The Glaring Epstein Files Issue Trump Can’t Escape

The Daily Beast Podcast

The Daily Beast

News

4.6 • 8.4K Ratings

🗓️ 3 February 2026

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

David Rothkopf joins Joanna Coles for a blistering, wide-ranging conversation about a presidency defined by vulgarity, fear, and damage—starting with Rothkopf’s searing argument that Donald Trump is the ugliest expression of American power yet. From the White House’s gilded excesses and the planned hollowing-out of the Kennedy Center, to the Melania “bribe-umentary,” its Epstein-adjacent fallout, and the mounting contradictions exposed in the Epstein files themselves, the episode tracks how taste, corruption, and impunity collide. Rothkopf, The Daily Beast’s unmissable columnist and found of the DSR Network, dig into the murkier questions Trump can’t outrun—from Howard Lutnick’s shifting Epstein story to why so many powerful figures are suddenly caught in bald-faced lies—while also unpacking the strange Tulsi Gabbard whistleblower saga, Trump’s renewed fixation on “stolen” elections, and the quiet groundwork being laid to destabilize 2026. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	The more I hear about Epstein, the more I read about Epstein, the more it's very clear that really horrifically bad stuff was happening there.
0:09.1	And I think Donald Trump wonders whether crimes were committed.
0:12.4	I think in his mind what he's concerned about is there are crimes where there is no statute of limitation or there are crimes
0:22.2	that will discuss even his last remaining followers.
0:28.7	I'm Joanna Coles. This is the Daily Beast podcast. I've even got new shoulder pads on to
0:34.0	start the week because we've got Trump suing Trevor Noah.
0:38.6	We've got Bad Bunny.
0:39.9	We've got Billy Elish.
0:41.2	We've got Jeffrey Epstein and the murk around the files.
0:46.3	I mean, it's just astonishing.
0:48.2	How many people said they didn't know Jeffrey Epstein?
0:50.9	They'd never heard of Jeffrey Epstein.
0:52.5	They'd never spent time with Jeffrey Epstein. They never wanted to go to Jeffrey Epstein's island. And of course, the three million
1:00.7	emails that have been released show us completely, completely the contrary of what so many
1:08.5	powerful men have been telling us. Well, who better to start the
1:11.9	week with to bring insight, to bring clarity into the crazy that's going on in the United States
1:18.7	right now than David Rothkopf. He's the founder of Deep State Radio. He's the former editor
1:23.5	of foreign policy. He worked for the Commerce Department under Bill Clinton. And Bill Clinton,
1:30.0	is he going to turn up in front of the Oversight Committee or not to talk about the Epstein
1:34.0	files? Well, let's get into it.
1:38.0	David Rothcopf, we've got so much to discuss. First of all, we've got your incredible column,
1:43.1	which is fantastic about how
	...

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