I Know Why Trump’s ‘Mad King’ Act Is Spiraling

The Daily Beast Podcast

The Daily Beast

News

4.6 • 8.4K Ratings

🗓️ 20 April 2026

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Joanna Coles welcomes back Kurt Andersen to dissect what he argues may be Donald Trump’s most unhinged week yet, from surreal AI depictions casting himself as Jesus to a deepening spiral of contradictions, conspiracies, and political theater that even longtime observers find startling. Drawing on decades of watching Trump up close, Andersen revives his now-infamous “Venn diagram” of lies, ignorance, and instability—warning that the overlap is expanding in real time—while unpacking the bizarre collision of religion, ego, and power now shaping the MAGA movement. The conversation covers the Pope’s unexpectedly deft pushback to the growing discomfort inside Trump’s own coalition, before zeroing in on RFK Jr.’s chaotic tenure, public health fallout, and a trail of denials that mirror Trump’s own reality-warping playbook. As cabinet figures maneuver, allies hedge, and whispers of exits and fractures grow louder, Andersen paints a picture of a political universe edging toward something far more volatile than spectacle. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:29.6	I created a Venn diagram 10 years ago, trying to explain Donald Trump as simply as possible.
0:35.7	I have three circles., lying, stupidity, and mental illness.
0:43.0	And then in the center is Donald Trump. And it holds up. People have been saying, I mean,
0:48.3	all kinds of people and with diagnostic position, what they think of Trump's mental disorders are.
0:55.5	But this is, you know, we always say, oh, it's beyond.
0:59.3	It's, it's, where's the bottom?
1:00.8	And, but this week, it is, it is, it is, you know, the mad king caricature seems
1:07.1	truer than ever.
1:10.4	I'm Joanna Coles. This is the Daily Beast podcast. Oh my goodness. Trump is mad kinging it.
1:16.8	RFK Jr. is lying to Congress. And apparently, according to rumors online, J.D. Vance is contemplating,
1:25.3	resigning. Who better to pull all this apart like Sunday's roast chicken
1:32.3	than Kurt Anderson, the author and of course the one-time customer of RFK Jr., from whom he bought
1:41.1	cocaine when they were both at Harvard together. Okay, no time to waste just before we get into it.
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2:03.3	So let's get into it now with the author and thinker and sort of brilliant observer,
	...

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