This Is How Trump Staged His Own Political Funeral

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The call to action, please subscribe to the Daily Beast podcast. Just smash the subscription button wherever you get your podcasts. Apple, Spotify, where else is there? Oh, YouTube, YouTube, wherever you get your podcasts. And you can become a special member of the Daily Beast community. You can join in our live conversations when the podcast drop. And you get extra content and exclusive content and content early. Listen to that. All you have to remember to do is remind her and she goes on our CTA. Brilliant, brilliant. And we should remind people that inside Trump's head will be live at the Terra Graham ballroom, our own ballroom, Michael in Los Angeles, on October the 20th. And if you would like to get tickets and come and join us, possibly even meters, go to beast.pub/ithlive. That's beast.pub/ithlive. Treat yourself to a trip to Los Angeles and come and meet me and Michael. Yeah, no, and we're good live. I mean, we are really good. I mean, we're good here. But doing it live is really fun. I find it fun anyway. Yeah, it's totally fun. And you see all our flubs. But also, it's the run up to the midterms, so it's going to be very on point. And we'll have the latest info from the White House on what level of panic they are at. Are they at Defcon 2 or 5 or Defcon 1? I don't know the difference between 1 and 5. I'm not sure which is most serious. It's Defcon 1, most serious. Yes, it is most serious. Okay, so we'll give you a sense of that. But I'm very much looking forward to it, to being in LA and talking to people and getting people's questions too. No, and I feel that live, I say things that I'm really not supposed to say. Help, I'm helpless. So come. Our poor lawyer has probably got his head in his hands as he speaks. But Michael, what a weekend. What else should one do this weekend, but play golf in County Claire in Ireland at Dune bag. So we're going to be talking about Trump's golfing weekend. And happily he's accompanied by not the first lady, but the human printer. We're going to talk about Trump falling asleep at Memorial. I just want to interject there because I'm going to forget to say it otherwise. But I think it's important as a background that Trump presidency. That prior to the presidency, he never went to Europe except to go to his golf courses. Of course, of course, well, why would he, why would he? So we're going to talk about him falling asleep at the Memorial and signs of unfortunate signs of droopy mouth about you. May remember a year ago, the right side of his mouth was drooping. And we have some photos of that we want to show people because it doesn't look great. Then I thought, I thought Melania looked a little droopy too beside him. I mean, they seem to have. Yes. Yeah, I think they had sort of mirroring droops. So we're going to talk about mirroring droopy mouth and Melania's outfit. What's she saying now in her business clothes? What's she, what's she saying to people? And then, of course, we're going to talk about Trump loser. JD Vance versus the absent Marco Rubio versus RFK Jr. Who gave her a very interesting speech. And then Ted Cruz, who's emerging and saying, not so fast, the Cruz is back. So I'm emerging as a funny word to apply to Ted Cruz, I think. Because he's always that sort of thing that he's coming. He's unexpectedly rising or unexpectedly inserting himself. He is always there. He is the perpetual Republican loser. The perpetual Republican loser. And roundly humiliated by Trump, especially when Trump went after his wife Heidi in such an unpleasant way. But Cruz came crawling back. And then when after his father too, remember he keeps his father of killing JFK. Well, and RFK used JFK in his speech to win over the crowd and show that he could, you know, attract the mega audience once Trump has gone. And you have always maintained that he was going to run as president. And I just thought, well, there's no way in hell that's going to work. And then his speech at the mini convention. Or as, as Pod Save America put it, Donnie does Dallas, which I thought was pretty good. Was was actually pretty good. I felt it got undercover. Because JFK Jr's speech because JD Vance got cheers of 48, 48. But actually, I think RFK Jr is the one to watch. No, you're your, your modifier, no way in hell. No way in hell basically defines American politics at this point in time. If you say no way in hell, there it is. There it will be. Okay, so a lot to get to, but fascinating news from Dunebeg, some light investigation unveils that Trump is trying to build another ballroom in Dunebeg in Dunebeg where he bought a golf course out of financial difficulties in 2014. He's there to play this weekend and he had some diplomatic meetings this morning. And I hope we can show the photo because Natalie Harp is greeting people at one of the diplomatic meetings. I have seen this many times before. She's not only always the greeter, but she is the person who people in the know try to greet first. I mean, she, she is, I mean, that's in, it's a, it's a mark of her importance. So let me say hi to Natalie. Oh, oh, there's Natalie. I mean, I, I can't really express and I don't think people understand how pivotal she is in her role as the president's, you know, chief person. Well, she's chief person in Dunebeg as we speak and it's possible that environmentalists are trying to novel. Natalie, because there is resistance to the ballroom because of the narrow mouthed world snail who it's apparently an endangered species of tiny snail, these things are very small. But is this a particular Irish species, do you think it's very possible? I mean, the narrow mouth world snail, it sounds specifically Irish, doesn't it? Anyway, they're an endangered species expansion of the premises at Dunebeg may threaten them, endanger them. And so there are protests about the expansion of the facilities, something that will be familiar to him. The ballroom dilemma, the ballroom dilemma. So from Tying Off in Dunebeg, he was dozing off at the memorial at the Pentagon for 9/11. Well, I'm just trying to, trying to see him in the, the, always the context of Trump at an event as a, as a spectator or as a listener is problematic. He can not listen. I mean, he, there's something about it. He just shuts down at this, at this point. He has no capacity, and I put it this way that he, and this is actually Steve Bannon used to say that he has no capacity to absorb information. So therefore, he reacts. And I think, I think then I'm going to shut my eyes, my, or my eyes are just going around. reflexively shot, because I can't listen to someone else. - Well, it seemed in particularly bad taste, but what it did give photographers the opportunity to do was study his face. And if you look at the photos, and I know we're showing some here, it's very clear that his droopy mouth, which was in evidence last year, is back. I wonder if he's had, I mean, droopy mouth is unfortunately often an indication of some kind of stroke or stroke-like activity. And he really didn't look well. His cancels are back, he looked swollen, he was dosing in plain sight, and we can go onto Malania in the moment and the end. - Well, there's a lot of this. You know, when, I mean, I spent a lot of time looking at this at Trump's face in repose, let's call it. During his trial, so that was six, I think seven weeks of him sitting there forced to listen, forced by law to listen. This was a criminal trial, he had to be there. And the cameras in then, so there was always a camera on his face that you couldn't see people outside the courtroom couldn't see, but people inside the courtroom, everybody was focused on this, because he couldn't rouse himself to, just it's obviously an inability to put on an expression of attentiveness. - Mm-hmm. - So, and you could just see over the course of, like the morning, he would slide into, where I don't know, wherever he went, wherever he went in his own mind. Clearly, he was not there anymore, though. - Did he keep his eyes open in the court? And not always. - Not always. - Right, 'cause I remember there were accusations that he was falling asleep at his own trial. - Yeah, and I'm not sure he ever was kind of, that it was so much falling asleep is just, it's just a kind of retreat. - Is it possible he was meditating? - Yes, very possible, Joanna. - I would say that that's top of the list, yes. And he was considering the cosmic nature of his position in the world, definitely. - Definitely, definitely meditating. And then what did we think of Melania, who came out of hiding for a public? Well, what did she come out for because she's not gone to Dunebag with him? - No, I'm sure this is one of those things. And they put these things on the calendar. These are negotiated long and advanced. So everyone knew 9/11 would be a thing. And then she only, they have to parse these things. When do we need her? What is this moment? We can't have her at all moments. We can't have her at most moments. We end every moment that we have, that we can get her has to be a significant moment. That's, you know, when would, when, at what point would it look most, most glaring if she's not there? Now, there are those points, but this is the point that most glaring, and I've probably 9/11 was one of those logical moments. She really, we really, really need her there. Well, she turned up, and she was wearing a suit, a pant suit, she's very much favoring the pant suit now, as opposed to certainly any kind of short dress. And the way she dresses, and actually Nell Scavelle pointed this out to me, who's the writer for the beast, the way she dresses now is in stark contrast to how Natalie dresses. So Natalie's in bright pastels, short skirts, hair up, Melania's hair, she's basically hiding inside her hair, which is, I think we've talked about before, but it's gone blonder at the sides and darker at the roots. So she's gone blonder and darker at the same time. And as she looked furious, though perhaps that was just a sort of solemnity at having to be at such a solemn event as the 25th anniversary of that. Do you think that was Melania doing solemn? What do you think it was? I think it was Melania, the usual Melania, why am I here? I cannot stand being here. How much more time do I have to spend here? And if that wretched creature gets one more inch closer to me, I'm going to scream. Interesting. Well, yes. So I also thought her dressing, I wondered if her dressing, and we've talked about this before, as her dressing as armour against Trump, but it really seems marked now that she's actually wearing an outfit that Hillary Clinton made famous, the Pantsuit for women or certainly made famous in politics. And here she is in what feels like a business suit and it feels like she's just saying stay away from me. It's as if she's sort of like this. Stay away. And of course, she would be aware that his first wife, Ivana, in her divorce papers, said Trump raped her. And we're going to be talking later on today about the E. Jean Carroll movie, which is finally coming out viewers and listeners to this podcast. We'll at last be able to see it in about a month's time on all the usual platforms. And you just think Melania must know what he's capable of. And I think the moment where he was attacking Rachel Scott this week and his face came forward in the sheer aggression, which normally he keeps somewhat repressed was out in full. And you just think, God, he's a really scary guy. Not too repressed. No, not too repressed, but there was a sort of. I think his approach to Rachel Scott, the ABC reporter this week, who asked him about the $5,000. He was like, no, no, not you. Not you. And his whole face kind of lunged forward at her. And you just thought, if you're a Melania, what a nightmare to have to deal with this. Yeah, well, it is. And I think markedly the new Manish Melania. The new Manish Melania. So he didn't look well. He looked markedly better, of course, when he was center of attention for two days in Dallas, his mini RNC, what were your takeaways from it? Well, the first takeaway is that this is. I mean, this was the politically the most counterproductive thing that he could possibly do. Let's. In the middle of a midterm in which his lack of popularity is the key issue. Let's stage an event that reminds people, not only of him, but have how unpopular he is. And it was kind of extraordinary in innumerable ways, not least of all the denial. All of these problems of which every Republican who is running for office this year has to deal with the war affordability foremost among them. He is denying those are not problems. As a matter of fact, those are benefits. We should be running on those things. So what the Republican Party got out of this, the Republican Party got nothing out of this. Donald Trump, on the other hand, I think he got what he always wants out of this. I am the center of attention. There is no Republican Party without me. I am the person who channels the hopes and dreams and passions of this central core of the Republican Party. A minority yet, a minority that's not going to get anyone necessarily elected, certainly nothing ex-president, but nevertheless, that has a lock on the Republican Party, this mega core. I am their person. I am their president. So I think he accomplished all of that. What that, as I say, what that gets, the Republican Party, I don't know. But in addition to that, it suddenly gave a platform to the people who are going to be running to replace him. And I wonder if actually he realized that because the one thing that is going to, as we go past the midterms into the final two years of this presidency, the one thing that is going to most be devil him is the idea that someone, someone in his party, would actually want to and believe they can replace him. - So I don't, I mean, I'm wondering what's in his head as he started to see this and before that, most among among the people trying to replace him is his vice president, which is and and I thought there were several curious moves on JD's part this week, a kind of a kind of JD Jiu Jitsu, if you will JD Jitsu, yes, in which he was both embracing the president and gaining distance from him if not scorning him. Okay, so say say more about that. Well, I think you know, I mean, this is JD, I understanding from from from JD's point of view, JD Vance, desperately, desperately, I don't I don't think we can in human terms begin to understand the level of of of desperation and desire in need here on the part of JD, the most cravenly pathologically ambitious person in America. So he wants to be so getting to be the president of the United States for JD, he has gotten you know and he is he has reached that point, the closest point you can get to being the president of the United States. And but now he has to seal the deal and he has to seal the deal by getting first getting the the nomination of his party, and the nomination of his party is going to be primarily, well, I was going to say it was primarily based on his allegiance to Donald Trump, but I'm not even sure of it if that's true. I think there's going to be a lot of currents. But among the things is there is he is going to need to project that allegiance to Donald Trump. At the same time, he has got to get gain distance from Donald Trump. Donald Trump again, the least popular president in modern times. And that popularity, I think we can wager is going to go down from here on in and not up. So there was an example of this. So there was a long piece in in the New York Times this this week in which in which the premise of this of this piece is that JD Vance was the one person in the White House, certainly not Donald Trump, who was reaching out to the generals, the the the people essentially on the front line of of this war in Iran to find out what was going on. So implicitly here you had said the White House does not know what's going on in the war in Iran. So I JD Vance is going to take it on myself upon myself to try to figure it out. And I am going to contact the people who probably have the most information about about about this war. So I'm a totally so that he's positioning himself. I'm the opposite of Donald Trump, Mr attention deficit, Mr light on details, Mr you can't tell me anything. Instead, I JD Vance and going to be the person who is going to listen, seek out information, find the details, learn about what's really going on. Now does Donald Trump appreciate the the the level of this discs, not necessarily because at the same time, JD Vance is at the many Republican, Republican convention, the minicon. And saying Donald Trump is the greatest person in the history of of not just the presidency, but of the entire history it seemed. Right. And when he walked off the stage, he was getting chance of 48, 48 IE he's going to be the 48 president. I wanted to read a paragraph from the New York Times piece because you can feel the JD Vance machinery going on behind the scenes here. So he says Mr Vance, so this is a piece by Jonathan Swan and Maggie Haberman, Mr Vance has developed a reputation inside the Trump administration for steeping himself in operational detail. So to your point, something we know Trump has zero interest. I just want to just a slight parentheses here point that that Haberman Swan are the authors of the New York Times book about the second Trump presidency regime change. And what you can read there is is in this article would say that one of the sources on regime change is JD Vance. So this is repayment. Okay. All right. So Mr Vance has developed a reputation inside the Trump administration for steeping himself in operational detail habit that some officials admire and others regard as too much in the weeds where Mr Trump works in a way that leaves even his aides guessing how he arrived at decisions. Mr Vance obsessively tracks the daily minutiae, including military operations, the internal dynamics of the Iranian political system and the sourcing of intelligence assessments. John Rackl, if the CIA director who we've talked about before who went to Russia recently has given him direct access to agency analyst. Mr Vance knows some of them by first name and calls their desk to ask about raw intelligence or items in his morning briefing intelligence official set. Now we know that Donald Trump the last thing he wants is his morning briefing. He knows everything. He doesn't need a briefing. He's smarter than the briefers. But that felt very clearly team Vance at work. Oh yeah. Let me just interrupt just that that interesting note that people around him don't know how Trump comes to a decision. Okay, that's that's not true. And both Haberman and Swan know that that's not true. People absolutely know how he comes to a decision. He just he just he comes to it spontaneously. He just makes a decision. It is based on scant information. I mean, I don't know even that suggestion that there must be a way that there must be some logic behind these these decisions. Some method is not true and they know it's true and they know it's not true and everyone around Trump knows it's not true. Everybody knows he just he's just he just decides. He just you know, it is all gut a gut call on Trump's part. Well and actually in another piece what was fascinating was today a caller and I guess we've always known this but how a astonished Trump has been by the resilience of the Iranians. He assumed that they would within a few days of the initial bombing give up. People would rise up from the street and he can't believe that they haven't done it and he can't believe that we've run out of munitions. But there was another person I think who's irritated. I thought there was another line in that paragraph. I just read about some people think JD Vance is two in the weeds. I bet one of those people is Hegseth and Hegseth is now having to to get the Office of Naval Intelligence to write Vance daily reports. I don't think so. Okay. I think I think that's a that's one of those those we're protecting our flank. We've now have to say something something the contrary position to how virtuous JD is. So we're going to say that in a way which actually confirms his virtue. So we're going to say some people think he's two in the weeds. Well in this white house to for anyone to be in the weeds. That's like oh my god finally somebody you know in the weeds you mean he's detail oriented. That's what you're saying here. So that's a compliment so that they've just they've they gave the main compliment and then they and then they took and then they recast the hedge as also a compliment. Well it struck me as one of the it's a bit like that question when you go for a job interview and they say and tell me about your faults and people say I'm a perfectionist I work too hard. Exactly exactly. So and this is a thing and this isn't. So Swan and Haberman who are setting need to set themselves up to cover JD vans in his campaign. So they are now curing favor for the future for their and for their career futures. But what I also thought it read was that JD vans had come in over the top of Pete Hegseth because we know that Pete Hegseth isn't doing a good job here and as privately said he thinks the war is going to continue and he must be irritated that General Kane is sending vans previews of US strikes and essentially coming in over the top of the Secretary of Forever Wars. No I think and and absolutely the other thing that that Vance is saying is I'm opposed to this war. I mean I was opposed to this war in the beginning. which that article says repeats constantly. Well, and the book says regime change makes it very clear JD Vance was the one who didn't want the war. Exactly. And so this is reconfirming, okay, I didn't want the war, but now I'm taking responsibility and I am finding out what's going on. And clearly, I am finding out what's going on about the war and I am finding out that it is going terribly, which confirms my original opinion. So anyway, this is the JD machine is now gearing up and we're going to see this. This is, you know, it will formally, it's planned formally, we'll launch on the day after the midterms, but clearly it's getting into position now. Yeah, no, no, it's clearly cranking now. And then the question is, how does Trump undermine it? Because as you say, what's going to be going on inside Trump's head at the idea of a successor emerging to him? Because that's not what he wants to talk. Right. And now just let me repeat my position because I really think it's the context in which in which to, in the only context in which that you can see this, the idea that someone might fill the, a Republican might, might become president and overshadow Donald Trump would be the tragedy of his life. Therefore, it's not going to happen. Oh, that's such a good line that would be the tragedy of his life in a, in a way that actually, for Rupert Murdoch, who always wanted to make an American president, he did make an American president, the tragedy is it was Donald Trump. Yes. Trump is going to, the Donald Trump presidency is going to continue. If not in the White House, because I don't think he's figured out how to pull that one off. But therefore it will continue in Mar-a-Lago. He will be the president in exile with billions of dollars at his disposal to finance this administration in exile. And of course, Gryft Force One, the Katari Airplane, which we forgot to mention that hilarious moment, what a metaphor, you immediately texted it to me when it happened. The emergency shoots are suddenly going off. I mean, could you have a better metaphor than Gryft Force One is delayed taking Donald Trump to Dallas for his mini RNC con because the emergency shoot goes off and you think down the emergency shoot is coming, all these Republican politicians who don't want to be anywhere near the RNC. During the campaign, the emergency shoot went off and this was some, some, you know, poor engineer or technician did something wrong. The shoot went off and that person was immediately fired on the spot and again, it is the grand tragedy of his life would be if he was replaced by another Republican. But the small tragedies all have to do with the airplane. Nothing makes him crazier than when things go wrong with his airplane. Well, I can understand that having spent the day on the tarmac, a Heathrow on Tuesday, I can understand the frustration with transport when planes don't work. It's really a point with private transport. Well, sadly not. I was a Heathrow flying back Virgin and the entire of Heathrow was close, actually, it was really problematic. Anyway, I got back on Wednesday, but let's also talk then, as you say, if the RNC or if Trump unwittingly gave his successors a platform to display their wares for 2028, RFK Junior, I mean, you've always maintained he was going to run and I've always thought partly his voice, his voice is just so unfortunate to listen to and I know you say it's a crack power in my voice. Other people say that he's got something wrong with his throat. I thought that was disqualifying, but in fact, I thought he gave a very compelling speech and he invoked his father, he invoked his uncle, obviously JFK and he said, you know, I attended my first DNC when I was, when I was six years old. No, and I've said, I mean, he is, our RFK has a, is in person is, can be very powerfully and he's very articulate, he's, he speaks incredibly well, he's, he's smart, RFK is smart. The problem with RFK is that he is a liar and a fantasist and a propagandist and it is all, he would do anything. He would literally do anything to do so. So JD Vance may be the most ambitious, cravingly, ambitious person in America. But RFK, it's a different kind of, kind of ambition. I mean, if first thing, it was so quiescent for so long because he was out of it. He was a, he was a drug addict and he was, so many things disqualified him from ever hoping to be what he is, what he believes he is destined to be. So it's a different kind of, he really believes that there is this destiny which he has to reclaim and to do anything to reclaim it. And he, and he rediscovered this, I mean, he, he, he, this was, this was discovered really in, in, you know, 2020, when did he start to run 2022 and, and, you know, the background of this is, is, is interesting because so RFK as a political creature, a national political creature exists because of Steve Bannon and Roger Stone. So they went to him and said, you should, you should run your, for all kinds of reasons, but, but they're real, they're real, they're real agenda here was to get him to run as a Democrat and to shame Joe Biden, so to weaken Joe Biden. And then RFK, finding out that he could do this and clearly relishing it and his numbers were very good on the, you know, running as a Democrat, I'm, you know, approaching, you know, 15% coming on 20%, this is that, those are big numbers for an insurgent candidate. And so having a taste of that, but then understanding that he was not going to be able to run past the, past the, the primaries and the convention, then he decided, no, I'm going to run as an, as an independent, as a third party candidate. And suddenly that gave him all kinds of power because he, because he was taking votes from the Republicans as well as the Democrats. Okay. So we have a clip and I, I like to say we watched the RNC so people didn't have to let's play a particular clip of our FK talking to the crowd. The day the President Trump was shot in Butler, Pennsylvania, within three hours of his shooting, he called me and asked me for a meeting. And during the series of talks that followed, I realized that everything that I heard about President Trump and everything that I believed about him from the mainstream media was alive, everything. Wow. President Trump called him within three hours of being shot at Butler, Pennsylvania. Um, okay. That's interesting because that means that if, if that is true and, and nothing that RFK says is necessarily true, that means that Trump was not hurt, Trump was not wounded. Um, I mean, just let's, let's use our, we can all use our human experience. Um, if you've just been shot, if someone has just tried to murder you, you were not on the phone three hours later, having a, um, a significant, in fact, a, a, a pivotal political conversation. You're not talking to anybody. Um, and in fact, let me go over, I, you know, I know something about the timeline here. Um, he gets, he gets shot. He is taken to the, um, um, he's taken to the, to the hospital, um, they want to run a variety of tests, um, you know, do a cat scan, do a brain scan. He doesn't want that. Um, so I don't exactly know how long that lasts, but is it, let's, let's assume that's tonight. trivial. Um, um, then he has to get to, um, somewhere else, he's going back to. Is he going back to Bedminster? Um, yes, he's going back to Bedminster. So I, I don't know where this, this, this conversation even, even could happen in that three hour time period. But clearly, if it did happen, it means that Trump is, is okay. I mean, his Trump is that, I mean, and many people have said that this, that his wound was a, um, you know, I mean, essentially he got, he got, you know, some, some fragment of something hit his ear and it was a minor at best. Um, so I, I don't know what's confirmed here, but, but, but, clearly, what is being said here calls into question lots of things. It, uh, RFK's truthfulness, the president's, the president's wound after the assassination. Um, the, and then, and then in general, what RFK goes on to, goes on to say that Donald Trump is the, um, uh, you know, everything that he, what, what does he say? Everything he's heard about Donald Trump is, is alive from the mainstream media. So let's go on and hear a little further clip about what he says about Donald Trump. I discovered myself a phasing man of superior intelligence, of empathy and compassion with an encyclopedia grasp of the issues and within, in molecular detail. And most of all, a near reckless courage to challenge vested interests and official orthodoxies. I found a man who cared deeply about transparency in government, who believed in protecting free speech more than anything and the entire United States Constitution. I mean, I, a couple of things, just, just the, just, just, just the background here on, on RFK, RFK is not only a person who has, who has, um, a, a, a, a, a, situously, um, told the American people that vaccines that we know are effective are not, are not only not effective, but dangerous. So he is a person quite capable of absolutely either inventing his own reality or, or challenging reality in, in a way that has, is opportunistic for him. That number one, and let's just remind people that measles has made a resurgence in the two years that he's been health and human services secretary. We've had more cases of measles this year than we had in the first 24 years of this century. Number two, he's capable of writing an entire book, which he has, defending his, uh, his, uh, his cousin, uh, his scatle cousin, who has been, um, accused of and convicted of murdering his neighbor, um, a, uh, as close as you can get to an open and shut case, nevertheless, RFK can write this, write this, this book, um, exonerating his cousin. And let me say that he does it very well. I read this book. I thought, oh my god, Michael's cake, he'll might be innocent, which is not possible. Uh, and this is the death of Martha Moxley, who was over the head in a terrible, terrible, uh, frenzied attack with the golf club. Yes. So the, and then, so let's go back to Donald Trump is a man of, uh, of great humility and, and self-effacing, no, self-effacing. No, there, there is, there, there, there was, there was, there was during the campaign, a leak of a, uh, recorded conversation. The Trump people were really, really pissed off about this. A recorded conversation between, between RFK junior, uh, still junior at 72 coming on 73, um, and, um, and Donald Trump in which I, I could do the conversation. It's Trump motor mouthing, blah, blah, blah, blah, in RFK, uh, the self-effacing Donald Trump motor mouthing and RFK going, this is RFK lines where he go, uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh. Now, the further background to this is that, so RFK is running as an independent. He is taking votes pretty much an equal number of votes, both from the Democrats and the Republicans. He goes to first to the Democrats and offers himself. I will drop out if you will, um, uh, if you will give me, uh, a high position, um, the, you know, the, the, the, I mean, uh, uh, likely the same position he got from the, from the Trump, the HHS secretary position. Uh, the Democrats say no way are we doing that. Subsequently to that, Joe Biden drops out. Kamala Harris becomes the, the, the, the candidate, and, and that group of, of Democrats who indicated that they would, that they didn't like the anti-biden Democrats who would vote for, for, for Kennedy, um, left, uh, they, they all go back to, um, to Kamala Harris. So suddenly he's only taking votes from the Republicans, which means that the Republicans have to do a deal. They're panicked about, about this. And, um, and that's his point of leverage. So the point of leverage in which he suddenly realizes, so this point in which he suddenly realizes that Donald Trump, everything the media has said about Donald Trump is, um, converges with the moment in which Donald Trump actually offers him the job of HHS secretary. And I will say that everybody within the Trump circle thought, you know, because Trump is always offering people, people jobs, um, that this was just one of those things and that the job would be. And that, they were all appalled when, in fact, he, RFK junior actually got the job. There's another, so that, I find that really sort of, it's just fascinating how expedient politicians are. So he's first up for the Democrats, they reject him, so he goes over to Trump. The other thing I find particularly interesting about him, which I think is less known, is that he was actually financed by, uh, an ex-wife of Sergei Brin, one of the co-founders of Google. Now, Nicole Shanahan is, you know, she claims she's an AI expert. She studied at law school. She's a very interesting character. She marries Sergei Brin after meeting him at her, I think, at her bachelor at weekend party, she goes for a sort of spa weekend with girls. Sergei Brin, co-founder of Google or Alphabet, is at the same yoga retreat. They connect, she then gets married 27 days into her marriage. Her husband discovers that she's been having some sort of relationship with Sergei Brin. She gets divorced and she takes the Toyota Prius. She gets the Toyota Prius in the divorce and that's kind of it. Then marries Sergei Brin and then incredibly has a relationship with Elon Musk, which then tears the two men apart, their friends. And she makes off, because Sergei Brin's like, okay, we're done here. She makes off with a billion dollars in Google stock, which has only continued to go up. So R.F.K. Jr. chooses her to be his VP candidate, and she finances him, and so he's financed with her divorce settlement. I mean, it's a remarkable turn of events. And of course, he's married to Cheryl Hines, who I'm sure can totally envisage herself as first lady, because she essentially played first lady to Larry David on curb your enthusiasm. No, so this is, so this is, you just have to see this all in the in the in the course of this very abbreviated political career. So this all happens to R.F.K. Jr. post 2022, we're only in 2026. So this is a four year political career preceded by just years in years in years of him doing a pretty much not very much and being a being high for a good period of this of this of this time. So yeah, so he is now he is, I mean, if he pulls this off yet, and this, you know, we're in no way in health territory, Which means, you know, yeah, this is a real possibility. I've never thought of him as a serious contender until I watched his speech, and I was like, "Oh wow, he really is charismatic. This is a well-written speech." Well, let's look at this to be named Kennedy, a Kennedy heir, and to be willing to do anything. I mean, anything, there is nothing, stop at nothing, to do to get what he wants. The most amoral president who, the most amoral human being, next to only Donald Trump. I mean, J.D. Vance, maybe as ambitious, more ambitious, as I say, the most ambitious, but still I think you could say, you can somehow see some morality or grasping for morality. I mean, he wrote a whole book about this, which is not, I mean, there is a genuine element to J.D. Vance's trying to at least justify a kind of morality. That doesn't exist for Bobby Kennedy, June. Well, and also he's just such a character in the way that Trump is a character with a remarkable past and three wives, RFK, you know, as a wife who died by suicide, claims that his brain was attacked by a brain worm, actually by a worm, had a strange digital relationship with the journalist, Olivia Newtsy, who'd been profiling him, and numerous other journalists, numerous other relationships which he has in self-enumerated. Right. Well, his sex diary that has been written about ad nauseam, he's wrestling with Catholicism, so he has that in common with J.D. Vance, but just it's remarkable. And I suddenly understood what you were talking about. He commanded the stage in a really compelling way. I mean, J.D. Vance is going to have to really think about how he knocks him out, I think. And the beginning of the speech was all about his uncle, J.F.K., it was all about his father and how they would never recognize the contemporary Democratic Party, which polices, you know, how people taught. And he was very compelling the way he laid out his arguments. Right. And just to be he is one member of a rather vast family who would take that position about their forebears. And the rest of his family has tried to make it as clear as possible that he has been thrown out of the Kennedy family and legacy. Right. So the other person that spoke that also has presidential ambitions and is clearly also possibly a match in terms of ambition for J.D. Vance is Ted Cruz, who will not give up his desire to run for president. He got completely elbowed out by Donald Trump in 2016, but he's back. He will always be back and he will never be president. Why won't he be president? Not least of all because he is, I mean, J.D. Vance may be the most ambitious man, but Ted Cruz is the most disliked man. There is nobody, nobody who likes Ted Cruz. Nobody who likes Ted Cruz. Well, Mrs. Cruz probably likes Ted Cruz, right, Heidi, who was so meanly. I don't know why. Which is why I will say fair point. Yes. Fair point, especially after Donald Trump distanced and was so mean about her appearance. And then Ted Cruz came calling back to Donald Trump. Exactly. But can we, I want to talk about this because it's on my mind because I just saw it. Yes. This E.G. Carol documentary. Yes. Let's talk about it. Which I thought was fantastic. I mean, really, first thing, it was, it was enormously entertaining to see. It's a, it's a great story. E.G. Carol is a great story, which you forget. She's been reduced just to this, to this person who had a sad and unfortunate interaction with Donald Trump, but she's a great character prior to that. And then on the other side of that. And I, this, when, what, what are the details? Well, let me just, yeah, let me just set it up because we've talked about the documentary a little bit before because I saw it probably a few months ago, a premiered at Telluride. It got very limited theatrical release because I think distributors were anxious politically about it. And it's incredibly compelling as a documentary. And in a month's time, it's due out to be rented, for rent on all the regular platforms, so Amazon, Apple, etc. You can still rent it ahead of that. If you want to do joint, you know, if you want to do a screening at home or have someone, it's on something called Kinema.com, k-i-n-e-m-a.com, but, but she is so compelling as a character. I mean, she's fascinating to what she's wonderful on the camera, she's funny, she's self-deprecating, she's super smart. And of course, she had no idea what she was getting into. When in 2019, she decided to, to out herself as having been abused by Donald Trump in a changing room and burnt off Goodman. So there are three really interesting things about this. The fact that this actually happened to her and then she came forward. The fact that this was so difficult, I mean, this was difficult for her and she became a kind of, kind of anathema lost, lost her job, your, your former employer, the HRS corporation, and what could possibly have been going through their heads, except those are incredibly stupid people over there. They fired her after she made this accusation against, against Donald Trump. And then she, and then she persevered. So the perseverance is extraordinary. Right. And then the winning. Okay, I just want to highlight the firing because she'd been writing a column for 25 years for Elle magazine. It was called Ask E-Gene. She had a television series that was based on it too, Ask E-Gene. And it was a remarkable decision for a magazine that has built itself as an empowerment of female magazine. This is Elle magazine. Yeah, Elle magazine, sorry. And then they, and then they fired her. Yeah. So they fired her. So she makes the, she writes, she comes forward, describes what happened to her with, with, with, with Trump. And at that point, Elle magazine and the HRS corporation fire her. And then they say that the firing has nothing to do with the fact the, these accusations that she made. What goes through people's heads? Are these, I mean, I know the people at the, I know everybody at the, um, um, at the upper level of the HRS corporation, you yourself were there. And this, you had left several years before this, um, um, and, uh, you know, these are, you know, all, I mean, people I know quite well and, I am, and I socialize with them. And I guess I've never, it's never been a question to me. And I've always assumed that they were, in fact, as gutless and, as, um, um, um, and, like, it's just, just, uh, I think, I think they made what they thought at the time, though I think it was a miscalculation, uh, a business decision that they didn't want to ruffle anybody's feathers. The president. Yeah. Well, that's called, that's called gutless. Yeah. I understand. That's not called the business decision. It's called a gutless decision. Actually, the business decision would have been to support her. And I think that would have been probably a very, um, um, well, given who that audience is. Very profitable business business decision. I mean, I would, this is just gutless. Yeah. I would have doubled pages. Yes. They should have been. Yes. He would have doubled to pages driven into the audience, which is young women who are largely Democrat, who really didn't like Trump and was sick of men praying on them. And the other fascinating thing, and Nelska Val pointed this out was that she had written a piece for spy magazine, Graydon Carter and Kurt Anderson's magazine that started, um, I guess 40 years ago, because they're about to have their 40th anniversary. But she had written a piece, uh, in the spy about places to have a quickie in New York. And one of the places she had suggested was the changing rooms at Berkdorf Goodman because they had doors. You could lock. they had plush cars. carpets, and you know, it was a central location. And of course, at the time, Trump owned the plaza hotel, which is next door to Birddorf Goodman. And what I've found most compelling about the documentary is how E. Jean explains how the assault took place. He runs into Trump. She's coming out. He's going into Birddorf Goodman. He goes, oh, you're the advice lady because he recognizes her from television. They have a conversation. It's kind of flirtatious. He says I'm looking for a gift. Takes her up to the lingerie floor. And then the next thing you know, they're in a changing room and she's like, what's happening? And then it's all over and she manages to kick him off and get him out and off of her. But once you hear how it happened or how she says it happens, because he still denies any of this, you understand it in a way that I don't think you do before you hear her say it. Yeah, absolutely. And I didn't. And I've always been, you know, and Trump has gone around saying, hey, she's not my type, which is then disputed in the course of the trial because he misidentifies her, a picture of E. Jean, as Marla Maples, his former wife. Incredible. One would assume is his type. But, but in then there's a lot of, a lot of, has always been a lot of discussion. And the people around Trump will confirm this that she was at this point 50, you know, 50 years old or something, something like that. So, and Trump is only interested in young women. So, and, and you know, people say these things and you start to think, well, yeah, that probably is kind of true. But then she explains this and then you hear it and you thought, yes, that's of course it could happen exactly like that. Yes, he may be interested in young, young women and models, but he's interested in every opportunity. Here was an opportunity that presented itself. And, and then even on her part, you can see, she's thinking, I mean, she's a journalist, she's thinking this is going to be a good story. And, and Don, I meet Donald Trump in, in, in, in, in Burgdorf's. And even up into that point where he's got her in the dressing room. And it seems like, and you can see the, you know, and I especially can, that sense of, okay, I can, I can write this. And then it goes all, hey, why are you in? Well, I think the moment you've just described where he misidentifies her as Marlon Maples is fascinating because you can see the lawyer, Robbie Kaplan, barely able to believe he's just done that because in misidentifying her, he undermines his entire case that she wasn't his type. And the photo is really very clear. She looks identical to Marlon Maples. And then when he's confronted with his mistake, he goes, oh, well, the photo's kind of blurry. It's blurry. You can see the photo. The photo is incredibly clear. And he identifies everybody else in the photo correctly. Anyway, it's a, it's a remarkable documentary. She's a fascinating character. And she, she's also, I think, she seems to be incredibly honest about the toll it's taken on her. I mean, she talks about how her face changes over, you know, just ages with the pressure of it, the incredible hostility she gets online, the threat that she gets, the fact she has to get security. And just the toll the whole thing has taken. And when Robbie Kaplan, her lawyer reminds her that she's going to face Trump in the courtroom. She says she has almost a complete breakdown. She can't speak. She, she, you know, it takes her several hours to process the fact that she's going to face him. And it's a, it's a completely fascinating dog. And then there's just this, this other part of this, which this is another clear representation of how much, how, how, how Trump has intimidated the media at so many levels. So, so they, they couldn't get this documentary distributed. They made this documentary. They financed this doc, this is an independently financed documentary, a group called Impact Partners, which does a lot of documentaries, but independently finances them. And then, you know, traditionally, you go to film festivals and, and then distributors, you make a deal with distributors. They, and hopefully, you get a bidding war going. And this was one of the premiere films at Tell Your Ride two years ago, I believe. And, and they got nothing. Nobody wanted to touch this. And this has been true about every, no, they're filmed. The apprentice had a similar experience. You couldn't get, people are just saying, no, you know, this is, well, you know, we're, you know, big companies. Why, why would we want to antagonize the Trump administration like that? And this is finally, I mean, they've, they've gone in a, a, you know, a really circuitous work around of getting this distributed outside shown in theaters. And then, and then it's gone to video on demand. So, you know, and I mean, people are saying, well, it's, it's, you know, you know, they're not afraid. They're showing this, this, they're now showing this, this film. But it actually is a, a, a clear divide between distributors picking up a film, financing, financing the film, making a financial commitment to the film, making it promotional and putting their imprimatur on it. In other words, they are sort of like the publisher at that point. But VOD means that they're kind of just like the newsstand, you know, they'll, they'll put anything. I mean, I mean, you, you pay a fee for it and, and they collect their little fee, but they, but they have no real direct involvement with the product itself. Well, it will be available on Apple. It will be available on Amazon, where I guess it will sit alongside the Melania documentary. And I guess they're going to mark it along the lines, marked it along the lines of, you know, the documentary, Donald Trump doesn't want you to see. Yeah, but they won't be. They'll be very little marketing money for it. So, um, so watch it. Yeah. So watch it. All right, Michael, we'll be back on Tuesday, back inside Trump's head, and have a wonderful rest of your weekend. And don't forget, book your tickets to come and see us live in L.A. at the Teorogram Ballroom. And it's beast.pub/ithlive. October 20th, where Michael will be unfiltered. Big thanks to our production team, Ryan Murray, John Romero, Rachel Passo, Heather Passollo, and Neil Rosenhouse. So the good news is we have so many bee beast tier members now. There are too many names to read out and we really appreciate your support.