucker Carlson. So he was hustling her to get him on Tucker Carlson's podcast. - But then the other point of this is, it's not just what he wanted, but his iron that he gets nothing from her. He pays her tons of money, she delivers nothing. - Well, okay, and one of the other things he wanted was that he and a local guitarist had written a song called "Can Tucky Outlaw" and he wanted "Guilful" to get the lyrics to country rapper Kid Rock. You know Kid Rock, who's the only pop star that's ever seen, apart from Lee Greenwood. It's Lee Greenwood and Kid Rock. The Dems have, beyond say, they have Bruce Springsteen, they have everybody, but Trump has Kid Rock and Lee Greenwood. And then he says to her in a text, he's a Kentucky outlaw, meaning Kid Rock. He fights the man and refuses to crawl. It's fantastic. - A couple of points here that this is illustrative of the kind of crap that politicians, all politicians have to deal with from people who give them money. So let's assume, I mean, she's getting money, let's will get into the basis that she gets her money. But all politicians are taking money from people legally or not or illegally. But every. dollar comes with a set of expectations and the expectations are often not grand. You're kind of, you become, you become the servant of people who give you money. You become, you know, you become somebody who has to deliver on these, on these ridiculous demeaning requests. So that's the, that's the defense of Kimberly Gilfoil. Right. And then you spend a lot of time because often you can't deliver, right? But you still want to take the money. So you then spend a lot of time obfuscating about how you try, but right now it's not the right time for them that they're still engaged. And you know, it's worth revisiting in six months. I mean, that keeping someone at bay while still taking the, no, and this is, this is particularly true inside of the Trump administration, because, because there's a certain, certain thing, a certain level, why wouldn't you take the money is available? Why wouldn't you take it? If you don't take it, then you're kind of not, not, not playing that you're not a serious player inside of Trump world. That's number number one. But the, the, the other thing is the expectation that because you're a part of Trump world, all of these things are you would be willing to do all these things. And then if you suddenly refuse, then, then you get a kind of reputation as not really being a Trump world player. So you're kind of trapped trapped trapped in this. At the same time, you need the money. You know, Kimberly Gilfoil, one of the reasons ambassadorial posts are sort of divided between professionals in the state department and then, you know, campaign friends and donors and people who are really not, not, not necessarily have no qualifications for being ambassador, except that they can afford it because it's a very expensive job. You know, the state department is really under funding you and you succeed because you can, you know, I don't know, give, give great parties really. Well, you succeed because you can give great parties and you can maintain often the official residences. So if you think of Winfield House in the middle of Regents Park in London, which has been made famous by the diplomat, actually, I don't think they used Winfield House, but, but it's a fantastic house in the middle of the biggest private garden in London, outside of Buckingham Palace's private garden. But it requires enormous upkeep, similarly with the French Embassy in Paris, requires enormous upkeep. And so, and that's something that ambassadors, especially in those two particular positions, are sort of expected to do. And then they're expected to host parties and have friends round and be of social consequence. And I remember one or two ambassadors, one in particular in London, the, the American ambassador to the court of St James saying that he would go to Downing Street twice or three times a week to give the British Prime Minister advice on how to handle things. So it's a very interesting role. Who would that have been? Do you remember the ambassador? I do remember the ambassador, but I'm not, I'm not going to, I'm not going to. Because it's not necessarily, you know, like Woody Johnson was the ambassador of the court of St James during, during the first Trump administration. And I can guarantee you, no British Prime Minister would have taken advice from Woody Johnson, nor would he have had advice to give. Okay, this, this was a, but I bet they would have gone to the parties. I bet they would have gone to the parties that Winfield House that Woody Johnson was throwing. It was under a democratic president. Let me put it that way. Great. Another, so a question, which I don't think is answered in this Wall Street Journal piece or the last Wall Street Journal piece. Where did these emails come from? Do we know? Well, great question. So they've obviously been leaked from someone, probably a disgruntled staffer, right? But there are two things about them that are important. One is that Kimberly Gilfoil before her Senate confirmation for the post needed to pay off an Amex bill. So she asked Eric Dieter's to pay it off for her. She needed a hundred grand to pay off her Amex bill because she didn't want any debt going into the thing. And he appears to tease her a little bit in terms of what he will say he is going to offer her. And at one point, he writes her a letter saying I agree that, you know, we're going to pay you another $50,000 for your consulting, feel consulting. But then he says to her in another text, I'm not going to pay you $100,000 that would cost me a divorce. So at least Eric Dieter's wife is on the case here. Well, yeah, but does does that is the implication that he's having in the fair with Kimberly Gilfoil? Well, actually, it's interesting. I hadn't thought about that. You hadn't thought about that. I mean, if somebody says, you know, I can't give you money because you say to her, another woman, I can't give you money because then that, you know, that might cost my marriage. I don't know. Well, I was thinking that I have to explain to his wife why he'd written Kimberly Gilfoil a check for $100,000. But but maybe that's the implication. Yeah, that would only be seemed to me to be a problem. Otherwise, it's a business deal. I'm writing Kimberly Gilfoil a check because this is a this is a trend where we're in a transaction. She's going to get me. I'm in part of this was that she has promised him help with the IRS. I mean, so he's theoretically getting value. It turns out he doesn't get value because she doesn't do anything. I have no idea whether they're having a a any kind of romantic relationship, but certainly it does prompt the question in this these these set of emails. Yes, you're quite right. Why would his wife be particularly annoyed? Right. And where do the again, where do these emails come from? And if I have the fault these stories in the journal, it's it's, you know, we ought to have a sense of the context of this, which we don't. Okay. Okay. Well, here is what it is interesting. Well, even without the context, this is pretty juicy. Okay. It's definitely juicy. And he deeters. There's a section in the piece that talks about him facing his own legal issues. And in 2020, he was banned from entering a courthouse in Ohio's Hamilton County. I'm reading now after threatening on social media to burn it down. The Kentucky Bar Association twice suspended him citing aggressive litigation strategies, false statement in court proceedings and filing frivolous claims. And when the Kentucky Supreme Court was considering whether to reinstate him to the bar, Deeters announced members of the association as jokes of human excrement. And the chief justice wrote in 2021 in a ruling not to reinstate him. Deeters practice of law is not governed by constitution, rule of law, or procedure. It is anarchy. It is anarchy. So Deeters' response to that, of course, was these rules are written by big law to hurt people like me, screw them. I'm a legal outlaw, which perhaps led to his song Kentucky Outlaw, which he was paying Kimberly to get to Kid Rock, and which she couldn't deliver. And let me just widen this aperture a bit to see that a couple that number one, everything in the Trump administration is for sale. So you can, I mean, it's in sort of open, you know, the store is always open for a transaction. If you want a pardon, if you want, if you want introductions, if you want to have get in to see the president to, to, to try to convince him of something, although it won't, you that will be useless because he doesn't listen to you. But, but you, you might feel your advance in your cause. All of that is available to you if you pay. So this is, this is pay per play for everyone, really everybody in the administration. And, and everybody in the administration is spending a lot of time as Kimberly Gilfoyle is trying to figure out how they can get money, how you can, how you can, can create a league somewhat legal, somewhat acceptable context for taking this money. And also not leaving a paper trail that will hang you for taking this money. Well, what's so delicious about this piece is that it actually shows you part of the paper trail. And that's what's fascinating is it's not very often that you get the actual text from people trying to cover things up. So we've got a few more details here. Two days later, Dieta sends her a photo of a printed memo addressed to her. I have paid you $300,000 over the years he wrote. As of this memo, I have not received one favor. I am not naive or a sucker.
I need results. She says, stop papering all these things. It's really dangerous. Just call me on signal. As for, so she then calls someone to try and help him with the tax issues. Absolutely no go. And then she says, also very privately, if you write an email or a text about, I'm gonna kill you 'cause I love you, but you're so out of control. So I'm sure he is and just think about all of these people, having to deal with people giving them money because they want things, but not doing it in a proper way. Everybody becomes potentially exposed here. And then there's this other aspect of this that this is being done by people at ever more distant layers from the center of Trump world. So they're out there saying they can do things which they can't do. So they're taking money on completely fraudulent pretext. They cannot deliver. - Well, and again, just swinging this back full circle to Marco Rubio. Marco Rubio is then asked about this latest Wall Street Journal piece which has dropped towards the end of his visit. And he's like, well, first of all, he says suffice it to say, our embassy here is doing a great job. Our ambassador has been a strong ambassador. And then he's what in tabloid parlance, you would call monstered by the press on the tarmac as he's about to leave. And he's asked about it again. And he says, well, we're not going to litigate this here in the middle of a press conference. That's not how we do things. It's not the American way, which of course is exactly the way his boss does things. Frequently litigating and attacking and accusing and defending himself in press conferences. So Marco Rubio was well and truly docked by Kimberly Gillfoil in his effort to launch his campaign. - And it's an example that Marco Rubio has no game. He can't respond to this. He looks guilty. He looks, I mean, you can see the frustration on his face. He's probably the fury about Kimberly Gillfoil, the ludicrousness of Kimberly Gillfoil, which everyone knows why is Kimberly Gillfoil, the ambassador to Greece. It is not only because she was the girlfriend of the president's son, but because she was the jilted girlfriend of the president's son. That's her qualification to be jilted, to have been jilted. - Exactly, Trump wanted her out of the way. And if you Marco Rubio also learning that Kimberly Gillfoil got $300,000 for doing absolutely nothing, and this is just one example of someone that she was supposedly trying to help. So the well may be others. He may also be furious. I mean, Anthony Skyrimucci was talking about how, in fact, he predicted that Rubio wasn't going to run, that this was Rubio's moment to make money, that he's got four children. He's been in politics for a long time, and he's never made the money that he's now surrounded by, especially as Donald Trump is making a lot of money. So I'm sure for him, learning that she was making more than his Senate salary for doing absolutely nothing. - No, that's a misreading. He would have thought, he would have thought, oh my God, why is she taking pennies? I mean, this is. - Oh, interesting, okay, okay. - You know, you don't put yourself on the hook here for $300,000. I mean, that sounds like an enormous amount of money. To most people, I would like $300,000. But this is Donald Trump land. Everybody is Donald Trump land. This is Chuck Lane about Kimberly's low price. - Interesting, interesting. Well, Donald Trump seems to be distancing himself. - And Anthony, by the way, is not Anthony's way off the mark on this. This guy is running for president. This guy is only ever dreamed of being president. Not dreaming of his family. He's not dreaming of making money. He has one dream to be the president of the United States. Michael, you're so cynical. His dream is to save Western civilization and to lead us into the next century of Western thought. So Michael, two more advisers of Donald Trump have been caught advising, well, I think it's fair to say unsavory clients in Bosnia, Herzegovina, allies of Vladimir Putin. This is James Blair and Chrysler-Sovieta. And Donald Trump is now distancing himself from them. - Yeah, I'm not, I mean, this is what has happened in the Trump world. These are, these are finally Trump aligned politicians. As we were talking last week, the, it looks like another member of the Bolsonaro family, the Bolsonaro son will become the president of Brazil. And the Bolsonaro's have, have shelled out millions upon millions of dollars to Trump-related people, Trump advisers, Trump, Trump, a Trump political consultants. This is, this is the Trump people are aligned around the world with people who we would not consider the examples of democracy. - Not examples of democracy. Well, even Donald Trump is distancing himself from this particular maneuver because of the Putin connection. So, do we want to talk about specific Senate races? Do we want to talk about our friend Ken Paxdon, struggling down in Texas against James Telefrito? - I think at 25 days out, it's good to remind everybody where we are in this midterm race, which is shifting very quickly and now has shifted into, well, I mean, when we started to have this discussion about the midterms, the Senate was, I'd best to hope in a prayer, but it was a pretty, a pretty attenuated hope in a prayer. Now it's, it's right here. I mean, I don't think you, I mean, certainly, certainly control of the Senate is a toss up and day by day, it shifts more toward, even the possibility of the likelihood that the Democrats will take the Senate. I mean, that is big. You have seats in play that just didn't seem possible. I mean, including Ohio in Texas. - That's a struggling. - But it's not even just Ohio in Texas. And you have added Iowa in Kansas to this. Iowa in Kansas, in nobody's imagination, what would that have been possible? So you have a range of of Senate seats now. Alaska, Georgia, Maine, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, Iowa, Kansas, New Hampshire, actually New Hampshire, there's a couple of here, a couple of flips, which appeared to be flipping toward the, or held by Democrats now, appeared to be flipping to Republicans, but even that now is fading. So, New Hampshire, up until a couple of weeks ago, seemed suddenly iffy for the Democrats, again, now trending back to them. Every swing seat is now trending to the Democrats. - Yeah, and the cook report saying 43 seats are competitive and there's money going into 60 house districts. That's 43 house seats are really competitive and there's money going into 60 of them. And in North Carolina, where Roy Cooper is proving very popular as a Democratic candidate, more than $20 million has gone on to it. And the new factors that's now coming in against the Republicans is this outbreak of measles, a disease that had essentially disappeared from America. And there are now 40 separate outbreaks of measles throughout the country. I think they're. - But actually concentrate, the biggest part of the measles outbreak is in Pennsylvania. - Pennsylvania. - Pennsylvania is the state. - You know, I mean, essentially, you know, where as Pennsylvania goes, so goes the nation. If you win Pennsylvania, you will win the presidency. I mean, that's what it has been for the past number, number of races. And we now have a situation in which, I mean, obviously, obviously an outbreak of measles is not going to make the Republican party in RFK, Jr., another likely candidate for the Republican nomination, not going to make the Republican party more popular. - Right, five people have died.
from measles so far. And again, more cases of measles in the last year than there had, so we're only nine months in. Then there have been since 1990. Cumulatively, from 1990 to the beginning of this year, more cases than the last nine months. It's just shocking, shocking, abdication of responsibility by our Secretary of Health and Human Services, who actually loves to spend his time making cooking videos. And the only reason I advocate watching them, the recipes are fairly basic and the recipes are good is he is so peculiar. As a person, he's just so odd, and you see the chefs that he's working with who are trying to sort of hustle to make a meal that is affordable and easy for people who aren't used to home cooking. And it's a perfectly admirable thing to make a video like this, although not when there's outbreaks of measles in the country. You'd think he could be doing something else, but of course this is also part of his platform for 2028. If you watch it, you see how he has no ability to relate to the chef. And you see the chef the cooks or the chefs, this current most recent issue is someone called, I think she called the home produce mom. And it's actually a rather good one pot recipe, but what you see is her desperately trying to get a connection with him and completely unable to do it, as have the other chefs been too. And I can't help wondering if his focus on autism is something to do with his own lack of being able to connect with people. He doesn't have a sense of humor, he's not warm, he sort of speaks across them, there's no connection when they talk. And it dawned on me that that he has some social issues, which may not just be from the years. Well, let me, let me, let me suggest something else that he has some social media issues. Now, we're at a moment in time where every politician believes they have to have a social media game. That this is what it's about. Mom Donnie, you know, it is all in, are you, can you use the medium? And, you know, and the medium is not necessarily intuitive. I mean, these guys are very much used to a proscenium, a separation. They don't, they don't, I mean, Donald Trump can do this because he doesn't give a shit. I am what you see is what you get. You know, RFK junior is a, you know, is very protective of himself. First thing, he's, he's, you know, when, when you grow up as a someone named, named, named Kennedy, you grow up with a, with a kind of wall around yourself. And social media operates in exactly the opposite way. There's no wall, there's no pretense, there's no, there's no hiding. Here it is. This is what it is. Nobody's, nobody's prepping you for social media. That is a brilliant analysis of it. And you can see he's a 70, 73 at this point, 73 old man struggling with a medium, which actually you have managed fine. You've got a million followers on Instagram. You haven't had any issues with it. Here we are. We've got almost, well, we're almost 800,000 subscribers on YouTube alone. And yet RFK is so awkward in front of the YouTube camera. It's, you almost feel, you know, embarrassed for him. You feel embarrassed for him that he can't connect. I mean, it is a weird thing to suddenly have to have to be a part of. I mean, I found it everywhere. I think what am I doing here? But I don't have anything, you know, I don't know what, I have no pretense here. It's just like whatever, whatever it is, it is. But that's not what he feels. He feels I have to be something particular. I have to be a candidate. I have to have a message. I have to do all of those things that you're that you've been prepped to do over all of these decades, which are essentially related to television. I am a person who can go on meet the press. I'm not a person who can just, you know, you know, show up and pretend to be comfortable in the kitchen because I look incredibly awkward. Whatever we do on social media. Well, the other person that we've talked about before, who also looks incredibly awkward in front of a camera. And I just wish she would be allowed to give it up. And you've said, you think this is her advice. It's saying you need to be out there more. We need to be out there more. It's poor Usha Vance with her story time with the second lady. This time she has Gary Player, the golf on. And I can only think that that's because their oldest son is learning to golf. And there was that whole incident. You remember where JD Vance security team leaked details of him trying to use the VP's helicopter to fly his son over the DC traffic for a golf lesson, which I think eventually he didn't end up doing. So I'm assuming they're trying to build up their golfing connections. But, you know, last time it was to do Brian. Let me interrupt. Do we know the JD Vance play golf? I'm sure he plays golf. I don't know, but I'm assuming he plays golf. Certainly, the son is learning to play golf. But why would Usha have Gary Player? And that's Donald Trump had suggested it. But I guess the completely random. This is aimed at children. Anyway, last time I looked, it had barely scraped 2000 views. And I want to just go back to this. I'm interested in this JD Vance thing if he's a golfer. I mean, it doesn't sound like, you know, you grow up poor in Appalachia or wherever, you know, everybody's addicted to drugs and you're also a country club member. I mean, I'm sure you can learn golf as an adult. Most people in business, let's not forget he he works in finance for a bit. Those guys on the West Coast play golf, though not as much as the guys in the East Coast. Yeah, I'm surprised, surprised at this. But anyway, we should find out because that would be interesting. If he said out, I got to play golf because that's how you get close to Donald Trump. And if I play golf, my kid is going to play golf. Let's play golf. He does play golf. JD Vance does play golf. In fact, he recounts in hillbilly allergy that he tried out for the school's varsity golf team and didn't get in. But he played at Turnberry in Scotland during his family holiday. Remember when he went to the UK last year, he played at Turnberry. He does play a little bit of golf. He does add that to his resume. I wonder if that say if Donald Trump has so tainted the game of golf for in a political context that that will be a kind of a slur. He's a golfer. He's a golfer. He's a golfer. Remember Lindsay Graham was, wasn't he Donald Trump's most frequent golfing buddy? They played golf over 154 times, I think. No, no, who was Steve? You know the answer to this. His most frequent golf buddy is Steve Whitcoff, his soul, his soul qualifications for negotiating the fate of the world. He was a forceful member. Michael, do you play golf? Never once in my life, which is too bad because you're surrounded by beautiful golf courses in the Hamptons. Yeah, I suppose I am. I mean, we're surprised to surround, but we have surrounded by more water than that and I do fish. Okay, you fish and you swim, you fish and you swim. All right, Michael, what we haven't discussed and we are going to discuss in more depth on Saturday, but I just want to draw people's attention to it because he was in San Diego this week is Pete Hegseth. I really think the only reason he wanted this job is so he could get fit and he could just have someone shouting at him all day to, you know, to buff up. I mean, he was in San Diego working out with the military and, you know, the war is going wrong. George Bush fired Donald Remp's fault, who was his secretary of defense when he lost, when he got shellacked in his midterms and the war in Iraq was going really badly. Do we think that Hegseth is vulnerable here? Well, we think that he's vulnerable. We think that everybody around Donald Trump is vulnerable because Donald Trump is capricious and, um, and, um, and a blamer. So everyone ought to be, but on the other hand, as we, we know when the press calls for everybody's head and they will call for everybody's head, um, after, uh, as soon as the midterms happen, Donald Trump doesn't do what the press wants him to do, even though that might be the best thing for Donald Trump. Let's double down on that subject because he is, you know, I, I mean, I mean, the central, the central crisis, the political crisis for Donald Trump and the crisis for the world is the war in Iran. A war that is being in many ways, um, uh, the, uh, the director.
directed by Pete Hakeseth of all people, Colonel Vodka, as Roger Ailes would frequently call. Colonel Vodka. Okay, Michael, I will look forward to seeing you on Saturday. Who knows if Donald Trump will be back on the front pages if people in London will be talking about him again, but we will always be inside his head and we'll be back on Saturday. And I will see you then, Joanna Coles. Big thanks to our production team, Ryan Murray, John Romero, Rachel Passe, Heather Pissaro, and Neil Rosenhouse. 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.
PodcastTranscript AI