I know Why Trump Is Dreading His 80th Birthday

The Daily Beast Podcast

The Daily Beast

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4.6 • 8.4K Ratings

🗓️ 14 June 2026

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Michael Wolff and Joanna Coles mark Donald Trump entering his ninth decade with a special episode revealing new details about private discussions inside Trump’s circle over his age, health, legacy, and the future of his presidency, culminating in a striking prediction about what may lie ahead during the next two and a half years of the Trump era. On the eve of Trump turning 80, Wolff also traces the astonishing rise of a man who went from a Queens real-estate promoter to perhaps the most famous person on earth. Along the way, they unpack the pivotal moments that built the Trump myth: the excess of 1980s New York, The Art of the Deal, the bankruptcies that never seemed to matter, the reinvention of Trump through The Apprentice, and the presidential campaign that began as a branding exercise before transforming American politics. Drawing on Wolff’s decades of reporting and personal encounters with Trump, including a revealing conversation in which Trump declared his goal was simply “to be the most famous man in the world,” the episode explores the relentless pursuit of attention that has defined his life. If you’re ever injured in an accident, you can check out Morgan & Morgan. You can start your claim in just a click without having to leave your couch: https://ForThePeople.com/TRUMP #ad Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is a difficult and awkward discussion inside the Trump circle, this birthday.
0:06.8	I know of one situation in which this was brought up, how to kind of counter program against this.
0:15.4	Trump completely cut that off, cut this person dead.
0:19.5	No discussion of this. No wanting to go down that path.
0:25.6	He now deflects to the 250th birthday of the United States.
0:32.6	That's the birthday that counts.
0:34.6	That's the birthday they should be thinking about. Anything not to have people
0:39.7	thinking about his 80th birthday.
0:46.4	Michael. Joanna. So this is a special birthday issue of Donald Trump. Not our birthday. No, not our birthday. There is a special birthday issue of Donald Trump.
0:54.6	Not our birthday.
0:56.4	No, not our birthday.
0:57.4	Though it is our 125th episode, we started less than a year ago tracking Donald Trump and his presidency.
1:08.1	And we thought it would be a good thing to do on the eve of his 80th birthday as the
1:13.9	president enters his ninth decade to reflect on how we got from there to here and in honor of
1:23.6	his birthday I am wearing a t-shirt with gold on it.
1:28.0	I just would like to point that out since the Oval Office is now smothered in gold,
1:32.3	and there are gold statues in D.C.
1:35.4	And it's not just how we got from there to here,
1:38.7	but more extraordinary how he got from there,
1:50.0	from his, you know, an outer borough, Queens real estate developer to hear the present of the United States the most, not just the most important
1:57.0	person in the world, something that I'm not sure he was ever interested in, but the most famous person in the world, which is what he was interested in. And it may be at this point the most famous person who ever lived.
2:11.6	Wow. The most famous person who ever lived, which of course is his dream. And he's recently been
	...

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