Welcome to an HBO podcast from the HBO late-night series, Real Time with Bill Maugh.

All right, he is the founder of Envoy Media and podcast host Dr. Phil, and he's the host of ESPN's first take, Stephen A. Smith and the next president of the United's.

No, I'm telling you, it's going to all start up again on Monday.

You're going to see.

It is what it is.

It is what it is, and we will see.

Okay.

Trump says he probably won't run in 2028.

It's patently illegal.

But he probably,

can we take him at his word? No. I mean, I actually don't think he's going

to run. I've been saying this, and I see Andrew Sullivan wrote it out about it today. He's going

to do what Putin did with Medvedev. Medvedev was his whatever prime minister. They switched

jobs, and he was really the president, while Putin pretended he

wasn't. And that's what Trump is going to do. And Trump can control this country the way he does

now through social media. If President Vance or President Rubio doesn't do something he likes,

all he has to do is get on truth social and tear him a new asshole and the policy will change.

I don't think it's, listen, he can do that. He can choose to do it that way.

But the fact is, his popularity is so exponentially higher than everybody else within the Republican Party,

that the level of control, like you said, he can sit up there and step away, but he wants to maintain control over the party. He wants to make sure that there are people out there doing his bidding, that of his family, that of his interest, whatever that may be, and there is nobody within the GOP that can stop them. Who is it? Is it going to be Marco Rubio? No. Is it going to be JD Vance? No, no. There already is. This is going to be stop them. No. Who is it? Is it going to be Marco Rubio?

No. Is it going to be J.D. Vance? No. No, no. There are already in.

It's going to be Lindsey Graham. No. Nobody's going to stop them. They're going to capitulate and go right along because he knows how to feed the beast himself. He's about quid pro quo. So he's one of those guys that if you do for him, he'll make sure to try to take care of you as well.

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