Why Harp’s Special Perk Stunned Trump Staff

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1:09And each pair is built for all fall's festive moments, from game day to tailgating to outdoor festivals and long weekends. Find your perfect pair and customize them with complimentary boot stamps and branding at a Tecovas store near you or shop with us anytime at tecovas.com. The Mar-a-Lago Golf Club, which is not at Mar-a-Lago, it's in West Palm Beach. The golf club every Sunday has a buffet. Right. Just over the top. And people talk about it, especially the staffers. Like, I mean, they get teary-eyed. Their eyes roll back. Because they're actually not allowed to go to the buffet. Natalie, always allowed into the buffet.

1:53Not just Natalie, but Natalie with her mother. And among the staff, there was like, is she allowed to do that? Should she be doing that? She says that the president says she can be here, but can she be here? That became a major moment within the campaign. Natalie at the buffet. It was an all-you-could-eat buffet, and you know the all-you-can-eat president.

2:21Michael. Joanna. We're back in the studio. Our favorite place. Every Tuesday in the studio, reliably. I think this is our safe space, Michael. Is it a safe space? Because we have a lot to discuss, not least Donald Trump's weight gain. Is that why he's posting so many pictures of himself and Kim Jong-un? Because he looks slim by comparison. We're also going to... A contrast gainer. A contrast gainer, your favorite phrase. Contrast gainer. We've got Natalie Harp. Is she enjoying this moment? And why did she disappear from official White House photos? We may always have Natalie Harp from here on in.

3:03I hope so. It's the Natalie Harp presidency. What is it? Be still my beating heart. Let's hope. We've also got why the Trumpers are killing America's wild horses, the Mustangs. That's a terrible story. Totally. I almost cried when I read that story. I mean, how can you? Brilliant. Let's go kill the wild horses. I know. What is wrong with these people? Obviously, we've got the ballroom. We'll always have the ballroom. And we've got Canada. And we've got, I think he's officially now the thinking woman's grumpet in Mark Carney. And, you know, he's the leader that Americans want. And we're saddled with Donald Trump.

3:45And we have the dumbest meeting in political history. I want to get to that because it's like head smacking. Are you talking about Scott Besson? No, I'm talking about Jared and Jeffries. Oh, Jared and Hakeem Jeffries. Yes, we have to come to that. But I also wanted to just do a quick mention. We're recording this on Tuesday morning and Ghislaine Maxwell's appeal that she did herself from her Texas prison camp where she was moved after she had that oleaginous interview with our now Attorney General, Todd Blanche, who went to see her in Florida and rapidly moved her after she said the president was a wonderful man and she wanted to just say congratulations to the president for getting elected again.

4:31And he'd, you know, been a great friend of Jeffrey Epstein's. Not only did she have her appeal thrown back at her, which I'm sure is a great disappointment to her. But the judge said, on the contrary, to the extent it is relevant, far from exculpating her, it incriminates her or reinforces the correctness of the legal ruling's Maxwell challenges. That's what the judge said. So, sorry, Ghislaine, you're still in there for your 20 years right now. You're going to have to wait a bit longer for a pardon. Michael. Before we go forward. That sounds ominous. I want to stop, go a little off topic, but to acknowledge what I think is a story of enormous consequence.

5:20Actually, possibly far greater, far greater, what did I just say? Consequence. Far greater consequence than possibly even the Donald Trump presidency. Impossible. Which happened today. Go on. Today marks the end of football and the NFL. Can't go on. I mean, football and the NFL have been at the center of American culture for two generations. transformed the media business, made sports essentially in sports programming the center of American media, of American culture, arguably has a fine, a very precise relationship to the manosphere, to the idea of masculinity, to Trumpism, arguably. Right. To a certain kind of toxic masculinity.

6:21And that, yeah, I mean, in the center of American culture is this incredibly violent sport, so violent that anyone who plays it will get their brains knocked out. We now know this definitive study. A minimum of 25 percent of the people who who play Major League football will have brain damage, substantial brain damage. It can't go on. I mean, this is more dangerous than smoking. And so it literally has at this moment, this today marks what will be the beginning of the end of football. And this doesn't feel new. I mean, it's both new because the survey is or the study is definitive. But, you know, my kids are in their late 20s.

7:11There was no way in hell I was going Well, I mean, this now becomes, I mean, it is kind of like smoking. Everybody knew smoking was bad. And then in 1964, I think the Surgeon General released a report which then began the end of smoking. And this is definitive. You will, if you play football, the overwhelming likelihood is that you will get brain damage. People won't play. They won't play it in high school. They won't play it in college. And they certainly won't play it professionally. So first of all, this is going to kill 60 Minutes. If Barry Weiss doesn't kill 60 Minutes, the fact that the American football lead into 60 Minutes will kill 60 Minutes.

7:55Yeah, no, no. And remember the profound effect that the end of smoking had on the media business. Can you even remember the days when you used to go into a restaurant and people would be smoking all over you, all over your food? You would take a plane. People would be smoking. The absurd idea that you would have smoking and non-smoking roads. I understand this makes us sound like we're from the Jurassic period. I was a very enthusiastic smoker. I'm sure you were. I'm sure you were. But I bet you're glad you don't smoke now. Of course. You couldn't possibly smoke now unless you're emotionally disturbed.

8:30Although it's making a bit of a comeback in movies and television, actually. But it's amazing how we went from people protesting the ban, especially in New York, to knots of smokers outside office doors to you just don't see people smoking anymore. I mean, the message was a very powerful one. You will live if you don't smoke. You will die if you smoke. And similarly, that is now the message about playing football. I didn't think the pain from the shingles rash would affect simple everyday tasks. like bathing, getting dressed, or even walking around. I was wrong. Though not everyone at risk will develop it, 99 % of people over the age of 50 already have the virus that causes shingles, and it could reactivate at any time.

9:18I developed it, and the blistering rash lasted for weeks. Don't learn the hard way, like I did. Talk to your doctor or pharmacist today. Sponsored by GSK. Did Donald Trump play football? Is that possibly why he's such an erratic president? No. Not a bad segue. Come on. Yes, not a bad. Very good. And I'm just trying to think of Donald Trump, that fat fucker out on the plate. On the football team when he comes barreling towards you. Except he wouldn't because he's got bone spurs and we've never actually seen him run. He'd probably have his own little golf cart on the football field. I've never understood the rules of it.

9:58I've gone to the Super Bowl. I find the whole thing a sort of spectacle, but I've never enjoyed it because it doesn't seem very sporting. And, you know, someone's going to end up with brain damage. Well, it is an American. It is America. The football field. The football field is America. So what's going to replace it? Not my America, but I'm a sort of. Well, what is your America? Yes. Martinis, the Hamptons, eating fresh produce picked by your beautiful wife from the garden. That's your America. I'm keeping my swimming pool open until the end of October so I can swim every day, America. The gay life.

10:36It's abundance, Michael. It's a life of abundance. All right. Well, Donald Trump does look like he's put on weight. I mean, he definitely looks like he's put on weight. Well, no. Wait a minute. We haven't even talked about Natalie Harp yet. I can't decide which I want more. Donald Trump's weight gain and understanding his food intake more than I already do or Natalie Harp and the fact that she removed herself from the photo. this weekend at the IndyCar race, also American. Well, let's go to Natalie Hart because I happen to have a new theory about Natalie Hart. Go ahead. Which you can see in my Instagram, getting a lot of attention as of two hours ago.

11:17Go on. Which is... Are you sitting on that nice chair, that nice cream chair with the blue stitches? Yes, I am. With the footstool? I am. Yeah, I think I watched it. Yes. There's so many of them, Michael. every day almost um although i find i can't if we're doing a podcast it gets it gets in the way yeah well you've got to prioritize the podcast anyway prioritize anyway uh you know i was asking that question which i asked of myself all of the time and i i think which the question so many of us ask how how is it that any sane person could have in fact voted for donald trump i mean this is what, how is that?

12:01What is it? What is the appeal? What could possibly be the appeal? And I thought, well, Natalie Harp, there is this, you know, we look at it, we liberals look at it and say, my God, it's appalling that a comely young woman follows around this man and is there to do his every, anticipate his every need. And that's appalling. How could that ever happen? But I think a good part of the country says, my God, that shows what an amazing guy Donald Trump is, that these young women are just fall in line behind him. And wouldn't that be great? And isn't that what every man wants? And isn't Donald Trump, isn't this proof of concept, Donald Trump is a rock star.

13:01Interesting. So he's the, without having to do any of the singing or the leg thinging on stage like Mick Jagger does, he, well, you're always saying he wanted to be, right, he has groupies, he has fans, he has groupies, he has fans who don't behave like regular people because they excuse bad behavior or they welcome bad behavior. Exactly. They just accept everything. Everything that he does is something to be admired. And also, you know, like rock stars, they get the girls. Well, and also some sort of projection, isn't it, that you want other people out there because you don't think you can do that in your life to be doing that.

13:40I've always maintained the Stormy Daniels thing. It was a terrible mistake to go after him for that because it's many men's fantasy, celebrity golf tournament, a porn star who then leaves at the end of sex and isn't lying around all needy, wanting to be told that you love her. You know, it's I know a lot of men who would be like, sounds like the perfect weekend. Yeah, no, I mean. And also, honestly, I mean, we were talking about this before in terms of Monica Lewinsky, but a lot of liberals completely understood why Bill Clinton wanted to hang out with Monica. Well, they certainly didn't punish him for it.

14:18As a matter of fact, quite the opposite, which is relevant to the current midterms. The second term Clinton midterm, and remember, midterms and especially the second midterms always go badly for the party in power, except during the Lewinsky moment, when in fact, Clinton benefited from that and did quite well during the midterms in his second term. So do we think there is something about the notion of sex and robust sex appeal with much younger women that works to a politician's advantage? Because we've always assumed it's a disqualifier, but it turns out, certainly in Trump and Clinton's case, not at all.

15:16I think it's how you match the, how the circumstances align. Gary Hart, not so good as you might remember. But wasn't that because he challenged the media and said, I'm not doing that. I'm not, you know, you follow me. See if you can get anything on me. Well, well, Clinton did that too. I never had sex with that woman. True. I don't know what being exposed. Right. And he was splitting hairs because in fact, that was after sort of, but it is splitting hairs. Why does this work? And it and it works because I think partly because you already know that that's what's going on. It doesn't come as a surprise that young women are trailing behind Donald Trump.

16:09I mean, he spent his career doing that. And it was certainly not a surprise with Bill Clinton. But I just think that there is, And I think it's this part of the problem here and part of the problem in this entire Trump era is the liberal mind having no imagination about why someone like Donald Trump would be possible. Choice hotels get you more of what you value. Here's a little tune to help you remember. Same drive, different day. Don't you wish you were getting away? Pack your beds and come on through. Texas, Ohio, Alaska, we're up there too. Comfort Inn, it's calling your name. Save on the stay.

16:59Oh, and free waffles are yours to claim. Well, I hope you like my little song. Book direct at choicevilletales.com. Right. And do we think, I mean, Nell Scavel asked me this this morning, a Beast contributor, and also the author of Just the Funny Parts, which is the best book I've read about Hollywood and what it's like being in the writer's room. Is Natalie Harp Marla Maples-ing Melania? Well, I think I'm in. So the reference there is that Marla Maples came on the scene when Donald Trump was married to Ivana. and clearly by her own sense of presence and publicity helped push Ivana out of the picture.

17:51Well, and Melania doesn't look like she cares very much. I mean, I was very struck when we saw her at the Indie Race on Sunday that she was all business, pants, white shirt with a popped collar, which is a new thing. I don't know if that's because she's had some surgery or whatever, but the popped collar is new, jacket, and there was Natalie in a little leather pleplum outfit chattering away with Eric, the son. And then it looked like Melania and Donald were having an argument at one point. She's sort of flicking him with her hand as she does from time to time. And then you see Victor, her father, just to finish my point, looking anxiously in.

18:32He can tell there's trouble in paradise because he's trying to do the dad thing of like, is everything okay? And nobody was paying him any attention. Yeah. And remember, the facts are they don't really speak. They are seldom in each other's company. Well, you could tell that when they were sitting next to each other because it looked like they were catching up and it wasn't going well. And just to remind everybody that at the Republican convention in 2024, first thing, there was doubts about whether she would ever appear. And then she appeared on the last day, but would not go out into the VIP box until Trump had left the box to go give his speech.

19:19And was that because she was scared of being shot at? Because this was two days after Butler, Pennsylvania. Well, I don't think there's any. I think it would be very peculiar for anyone to be shot at within the convention. That would be a real. Well, you say that, but it's a huge group of people. I could see why people would be. Well, anyway, no. OK. She just didn't want to sit next to her husband, not because he was going to be shot, but because he was she hates him. Okay. She looked like she hated him on Sunday, but it might have been that she literally had to sit there and watch the cars going around 175 times.

19:56And it was very hot, very noisy. When I said to one of his close aides, and this was during the campaign, and wondering again why she had never made one campaign appearance with him. And when I pressed this campaign about this, and this person looked at me like I was a real dummy and said, you mean, you want a reason? The reason is that she hates his guts. She hates him. And I thought, yes. So fostering the future. Before we get off this subject, which we could go on for some time, I want to tell a story that I reported in my book. Is this the buffet story? This is the buffet story. Hey, story.

20:38Good, good, good. Go on. Okay. So at the golf club, the Mar-a-Lago Golf Club, which is not at Mar-a-Lago, it's in West Palm Beach. And because that's the drawback of Mar-a-Lago, which it doesn't have a golf course. So you have to go to the golf club. But the golf club every Sunday has a buffet. Right. Now, the buffet in American life has been debased. Now you go to any Holiday Inn and there's a crappy buffet with those pot dishes. Pieces of melon. Always pieces of green melon. But in the American Make America Great Again, there exists a buffet circa 1965, which is, you know, people, it defined the vastness of America.

21:30The more of everything of America, right? Like the abundance of America, those huge sweating hams and those enormous kind of steaks. Station, station after station after station. Yes, the omelet station. And at the golf club, there is one such buffet just over the top. And people talk about it, especially the staffers. Like, I mean, they get teary-eyed. Their eyes roll back because they're actually not allowed to go to the buffet. The staff aren't allowed to go to the buffet. No. But they talk about it and they say a lobster. You get a full lobster and can go back for a second if you're allowed into the buffet on special moments.

22:18Natalie always allowed into the buffet. Not just Natalie but Natalie with her mother. Natalie and her mother. Every Sunday showing up for the buffet. And among the staff, there was like, is she allowed to do that? Should she be doing that? And then the people at the golf club serving this, are we, should we, she wants this. She says that the president says she can be here, but can she be here? That became a major, a major moment within the campaign. Natalie at the buffet. Which is odd because she doesn't look like she eats very much. And in her letters that we showed last week that you were given by someone on the campaign, you know, a couple of years ago, it actually says she wasn't eating and she wasn't sleeping in her lovesick language.

23:13Well, maybe it's the mother who was putting away the lobsters. Or maybe she was coming with a bag and putting them in there. Who knows? But it was an all you could eat buffet. It was an all-you-could-eat buffet, and you know the all-you-can-eat president. Well, tell us more, because he's clearly put on weight. Clearly put on weight, and there was a report that doctors, his doctors, are concerned about this. Okay, so at his last checkup, he put on 15 pounds from last year. And we don't, I mean, actually, the numbers here are fudged. So it was that apparently when he went to, when he was booked for his indictment in Georgia, he put his weight, the weight, his weight was listed as 215 pounds.

24:07How he really was thing? He had to? No, he did not. Everybody else has to be weighed, measured, weighed and all that. When you get indicted, you have to be weighed? Yeah. Not, but not Donald Trump. He got to say what his weight was. And clearly it wasn't 215 pounds. No. Within the White House, they actually talk about this. And they figure that on the campaign trail, he was probably 250 to 265. And now they think they would, the estimate is 275 to 290. So he is saying that it was 215 in Georgia, which would have been slightly more than two years ago. And then I think now he is in the last physical, it was 238.

25:03But these are Trump numbers. So I would say it's much more he's coming on to 300 on a fast track. Okay, so he's pushing 300 because he certainly looks enormous. I thought he had tried GLP once. Well, that is the, again, when I was writing All or Nothing, a set of people, Mar-a-Lago people, people who hung out on the Mar-a-Lago terrorists, big gossip center, was that he was on GLP-1s. Why? Because he was eating less? Or how did people know? Well, he was somewhat, he was thinner. I mean, he looked remarkably, notably, let's say, better. and that has, but then that didn't last very long and possibly the side effects or for whatever reason.

26:04Well, because you'd think if he has a young woman in tow, he might want to lose some pounds. Or you could look at it the other way. Because he has a young woman in tow, he doesn't have. He can eat as much as he want, right? Yes, exactly. He can go to his own buffet and eat. Can you get us into, we should go to the buffet, Michael. How can we get to the Mar-a-Lago Golf Club Buffet? I would like to smuggle a lobster out of it. Well, possibly you can get an invitation. Unlikely that at this point, although who knows? I've gotten them before. You've gotten them before. If you do, I want to be your guest.

26:38And perhaps you could wear a wig and we could go in disguise. I would very much like to try the Mar-a-Lago Golf Club Buffet. You could go as Natalie. Well, in my dreams, I could go as Natalie. I don't really mean that, actually. But, uh... When it comes to my policy, Farmers gives it to me straight, so there's no surprises. It's your coverage. You should never be confused. You hear that? An insurance provider with a conscience. We're a choir, but yes, we have that too. Straightforward coverage you can literally understand. That's what you get when... You have Farmers. Learn more at Farmers.com.

27:21Underwritten by Farmers Truck or Fire Insurance Exchanges or Affiliate. Products not available in every state. But it is, I mean, the story remains. This is a guy, this is a really a fat guy. He's an 80-year-old fat guy who stuffs himself with junk food, hasn't done a lick of exercise other than getting in and out of the golf cart. And has young women running after him on the golf course. And also could fall over at any moment. Would it be a shock if this 300-pound, 80-year-old fell over dead? No, it wouldn't be a shock. Well, and it would also be what he wanted to do on television, right? He should do it.

28:06If he's going to do it, he needs to do it on television. It should be at one of his cabinet meetings when he just doesn't wake up from his sleep. Well, it's one of those things that probably is difficult to plan for. okay so also but it is there is an inevitability of it like um brain damage if you play football also a good segue also a very good segue okay which takes us to what is the white house making of or did they set up um the meeting between the son-in-law who's actually very thin almost concave, Jared. And Hakeem Jeffries, who's normal size. Hakeem Jeffries seems normal and healthy looking.

28:48Jared looks, I've always thought Jared looks concave. Ivanka is very thin. Yeah. And actually, Trump says, Trump says, Jared, he looks gay. Oh, he does say that? What does gay look like? But he looks thin. In Trump's view, thin. Thin, okay. All right. Well, we can come on to Scott Weston, his proudly gay cabinet minister. I actually had a discussion over the weekend with a White House source, and this meeting came up because the White House is furious. or at least the staff in the White House totally freaked out and furious because essentially this is Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law, having a meeting with the person who will be the Democratic leader of the House of Representatives if the Democrats retake the House.

29:46And basically what this meeting said implicitly, explicitly, is we're going to lose. So we're reaching out to you because you are going to be the new leader. So everybody in the White House is going, what do you mean we're going to lose? Why would you admit that? Why would you set that up now before? I mean, we're just at the beginning of the midterm election season. Why? Well, also, why would Hakeem Jeffries take a meeting with Jared Kushner? Because what this will mean, without question, is that Hakeem Jeffries, this was already brewing, but precisely now because of this meeting, will face a leadership challenge.

30:35Why would he possibly do this? What is in it for him? Well, what is in it for him? He's just stupid. Oh, he's just stupid. I mean, just ridiculous. It's like he got caught out. I mean, I think that he was, you know, remember, I mean, he's the meeting. Who do we think leaks the meeting? That I don't know. OK, because they're supposed to have been introduced by a kind of mutual friend in New York, right? Yeah, well, they're two New York guys. And and I, you know, and I'm sure that in Hakeem Jeffries thinking through this, you know, it's Jared knows a lot of rich guys in New York. and, you know, so I might as well meet with him and maybe I'll learn something.

31:17So maybe he was doing it as a favor or maybe he leaked it to say, look, even the Republicans think that we're going to win. Well, I don't think so because it sets him up. This is devastating for him. I mean, he's been on thin ice anyway. This is just, he just cracked through. Okay, so the White House were furious with Jared? Yes, both sides are furious with their principles in this situation. How difficult is it for the White House staffers to be furious with the president's son? Well, they can be furious. They just can't control him. They can't do anything. I mean, This is the other thing that they're aware of, that Jared is operating his own independent office.

32:10So what's inside Trump's head over this meeting? Is he like, I can't control my son-in-law? Is he like, I can't believe that they think that we're going to lose because I think we're going to win? You never, with Trump, you can't talk about his family. his family is always right or he's always what can I do their family really yeah interesting so it doesn't he doesn't he doesn't pick up the phone and yell at Jared what were you thinking no first thing he's he's um slightly intimidated by Jared I mean that's that's how Jared comes by his by his um his intimidated by him because he went to Harvard because he got the daughter Yeah, all of those reasons.

33:01And he's thin. And Jared is very good at playing his father-in-law. I mean, it's a very effective kind of... I've seen the way he moves around his father-in-law, never engaging, always being able to refocus the subject on something that his father-in-law wants to talk about. I mean, it's kind of artful. And remember, Jared is really the only person who survived the first term and prospered. Right, right, right. Okay, well, the ballroom's prospering. The ballroom is being built as fast as it can be built, as you predicted. Those poor, poor people working on it must be just doing double shifts, I would think.

33:51And this came out, I think there was a Washington Post piece about this that said, you know, that Trump has been selling this ballroom on the idea of that it should be built for security reasons. Right. And then the Washington Post had a piece, which actually we discussed earlier than the Washington Post and were on this story, is that that's ridiculous because there is all of those security features currently exist within the White House proper. And haven't you been into it? Didn't you get a tour of the bunker? I've gotten a tour of some aspects of it. There are other aspects which you can't.

34:33They don't let you see because it's a high security zone. But what does high security zone even mean in a Trump government? Do you think Natalie's mean to the secret zone? Well, what it means is that the Trump is that basically the political end of the White House doesn't have anything to do with this. This is, and it's really an interesting thing about the White House. The White House is a facade masking a military base underneath it. And it's run by the military. I mean, when you go to the White House, it's one of the impressions, the key impressions that you have is that the military is all over the place.

35:16Well, and they're also in uniform, right? That's always struck me as interesting that, you know, you get shepherded around by, they always look like they're about to go on actually on a ship or on a on a you know aircraft carrier because they're often in those kind of white naval uniforms whereas actually if you go to the equivalent in the UK just because that's the example I know you're never met by anybody in armed uniform or military uniform no well again and and that was I mean this was first pointed out to me by Steve Bannon and I and I was I went to the White House to see Steve and and he had himself just gotten to the White House and it was like he said you won't believe it this is really a military base I mean this is all you see all this fake this is the White House not you know the fake like Jeffrey Epstein exactly knocking on the columns just the idea that this is a facade and underneath here, something the public cannot see, is a very, very sophisticated military installation.

36:23So Trump's saying this stuff. He's picked this up, but it's a lie. It's just the Trump lie that this is going to be part of this. And the ballroom is not going to be part of this. The ballroom is just so that Donald Trump has another performance space. I think he's building himself a nursing home so to your point when he is so fat that he can't walk he'll just be wheeled in and out of it and he'll have a hospital bed that goes up and down and a nice view but they haven't put that in the architect's plans Vox One has your front row seat to live NFL action the biggest rivalries, the biggest hits America's Game of the Week from the opening kickoff to the final drive catch every game-changing play as it happens Go beyond the Fox score with highlights, interviews and expert analysis you won't find anywhere else.

37:12At home or on the go, live or on demand. The NFL on Fox is streaming live on Fox 1. Download the app today. All right. Can we get to the story that upset me the most, which is this terrible story that was in the New York Times about wild Mustangs basically being sold, shipped across America and then euthanized. Shipped to foreign countries. Well, I wish they were being shipped to foreign countries. They are. No, they are shipped to foreign countries as horse meat. Oh, as horse meat. Yes. But they're basically being euthanized. Yeah. No, they're protected by the Constitution. They're being, let's say, they're being slaughtered.

37:55Oh, don't, don't. It's such an upsetting story. So just talk people through it for those who haven't read it. You know, I mean, I just, all I've done is read this story in the Times that there are wild horses have been a protected part of the American West for years and years and years. And these are largely Mustangs, those beautiful brown and white horses, the stuff of Western legends. Right. And every administration has gone out of its way to protect these. And why wouldn't you? Except the Trump administration. Of course. And it's just round up these horses, which incur a certain expense to the federal government in the process of protecting them.

38:38So let's not incur that expense anymore. How do we get rid of that expense? We get rid of the horses. And that's what they're rounding up and sent to slaughter. Let's think not just the cruelty of this, but let's think about the political sagacity of doing this. What are these? I mean, I've said a zillion times, and of course, that at bedrock, the whole point about the Trump administration, or the whole underlying fact of the Trump administration is stupidity. Every one of these people is a subpar stupid person. And this, I think, how could you have a more stunning example of that? Let's kill the wild horses.

39:20What, nobody's going to notice? Do you think they end up as a passé? Even the MAGA people are going to say. This is a good idea. Kill all the wild horses. Do you think that they end up as pate on the all-you-can-eat Mar-a-Lago buffet? No, we don't eat horse meat here. We export this. French eat horse meat. Yes, we export it to other countries where they eat horse meat. So Macron is spreading his morning toast with horse pate. Yes. Now, we are probably not going to export it to Canada, which has now levied tariffs. Well, if we do, it will be 50 % more expensive. Yes, they're levying tariffs on the wild horse meat.

40:05Yeah. I mean, how does that end? They probably haven't thought of that, but they should. So how does that end? So on the one hand, we've got Scott Besson saying anybody that does business with Iran is over. We're going to come after you. He was very short on specifics and he looked like he was just having a great time up there. I've never seen anyone look like he was enjoying himself as much as Scott Bessent finally getting a bit of the spotlight to lecture Iran on how they couldn't do business with anybody and nobody else could do business with them. And they would be watching. And then we have Canada that we're deliberately not doing business with and they're not going to do business with us.

40:45Well, let's stop on the Iran thing because I think we're at another tipping point in a sense. Well, we can't bomb them because we've got no munitions left. So now we're going after what little money there is. Well, we're going to squeeze them. I mean, let's get this thing. Trump is in his announcement, you know, we're going to squeeze them economically the worst, the most. Nobody's ever seen anything like it. But we've already done that. We've already squeezed them to a level that we can't really squeeze them anymore. Can we squeeze them anymore? Well, the only way we could probably squeeze them more is if we got China to squeeze them.

41:26But what's in it for China to squeeze them? Well, and China was noticeably left out of Scott Besson's speech. Yeah. No, I think that this is, again, we have to say we're doing something. What is the headline? We need a headline on this. This is the headline. What will it mean? It will mean the same as all the other headlines have meant. It will mean nothing. It will mean absolutely nothing. We are stuck there. We cannot figure out a way to get out of this. And the best we can do is look for the headline of the week that says we have a plan. When the real headline is, and again, this is the problem.

42:10The New York Times will give this as a headline. This is the plan. Instead of the real headline being there is no plan. We're fucking stumped. Well, we're just in a corner here. We don't know what to do. It makes me so sad for America. It makes me so sad. This is also unnecessary. Trump was warned repeatedly about doing this. Well, it's not just I mean, I mean, yeah, sad for America. Trump is sad for America. I mean, this is a person who went into a war, and God knows he's not the first president to have gone into a war, completely uninformed about what he would encounter. So let me ask you something.

42:53George Bush went into a war completely informed, and that was catastrophic. It was catastrophic for the region. Well, I know. I don't think. I think that that's a misunderstanding. He was not informed. He did not know the key things that he had to know. And he was not only uninformed but misinformed by American intelligence agencies. Although, I mean, he may have known. He may have been lying himself, lying to himself, lying to the American people. But there he went into Iraq on with a whole set of assumptions that proved to be obviously false. And then. So which is which is worse between the two of you?

43:43You've got Donald Trump surrounded by, you know, arguably the least competent cabinet, certainly in modern American history. And then you've got George Bush with Dick Cheney whispering in his ear, Donald Rumsfeld whispering in his ear, Colin Powell standing up and saying, you know, the Iraqis are about to, you know, get a nuclear weapon and they're funneling all these pipes and we've got photos of it. You've got Britain supporting them. It's post 9-11. There's a sort of jingoism in the air. You know, trillions of dollars spent, boots on the ground, terrible for the future of Iraq. Who's better between the two?

44:27Well, if the question is more than rhetorical and directed at me, I would say... Well, who else is it directed at? Well, I could be rhetorical. That's the nature of a rhetorical question. I'm being very specific. But I mean, to me, and obviously this is a long and historical conversation, which will go on for years and years and years. But I would say Bush. I mean, as much as I think Trump is an unspeakable moron, the Trump administration, this one and the last one, is really the gang that couldn't shoot straight. And the Bush administration was people who did things which resulted in just, first thing, many, many lives lost, but an enormous amount of damage.

45:21I mean, essentially set the path for post 9-11 for 20 years, more than 20 years, 25 years, a quarter of a century of the Middle East going wrong. Almost in every aspect of our planning, of policy. of any effort to achieve peace. Right, and George Bush has somehow been rehabilitated as a contrast gainer, to use your phrase, to Donald Trump. Yeah, I mean... I mean, arguably, they've both done an enormous amount of damage to America in the eyes of the world, but George W. Bush has been reframed as a contrast gainer. Well, it's very easy to do that. But in contrast to Donald Trump, the, you know, the 300 pound buffoon, I think you're going to.

46:26Stuffing his face at the all you can eat buffet. How many lobsters does he have on his plate with ham and surf and turf? I'm sure surf and turf is his favorite thing, right? Other than the. Doesn't eat fish. Oh, he doesn't eat fish. Oh, that was on your list. Yes. Doesn't eat fish. I did this list on sub stack of things that Jeffrey Epstein, random things Jeffrey Epstein had told me about his friend Donald Trump. And among those things was... Donald Trump doesn't eat fish. And his favorite vegetable is a potato. Of course it is. I don't know. I mean, shrimp is obviously a fish, but often people refer to that as seafood rather than fish.

47:11So maybe he does eat shrimp in addition to looking like a shrimp, a giant shrimp. A giant shrimp. Well, and maybe there are shrimp tails left on the floor of the White House bedroom. Well, Michael, as always. But that's an interesting contrast between between Trump and Bush, because they now represent opposite ends of the Republican Party. And that's partly why Bush, George W., is now looking rather better than he did when he was in office, was because he represents a more moderate, informed, recognizable Republican Party, whether it's a better Republican Party or not. A classic neocon. And also, interestingly, both of them abstemious.

48:07Neither of them drank. Well, George W. Bush did drink to vast excess. But like Pete Hegseth didn't drink on the job and got up early and went for a run and did all the things that Trump didn't do. And they're the same age, right? So, Michael, I have a surprise for you. We have a new artwork from one of our viewers slash listeners, which I'm very pleased to unveil. And we'll go with our remarkable... A place in the gallery. A place in the gallery of our viewers' work. This whole studio is going to become a Donald Trump memorial inside Trump's head memorial. Garden? Whatever. ever. Studio, studio, I think.

48:58Well, regular viewers of the Daily Beast podcast will know that we have a sort of Epstein Trumpian monkey face that has become a favorite and people always comment on it when they come in. I've got a new one for you. This is from a viewer called Frank Manson. Here we go. I'm not going to say anything. Okay. But it's Trump as Caligula. and it's pretty impressive frank thank you very much we're gonna give this a place of honor on our art shelf from viewers

49:34lots lots of gold i get it i get it you get it trumpus i like this caius trumpus yeah well we should call them trumpus from now on heggers trumpers let's get more of these let's well Well, that's up to you. Come on, let's fill up this place. Let's fill up this place. I think there are a lot of people out there doing artwork to express their creative inspo against. Yeah, creative angst. That's a better way of putting it. All right, we're going to go out on a limerick from Garfreed. In the White House sat Don in a huff who made ballrooms and brands out of stuff while his wife sold her brand and Miss Harp was on hand.

50:17And Canada's Mark Carney said, enough. If you have been, thank you for joining us. And don't forget to subscribe to The Daily Beast. And... Ryan, John, Heather, Rachel, Neil. Well done. Somebody else. We'll be back 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 support. Choice Hotels gets you more of what you value. Here's a little tune to help you remember. Same drive, different day. Don't you wish you were getting away? Pack your bags and come on through. Texas, Ohio, Alaska, we're up there too. Comfort Inn, it's calling your name.

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