This Is Why Cry-Baby Trump Is in Terminal Tantrum

0:00Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile. I don't know if you knew this, but anyone can get the same premium wireless for$15 a month plan that I've been enjoying. It's not just for celebrities, so do like I did and have one of your assistant's assistants switch you to Mint Mobile today. I'm told it's super easy to do at mintmobile.com slash switch. Upfront payment of$45 for three-month plan equivalent to$15 per month required. Intro rate first three months only, then full price plan options available. Taxes and fees extra. See full terms at mintmobile.com. When you spend enough time around great companies, you notice that the best ones treat trust as a growth strategy, not a box to check.

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1:24Who is my enemy? Let me vilify my enemy. So I have to, and he's in an awkward position here. These are the people he appointed. These are the people he appointed because of their conservative beliefs. So now they are turning against him. It's pathetic, of course. It's intellectually pathetic. But from his point of view, it is the thing. It is, this is what he's bringing to the MAGA core. You like conflict? I like conflict. Look, everybody's having a good time here.

1:59Michael. Joanna. Are you looking forward to our trip to Los Angeles where we're going to be live on October the 20th at the Terragram Bullroom? Well, you know, I never look forward to any trips. I do look forward to a live audience. I like an audience. I like a live audience, too. What can I say? Well, it's going to be fun. If you're in LA or you need a trip to LA or you just want to hear us live, come head to the beast.pub slash ithlive. That's beast.pub slash ithlive to grab your ticket. Or you can go to Ticketmaster and I suppose you type in Inside Trump's Head. Terragram Ballroom, LA, October the 20th.

2:50Be there or don't be there. Where is the Terragram Ballroom? Do we know? It's in downtown Los Angeles, Michael. Downtown. Downtown. Don't do that. Really, really don't do that. Petula Clark. Yeah, I know who it is. Downtown. Come on. All right. Michael, we'll be live. Mitch McConnell is also live. mitch mcconnell ruled into the senate yesterday aged 84 looking half the size he was before and and this isn't about age really because you have bernie at 84 who's never seemed more youthful and who will be talking i just want to go back to the to the to your your conspiracy the daily beast conspiracy about poor mitch um and it turned out not to be true poor mitch was just ailing, seriously ailing.

3:48But he was everything that he said, everything the Mitch camp said was the situation turned out to be. He just was in bad shape. We have no idea because he wasn't allowed to be filmed speaking. And he said almost nothing. He said in a hushed whisper, he was looking forward to some votes. And then he was wheeled the way, didn't take questions. So you think that he's just a body being wheeled out and casting votes by an unseen hand? What I think is he is too old and infirm to be a working senator, and the people of Kentucky deserve better. I completely agree with that. But I'm just going back to the conspiracy that you previously propounded.

4:40It didn't look like Mitch McConnell yesterday, given his wheeling out to an audience. It didn't look like he could have a conversation. He didn't want to take questions. The conspiracy continues. Okay, we'll see. Well, sometimes things are happening right in front of us and we see them and we call them. And Mitch McConnell did not look well. Okay, just to establish the record here, You're calling the conspiracy, Mitch is just a body that has been wheeled out. No, I'm not saying he's just a body. Of an unseen hand. I'm not saying he's just a body. I'm saying I thought it was really weird that his aides didn't allow any journalist to film him speaking.

5:28Okay. Whereas we can film you speaking. Perhaps not. Perhaps I am AI. You are many things, Michael, but you are definitely not AI. Even AI couldn't. AI Michael Wolff. But we are obviously going to talk about Trump's response. What's going on inside Trump's head to the whole AI freak out this week? And Trump's answer, obviously, that the only thing that AI needs is a smart president. And how lucky that we have him. We're also going to be talking about the Supreme Court's pushback on Trump's attempts to rein in mail-in voting. It's fine. If you have a mail-in ballot, you're allowed to send it. In fact, send it ASAP.

6:18We're going to talk about Trump's revenge on the climate. Will it ever be safe to breathe American air? Now he's threatening Oman. And I would like to throw in the New Yorker piece on Jared Kushner. Which I haven't read. Well, you need to set aside an afternoon to read it because it's very long, but it is an appalling indictment of Jared Kushner and how he basically has reduced American diplomacy to his business strategy. An appalling indictment of Jared Kushner. That seems like not a new story. Not a new story, but it's a detailed story. And it's basically Jared going around the Middle East, shaking his affinity partners, begging bowl and demanding more investment.

7:12And as someone said, until he started that, the only thing he'd invested in was his 401k. let's do also the kennedy center this is a story that i'm really um taken with let's start with the trump social because it was a um um well if not a work of art a work of trump it was a work of trump it was 500 words basically his response to scotus uh deciding that mail-in voting could go ahead, just as it has done. Should I read some of it? Because people may not. It's just dropped, actually. So it's possible that not everybody's read it. Okay. I know my Trump impression is not very good. It isn't. It isn't very good.

8:05All right. So I won't do it. All right. Republicans just got another bad decision from the United States Supreme Court, one that the court system took forever to give and then blamed it in part on no time left to implement a solution to our totally corrupt and out of control mail-in voting disaster, which is a laughingstock all over the world and where we are the only country that has to endure such a nation-destroying scam. That's the first sentence. And just remember, just said this, that this court is his court. This is the court that he has appointed more justices to this court than any president in the last three terms, I believe.

8:47But go on. It's a big loss for Republicans and America itself. It makes cheating by the radical left Democrats on ballot ballots a much easier thing to do. And now they have an open field to do so. The Supreme Court has really let our country down, exclamation point. Certain justices are petrified of these crazed and depraved Democrats and are totally unable to show the courage necessary to save our America. That would be the three justices that he appointed, Kavanaugh, Gorsuch and Amy Comey Barrett. Their horrible decision on tariffs will be costing the USA for many years to come trillions and trillions of dollars.

9:29They didn't even state money paid does not have to be paid back, much to the benefit of entities that truly hate our country and have been ripping it off for years, unnecessarily costing us immediately billions of dollars. And then I'm just going to read one more line. Likewise, the Supreme Court's decision on birthright citizenship is a complete and total disaster for America and has already led to massive corruption with respect to citizenship in our country. It's just this broad horizon of all things, of all things that the court has done, of all things that Trump wants. I want, I want, I want, I want.

10:08But let me give you, I can give you the background to this, to how this, a post of this length comes together. Okay, give me the background. So he's saying, he said, I'm going to do a, I'm going to do a, let's do a post about, about, about the court. The court is all fucked up. Let's go and get them, blah, blah. and then he says and let's include and then somebody has to write somebody else is writing the the bullet points well isn't it naturally harp give me a line it could be natalie harp it could be dan scavino it could be it could there could be any number of of contributors to this um but a long he can't write a long post like this so let's learn 500 words he cannot write okay so So therefore, it's that you do the OK.

10:58And then he'll say throw in birthright citizenship and then somebody will give him will give him the line on that. So this is all Trump. Trump saying, OK, I mean, this is the thing that he always looks for. This is the conflict. Here is today's conflict. We'll go after the court. We'll accuse him of doing of doing everything. Today, the court is the enemy. So and it's he's personifying. So it isn't the the issue at hand, which is mail in voting in that and which would require a complicated explanation. It's the court. The court is at fault. A new season is always a good excuse to upgrade your routine.

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12:31You can save on customer favourites like the iRestore Elite Helmet and the Illumina Face Mask. Just head to iRestore.com and use code BEAST. That's beast at irastore.com. Please support our show and tell them we sent you. Give your hair and skin the upgrade they deserve so you can feel confident and refreshed. So what does he mean when he says, he says here a little bit later on, this Supreme Court is bullied and cajoled by the radical left into making decisions that have set America back at least 100 years. These are not the people I interviewed to serve on the United States Supreme Court. They are merely a shell of their original selves.

13:14What is he talking about? What does he think has happened to them? Is he blaming John Roberts here? How have they gone from being these people that he interviewed to, you know, empty casks? There is no logic here. The logic is only the conflict. Who is my enemy? Let me vilify my enemy. So I have to. And he's in an awkward position here. These are the people he appointed. These are the people he appointed because of their conservative beliefs. These are the Federalist Society people. All of this thing. So now they are turning against him. So what does that mean? Well, it just means that we will have to come up with a rationale for why they are not the people I appointed.

14:03This is all. Well, but I mean, surely they must be sort of very weak people if they've been manipulated by the radical left. At the end, he says, it's not easy for me to write this criticism of the United States Supreme Court. It will likely cost me dearly for years to come. But I feel it my obligation and duty as president to do so for the America we love. This is it's extraordinary. But also, this is part of this is this is campaign stuff. So they only have one issue in the midterms, the radical left, the democratic socialists, all that is their their singular issue. So it's how to get that into everything.

14:43Repetition, repetition, repetition. Put it in here. Make that the issue. But this really, truly seems pathetic. As you say, he's put three justices on the court. It's a conservative court and somehow they've been hijacked by the radical left. I mean, it's pathetic, of course. It's intellectually pathetic. But for what Trump is doing, it's identifying a conflict and having him stand up. Now, this is not going to get him Democratic votes, certainly, and not independent votes. But from his point of view, it is the thing. This is what he's bringing to the MAGA core. I am standing up for, I am the guy.

15:31I am here. These are our enemies together. And also, you like the conflict. You like conflict. I like conflict. Everybody's having a good time here. Well, you know where they're not having a good time? The Kennedy Center. That is not a good outcome. I mean, it's not a surprising outcome. Well, it's totally, I mean, this is extraordinary. So 18 months ago, you had a thriving enterprise. Trump comes along and - Are you talking about America or are you talking about - No, I'm talking about the Kennedy Center. Right, right. I know you are. The Kennedy Center, okay. 18 months ago, before Trump becomes the president for the second time, the Kennedy Center is a thriving cultural institution.

16:21It pays for itself. It sells a lot of tickets. Everything is as it has been for the last many decades. Trump comes along 18 months later. It's it's on the edge of bankruptcy with Trump essentially saying, if you don't give me what I want, I'm going to kill the place. So so you kind of I mean, you have that perfect Trump metaphor. What he takes, he breaks what he can't have. He wants more of. I mean, and go back. I mean, the what happened here is Trump becomes the president of the United States. He scuttles the board, the Kennedy board as it exists. He installs his stooges and then demands that they vote to change the name of the Kennedy Center to acknowledge him.

17:25This means that the performers and the audience beat a retreat, meaning that the financial viability of the Kennedy Center is suddenly under threat. The court then says, no, Congress made the Kennedy Center the official memorial to John F. Kennedy. You can't put your name on it. Take it off, which is theoretically has been done, although it's still behind a curtain. Trump then says, no, you have to put you have to find a way to put my name on the Kennedy Center. And if you don't, I will not help you raise the money that you need to cover the deficit caused by the fact that I demanded you put my name on the Kennedy Center.

18:24so uh this is kind of pure trump um he fucks things up and then he fucks them up even more and because of his rage petulance and you know um really i want what i want abusive power Everything he touches turns to shit. Yeah. And so the Kennedy Center joins a pile of things that Trump has been involved with that end in bankruptcy. Trump steaks, Trump water, Trump university, Trump champagne, all of it. I mean, and also his name will go on the building, but as the help in terms of renovated and refurbished by Donald Trump. Well, even that, that's up. It's not clear that he can do that either. I mean, that's what he's now insisting on.

19:24You have to find a way to put my name on the building. And if you... Well, they could put bankrupted by Donald Trump. Well, apparently the court has said his name can't appear any place on the building. So this is a problem. But the interesting thing is that it's in financial extremists because of Trump. And Trump is now saying, I'm the only one who can get you out of this financial extremist. So what do you think happens? You know, I think I bet that Kennedy Center will close. I mean, I think that I mean, this is all this is this is this is Trump. And just just think about about Trump. This is this is if I don't get what I want, I take my marbles home.

20:14Um, uh, that's, you know, he's the petulance here, the crybaby nature of this, this phenomenal lack of, of, well, maturity of, of, of course, but this is all richie rich behavior. It's just, it's remarkable. And so the national orchestra has no home. there's nowhere for people to play on a large stage in Washington. It's just incredible. The country's sort of foremost art center. And also the other thing is it's a memorial to a slain president. Yeah, yeah. No, no. This ought to be all. I mean, one of the things here, and this is particularly Trumpian, all that is obvious. and yet he is willing to diss it.

21:12He is willing to challenge it. He is willing. So the fundamental logic of this, the logic that there is a thriving art center that reflects well on the nation's capital that has been named after the slain president. Nevertheless, Trump can wave it away and demand that it be remade in his own image. What? I mean, even, I think I'm pretty well grounded in what's inside Trump's head, but this is even a leap for me to understand. Yeah, well, Well, except it's this baby. You know, it is the baby thing. You can't understand it because it is like a child. Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile. I don't know if you knew this, but anyone can get the same premium wireless for$15 a month plan that I've been enjoying.

22:15It's not just for celebrities. So do like I did and have one of your assistant's assistants switch you to Mint Mobile today. I'm told it's super easy to do at mintmobile.com slash switch.

22:36He is like a child and it's possible that he's getting worse. That, you know, the look that Mary Trump, his niece, says she can see in his eyes is the look that his father had when he was beginning to get dementia. I mean, you saw it, you know, he was sleeping through the 9-11 memorial. I mean, yes, it's very possible. But I think that almost gives him an out. That's an explanation. And the truer explanation is he's a fucking asshole, you know, and he doesn't care. So it's rage, it's petulance, and it's I can do anything I want. So that's not dementia. That's Donald Trump. Okay, that's not dementia.

23:19That's Donald Trump. I don't know which is worse, actually, a president with dementia or Donald Trump doing Donald Trump. All right. So the other thing that he went sort of furious about was AI. Your friend Steve Bannon is meeting with Bernie Sanders today to talk about AI. And Bernie Sanders, you've got to hand it to him at 84. You wrote this a few months ago, but Bernie Sanders is still a very relevant voice anyway. Okay. But let me just say that both Bernie Sanders, and this can be said about many, many people in this AI debate, about the entire debate, but particularly Bernie Sanders and Steve Bannon know nothing about AI.

24:07I mean, they're both kind of famously computer phobic. um they are they they they know nothing they could not explain to you what ai does how it works what are the implications of how it works nothing um but i mean i mean let's not single them out this is true about everyone and in fact i find it true about the leaders of the leading ai industry of the leading AI companies. The Frontier Labs. Yes. When they start to explain this to you, you think, what the fuck are they talking about? This doesn't make any sense at all. It is remarkable that the leaders of the AI companies aren't able to articulate the real benefits of AI.

24:56They keep saying, oh, it's incredible. It's incredible. All we know is that it's going to help medically because it can, you know, AI at its basic is just pattern recognition, right, at scale and at enormous speed. Yeah, I mean, you can sort of get that. And we sort of, you know, many of us use AI and we see the certain, the kind of extraordinary benefits that it can return a, you know, a fairly articulate sentence. But then this other thing, remember, we've moved on. The AI is now going to destroy the world. A 10 % chance, a 30 % chance. What are they, A, what are they talking about? And B, tell me how.

25:40You have not told me how the AI is going to destroy the world. I think it's to do with paperclips that if you tell an AI bot, you know, that you make paperclips, it will make paperclips until it's killed everybody. I mean, it's sort of ludicrous. I couldn't agree more. I don't understand that leap. It will make paper clips until it kills everyone, which was this was actually in the New York Times story without the New York Times being able to say what the devil that means. And that is also true because the media who is covering this story, they don't know. They can't explain AI. And the ultimately, though, the one person who really can't explain AI.

26:24I know what you're going to say. And who is the pivotal voice now in this debate is Donald Trump. Is Donald Trump. So he said yesterday, there is a sick conspiracy going on against AI and data centers. And the only one that is happy about this is China. Whoever wins AI wins. We are leading China and all others and will continue to do so. Conspiracy theorists, treasonists, traitors and leakers, beware. I mean, it's the very CEOs and founders of these companies who are saying, if you're not careful, AI is going to kill you, i.e. we're going to kill you because we're the founders of these companies that have created these things.

27:04Even, I mean, the weird thing for me is the way they keep distancing themselves from the product they are making. So they're like, well, it's got away from us. It's AI. AI is going to kill us. Dudes, you're the guys who are responsible for this. If you were a car manufacturer, if you were a plane manufacturer, you would be responsible. So why are they behaving as if they're not responsible? I mean, let's go. And the China thing is interesting because this is a case that you've argued. Well, I mean, who benefits from this? China does benefit from this. This is always the canard. We have to build, we have to get more weapons because Russia has more weapons.

27:47We have to do this because China does it. All of this stuff historically has turned out not to be true. And to set up that straw man, we have to do this because they are going to do it. They have the same problems as we do, or they have more problems than we do. And so suddenly setting them up as an exemplar of what should happen and what is going to happen is a logical fallacy of the worst kind. I think your bigger point is that nobody understands how to talk about this. And sure as hell, Mitch McConnell being wheeled into the Senate is not someone who's on top of this either. I have no confidence that our elected representatives, for the most part, can talk about this stuff, let alone regulate it.

28:35I mean, here's another view that leaders of the – so, I mean, we have a couple of things here. The world economy is now highly dependent on AI growth. So and that's that's probably that's not only a vulnerability and a weakness, it's almost an inevitability that that will that there that that will collapse or that there will be serious problems there, which will bring down the economy, which will bring down, obviously, the value of these A.I. companies. I thought you were going to say it brings down actually more than that. I mean, it brings down politicians. It brings down everything with it.

29:22But from the AI company's view, you know, all of the leaders of this industry, they're kind of thinking, oh, my God, you know, we're looking at this. The demand is really not there. The costs are exceeding what we thought of. So so we're going to be in a problem. Our shares are our share price is going to face problems when we start to see significantly lower growth. So here's a solution. We're going to say lower growth is good. I mean, this is all at every level, obviously, a scam because people who are running this debate, who are unable to explain exactly the terms of what they're talking about and of this debate, all have a financial interest in this, including Donald Trump.

30:13There was a hilarious interview, actually, with Dario Amadei, the co-founder of Vanthropic yesterday with Anderson Cooper. And Anderson Cooper just looked bewildered throughout because Amadei was really not making very much sense at all. He's spoken long, ridiculous cliches about how we have to manage this and we have to temper growth. And then he would say things like we need good policies, not bad policies. And we have to create good policies, not bad policies. And you look, man, what are you saying? You have no idea what you're saying. Let's look at these people, him, Elon Musk, Sam Altman.

30:50First thing, these are people so rich, so rich that they are far removed from the humanity that they seem about to destroy. Well, there was one moment as well in the Anderson Cooper interview where he asked him about regulation and should open AI. And everybody's talking about this thing that I think Scott Galloway started. It's about whether or not AI should actually be owned by the government. should you have technology as powerful as this in private company hands. And that's what Anderson Cooper asked Dario Amadei, who's worth$15 billion, who said, well, that's not for me. That's someone above my pay grade.

31:33And you're like, what are you talking? Who is above that pay grade? No one in government is above that pay grade. OK, these are all of these people, Elon, Samuels, Dario, what's his name, are exceedingly peculiar people.

32:16offer first three months only, then full price plan options available. Taxes and fees extra. See MintMobile.com. And they're all men. They're all men. They're all men of roughly the same age. And on top of that, they are profoundly inarticulate. So therefore, this is the fix we're in. I don't think the fix is necessarily a technology fix. The fix is that we, is a very human fix. These are people who we should not be trusting. These are people who should not really be leading this debate about this technology. The problem is that other people outside of these companies and this technology can't lead the debate because they don't understand the technology.

32:59So what happens? We all end up dead in 10 years. Yeah, I don't know. It's insane. It's very, very strange. There's a famous story by the science fiction writer Ray Bradbury. I think it's called something like Dial 00, written in the early, I think the early 60s, late 50s, in which he posits that a spontaneous life form is created in the telephone lines. and I mean this is this is sort of interesting because among the reasons this is interesting is because this story seemed no one can find this story this is just sort of the rumors about about this story but and I don't know I don't really have a point here except for the fact that life was not created spontaneously within the telephone lines and the telephone business itself went out of business effectively.

34:00So we're in that one of the thing. What is the future here? And I think one of the things that you can say safely about the future is that no one predicts it accurately. No one predicts it accurately. That is a good thing to say. And also, these AI companies demanding to be regulated, why can't they regulate themselves? Well, companies don't particularly regulate themselves. I mean, and I think it is. That's the job of politicians. But it's a problem because politicians don't understand this. And the thing that politicians, the last thing that politicians want to do and the last thing the media wants to do is look stupid.

34:44But they are stupid. it. Agree, except that if your product, if you yourself as the CEO and co-founder of these companies is saying it might kill everybody in 10 years, you would think you would want to self-regulate. I mean, you might welcome external regulation, but you would think I need to get on top of this. Otherwise, I've got a product out there. I mean, you couldn't do this with a food. You couldn't have a farm where one in 10 people died of eating your product. You would have to self-regulate. Otherwise, you'd be closed down. Yeah. I mean, let's go back to Donald Trump, who has inserted himself as a key figure in this, and Donald Trump, who himself has a vested financial interest in this.

35:35Well, as John Ossoff said, he's thoroughly compromised. Yeah, on a personal level, he has a financial interest, but also on the interest that if AI goes, if there are the more questions that are raised about AI means that the slower the growth will be, which will impact on the economy and he will be blamed. So he needs this. He needs AI growth to continue for the next two years. After that, I'm sure he doesn't give a shit. Well, I'm sure he doesn't give a shit anyway, as long as he continues to get rich. And you know who's benefiting from this? You know, who's looking sensible? You know, who looks like the leader that we want?

36:16Back to Mark Carney in Canada, who said on Monday that he favored the creation of a global technology stability body to oversee AI. There's a need for coordination, Mr. Carney said. Ultimately, a technology stability board, in our views, along the lines of the financial stability board, would make sense. That sounds scary, too. Sounds less scary than leaving these guys in charge. This is a natural segue into climate change and Donald Trump saying that again, two things, that again claiming climate change is a total hoax and the dismantling of essentially all of the progress that has been made against climate change.

37:05in the last 20 years. So, you know, I mean, actually, this is probably significantly more serious than the AI debate, which remains theoretical. This remains, the climate issue remains, is a present and immediate issue. And not only is Donald Trump not helping to solve it, But Donald Trump is making it worse, which is to say back to he he fucks things up and then fucks them up even more. Right. And what he's actually done here is he raised limits on climate pollution from power centers, from power plants. Yes. And so and and again, this is that kind of thing. This is this is I want what I want.

37:59And the whole the point here is is has nothing little to do with climate change, which, again, Donald Trump does not understand. certainly has not spent the time trying to figure out what is true and what is not about climate change. Rather, he is opposed to the people who favor climate change. Therefore, he will undo the progress that they have made. So they lose, he wins. But again, nothing to do with the fundamental issue. Do you think he's now unraveling? I mean, he hit the ground running faster than any president we can think of at the beginning of Trump too. He had Project 2025 all laid out.

38:51He had his people in place. Every single one of his policies appears to have backfired on him. Is he conscious of that, do you think? Or does he just lurch from moment to moment, as we've discussed, not really concerned about everything flailing around him? Yeah. Yes. Obviously, he lurches from moment to moment. But all of these things, and in fact, and in fact, you know, Project 25, I think that's inaccurate to say that that was, that that was his plan. That was a plan by people around Trump, which he was happy to have them ultimately try to implement because first thing, it's a level of detail that he couldn't be less interested in.

39:40He can't be interested in. And it also sets up, again, it's the nature of the conflict. Climate change. He doesn't care about climate change. He cares about opposing the people who are in favor of climate change. So it is, again, this is he thrives on conflict. He exists on it. He benefits from it. He embodies it. So right now, not only, you know, I don't know, the idea of Trump melting down confuses me because he's always in a process of melting down because melting down is more conflict. It's more emotion. It's more him being at the center of attention. That's what you, when a child melts down, the child is at the center of attention.

40:39That's what the child wants. That's what Donald Trump wants. So there is a strategy here, although I'm, of course, reluctant to use the word strategy. But there is something at the core of this that Donald Trump understands. There is a method to his madness, essentially. I know what I can do here to get attention, to make people not be able to look away from me, to make this all about me. I am the performer, and I know how to command an audience. Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile, with a message for everyone paying big wireless way too much. Please, for the love of everything good in this world, stop.

41:31With Mint, you can get premium wireless for just$15 a month. Of course, if you enjoy overpaying, no judgments, but that's weird. Okay, one judgment. Anyway, give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch. Upfront payment of$45 for three-month plan, equivalent to$15 per month required. Intro rate first three months only, then full price plan options available. Taxes and fees extra. See full terms at mintmobile.com. So do you think there was conflict between him and Don Jr. when it emerged that Umar Klemlev, a companion of Vladimir Putin, turns out to have paid for a large part of the celebration of Don Jr.'s marriage to Bettina Anderson.

42:13Although I think, as Don Jr. put it, our friend, Omer. His friend, very generous friend. And Bettina said, sometimes there's no motive behind a very, very generous gift of several hundred thousand dollars when your husband is the uh oldest son of the yeah i don't it's a it's a good this is a good question i mean a really interesting thing does does uh trump himself would have been perfectly understanding of this i mean he did take the uh the airplane right But he is resentful when his kids do the same thing. So it was described to me, for instance, when Trump moved back to Mar-a-Lago after his defeat in 2020 and after he left office in January 2021, moved back to Mar-a-Lago.

43:16and the family followed him to Mar-a-Lago. And Don Jr. bought a house for$10 million in Palm Beach. And so a screaming match was described to me between Trump and his son, with Trump demanding to know, where did you get that money? You don't have that money. Where did that money come from? And again, this was cast not as the fact that Don Jr. did something that Trump wouldn't have done, but that Don Jr. somehow went around his back to get this money. So I think that this is probably what the – there will be another screaming match about the wedding after party. The after party. Right, the after party.

44:14Yes, it was a sort of cockamamie Instagram post by Bettina saying, yes, this is true. They're responding to excellent reporting in ProPublica that broke the story about Kremlev's very generous hand on his checkbook. Bettina then came out very quickly. Obviously, I'm assuming with the knowledge of the White House, but perhaps not saying, yes, yes, he paid. But actually, it was all a bit strange. We were all meeting up anyway, and it was a party, but then it turned into an after party, but it was a wedding gift. So it was strange logic there. But apparently he paid for the hiring of the Bahamian Islands.

44:52I think that's how you say Bahamas Islands. And the firework display. And then she released... That old fireworks display. Which you are the only person who, like me, finds fireworks boring. And as you once said to me, like, is it the finale? when's the finale? Can this be the finale? I agree. Why don't they just go straight to the finale with fireworks? Because there's always 15 minutes of throat clearing before you finally get to the Big Bang. And she then released 20 photographs of the wedding, which I must admit, I pored over actually. It also looked like Don Jr. was wearing kind of linen pajamas.

45:32It wasn't a very good look for him. I was intrigued, nevertheless, and I entreat anybody listening or watching us. If you have information on this, apparently Don Jr. had a chin treatment, a chin straightening treatment. So I didn't know if he'd actually broken his jaw and had it reset or whether or not it was a kind of thermage type treatment where you have lights that flash into your skin to boost collagen, which gives you a tightening effect. And how do we know this? I miss this, I must confess. Well, I think it was in the main piece, the ProPublica piece, that he had a chin tightening treatment.

46:11So he had this for the wedding, for his marriage. He had it for the wedding, for the photos, because everything's about the Instagram photos. You know, you're an Instagram star. Everything's about the gram. And there were lots of pictures. Can I just say one more thing? There were just lots of pictures, and I've noticed this now as a guest of occasional weddings, that the force with which the bride has to smile with her mouth open as if caught mid-laugh for the photos. It's all about the photos and the ground and the showing off. And we should at least do a little tip of the hat to Kimberly Guilfoyle in Greece.

46:50I feel bad for her. Why? Do you think she's the one that tipped people off about the wedding being paid for by the Russians? Oh, very good. Well, there's a theory. There was speculation on X yesterday that that might have come from Kimberley. And I thought, what an interesting theory. Yeah, no, we should definitely run with that. I mean, someone leaks that story, right? Someone leaks the fact that Kremler, Omar Kremler, friend of Putin, paid for the wedding. Yeah, no, absolutely. But what we will hear, that Trump's response with this, we're going to go, I mean, he's going to be pissed at Don Jr., but he will then go back, revert to the Russian hoax.

47:36This is again the Russian hoax. Democrats trying to pin Russia, which, I mean, I don't see how you, So what better example could there be that Vladimir Putin's friend is sporting Don Jr. to an after party? Right. And also, I mean, he can say it's a Russian hoax, but Bettina fessed up to it very quickly. Bettina, a graduate of your old alma mater, Colombia. But nevertheless, the Russian hoax will mean not that the Russians didn't do this, but the hoax is that Donald Trump and the Trump family is being connected in any way to Putin and Russia in a way that might compromise their— Please don't say integrity.

48:35There. Well, I was looking for a word that, yes, exactly. You got there. That was saying, compromise there what? Yeah. But the odd thing is that Donald Trump Jr., according to Forbes, is currently worth$300 million. So why couldn't he pay for his own wedding? Who would want someone else to pay for their wedding? I think it's bizarre. Don't you understand that the way you get to be worth$300 million is to take money from other people? Right, right. You never get to the point, I have$300 million, I don't have to take any more money. No, because I don't have a billion dollars. I have to keep taking money to get to a billion dollars, or in Donald Trump's case, to get to$6.4 billion.

49:24Yeah, it's never enough. It's never enough. Do we want a drive-by? We shouldn't forget we're still in a forever war. And now Trump is threatening one of our allies, supposed allies, people who've been involved in trying to, you know, create some kind of or broker a peace deal between Trump and Iran, Oman. We're apparently going to, or at least we're threatening to bomb Oman. For what reason, I think nobody has any idea. Well, probably least of all Heggers. And who knew we had the bombs? Who knew we had the bombs anymore? Well, we haven't bombed Oman, and we probably will not bomb Oman. We will just threaten to bomb Oman.

50:12For what reason? No one has any idea. Meanwhile, the Russians are going after trains. There was a drone attack on a train that David Petraeus had been on. And again, Russian attack on a train in Ukraine, because the Ukrainians don't have enough Patriot missile interceptors. We used to supply them, but we've stopped doing it because we've been too busy bombing Iran. Because we've run out of them. Yeah. Yes. So Boris called for the money that's been held, I guess, in some sort of international escrow because it's sanctioned money against Russia. He immediately called it for it to be released to the Ukrainians for them to replenish their munition supply.

50:58Which seems like a great idea, except for the fact that there are no munitions. There are nobody to buy these interceptors from because we've used them all up. Good times, Michael. Good times. So maybe it's...

51:41that would be instrumental in gaining an advantage against the Russians in Ukraine. Therefore, losing that advantage, we open up Europe and the world for a new level of aggression from the Russians, which we might have stopped dead in its tracks if only we had had those bombs that we expended in Iran for no real advantage at all. Well, happily, we've got Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner who are going to solve everything. And I will recommend Dexter Filkin's piece in The New Yorker. it's very long and rather ominously, it said at the top, it would take 59 minutes if you were to listen to this article.

52:35That's quite a recommendation. That's probably using AI too, but a sort of fascinating look at how Jared views everything as a deal and now through the lens of affinity partners. So what's in it for him? And then there's great detail on the Albania situation. And the fact that Jared and Ivanka are trying to build their luxury resort in Cezanne, which is an island there, a sort of nature reserve island, has actually now the prime minister of Albania who is supposed to be helping him is now being basically driven out of office by the decision to help them. But it's a really interesting piece about more about Jared than than um wickoff uh and just how inexperienced and proudly critical he is of all the diplomats who've gone before him you know it's interesting that he's still inexperienced after spending um a term four years in the white house as pretty much the second most important person in the executive branch.

53:51Well, what's also interesting, they describe a day where, you know, one day he's doing Russia in the morning and then he's trying to do Iran in the afternoon. He's shaking his begging bowl, which I think has now got$5 billion in it from Middle East investors, largely the Saudis. And so essentially he looks at the world through what's in this business-wise for me. How is my fund going to benefit from this? And he's got management fees, which means that he's suddenly got a large chunk of money coming in, even though much of the money is not yet invested. But it's just the price for doing business with the president.

54:34And this was the deal, basically. I mean, he was not coming into the second administration because of his desire to run his own fund and make his own money. So the deal to bring him back in was that you could continue to do this without a worry. And the worry might be that he would ultimately be held to account by a future Congress and administration. But that will not be a worry because he will be retroactively, proactively pardoned by his father-in-law before he leaves office. Right. And then I guess the challenge for any Democrat coming in is how do you undo what is essentially the privatization of U.S.

55:30diplomacy? I mean, we've got over 100 countries at the moment that don't have anybody in the ambassador's seat. So that soft power of just talking to leaders and understanding what's going on in countries has vanished. That expertise has vanished. Well, that will be no. I mean, this is a major topic and will shortly start to become the major topic of as we get beyond the midterms. How do you then begin to envision a post-Donald Trump world? Mm hmm. A post Donald Trump. Well, perhaps there won't be one. Perhaps AI has seen the Donald Trump world and is like, you know what? Enough already. I'm ending it now.

56:17And then even more immediately than imagining that, we should spend some time thinking what happens when Donald Trump loses this election? Then what are the final two years of this administration of a raging, petulant, abuse of power guy? What does he do in that situation when the world turns against him? A raging, petulant guy who may not agree that the seats that have been won by the Democrats, assuming there are some in the midterms, are actually, you know, true. He may just deny all of it. We will certainly, yes. I mean, that's my anxiety, that they're just going to spend the next two years in bullshit legal cases challenging things that are completely, obviously fine.

57:15Well, what's going to happen? Yes. In a close election, there's a close election that he wins and is close because of the way he's manipulated things. Or there's a close election that his manipulation has managed to make close, but he still loses. And then he will rage against that for as long as he can. or, and this is obviously what we might hope for, that there will be, and this is what the polls are now looking like, that there will be a massive vote against him, which he will, and reality will have spoken in a way that cannot be denied. Well, I think he can deny almost anything, can't he?

58:08well yeah no actually i mean there is some level in which in which uh it is it is the even even the the pure math of it overwhelms donald trump and and if if the democrats vote in the way it It is now seeming that they will, along with independence, then Donald Trump is going to face a new reality. Well, which is even odder then that he's insisted, and we saw this Trump-a-palooza last week, that he's on the ballot, that people should vote as if he were on the ballot. Let's hope they do. And perhaps they will. Yes, exactly. To his detriment, yes. Okay, we will be back on Thursday. I'm just reminding people who want to come and join us live October the 20th at the Teragram Ballroom in LA.

59:10Which is in downtown LA. Downtown LA. So make an evening of it. Book yourself dinner. And I think there are some tickets that you can actually come and talk to me and Michael before or after the event. And I can assure you that Michael is very good with a live audience. So head to beast.pub slash ithlive. That's beast.pub slash ithlive. Or you can go to Ticketmaster and tap in Inside Trump's Head, Teragram Ballroom, October the 20th. If you have been, thank you for joining us, as always. If you've been watching, if you've been listening, and big thank you to our production team, Michael. You know, just suddenly it comes up like that.

59:53This is like the mocha test every week. complete ryan john heather rachel neil oh you've still got it michael you've still got it white leg school tomato joanna see you on thursday see you on thursday 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

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