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TRUMP BECOMING EXPOSED The Daily Beast Trump’s Not in Charge. This is who Really is. PLAY YOUTUBE VIDEO Original article: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIx2lxMccXs Peter Burgess COMMENTARY Peter Burgess
Trump’s Not in Charge. This is who Really is. The Daily Beast ... The Daily Beast Podcast Premiered Mayy 18th 2025 95.2K subscribers ... 142,378 views ... 9.7K likes The Daily Beast’s brilliant columnist David Rothkopf tells Joanna Coles what’s really going on in the Oval Office. From dumbed-down intelligence briefings to the truth about why he backed off tariffs, Rothkopf spells out who’s really calling the shots—and why the answer should worry every American. #trump #politics #geopolitics Have a question or comment for us? Send us an email: beastpod@thedailybeast.com Listen to the full episode of The Daily Beast Podcast here on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts: https://pod.link/1508202790 The Daily Beast is committed to accurate, fair, independent, fast, and accountable journalism. We seek the truth and report it honestly, without fear or favor. We ground robust and provocative opinions in fact. 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Follow us on X: / dailybeast Follow us on Facebook: / thedailybeast Transcript 0:03 welcome to the Daily Beast podcast I'm Joanna Kohl's I'm the chief content officer and I wanted to start by thanking you for the incredible engagement we got last week after Michael Wolf appeared on the podcast on YouTube We had over 3,000 of you write in talking largely about Trump craving attention and that really being his motivating factor and over half a million of you watched it So today we're talking to David Rothkco one of the Daily Beast contributors who wrote an excellent piece this week arguing that the first four months of Donald Trump's second administration have seen the country America drop significantly in the international rankings and Trump himself having gone from leader of the free world uh has severely dropped down the rankings of the world's most important people And when David speaks or writes we listen because he's the former editor of Foreign Policy magazine He was a senior official in the Clinton 1:01 administration And his concern and anxiety about Trump and his foreign policy is off the charts uh in terms of what this means for America and what it means for America in the world So David can we I have so many questions but I guess the first one is uh I want to talk to you about Trump no longer bothering really with his intelligence briefings He's done 12 since he started and he's down to two a month whereas even President Biden managed to a week Some presidents love this kind of stuff Bill Clinton Barack Obama they like to immerse themselves um in in in these briefings um and saw them as an important part of their daily intake and doing their jobs Trump is the antithesis of that He always has been In fact you know they dumbed down intelligence briefings They put more pictures and diagrams in them because he didn't 2:01 really like words uh you know which is you know kind of but I can't imagine what what are the graphics for you know increased tension in the Middle East or what are the graphics for Russia and Ukraine what do they look like well I mean listen to Trump when he was talking about bombings in in Ukraine uh by the Russians He was describing pictures he was shown in his intelligence briefings Right I mean that's you know that's kind of uh that's kind of the way he he thinks Um but as you say story is he's only been to 14 such briefings Um you know in this in this second administration and as I as I wrote for you a couple couple of I guess two weeks ago you know part of the reason Mike Waltz got fired was that Mike Waltz thought he was being hired to give advice you know he's a national security advisor Trump doesn't want advice Trump 3:02 thinks he knows everything He he sees facts as a distraction from his impulses and his beliefs Um and so uh you know he the Trump is in the middle of an experiment and not actually having a national security council right marco Rubio is doing both jobs And there's some talk among people in the White House that if this goes well for a few months Trump might just say 'Let's get rid of the NSC,' which has been a thing since 1947 has been central to the support of every president since Kennedy Um and has grown over the years in the past 20 25 years to being three or 400 people who have been absolutely essential to how every president conducts their foreign policy But it doesn't matter to Trump because he views all foreign policy as an interaction between him and some other world leader 4:01 So he Yeah All right He set off to the Middle East saying that he was going to do some deals Your column for us this week which was very good was about how he thinks he's the most important man in the world but to your point about him actually not really having a foreign policy As a result he sunk down the the rankings of the most important people in the world So can you talk a little bit about this week's trip and about where he fits now against the leaders of Russia and China and the Middle East and then I want to know what they're all saying about him behind his back Well let's break it down into component parts There are certain things that made the president of the United States the most powerful man in the world One of them was uh that the US was seen as a leader and it was seen as trusted US is no longer seen as a leader It is no longer trusted Another was that the US had this big network of alliances around the 5:01 world Trump is blowing up those alliances So those are sources of power and those have been undermined Uh we've had some tests of Trump's um uh power and influence over the course of the past four months uh for example he launched a bunch of tariffs on countries and particularly hard on China and the Chinese later said okay bring it you know I I you know we we have 1.4 billion people we have a big internal market the world wants to do business with us and by the way we're the number two purchaser of US Treasury bonds and um we have a lot of rare earth metals you you want to not do business with us and Trump very quickly had people in his administration going 'Uh you got to back off of this.' And the markets said 'You got to back off of this.' And that standoff she won Trump lost Clearly she is the most powerful man in the world right now It's not Trump Trump is in a 6:01 sense playing the arsonist fireman isn't he he He creates this phony war over tariffs Uh and here it seems to have played out reasonably well because people have forgotten somehow that he actually started this phony war How is it being interpreted by Shei and by China it's being interpreted as a phony war They know they didn't provoke this Um and they also I believe don't think Trump has the cards Uh you know Trump came and said 'Well I've got all the cards You don't.' Uh but you know they kind of know this law of poker you know that that if if if somebody else if if somebody thinks everybody else around the table has got a weaker hand than them they're probably the one with the weakest hand He he he just doesn't um uh have uh the tools to or the leverage over China to achieve what he wanted to achieve And they know it But Trump's got 7:00 no coherent theory of this because first of all his theory of tariffs is creating jobs and and and so forth is completely wrong right so it can't be coherent It doesn't make sense economically Uh uh but he just wants wins Trump is all just about how does it make him look So he looks tough when he puts in the tariffs and he looks good when he comes up with a solution and he doesn't care what justifies the solution The Chinese know they did this with him once before remember there was a standoff before and they said well okay we'll buy a couple hundred billion dollars of your products and he's like yay hey everybody they're going to buy a couple hundred billion dollars of our product did they ever do it no and and and and you want to know something he is but he's a scam artist you know and so what he is interested in he knows that he's going to be caught sooner or later because that's happened throughout his life five bankruptcies you know whatever has happened in the women in his and every he's always doing a scam right and he knows he's going to 8:00 get caught So the thing for Trump is what is my escape plan how do I get out of this and how do I profit from it is his escape plan to run for a third term cuz he keeps floating It's a little bit like the birthright citizenship thing You know this plane it's in the constitution He can't do it Two he's 78 He's going to be 79 next month He's way too old to run for the president He said he's not going to run for the presidency again He's not going to run for the presidency again If you were worried about Trump was staying in office that's not the thing to worry about The thing to worry about is that the puppet masters the guys behind Trump who are dictating the policies Musk and Teal and Zuckerberg and Bezos and the Federalist Society and all the dark money people they're going to be there They're not going away They're going to pick candidates that advance their agenda They're the ones that have got us into this mess over the past 40 years and they're you know going to continue to be 9:00 a force in the US life So it's dangerous to messmeriz on Trump when the real problem is something not that he's not a problem but the real problem is something else We see Trump donors writing things in the bills that are going on now you know like there will be no regulation of AI or whatever that makes Elon Musk or Peter Teal happy or we're going to build a golden dome to protect America Who's going to get the contract elon Musk and Peter Teal Those people are more important And so if you go and you make a list not only is US president not the number one or the number two person he's he's he's not in the top 25 And I haven't even gotten to the fact that he used to be the most important person in America but you got to give the Pope a shot at that now cuz he's an American And and and you know there's a billion people that follow him But he's going to be super influential on a few issues like immigration 10:00 refugees the environment so forth where even though he's a conservative man he's the head of the church he he's got positions that are contrary to Trump's and has been willing to call out Trump call out Vance And so there's this big long list and every day we're watching Trump bump down a couple of places on it Well the other thing that the American president has traditionally been too is the the sort of head of the western belief in democracy right which he no longer seems to believe in He's cozying up to Putin What does it say for global democracy too that he's adopting this position it's bad news You know the president of the United States was seen as the principal champion of democracy He clearly isn't you know when he's got his most powerful aid Steven Miller saying we're going to suspend habius corpus which is kind of the foundation of uh common law the 11:00 foundation of law in the United States That's worrisome when he's seeking to undermine elections running again which is unconstitutional or eliminating birthright citizenship which is unconstitutional impeaching judges that you know don't agree with him uh which is contrary to the separation of powers All those things say this guy is not only not the champion of democracy he's not a fan of democracy He doesn't particularly like it And so he gets to go around with Putin or Kim Jong-un or kings or potentates around the world and he likes them because they have the same view he does which is why do I have to care about the little people so what's your analysis of his trip to the Middle East he said he went because he wanted to make deals He's come back with a deal for 28 Boeing planes He's managed to score himself a free plane from Qatar What's your analysis of that trip we've got to be fair when he does things that are 12:01 positive We should acknowledge when they are positive things This trip was overshadowed by this cutter plane fiasco Um uh which you know now both Democrats and Republicans are decrying it because it's corrupt and because it's a security um uh threat and because the plane to to retrofit it'll cost a billion dollars And now there all the stories that of course the Qataris have been trying to get rid of this plane for a while Um and I mean even Laura Loomer is advising against it Every again people on the hill who are not known for their courage like Susan Collins they're advising against it Um but so that overshadowed the the trip But if you look at it from a foreign policy perspective there were some big shifts He sat down with the leader of Syria He said we would lift sanctions on Syria Now this guy was an al-Qaeda guy He was on our terrorist 13:00 list for a long time But does Syria you know does this make some sense to start you know give it a give it a new start and try to help the people of Syria probably does He said I'm going to end this war against the Houthis Um and you know was he covering up for the fact that we were getting nowhere and it was costing a billion dollars a month yeah But on the other hand ending it it's probably better than not He's pushing for uh a deal with Iran Uh did he blow up the prior deal ea did Should he have no But on the other hand it's better that he's pushing for it than listening to BB Netanyahu who wants to go to war with Iran Uh he's he's pushing back on BB Netanyahu saying you can't dictate what our policies are in the region Uh you know strangely we've reached the point where America's right-wing maniacs are uncomfortable with Israel's right-wing maniacs You know Israel's too far right for our right Um and uh you 14:01 know so that's a positive Well even though Trump's views on Gaza and creating a free zone or building casinos or whatever are crazy and giving the Israelis more weapons to kill Palestinians is horrible Um and even on AI you know the Biden administration's view on AI was let's keep it all to ourselves Let's restrict its being shared in the world because we don't want the Chinese to get a hold of it Well in the course of the past few years the Chinese have caught up a lot and um and Trump is sort of changing policy and saying 'What we'd rather do is get people using our systems and buying our systems and being engaged with us because it benefits us economically but it also gives us a leg up on the Chinese in terms of the global competition.' I think that's probably net net a positive change So if you look at the trip you know once again there's one part of the world where Trump even though he's 15:00 causing problems everywhere else does a little better Last time around it was the Abraham Accords This time around uh it's this uh region If I may I would like to say one last thing and that is that I am the CEO of a company that does a lot of podcasts and in addition to my primary job of writing for you Joanna and uh uh and two of the podcasts are sponsored by the Embassy of the United Arab Emirates in the United States And so as a result of that because that's the way the law goes we register under Farah for as as taking money from them And we don't lobby We don't do any of that Nobody has ever sought to influence our content They've never sought to influence anything I write But whenever I talk about this region okay declare it Yeah I want to be transparent Okay Mark Okay So David Doug McMillan the CEO of Walmart this week came out and said that given the tariffs they were going 16:01 to have to pass on some of the price hike to customers A lot of that is going to impact Trump's base especially in states in the middle of the country How is this helpful to him it's not I mean it's it's I mean you know Trump is waging a one-man war to against Trump's base You know he's he's raising prices and a bunch of people who thought he was going to lower prices that's going to lose base um you know he he had this sort of surge in support under Latinos who thought well he's just going to deport the bad ones not the good ones Now he's deporting everybody or seeking to and violating the law So he's alienating um them uh you know the the bulk of the people who benefit from Medicaid live in red states um or some very substantial number Um and uh and and so literally I 17:03 I think 17 million Americans under the current plan in the Congress would lose their Medicaid uh coverage That's going to alienate a lot of them Uh people who thought that you know the veterans who thought 'Oh Trump's the patriotic choice are discovering that he's shutting down VA hospitals and they're not going to get healthcare He is alienating them.' There is no Democrat in the United States doing as much to defeat Donald Trump as Donald Trump is doing Well he's his own worst enemy isn't he he always has been I mean he wins he loses he wins he loses What are the Democrats doing oh fumbling fumb fumbling around you know Um I I you know I they're pretty weak Chuck Schumer doesn't show up on videotape Hakee Jeff is trying to get his sea legs Uh you know there were a couple of Democratic governors who everybody was like 'Oh they have a lot of promise.' Gavin Newsome is is like 18:02 lurching towards the center in the most desperate way possible You and I talked about this once but it looks like he's trying to win back his ex-girlfriend Kimberly Gilfoil I mean it's just I don't even know But then by moving further right by cosplaying by having all these bright being bloggers and uh podcast hosts on his podcast I if I if he goes home at night and puts on a Don Jr mask I wouldn't be surprised right cuz he is like go I don't know what's going on in his head Uh you know poor Gretchen Whitmer who is a leading candidate She got used by Trump in this little office thing and that's going to hurt her um some Democrats You think Do you think it does hurt her cuz she's obviously someone that the Democrats are talking about as a potential leader for 2028 You think that her turning up at his rally and saying we're all for Michigan hurt her yeah Because I think a lot of people see Trump as you know um uh you know 19:01 unabated evil and and and I think uh she was seen as being used not being strong on it JB Pritsker the governor of Illinois has been great has been strong Chris Murphy senator from Connecticut has been great has been strong Obviously AOC and Bernie Sanders um have been on the road been great have been strong Jasmine Crockett has been great has been strong I think we're going to see a lot of a change in the sort of the the changing of the guard in the Democratic party Uh and I don't know that we can predict how it'll go I think the midterms will affect that a lot But you know there are other subtle things you know and this won't be popular among some Democrats But you know the air transportation system in the United States is a freaking disaster And every day some new horrible thing is happening Pete Budajed who is an excellent candidate and articulate person He's a he's a really good guy He's got that's on him You know it's also on him right i 20:01 see this as a moment of real change and uh I see that as a good thing because we're at a moment where the country could use a change of leadership and the country could use actually a generational change of leadership One of the things that's visible is Trump is not the same guy he was in the first term He's slow looks older He's slowed down He doesn't have Melania with him anymore Well I don't know whether that's a plus or a minus but but he he doesn't uh but you know he just he doesn't seem to get things He's not as quick on the uptake Uh he's 78 He's going to be 79 when he throws that parade for himself Um you know the problem is he still looks he looks robust and energetic compared to his predecessor obviously Joe Biden You start your column by imagining what it would have been like if Kla Harris had won the election and Joe Biden had said in 2022 I'm looking for a successor That's because there's this book out 21:01 original sin by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson and the there's conversation about it It really irritates Democrats This is coming up and why are you picking an old Joe and Trump is trying to destroy democracy Let's focus on that and I'm all for that Right Trump is trying to focus destroy democracy The problem uh with not acknowledging the with what Biden did wrong and Biden should have two years before said I'm not running should have stuck to I'll be a transitional president as he said is that it leads Democrats to draw some of the wrong conclusions uh about where we stand politically and that's dangerous right so what you mean it it causes the wrong conclusions well people say oh well a woman can't wit well Kamla Harris had a 100 days to run for president Nobody's ever had that few She very nearly won Hillary Clinton got the the majority of the popular vote I could make a very strong case that they were both very strong candidates and um uh 22:02 that they proved that a woman can win And well no one ever says white men can't win And yet every single election there's always been a white man up until the Hillary election where there's been a white man that lost Right Exa Well that's exactly right And the other thing is you've got a lot of Democrats going 'Well you have to move to the center Let's be more like Trump Let's do that Gavin Newsome Don Jr face mask thing.' And and the reality is um that's not the the message And I don't think it's right Uh if you take what we typically think of as a progressive message what is that fairer taxes rich pay more taxes health care for everybody take care of the environment reasonable gun control um uh education reform give more people a chance to be educated um etc etc if you that's progressive right that's sounds progressive It sounds like AOC Well it should just be it just feels normal It 23:00 is normal That's what other democ democratic countries have But in this country 3/4 of the people support those things In some cases like gun reform 90% support them So that is the mainstream And the only people who don't seem to understand that are the political media Um AOC is at the center of American political belief on the major issues of the day to move you know to to these these smart genius consultants David Axelrod and James Carville and you know a lot of the people you see on TV who say 'Oh well the Democrats really need to get more like Trump.' really the answer is to compromise Compromising with a fascist produces fascism light It's a bad choice And if you think um that you know the 24:00 Democrats lost in 2024 because they were you know uh not far center enough and and you don't understand it's because of a bad decision that Joe Biden made You're going to draw the wrong conclusions You may lose again What the country needs is Democrats who own who they are who are proud of supporting things that are common sense uh who will have some strength courage of their convictions uh and then we'll do one other thing that Democrats are a little loathed to do and that is embrace the power they seek You know Democrats are like 'Yeah I'm oh embarrassed I don't want to do this I don't want to I you know Merrick Garland Oh I don't I don't want to push too hard on on Trump And then we end up with what trump again even though it's a crazy thing Well well well All right David That's 25:00 enough for a Sunday That's enough for a Sunday Thank you very much I love reading your columns and I love talking to you and it's a strange world we're in right now It's a strange world but we're relying on you to explain it to us and to come back and talk to us again Nobody is a better guide for a strange world than you as the editor of the Daily Beast Well when we have writers like you David we will uh we will be fine But we can we can collectively we can handle strange David thank you so much for joining us And if you have been listening thank you And feel free to go on to our YouTube channel and add a comment We really do read them all as do the contributors and it's very helpful to know what you're thinking out there We'll be back on Tuesday with a new podcast and many more political insights into this crazy crazy time So until then be beast This podcast was produced by Devon Rogerino Anna von Ersen and it was edited by Lindseay Meeks

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