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The Daily Beast Podcast
The Devious Reason Trump Announced His 2024 Run Now
Donald Trump’s 2024 announcement may have felt like a flop, but dig deeper and you’ll find the most interesting part. Jose Pagliery, political investigations reporter at The Daily Beast, tells The New Abnormal host Andy Levy that there is no way to look at this announcement “as anything other than an attempt to mar any prosecution as a political persecution of him.” It “could be viewed as him trying to seek further cover so that if he does get indicted for one of the many things that he’s being investigated for right now, he could just say, ‘oh, look at this, they just indicted me because I announced, they were just trying to stop me from winning for you in 2024.’” Speaking of Trump, also on the podcast, former Missouri Secretary of State and the host of the podcast Majority 54, Jason Kander, explains that Trump could be his worst enemy, becoming overexposed in American culture. Also on the podcast, Kat Abughazaleh, who covers Tucker Carlson for Media Matters for America, describes how Carlson has been relatively quiet since Trump’s announcement.
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49. Why Melania Trump Is Hiding From Me: Wolff
59:49||Season 1, Ep. 49Michael Wolff joins Joanna Coles with a story Trump World would rather bury: his legal pursuit of Melania Trump after she threatened a $1 billion libel suit over his reporting on her ties to Jeffrey Epstein. Wolff details the surreal effort to serve the First Lady—lawyers refusing papers, process servers turned away, Trump Tower staff claiming she lives there while she avoids being found—and explains why he sued first under New York’s anti-intimidation law. The legal farce opens onto something larger: a family operating in secrecy and fear, a president trying to “serve” his wife even as control slips, and a White House where avoidance has become strategy. As Trump’s foreign policy grows more erratic and Europe edges toward war, the question lingers: is Melania’s disappearance just legal gamesmanship—or another sign of a presidency retreating from accountability?
627. Epstein Served Me Up For Trump's Sick Pleasure
45:32||Season 1, Ep. 627Stacey Williams joins Joanna Coles as the anticipated release of the Epstein files throws fresh scrutiny on Donald Trump’s long-denied proximity to Jeffrey Epstein. Williams recounts how a dinner invitation led to a relationship with Epstein—and, she says, to being deliberately walked into Trump Tower where Trump groped her while Epstein stood by, a moment she now believes was staged. Does her account expose how power, silence, and sexual coercion were normalized at the highest levels—and why Trump remains untouched as others in Epstein’s orbit fall?
48. Trump's Staff Are Questioning His Mental Stability
47:26||Season 1, Ep. 48Michael Wolff joins Joanna Coles to break down the Vanity Fair profile that may have pushed Trump chief of staff Susie Wiles into dangerous territory, and the newly surfaced Epstein diaries that reveal fixation more than revelation. But the episode turns darker with Trump’s grotesque response to the murder of Rob Reiner and his wife—a moment that shocked even his own insiders. Wolff argues this wasn’t calculation or cruelty, but something giving way. And it leaves an unavoidable question hanging in the air: how long can a presidency survive when self-destruction is no longer strategic, but instinctive?
625. Why Susie Wiles Can't Deny Spilling Trump Secrets
40:59||Season 1, Ep. 625Chris Whipple joins Joanna Coles as his explosive Susie Wiles profile sends shockwaves through Trump’s White House. After 11 months of on-the-record access, for Vanity Fair, to Susie Wiles, Whipple explains why the facts can’t be denied—and why her description of Trump’s “alcoholic personality” has triggered cabinet-wide panic and presidential pushback. Does this unprecedented candor reveal how Trump 2.0 actually functions, or mark the moment the West Wing turns on its most powerful gatekeeper?
624. This Is How We Know Trump Is A Sociopath: Author
42:43||Season 1, Ep. 624David Rothkopf joins Joanna Coles to unpack a presidency stripped of empathy after Trump’s disturbing Truth Social post responding to the murder of filmmaker Rob Reiner and his wife. Rothkopf, the founder of Deep State Radio and former editor of Foreign Policy magazine, argues that this moment exposes Trump’s defining pathology: an inability to respond to tragedy without cruelty, self-obsession, and grievance. From mass shootings to corruption, donors, and a cabinet quietly hedging its bets, they trace how Trump’s personal brokenness has become national policy—and ask the defining question: How long can a political system function when it’s built around one man’s pathology?
623. The Real Reason Trump's Lost His Mojo: Don Lemon
48:50||Season 1, Ep. 623Don Lemon joins Joanna Coles to diagnose why Trump’s lost his charismatic touch. Lemon, Founder of The Don Lemon Show, describes a former president whose influence is fading as voters grow disillusioned with MAGA, economic distortions, and rising healthcare costs. From Trump’s credibility and health to Republican lawmakers misreading the electorate, Lemon explores the consequences of a movement built on lies and distractions—and presses a defining question: How long can the GOP survive a leader losing his grip?
47. The Truth Behind New Trump Epstein Photos: Wolff
01:00:16||Season 1, Ep. 47Michael Wolff joins Joanna Coles to reveal stories behind newly released Epstein photos. Together they sift through the blacked-out faces, the Mar-a-Lago-style party shots, and a younger Steve Bannon seated in Epstein’s ornate study—the man he once admitted was the only figure in 2016 who truly scared him. Wolff explains why these images are surfacing now, how both parties are weaponizing them, and why they revive long-buried questions about Trump’s ties to Epstein. Coles ends on the unavoidable question: Are there more Epstein and Trump revelations still waiting to be discovered?
46. What Trump Really Thinks of Women on His Team
48:14||Season 1, Ep. 46Michael Wolff joins Joanna Coles to unpack Kristi Noem’s “Ice Barbie” theatrics at Homeland Security to Pam Bondi’s loyal remaking of the Justice Department. They explore how, for the people in Trump’s political orbit, loyalty and spectacle outweigh competence. Wolff and Coles dive into Corey Lewandowski’s influence, Alina Haber’s rocky rise, Jared Kushner’s allies, and the fractures forming among Trump’s women acolytes. Behind the headlines, they reveal a presidency driven by personal power, loyalty tests, and showmanship—where the inner workings are as unpredictable as the public drama.
622. How Trump, 79, Is Being Exploited By His 'Friend'
23:55||Season 1, Ep. 622Ambassador John Bolton joins Hugh Dougherty to chart the growing dangers of Trump’s foreign policy, driven by impulse rather than strategy. Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser, describes a president who ignores formal briefings, takes cues from Mar-a-Lago guests, and makes decisions by “neuron flash,” leaving Venezuela, Europe, and Ukraine trapped in contradiction and drift. As Trump chases a Nobel Prize and treats strongmen like personal allies, Bolton presses a defining question: How long can America’s security withstand a leader who refuses to plan?