Why Sleepy Trump, 79, Is Really Panicking Aides

The Daily Beast Podcast

The Daily Beast

News & Politics

4.6 • 7.9K Ratings

🗓️ 10 December 2025

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Michael Wolff joins Joanna Coles to dissect a president increasingly disengaged, dozing through televised cabinet meetings while aides scramble to manage both optics and reality. They probe the murky Hegseth video controversy, Trump’s self-awarded FIFA Peace Prize, and his meddling in Hollywood mergers, showing how delay, spectacle, and loyalty dominate decision-making. Wolff charts the frustration, chaos, and quiet panic inside Trumpworld. The two ask: What happens when no one can keep up with—or contain—Trump’s mercurial whims?

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Everybody is in a low-level panic now all of the time about Trump falling asleep.
0:05.4	Because then he gets mad.
0:06.9	He essentially blames the people around him for the fact that he fell asleep.
0:12.1	And you can see it, and they talk about seeing it.
0:14.7	It starts to come on.
0:17.0	And, you know, he kind of relaxes or the features change.
0:20.9	He tilts.
0:21.6	And then everybody knows he's, the eyes are going to shut.
0:28.6	Michael.
0:31.9	Joanna, he said, with slight skepticism.
0:36.1	I know.
0:36.8	But it's me. Why are you skeptical? It's not an AI version of me.
0:41.0	I just, it's, it's that we've found ourselves in this position after all these years.
0:46.4	After all these years.
0:47.6	It seems kind of full of, full of wonder.
0:51.0	Full of wonder. I wonder if most people know that I stalked you to get to know you
0:56.8	because I was a huge fan of your New York magazine column about the media. It was so good. And I thought,
1:04.9	who is this columnist Michael Wolfe writing every week about all the people I wanted to read about.
1:11.1	This was 25 years ago.
1:13.7	It was 26 years ago.
1:15.8	26 years ago.
1:16.8	I think it was 26 years ago because I was the Bureau Chief for the Guardian newspaper
	...

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