The Daily Beast Podcast

Michael Wolff joins Joanna Coles to examine how Nicolás Maduro’s dance mocking Trump became a genuine trigger for the president — and why humiliation lands harder than policy. Wolff explains how Trump turns foreign affairs into personal vendettas, and when Maduro refuses the deals, dances, and laughs, it pierces Trump at the level of ego, not ideology. Also, the conversation widens to Trump’s fixa...

David Rothkopf joins Joanna Coles to explain why Trump’s move in Venezuela looks less like foreign policy and more like a heist. Rothkopf walks through the rushed effort to topple Maduro, the boastful talk about “running” Venezuela, and the alarming reality that there was no plan for what came next — who governs, who controls the oil, or how any of it ends. Together, they examine what Rothkopf cal...

Dr. John Gartner joins Joanna Coles to explain why Donald Trump’s worsening paranoia, erratic behavior, and visible health problems point to a dangerous mix of malignant narcissism and possible frontotemporal dementia. Drawing on clinical practice and the shift toward observable diagnostic criteria, Gartner argues that Trump’s public performances reveal more than enough: the “25th time” fixation,...

Michael Wolff joins Joanna Coles to probe the growing mystery around Melania Trump — the first lady who rarely appears, rarely speaks, and yet increasingly shapes the atmosphere around Donald Trump. Wolff explores why Melania’s absence feels deliberate, how lawsuits and the threat of depositions have sharpened attention on her, and why Trump’s team appears determined to keep her out of reach of pr...

Michael Wolff joins Joanna Coles for part two, continuing their forensic account of Donald Trump’s long, combustible friendship with Jeffrey Epstein. Drawing on years of interviews and firsthand reporting, Wolff argues that Trump and Epstein were not casual acquaintances but intimate allies, bonded by money, sex, models, and a shared outsider resentment of New York’s elite. The episode traces how...

Joanna Coles looks back at her sit downs with Andrew Lownie to uncover the full scope of Prince Andrew’s scandals, from secret deals and Epstein entanglements to whispers of a royal escape. Lownie lays bare a monarchy in crisis, revealing corruption, systemic failures, and a family blindsided by decades of unexamined behavior. This episode traces Andrew’s personal downfall as the spine of a much l...

Michael Wolff joins Joanna Coles to trace the unsettling origins of Donald Trump’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, long before public scandal or denial. Wolff begins with their bond in the late-1980s New York, where Trump was chasing Manhattan legitimacy and Epstein was emerging as a fixer fluent in money, women, and leverage. From Trump introducing Epstein as “my associate—Jeffy,” a pattern fo...

Joanna Coles dives into Trump’s troubled relationship with the U.S. military, unpacking disastrous parades, loyalty tests, and pep rallies that left generals cringing. With insights from Michael Wolff, David Rothkopf, and top retired brass, we reveal how strategy was sidelined for spectacle—and what it means for the country. Retired generals and lawmakers weigh in on the risks Trump’s style posed...

Joanna Coles revisits her most eye-opening conversations with Dr. John Gartner, a leading expert who says the media has ignored the most urgent question about Donald Trump: his mental and physical health. From alarming changes in Trump’s language, gait, and impulse control to warnings about paranoia, narcissism, and cognitive decline, the doctor lays out why these signs matter far beyond one man....

Michael Wolff joins Joanna Coles to peel back what Christmas looks like inside Donald Trump’s carefully staged world at Mar-a-Lago — a holiday less about family and warmth than performance, attention, and control. From the bored, rope-off table at the center of the patio to Trump’s late-night torrent of Truth Social posts, Wolff maps how even Christmas becomes another arena for validation. They ex...

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...

Joanna Coles revisits some of The Daily Beast’s most disturbing and revealing conversations about Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein. Michael Wolff explains why Epstein’s shadow still looms over Trump, while Stacey Williams and Cleo Glyde recount encounters that expose the brazen culture of power and silence surrounding them. Tina Brown reflects on the scandal she helped uncover and why its conseque...

Michael Wolff joins Joanna Coles to unpack why the release of the Epstein files has backfired on Donald Trump, obscuring key facts while amplifying the one question that won’t go away: what Trump knew, and when. Wolff explains how the chaotic document dump fits Trump’s flood-the-zone instincts, while Coles probes how branding, spectacle, and confusion remain his core political defenses. They also...

Mary Trump joins Joanna Coles to explain how Donald Trump’s accelerating cognitive and psychological decline is rooted in a childhood defined by cruelty, fear, and the absolute ban on showing weakness. Drawing on her training as a clinical psychologist and her firsthand experience inside the Trump family, Mary argues that Trump’s belligerence is routinely mistaken for strength, even as his physica...

Psychologist Dr. John Gartner joins Joanna Coles to dissect Donald Trump’s latest White House speech and explain why its manic pace, rigid teleprompter discipline, and sheer velocity alarm mental health professionals. Drawing on decades of clinical experience, Gartner argues that Trump’s hypomania, malignant narcissism, and advancing dementia are no longer abstract theories but visible patterns—ac...

Michael Wolff joins Joanna Coles to tackle the question Washington won’t confront: what happens when a president’s cognitive decline is visible but systematically rationalized by those around him. Wolff describes how Trump’s inner circle shields alarming behavior as “Trump being Trump,” even as voters recognize familiar warning signs from their own families. He also explains the significance of Su...

Michael Wolff joins Joanna Coles with a story Trump World would rather bury: his legal pursuit of Melania Trump after she threatened a $1 billion libel suit over his reporting on her ties to Jeffrey Epstein. Wolff details the surreal effort to serve the First Lady—lawyers refusing papers, process servers turned away, Trump Tower staff claiming she lives there while she avoids being found—and expla...

Stacey Williams joins Joanna Coles as the anticipated release of the Epstein files throws fresh scrutiny on Donald Trump’s long-denied proximity to Jeffrey Epstein. Williams recounts how a dinner invitation led to a relationship with Epstein—and, she says, to being deliberately walked into Trump Tower where Trump groped her while Epstein stood by, a moment she now believes was staged. Does her acc...

Michael Wolff joins Joanna Coles to break down the Vanity Fair profile that may have pushed Trump chief of staff Susie Wiles into dangerous territory, and the newly surfaced Epstein diaries that reveal fixation more than revelation. But the episode turns darker with Trump’s grotesque response to the murder of Rob Reiner and his wife—a moment that shocked even his own insiders. Wolff argues this wa...

Chris Whipple joins Joanna Coles as his explosive Susie Wiles profile sends shockwaves through Trump’s White House. After 11 months of on-the-record access, for Vanity Fair, to Susie Wiles, Whipple explains why the facts can’t be denied—and why her description of Trump’s “alcoholic personality” has triggered cabinet-wide panic and presidential pushback. Does this unprecedented candor reveal how Tr...

David Rothkopf joins Joanna Coles to unpack a presidency stripped of empathy after Trump’s disturbing Truth Social post responding to the murder of filmmaker Rob Reiner and his wife. Rothkopf, the founder of Deep State Radio and former editor of Foreign Policy magazine, argues that this moment exposes Trump’s defining pathology: an inability to respond to tragedy without cruelty, self-obsession, a...

Don Lemon joins Joanna Coles to diagnose why Trump’s lost his charismatic touch. Lemon, Founder of The Don Lemon Show, describes a former president whose influence is fading as voters grow disillusioned with MAGA, economic distortions, and rising healthcare costs. From Trump’s credibility and health to Republican lawmakers misreading the electorate, Lemon explores the consequences of a movement bu...

Michael Wolff joins Joanna Coles to reveal stories behind newly released Epstein photos. Together they sift through the blacked-out faces, the Mar-a-Lago-style party shots, and a younger Steve Bannon seated in Epstein’s ornate study—the man he once admitted was the only figure in 2016 who truly scared him. Wolff explains why these images are surfacing now, how both parties are weaponizing them, an...

Michael Wolff joins Joanna Coles to unpack Kristi Noem’s “Ice Barbie” theatrics at Homeland Security to Pam Bondi’s loyal remaking of the Justice Department. They explore how, for the people in Trump’s political orbit, loyalty and spectacle outweigh competence. Wolff and Coles dive into Corey Lewandowski’s influence, Alina Haber’s rocky rise, Jared Kushner’s allies, and the fractures forming among...

Ambassador John Bolton joins Hugh Dougherty to chart the growing dangers of Trump’s foreign policy, driven by impulse rather than strategy. Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser, describes a president who ignores formal briefings, takes cues from Mar-a-Lago guests, and makes decisions by “neuron flash,” leaving Venezuela, Europe, and Ukraine trapped in contradiction and drift. As Trump...