The Real Reason Trump Runs America Like a TV Show

The Daily Beast Podcast

The Daily Beast

News & Politics

4.6 • 7.9K Ratings

🗓️ 26 December 2025

⏱️ 70 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Michael Wolff joins Joanna Coles to unpack the one thing that drives Donald Trump more than policy, ideology, or even power: television. From The Apprentice to Fox News, Trump has always understood that fame is a currency, and the White House is just the ultimate reality show set. Wolff details how Trump doesn’t read briefings, rarely listens, and instead crafts his world based on ratings, Nielsen scores, and cable news cues. The former president treats lawyers like scripted TV characters, his cabinet as central casting, and the nation as an audience to captivate. From Roger Ailes and Rupert Murdoch to Sean Hannity and Bill Shine, Trump has manipulated media insiders to shape both his narrative and his presidency. This episode reveals why politics, for Trump, has never been about governance—it’s about performance, spectacle, and keeping the cameras rolling.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	You said, really, the presidency is a spin-off of the apprentice.
0:06.1	And I thought, what a great way to look at it and try and understand what he's doing.
0:12.3	What does he see himself as?
0:14.5	Does he see himself as a politician?
0:17.5	Does he see himself as a historical figure?
0:20.4	Does he see himself as a dictator? No, he
0:25.5	sees himself as a star. Television saves Donald Trump and reinvents Donald Trump.
0:38.8	Michael.
0:40.4	Joanna.
0:45.3	So we have something slightly different today, which is we're going to do a theme.
0:48.2	Okay.
0:51.5	Okay, and our theme is something. I know the theme.
0:52.7	You know the theme, but I'm letting.
0:54.4	You're not springing it on me.
0:55.8	Okay.
0:56.3	Well, I'm telling the viewers the theme because.
1:01.3	Unless you spring an entirely different theme on me.
1:04.6	Well, I could do.
1:05.3	I should have done that just to surprise you.
1:09.0	I mean, one of the ways that we try and cover things differently from the way
1:13.4	that politics is normally covered is because we see Trump as a media creation and a master
1:22.3	manipulator, a genius manipulator of television. And what we wanted to do is talk about his operating system,
	...

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