How Trump Is Exposing Own Psychotic State: Wolff | Inside Trump's Head

You can look this up and find the President of the United States continuously saying things that are out of control, bizarre, unhinged, irrational, that have departed reality.If this were a family member of literally anybody, anybody's who stayed up all night and and posted sometimes sometimes in a night a hundred posts this kind of this kind of wingnut stuff that would be a mental health crisis what do you do of the clear evidence that the president of the united states is behaving in a way that for anyone else would beg for an intervention q how are you Michael, I'm very pleased to be here.

Thank you for having me.

This is Hugh Docherty, the editor of The Daily Beast, is filling in for Joanna Coles, who is yet with her family in Yorkshire.So you and I are in position, ready to go.

We are in this together.

At least we're not in China.

And we are not in China.We could be.We could have been in the Great Hall of the People.But apparently, Michael, you were not invited.

Yes.No, no.I don't think I'm on the invite list.But we should get into who is, in fact, on the invite list, because it is a quite a cast of characters.

And I should say before we dive into this show, as Joanna always says, please take a moment, hit the subscribe button, share it with your friends.I'll just say as a just a personal note, I was privileged to already be on the show earlier this week and some of you sent some very nice notes and particularlynotes of support for Joanna, who I know, Michael, you've spoken to her as well, really feels that support.

She's in a terrible position, and it's a position that we all have or will find ourselves in.So I think that there's a lot of understanding and a lot of sympathy.

So moving to the business of the day, though, China.

China, China.

What exactly is Donald Trump trying to accomplish in China?

You know, this is an interesting moment in the Trump political history because China has always been the paramount issue for him.That is the The solution in his mind, the solution to the problems in the United States is solving the problem of China.And he has seen this in a very basic way.It's an economic rivalry and it's a zero sum rivalry.If they benefit, we don't.Now, You can disagree with that, and obviously many have, but at the same time, I think that it's also regarded as, in many ways, his single accomplishment.

The single thing that many people have said, okay, Trump is crazy and most of his policies are out there and nutty and inconsistent, but the China perception on his part is valid and central.And while he may not get the details right, he hasin a way that other politicians before him didn't appreciate that China was the rivalry, the main rivalry in the world.And how we dealt with that would affect fundamental issues of the American economy and the American future.So I think there were a lot of people, especially in the first administration, who were willing to say, OK, let's overlook everything else.This is a major issue.

And I know I spent a lot of time during the first administration with Steve Bannon, who clearly regarded this as the singular issue.And he would openly say Trump was a moron.Trump is a beast.Trump is inexplicable in so many ways.But if he got China right, if he got China half right, that would be a significant accomplishment.And then Bannon would say, and that's why he was on the Trump team.

Very explicitly, one issue, China.OK. now over the course of 10 years.And let's note that I think the Biden administration kept many of the Trump China policies in place.Nevertheless, over the course now of 10 years, what we have seen is is only increasing, marching, steamrollers.Chinese dominance.They have, if this is a zero -sum game, well, they have gotten everything and we have gotten very little.

China's been growing at 5 % a year after COVID.The US is not, by any measure, it's maybe growing 2%, maybe 3 % over that same period.And China's military, we keep seeing displays.And Trump, in fact, was presented with a display of the Chinese military, but we keep seeing it's a much more serious force than it has ever been.And finally, in this sort of sense of dominance, it is to China that other countries turn for guidance or investment or whatever as a first choice.

What we have seen over and over and over again is that the Trump policies on so much else have worked redounded to the benefit of China.And of course, we had early in this second term, we had a clear face -off.And that's what, I mean, the tariffs, remember the tariffs.

Liberation Day, who can forget?

Principally, I mean, they were directed against everyone, but principally and most of all, and most onerously against China until they weren't.Yeah.So there was the imposition of a draconian tariff on China.You know, and with the point, you know, the fundamental point, Chinese goods were flooding the American market.Chinese goods had stolen America's industrial base.that the Chinese middle class had benefited at the expense of the American middle class.

Very straightforward argument, and tariffs would be the thing that would make a significant dent in Chinese imports.Okay, those tariffs lasted for, I don't know, how many hours?I mean, essentially, essentially Trump imposed the tariffs, the Chinese threatened back, he removed the tariffs.And that's essentially where we are.So he's showing up in China, trying to accomplish, you know, I don't beyond a distraction to the war in Iran and the distraction to so many other issues at home, I don't know what he is trying to accomplish.I don't think he knows what he's trying to accomplish.

I think maybe, you know, at best, he's trying to stave off absolute humiliation.I don't know.And I think the The effect of this is, I mean, the look is terrible.I mean, he looks bad.He looks like a toady.He looks like a supplicant.

We've just got some pictures up on screen at the moment.And the body language is not, this is, you know, Trump is somebody who understands body language in this sort of visceral TV producer way.As you say, he looks physically diminished, if I'm honest, Michael, doesn't he?He doesn't appear to be the same person that we saw in China eight or nine years ago, but it's pretty obvious he's not the alpha male here.

You know, I think the Chinese have very, in a calculated fashion, have studied Trump.They've come to understand Trump, which is not that hard.They are inside Trump's head.And they are playing Trump.I mean, he is in all of these things.And we've discussed this before.

I mean, Trump is really not a good negotiator.Trump really doesn't have a grasp of the issues at hand.Trump really does not have advisers around him who have a grasp of the issues at hand.And on top of that, he has so many other issues in the world that China can play to his advantage, is that he's screwed.

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That's Shopify .com slash Daily Beast.Beast. I just

I just wanted to talk to you about the way in which Xi Jinping has presented himself to Trump that, first of all, in a state visit, obviously, Xi Jinping is the guy doing the welcoming.He's the one that Trump has to walk up to.He clearly had practiced on the handshake front.There was no, you know, this theatrical handshake didn't happen.But then he gave this philosophical speech about the, and somebody is going to correct my pronunciation, even in Scottish here, but the Thucydides trap.And it's almost like he's trolling Trump, right?

He's using this concept from Greek, classical Greek history, military history.And I think we can safely say, Trump hasn't been studying the history of Athens and Sparta in recent years.

Jesus.You know, it boggles the mind, even the thought.

I don't know who had to explain it to him.There were these two cities.

But it's quite significant.Let me be perfectly straightforward about this.He would be unclear on the both Athens and Sparta, where they fell in history, where they fell geographically, and what their significance is.Just note the context here.

I'm glad to put that straight.But this is, I mean, this struck me when I was watching it in the kind of odd hours that it happens, which means it's not live on primetime television.But Trump was presented with a speech and quite a brief speech by she that was at the time.nothing like the way that Trump deals with the world.And it seemed really calculated on the part of the Chinese to do it that way.

Now, here's mud in your eye, Donald Trump.Yes.Let's let's also talk about about who accompanied him on this trip, because it's another one of those those, you know, Trump entourage projects.And and he brings and I cannot Imagine what advantage he sees in bringing all these assholes along.I mean, it's kind of tone deaf.I mean, all of these people, I mean, doesn't he have any sense that the tech overlords, the corporate masters were at a moment of a serious tipping point in our regard for these people?

Right, because he's brought with them, just to run through some of the names, we've got Elon Musk, who has brought...

Geez, yep, there's a popular guy.

There's a man renowned around the world for his popularity.He brought his son with him, so it's kind of like a reunion show.He's brought Jensen Huang, who is the CEO of Nvidia, but it's worth pointing out that Nvidia is very reliant on Taiwan for its manufacturing.

Well, actually, and that's interesting because he was not initially invited and then there was blowback and then they had to add him at the last minute to the trip.

There was Tim Cook of Apple.There's Jane Fraser from, there's only two women.And interestingly, Trump said, I'm bringing 30 of the biggest business leaders.There was a count of the biggest business leaders in the Great Hall of the People where this banquet was held by Xi for Trump.And the maximum number anybody's been able to get to is 14.And that might include Eric Trump.

So you think that a lot of the invites, they made a lot of invites, and he was snubbed.

It's an interesting question, right?

Or it could just be numbers.Remember, 30, 14, 300.It doesn't really matter to Trump.

I think we talked in the last episode about Trump and numbers.And you predicted he's going to sue you for a trillion.I think 30 sounds like a good number of top business leaders.Right.

Why not?Completely.no necessary alignment with reality.I'm just flabbergasted.Now, Brett Ratner is a Hollywood director, the director of the Rush Hour series.He was MeToo'd, canceled in a significant way, hasn't worked in the movie business until he was hired by Melania Trump to direct the movie about her.

Melania the movie, of which basically she was really the director because she was calling all of the shots in this.This was this was this is the documentary which was released in late January, I believe.Yes.That has been funded, supported, funded by Amazon, in which Amazon paid Melania $40 million to appear in a documentary about herself.And Brett Ratner is the director of that documentary.So he is on this trip to China because

because?

It's an intriguing question, right?Is there another Brett Ratner documentary coming?If so, it can't be about Melania because we've talked about who's on the trip.Melania is not on the trip.So he's obviously not making a document.If he's there to make a documentary, it's not about her.

In other more traditional and normal administrations, the entourage would consist of of policy people, Chinese China experts, people with significant State Department diplomatic experience.It would be an entourage of professionals.And and this is an entourage of assholes.

who have still got, well, we're recording this, we should say, on Thursday morning, still another 24 hours, and we are waiting for possibly the biggest moment of this state visit, which will be the official interview by Sean Hannity of Donald Trump.There seems to be...

Sean Hannity, you can add him to the entourage, yes.

Yes.

Brilliant.

It's a cross -section of Trump world all on tour.

This is the time we live in.

Yes.But talking of the time we live in.

Ah, yes.Talking of that subject.

You rightly said there's an element, of course, of all this, it's distraction.And there is something very big to be distracted from, and it's inflation and the dismissal of inflation.

No, that was extraordinary, and I think that statement will come through.haunt him, although I also think it is a reflection of his deepest beliefs.This is interesting, you know, because I mean it is clearly, I don't think you could read this in any other way except to say that he, as a sign of a kind of fundamental contempt for ordinary people, people who actually, who inflation numbers and the ticks downward in the economy are actually, mean real pain for real people.You know, and one of the things that I went back to is that there was, In one of my books, and at this point I have to struggle to remember which book, but I think it's my book Landslide on the 2020 campaign and and Trump's defeat and in what happened on January 6th.But there there's a there's a moment in which Trump is looking out at his at his supporters and and he starts to diss them.He starts to talk about them as as as the great unwashed and all these people with tattoos and why can't they dress properly and and have

never heard of leather shoes?I mean, there's something about Trump that always reverts to a kind of 1955 mean.But it's also a kind of contempt.There is him, he's a rich guy.And then there are all of these of these other people who support him.I mean these people are his base and yet at the same time he has this That's kind of unvarnished contempt for them.

And his statement about the economy, that it really was not top of mind for him, it was not his concern, he wasn't thinking about that, has that same kind of feel.You know, don't bother me with your little problems.

The people that are around him hearing that, what's going through their heads?Because you're a Republican who realistically thinks we're in a tough time.I mean, that must be when you hear that, when it was heard when he was talking about the tattoos and the cheap shoes in 2020.And he's saying this now on the White House lawn of, I don't care.

It's a complicated reaction about the people around him when he says this stuff, because let's remember, he's always saying this stuff.I mean, he is always.It's just.one of the remarkable, novel, amazing things about Trump, that he says things that would have ruined other politicians.You can just pick out one of the things that if it were said by another politician would be their ruination.And he has said thousands of these kinds of things.

So I've seen the people standing around, Trump's people standing around him, and they all stand around with a kind of a kind of bated breath.What is he going to say?damage is going to ensue, what problems.And, but they do this with a, it's, it's a double -edged thing because they know, cause they're all in some sense, relatively traditional political people, even if they're working for Donald Trump and they think, uh, this is, this is, uh, uh, this is a problem.But at the same time, they recognize that problems for, for Donald Trump are, are, you know, They don't affect him the way they affect other politicians.

Which kind of brings us to a point, you've got an excellent point you make on Instagram related to the problems that Donald Trump doesn't necessarily have.But also he says things, the unsayable thing about Donald Trump and about his Well, the way you put it is clear evidence of mental problems.

Well, that's this other thing.And suddenly, I mean, this is an interesting moment, because in the last couple of days, I mean, Donald Trump said on Truth Social, Truth Social is his personal social media platform, of course.And he said, and this was the other evening and mostly his posts occur overnight.He said that Barack Obama is guilty of treason and should go to jail.And suddenly everybody kind of said, whoa.And then there was a sort of recognition.

his other posts and of so many of his other posts.And this is interesting because, of course, this has been going on for years.In fact, during the 2024 campaign, AIDS, and this was a conversation that I had with a bunch of the people close to Trump, it was like, It was like, God, we're we're so grateful that he says this stuff on truth social, because, you know, he's the only one on truth social.So people don't see this.But of course, at the same time, it was there for everyone to see everybody.You could you could look this at any point right now.

You can look this up and find the president of the United States saying things regularly saying things, continuously saying things that are out of control, bizarre, unhinged, irrational, that have in every possible way departed reality.And that has caused people, I don't know, how do you react to that?Nobody actually has quite reacted to this.There are no headlines in the New York Times that say the President of the United States has flipped his lid, which in any reasonable, fair -minded reading of what he posts on social media, you would clearly, that's the conclusion that you would come to.If this, if this were a family member of literally anybody, anybody's who stayed up all night and, and posted sometimes, sometimes in a night, a hundred posts, this kind of, this kind of wingnut stuff, that would be a mental health crisis.

We all knew it.him posting himself as Jesus and then claiming that in fact he thought that was how a doctor dresses.There's been 8 ,000 posts since he resumed office and at The Beast we analysed his output for April and we discovered that 80 % of nights he is posting during the hours that a normal person you would expect to be asleep.We said between 9pm and 6am.Now you wouldn't expect anybody to sleep from 9pm to 6am every night but that seems like a reasonable window.

I do, I do.

Well there you go, in fact it's a very reasonable window for people to be asleep and there were five or six nights in the whole month in which he did not post repeatedly in that window and it's It's clearly not being spoken about, right?

I mean, what do you do with a situation in which you have the president of the United States who is openly, without any kind of inhibition whatsoever, in print, in black and white, in his own hand, delivering these statements which are off the beam constantly?So what does that mean?What do you do with that?What do you do of the clear evidence that the president of the United States is behaving in a way that for anyone else, your own family members, CEOs of other companies would beg for an intervention?

Right.We don't get, just to take an example, Jamie Dimon posting on any social media at that time of night that we knew of.You described it as clear evidence of psychosis.

I always hate to make those kinds of diagnoses.I feel people use this too often.And yet, what do you say?Yeah.I mean, there it is.Nothing that he posts would be considered within the normal frame of not only any politician, but literally anybody.

But there does seem to be the beginning of hints of a crack in this dam of silence.

The Wall Street Journal Well, this week it finally happened, which is weird.Where has the Wall Street Journal, where has the New York Times been for the past now, you know, how long has he been using Truth Social?Four years.

And CNN finally managed to talk about it.

And they talked about it like, I mean, I listened to this with somewhat flabbergasted.Didn't you know?Everybody knows.You didn't know, CNN?

The other flip side of this, this is Aaron Burnett.And we do have a clip of that.

And now he posts pictures of people swimming in sewage and himself on $100 bills.And nobody even notices.Right.OK, that's another weird thing about this.Nobody's even watching all this.

Aaron Burnett is like, whoa, yeah, man.You know, as as though flabbergasted by something that has gone on night after night after night after night.

And something that you've been talking about for months on Inside Trump's Head with Joanna.

You know, and also, you know, in my book, All or Nothing about the about the 2024 campaign, I spent a lot of time talking about about this and a lot of time talking about the people around Trump talking about this.about this, and their worries that other people would start to notice in their communities.of shock that no one did notice.

And when they do, the reaction is to call, they've called Aaron Burnett a moron.I mean, we know what they call you, we know what they call people who point this out, but Are they beginning to get a bit more worried now, do you feel?

Well, and I think on the evidence, Aaron Burnett is a moron for not noticing this for all the time that it is going on, and not just her and CNN, but again, every major news organization has overlooked this, or I would suspect, just not noticed it.They just haven't known how to fathom the meaning of this.So they've ignored it.

So Trump aides, are they beginning to get to a point where they're thinking, oh, we're getting rumbled here?

No, well, I don't know.I mean, Trump aides have always been of that view.I mean, literally, and it's hard to express, Trump aides have always felt that it has been remarkable that Trump has survived.But on the very basis that he has survived so many times, they kind of shrug and accept it.

There's kind of a wider picture around Trump as well, though, of crazy.

Oh, a wider picture around Trump of crazy?Well, I was going to raise...I would say.Who can I raise first?I mean, that's an interesting thing.Are the people around Trump crazier than even Trump?

And, you know, I think in some instances, I mean, I think RFK, you could certainly make a case that he is, in fact, crazier than Donald Trump.

There's one incident that's just happened this week, which is kind of jaw dropping.RFK Jr., they sent him to Ohio totry to get the Maha people back on side.And Ohio traditionally had been a swing state, then it became very, very Trumpy.Anyway, they sent him to Northeast Ohio, and he went to the Cleveland Clinic, which is renowned as, you know, one of the world's best hospital systems consistently, and quite an extraordinary event occurred.He went to look at, it's got a new robot surgeon, it's called Leonardo, and it helps surgeons perform various procedures, including open heart surgery.

Somebody was having open heart surgery, RFK Jr. went in and was at the controls of this robot and the Cleveland Clinic say, no, no, we disabled the controls.So he was just kind of playing with it.But there was literally a patient on the table whose open heart surgery was interrupted for RFK Jr. to have a play with the controls.So it seems like even by the standards of RFK Jr., that does seem kind of crackpot.

You know, I mean, one of the things that I've been interested in is, is, is this the, the sense, and I get some back channel on this, that RFK is looked at as a big danger in the White House.I mean, there is the, you know, RFK Jr., still Jr. at 72, has made himself the face of the anti -vaccine movement.And the anti -vaccine movement, which the Trump people felt was a was a significant constituency in the Trump base, that turns out to be largely a misperception.that the anti -vax movement is incredibly unpopular throughout the country.And and so they're stuck with this.They're stuck with RFK Jr.

Every time you think or you see RFK Jr., you think anti -vax.I mean, that has been a very successful branding operation.I am the anti -vax guy.And they and and that has that has spread out that RFK Jr. has become this this this hot button in the health world, in not just the health world, in the perception of voters about the management of the health world.And the perception is hardly positive, exactly the opposite, in fact.So So the White House is now kind of stuck with this situation.

We hired RFK Jr.Why did we hire RFK Jr.?That's almost inexplicable to everyone.And everyone is quite clear that he is a nutball.And now there are other inexplicable hires and other nutballs, but none that has resounded so much on a particular issue, which is particularly important to the electorate.And they don't know what to do inside of the White House.

And one of the things that they do seem to be doing is kind of defenestrating RFK Jr. without firing him.Right.So they're firing everyone around him.They are putting in far less.They're firing RFK Jr.'s objectionable hires.putting in people who are less objectionable.

So it's one of the few instances in which they seem to have recognized the craziness in their house and are trying to manage it.

That this week has included the departure and whether he was fired or he resigned.Dr. Marty Makary, who was the FDA commissioner, but this was because he was standing in the way of flavoured vapes.That doesn't really sound like a big vote winner, that there are parents desperate for their children to be exposed to vaping.

Yeah, well, that's another thing.I mean, the flavoured vapes are coming from the White House because Trump has his own personal arrangement with the tobacco industry.They're caught at that moment between RFK, who is against, actually, the vapes, the flavoured vapes.

That's the one bit of health advice you can agree with RFK Jr on.

Um, yeah, geez, I mean, it's all it's all nuts.So and, and obviously flavored vapes vapes from the White House is nuts.But they've also They've also gotten rid of one of the people who was against flavored vapes is also an anti -vaxxer.So they wanted that gone.So they actually don't think that flavored vapes is a big issue, but they do think that the anti -vax issue is a big issue and actually should be a big issue.

And should be, absolutely.Because RFK, not the only crazy, Kash Patel, Oh my God.

Cash, cash, cash.

And actually, just on the subject of tobacco, Cash Patel, cigar entrepreneur among many of the stranger journeymen.he's taken, children's author, cigar entrepreneur.

What did Kash Vatel ever do for a living, actually, before he became head of the FBI?Do we know this?

I don't know this.Well, he's had quite a journey in life.

He was a podcaster, so we could become the head of the FBI, yes?But what else was he?

I don't feel qualified, but if you're interested, I'm sure.he wrote a couple of children's books which were based on Donald Trump and included a wicked queen that was supposed to be Hillary.

So that was his when he was That was Agitprop as a Trump supporter.Yes.But what was he before he became, went into the Trump business?

Strangely, his very first job actually was as a public defender in the federal court system down in Miami.And that, you know, seems like a pretty worthy thing to do.

But he didn't hold that job for very long.

He did not hold that job for very long.He then went, he flipped sides and he went to work for the Department of Justice.And he was a pretty junior you know, a line prosecutor at the Department of Justice.He claimed to be much more senior than he was subsequently, and he kind of parlayed that to working for the House Intelligence Committee under Devin Nunes, who weirdly went on to run Trump's Truth Social.It's a very small world in Trump world, as we know.And when he was there, he became the kind of the chief conspiracy theorist for taking apart what they called the Russian collusion hoax and which other people say is.

So he's basically been spent, spent his time as a Trumper.He's in the Trump industry.You know, he's he's one of those other people who certainly during during both during the first administration and during the 2020.campaign, Trump aides, the more the normies would single out Kash Patel as someone who, and they would kind of define this as a line which Trump would not go over, like Kash Patel would never get a senior appointment.And yet, here we are.And he got ripped apart before in a congressional hearing earlier this week, and didn't respond.

I mean, he was, it's like, why?I mean, I guess people are saying that he took a page from the Pam Bondi book, which worked out very well for her, as you recall.

Yes, Pam Bondi, who is, it's unclear she hasn't surfaced anywhere yet.certainly is not the Attorney General, is in some sort of Trump -land exile.

And she appeared before Congress, was very obstreperous, very oppositional, often profane.And following one of her really notable appearances before Congress, Trump fired her.So is he going to fire Cash?I mean, in almost every one of these people in the administration, that's the question.Are they going to be fired?Now, that's been the question from the beginning.

But there was, for the first year and a half, we had Trump's refusal to fire anyone.He dug in his feet.I'm not going to be pressured.I don't care what you think.I don't care what the Democrats think.I am not doing this.

And then that has, as Tim said,numbers have collapsed, so has that resolve.And now we've seen one after another of, of these incompetence of the inexperienced and incompetence being fired.So, so the logical question is, is who's next, and in each instance of a crazy person, well, why wouldn't they be fired?In Kash Patel, clearly, I mean, there's nothing that has gone right for this guy.You know, many reports about his alcoholism, about the special favors that his girlfriend gets, and on top of the fact that he appears before Congress and tries to shout down the people questioning him.

I should say he denies, you know, he denies he's got an alcohol problem.He denies that there's anything up with his relationship with his, you know, with the perks given to his relationship with his girlfriend.But the denials are part of the problem, right?Yes.

We're still talking about a political position when you have to deny, deny constantly.But I think that his protection here is is that, you know, he is in absolute loyalist, controlling the FBI, which Trump has always feared is investigating him or given any opportunity will investigate him.So cash is his protection, which is a pretty kind of bleak and precarious position.Imagine if cash were your protector.

his his in private life, his bodyguards were always guys from Queens and Long Island.And Cash is, in fact, exactly one of those.He's from Garden City.So I don't know.It's like Trump could kind of Trump could kind of be into it.

But, you know, I once just so I once interviewed Trump in his in his house in Beverly Hills.Nobody even knew he had a house in Beverly Hills, but he had this big house in Beverly Hills, right across the street from the Beverly Hills Hotel, and filled with kind of cast -off hotel furniture.And I went there to interview them and there were, and I came in and there are guys, you know, four or five guys sitting around a table playing cards.And these are the bodyguards and they look, this was a goodfellas scene.

Which we assume Trump's watched, right?We assume he's got to have.Maybe it was a different eye to all the other people who watched it.

Yeah, no, interesting, interesting question.Yes.I hadn't thought about that.I'm sure Trump would have watched The Godfather.As a matter of fact, I know he has, and I've discussed The Godfather with him.Of course he would have watched The Godfather.

Goodfellas, you know, it's a little close to the bone, perhaps.

Yes.Are you laughing at me?But on the West Coast, it's not just Beverly Hills, it's tech, which is..

mob group, completely.

I mean, I couldn't possibly comment, but one of the more intriguing things that we found out this week is where the money from the midterms is coming from.And just worth saying, it doesn't appear to be coming from Trump, who's sitting on hundreds of millions of dollars of donations in his various political action committees, but it's tech that are throwing money into the midterms.

And it is specifically one particular venture from Andreessen Horowitz.And it's interesting that during the 2024 campaign, there was a moment, and I recount this in my book, All or Nothing, in which Trump is pissed off of having to go to fundraisers, do one fundraiser after another, which is the, you know, what politicians have to have to do.And it is truly the worst part of the of a bad business.And Trump was rebelling against this.And and everybody was saying, you know, well, we got to, you know, you got to.And he said, I don't have to.

I don't have to do any of this because because whatever money we need.OK, this is crazy.Quotes, in quotes, whatever money we need, we can get from the crypto guys.Quote, unquote, whatever money we need, we can get from the crypto guys.So what are Andreessen Horowitz?They are the crypto guys.

And and they have managed their their their money has not only boughtthem access, constant access to Trump, but they have filled the administration with their people.So here we are.That's what you get for your hundreds of millions of dollars.

Well, in their case, literally, 115 million dollars so far in this cycle since, you know, since the end of the last election.They've actually, they've outspent Elon, not surprisingly, 85 million.But notably, it was Elon that went to China, it's Elon that takes the steps down from Air Force One.What's going on in the Trump world that you want to put this money in, but you don't want the publicity?

Um, I can't I can't answer that.I mean, Elon wants publicity.Elon, Elon obviously has made himself he has he has thrived on on that has become a figure of great controversy because because of that.And, you know, I mean, I tend to believe, I mean, the Andreessen Horowitz people, I guess, have been somewhat more muted, but they haven't been that muted.Their people, I mean, all of these tech guys have displayed their own fundamental boredom, I think.with their own jobs.

And they're filled with arrogance and hubris and whatever else you get filled with when you become a billionaire.Here's the distinguishing thing about people who are billionaires.They really want to be known for being billionaires.They want you to know that they are billionaires because they're really great.And the only way you do this is by making publicity part of your coin.That's what you're buying.

You're buying not only the way to make more money, but you're buying You're funding your own mythology.

In fact, like, like, Xi Jinping.Mythology, of course, something that Trump doesn't appear to have any knowledge of.

Hugh, thank you for filling in for Joanna.You've stepped up.Everybody at The Daily Beast is stepping up.And I appreciate Joanna and I appreciate it.

Yes.In fact, we do have a couple of, we have a poem from Garfried, who I had a couple of messages saying, we'd like to hear one of the limericks in your Scottish accent.This was clearly not from anybody who knows me who is like, can you just shut up?But the inimitable Garfried has been in touch on the very topic on which we've been talking about, China.And he says, there once was a Don in Beijing who bartered off every darn thing.While Marco played Clark, she finished the work of crowning America's king.

Garfried, thank you.And I hope fantastic.I hope that satisfies those who want to deliver it in the Scottish accent.

I didn't understand the word you said.

I suspected that might be the case.Thank you to YouTube for doing those subtitles.

And thank you to our amazing team.Ryan, Rachel, Heather and Neil.Thank you so much.Once more.

So the good news is we have so many Be Beast tier members now.There are too many names to read out and we really appreciate your support.