Why Trump's Slimy Humiliation Is Driving Him Mad

The Daily Beast Podcast

The Daily Beast

News

4.6 • 8.4K Ratings

🗓️ 24 June 2026

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Michael Wolff and Joanna Coles examine the strange new fixation consuming Donald Trump as the White House grapples with wars abroad, slipping poll numbers, and growing political trouble at home. Drawing on Wolff's conversations with insiders, they explore why an algae-filled reflecting pool has become the president's overwhelming obsession, what it may reveal about his state of mind, and why even longtime aides are struggling to explain it. They also unpack Trump's surprising foreknowledge of Keir Starmer's resignation, the impossible demands of modern political leadership, and why Volodymyr Zelensky's resilience is reshaping the war in Ukraine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:29.5	The discussion that I'm having with people is that 60, 70, 80% of his time is devoted to the reflecting pool. This is against the
0:42.2	background of a peace deal, which is very precarious, polling numbers which are continued to drop,
0:50.0	looking at the midterms calamity, but he is focused on the reflecting pool.
0:56.4	This clearly has become, in his mind, and hence in the White House, an obsession.
1:04.0	And the fact that this, too, is not within his control, is making him crazier and crazier by the moment.
1:13.6	Michael.
1:17.6	Joanna, still in can, I see.
1:21.6	I'm still in can.
1:23.6	And guess what?
1:24.6	This is actually a wineglass full of water.
1:27.9	But I have, in defiance of your instructions, been drinking rosé.
1:32.8	I would count on nothing less.
1:35.6	The great middlebrow experience, rosé.
1:39.7	Middlebrow experience.
1:41.4	But the news from the quassette.
1:43.4	The news from the quazette is, you know, we live in complicated times.
	...

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