The Daily Beast Podcast

Michael Wolff joins Joanna Coles to unpack Trump’s latest high-stakes drama: the Insurrection Act and his escalating presence in American cities. From Minneapolis as ground zero to ICE agents wielding “absolute immunity,” Wolff breaks down how conflict and chaos have become Trump’s strategy, not his mistake. Joanna and Wolff explore the administration’s doubling down, the Democratic Party’s faltering response, and the curious absence of figures like Barack Obama and George W. Bush—two leaders with the authority to counter Trump’s moves. They also trace Trump’s foreign entanglements, from Venezuela to Iran, and the surprising ways reality continues to diverge from his proclamations. With Trump’s threats backfiring at home and abroad, the conversation exposes a presidency ruled by drama, distraction, and the relentless pursuit of power. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Michael Wolff joins Joanna Coles to trace how a president cornered by Epstein, ICE violence, collapsing polls, and mounting legal exposure responds the only way he knows how: by grabbing territory, media, and attention at scale. From the Foxification of CBS News and the quiet corporate bargain behind it, to Trump’s fixation on Greenland, Venezuela, Iran, and elite cities he loves to demonize, this episode maps a presidency fueled by distraction, intimidation, and an audience of one. Wolff unpacks why Trump’s pressure-point politics now extend from network newsrooms to foreign policy theater, why even loyal institutions are bending under threat, and why the nightmare Trump is trying to outrun—Epstein. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jeffrey Toobin joins Joanna Coles to explain how Donald Trump has tightened his grip on the Justice Department, why Republicans in Congress have fallen into line, and how a Supreme Court that once checked presidential power has largely enabled it. Toobin, author and New York Times Op-Ed contributor, breaks down the looming tariff case—and why even a loss at the Court wouldn’t stop Trump, who would simply rewrite the policy and dare the legal system to catch up—alongside what’s at stake in birthright citizenship and the broader expansion of executive authority. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Michael Wolff joins Joanna Coles to trace the oddly revealing logic now driving Donald Trump’s presidency: a man who knows the midterms are coming, knows the numbers are bad, knows Epstein, jobs, ICE videos, and his own health chatter are bleeding into the public consciousness—and who believes the only solution is something that “plays.” From Pam Bondi’s visible strain as Trump treats the Justice Department like his personal law firm, to his lifelong conviction that nothing is ever his fault, Wolff explains why loyalty always curdles into blame. The conversation moves outward to the foreign-policy theatrics he sees as risk-free wins: Venezuela as a headline-grabbing show of force, Greenland as a performative threat designed to make Europe bend, and war as branding. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

David Rothkopf joins Joanna Coles for a blistering, darkly funny tour through what they argue is the accelerating late stage of Donald Trump: a president who can’t hold a thought, wanders off mid-meeting, and yet is being weaponized by Stephen Miller, Marco Rubio, JD Vance, and others to push extreme agendas at breakneck speed. Along the way, they unpack Democratic paralysis, early signs of Republican and corporate peeling away, the politics of immigration as it tips from winning issue to liability, and why the real fight now is about stopping the madness before the midterms—plus, because it’s 2026, a detour into Doritos, Hollywood finally finding its voice again, and the Melania movie as protest art. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.