It's been a crazy week. Understatement. I can't. None of us can keep track of what's going on, including the president. He's so exhausted, he falls asleep in his cabinet meetings. I would like to see Hugh. Doctor. Try to do that here in the Daily Beast meetings. It wouldn't work. I think I want to start with Jill Biden, doctor, Jill Biden, a real doctor, not like Scott Besson, who said when he was doing the presser, can we just have a quick moment on how much people seem to enjoy Carolyn Leavitt's job when she's not? Yes. We've had Marco Rubio do it. We've had JD Vance do it this week. Scott Besson did it. And he told people very proudly that he'd got an honorary degree. And if you called him doctor, Who were more likely to get your question answered. Yeah. Well, first of all, welcome to everybody who is live. We are live. We're not just we're live on YouTube. Thanks to everybody on YouTube. And we're live on two sub stacks. We arrive on your Substack, Joanna, Primal Scream, which is, yes, the best. And we are live on The Daily Beast Substack, which we are building up from the ground. And I just want to say a big thank you to everybody who is on the Substack, and we are going to get you. Give us your questions. Give us your comments, YouTube and Substack. And I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do it, but we're going to try. We are going to try. And we've got a new producer with us, John Romero, who is a master of technical feats. And this feels like a technical feat. I'm just going to say slightly grammatically, I feel I look better. Thank you John. Sorry, sorry I look good. You always look good. I did have a question for Scott. Doctor. Scott. Scott. Doctor Scott, how much money? How much more money? Have you made since going into the cabinet? Or have you put your already substantial wealth in a blind trust and let others manage it? Very happy. If anybody has any ideas of how much Doctor Scott Besson has made since he joined this cabinet. Please enter it in. Oh, we've got someone from Canada. Please enter it in our chat. Our live chat. Hughie. Doctor Jill Biden said she thought, well, her husband, Joe Biden, was having a stroke during the catastrophic debate with Donald Trump and Donald Trump. Has truth sold out this morning in his usual frenzied way, a response we in fact, let's let's got a lot of papers. I do. I've gone really old fashioned. I press print and it's very impressive. Well, it's not really that impressive because everything gets printed. I only wanted one thing, but we have a clip of Jill Biden, who has a new book. She is she is promoting a new book which is coming out, I believe, next week. And the book is, of course, about her time in the white House, because, you know, that's what people want to hear about. And she has done an interview. Do we want, well, do about it? That, though that is a very good question. But let's let's play what she doctor, doctor Jill Biden had to say to Rita Braver on CBS, because this sets up what we're going to talk about and just we are not really here to talk about Jill Biden. We're really here to talk about Donald Trump, because this is going to be quite revealing about him. But you first you need to know what Jill Biden said. Okay, okay. Before we do, can we just say we've got people listening from Kingston, Ontario. We've got people in Sonoma, we've got people in North America, Forest Hills, California, Canada, Northern Kentucky, welcome. And then they've done a little vomit sign and said, but they're moving out as fast as they can. That's Dara Kinsey 7775. And can I just say, probably very beautiful. There's someone from my native, from my native country, Nicole, to take in. Nicole I'm sorry I've mangled your name, but she's watching from Scotland and there's bond bred in Italy. That's pretty great. That is pretty great, actually. Nothing to complain about. Someone from Brazil. Ireland. This is great. Global. Welcome, welcome. I realize I'm sitting in a very unflattering position, so I threw it all. I've shifted positions. All right, so Doctor Jill Biden said, oh, you horrified as you saw it unfold. I wasn't horrified, I was frightened because I had never, ever seen Joe like that before. Since never since. Yes. Or never seen him? Never know what happened. I don't know what happened. I mean, when I as I watched it, I thought, oh my God, he's having a stroke. And it scared me to death. So there we go. She said I thought he was having a stroke. And she also she wrote, she writes in her book. Is she is he short circuiting? She thought, is this a stroke? I felt like we were watching an AI hologram of the man we knew, and the hologram was glitching. Has he been drugged? So the hologram was glitching is a very good line, by the way. I just want to say we've suddenly got a list of where other people are from. Amsterdam, East Harlem, Australia. Pakistani journalist in Virginia. This is exciting. Fort Myers, Florida and Vermont. Keep going. Oh, it is more, Norway, Tromso and Norway. Helsinki and Finland. These are all really exciting destinations. Somebody. And Milton Keynes, Portugal. Brazil. Somebody who grew up in canton is, of course, in Ohio. Somebody from Toronto. Right. So lost a UK Milwaukee. This is great. Thank you to everybody Yvonne in Connecticut. Thank you to everybody is joining. Send us your comments as well. Send us what you want to know. What do you want to talk about anyway. Jill Biden Biden. So Jill Biden says technical glitch, technical glitch, which she doesn't know. Anyway, we all watched that debate. We've all we were all horrified by what we saw. It set up this cataclysmic series of events. But that's really what we're here to talk about, is who has jumped into the chat on this debate and on whether whether Bill Jill, whether Joe Biden had a stroke. But, of course, Donald J. Trump. Well, and one of the things he's annoyed about is that Jill Biden doesn't talk enough about Trump's own performance in that debate and how brilliant he was. Yes. Because what else would you be thinking about if you were married to Joe Biden? You would be thinking about Donald Trump, how great he was. He makes the point. However, Trump makes the point that I actually made this week with Michael Wolff, that if you are the wife of someone and you think they are having a stroke, what is the natural thing to do? Well, and that's what's really revealing, because who who thinks about that sort of thing. Trump is 79 and there are big questions over his health. And I think we have here a real insight into well into what he thinks about when he is in public. Well, what will Melania come to his rescue? What would Melania do? Because we know she doesn't like to hold hands with him. She's always flicking him away. So what would she do? This is a good question for everybody watching. What do you think Melania would do if she looked up at a debate and saw what she thought was her husband? That's the president having a stroke? Yeah. Would she rush up on stage? Are you going to divide the comments again, Joanna I am. Should I do accents? I shouldn't do accents. She's the first lady and she speaks still with a very Slovenian accent. Now I have an English accent, so I understand the accent thing, but I don't represent the country as the first lady. Just saying you could. So what else? This whole conversation to be had there. But I think this is this goes back to the start of the week because just to do the timetable of the week, Monday was Memorial Day. On Tuesday, Donald Trump went to Walter Reed hospital, where he had a checkup. And we still do not know the results of this checkup. And yet we have Donald Trump saying what would have would, with Joe Biden's wife, come to his rescue if he suffered a public health event? The question really, he's asking that question about himself. What did they tell? What did the doctors tell him? What what happened here? And what do we learn about his marriage? Right. And also what's curious is his son, Don junior, got married to Palm Beach socialite Bettina Anderson over the weekend in the Bahamas. Apparently, the couple had hoped for a white House wedding, though I think that wasn't going to work because the Octagon going up for the UFC memorial fight. And also, of course, it's a building site because the east wing was demolished in the middle of the night. But there are lots of rumors going around on the on the web. Where else would rumors fly around that actually, Trump has been advised not to fly right now that his his trip to China and back to China had a great trip to China. No trip ever like it, except for the trip the following week by Vladimir Putin, but had been advised after his China trip not to fly for a bit. So that might be one of the reasons why he didn't go to the Bahamas or he chose to stay in D.C.. So this is interesting because actually we have asked the white House with Donald Trump, expect Melania to come on stage and rescue him. And we haven't had an answer yet, but we also haven't had the non-answer. We haven't had an abuse of answer. People will be well familiar that when we asked the white House questions, we often get abuse of answers. We asked the white House about what Michael Wolff had to say, and they say he's a lying sack of shit. And we asked him about what David Rothkopf has had to see and if multiple answers about our great columnist, they have called you, I believe, a piece of shit, Joanna, and I apologize for that language, but they haven't had anything to say. But there's no the people who have something to say. But I'm just some of these comments are fantastic, right? If Melania saw Donald having a stroke. This is from true Jim. She'd be torn between ordering the fish or a salad. Yes. Nancy Brown on Substack. She'd watch quietly, rejoicing. Melania would call her lawyer. That's John Leary suggestion. North Park, also in Substack. She would stand there the way Trump did in the Oval when that man had a health emergency. And we all remember that picture. Well, that poor man in the white House. Do you remember when he just fainted? Basically, he was there to discuss the prices of the weight loss drugs, and he passed out, probably from stress, I would think, having taken announcement in the in the Oval Office, I imagine that's pretty stressful. His heart was probably beating like a snare drum, and Donald Trump just sort of stood there looking vacantly. And that was the look that Mary Trump, his niece, said she had seen in her grandfather's eyes as he was on the cusp of dementia. And of course, as you mentioned, the president is 79 to be 80 in 2 weeks. And, well, we don't know what was discovered. On his third visit to Walter Reed hospital in 13 months. So that's really every 4 to 5 months he's being checked up on. They are monitoring our president, which is a good thing. We want him to be monitored. But that's a lot of hospital visits for a president. I'm yeah it's a lot. And it's also I think there's just to go back to this Donald Trump asking if if you know, why didn't Joe Biden storm the stage to save her husband, to save her husband? There's something in his mind. These thoughts don't come out of nowhere. And he has had events that speak to his health. You mentioned at the start he nods off in the Oval Office. He nods off at the cabinet, nods off everywhere, nods off everywhere. But that's because he doesn't sleep at night. I mean, I want to go back to that brilliant piece that Josh Filo did for The Daily Beast, where he literally tracked, I think it was the entire of April and how many hours he slept between truth social posts. And the truth is, I think there were like 3 or 4 nights where he managed to get sort of 5 or 6 hours without being on Truth Social, but the majority of evenings he was multiple. Right here we have 79 year old man and a 56 year old wife should point out, as some people in the comments have quite rightly said, you know, there's there's there's there's a prenup, you know, there's all sorts of questions here. But 79 year old man, we've seen his bruising. We've seen the Cancun. We've seen the nodding off. We've heard the soaring. We have seen the social media posting which is appears to be disinhibited. And it comes in the middle of the night. It comes in frenzies of post after post after post. It's almost manic behavior, like there's a mania going on in the middle of the night where we assume that the president is on his own in his bedroom. It's possible he has he has aide sitting at the bed, sort of helping him spell. Yeah. And by the way, 79. He's going to be 80 in. I can't even do the sums right. 16 days. Right. June the 4th, June 14th in the 14 flag day. And you know, at some point in the comments, like Comanche says, does Donald Trump take cholesterol medication? Officially he does not, but we don't. Do we trust the answers that we get that we already have about what he takes? He has chronic venous insufficiency, according to the white House. He says he takes a lot of aspirin. Well, he loves to take aspirin because he says it keeps his his blood spin in and just pouring through his heart. All of these are really good questions that we want to we want to know the answer to. And we are obviously the Daily Beast. We are asking those questions. Where are those health results? Where are the results of that test? And of course, he celebrated. He celebrates a true American diet in that he loves McDonald's. He loves fries. He loves filet sandwich, you know, filet of fish sandwiches. So fish in in one meal, right. Kind of weird, right? And according to Michael Wolff, heats hamburgers in bed. Why not? Why wouldn't you eat hamburgers in bed? But normally people at that stage of life are reckoning with a healthier diet. They understand that they're getting older, and they're trying to do everything they can to make sure they're giving themselves as healthy a chance as they can. So I'm quite surprised that his wife hasn't put him on salmon and salad, which I think is probably the healthiest thing you can eat, or that he hasn't put himself on it. And also, the truth is, it's not difficult when you have a chef. They have a white House chef. For most people, the struggle for eating healthily is you're eating out all the time, or it's exhausting having to cook things when you get home and you just get takeout on the way home because it's easier. But actually if you have a private chef, which obviously they do, they I guess he's a public chef, really, because he works for the American people or works president people. The white House have Navy, the Navy provide the catering. The white House do so have done so. You know, for generations, the healthiest meals you could have little bowls of berries and nuts whenever you want. I bet Donald Trump has never eaten a berry. I think that's probably the case. And of course, the white House has had some very healthy people in it. George W Bush, despite other you know, we can debate George W Bush endlessly, was known for eating a fairly rigorously healthy diet and early and went running, went federally and slept pretty robustly. And Barack Obama literally his wife planted the garden out there to encourage healthy eating. So the white House was used to catering for healthy, healthy diets. I just want to say a big shout out on the Substack. Joanna, I think you should do the honors here. What friend of the show has joined? Oh, Anand has joined. Good at us. And? And welcome, sir. Welcome. It's always good to have him his his Epstein series. So good, so good. I just want to highlight what an Veltman has just said on on the of chat. Trump can well ford any diet unlike many who live in grocery store deserts. And the reality is yeah, we're talking about Trump's diet. But the big issue that people are talking about everywhere is it's so expensive inflation. We had more bad inflation numbers this week. We had a really bad number about what's called the savings rate. The amount of money that people are putting aside for a rainy day has fallen from 5.3% to 2.2. 1%, I believe, but it's fallen by half and that means people can't afford to save. And of course that's really worrying. Well, also, I will say having just bought a couple of them, flights are incredibly expensive. I've got to fly back to Europe for my mom's funeral in a couple of weeks, and I just bought a ticket for me, a ticket for my son, I think double what it was the last time I went. I mean, astonishing the impact it had on flights and certainly in Europe. The conversation when I was there for the last month was about people just having to change their summer vacations and say, well, we can't go to where we wanted to go, we're going to have a staycation or we're just going to drive somewhere locally and driving. You're still standing at the pump looking at the price of gas, and we have some statistics this morning. I'm about flight, flight and travel trends, and they're exactly that, that European vacations are down and that shorter homes, homestay, shorter stays in the US are up. And of course the reason for that is not because people are thinking patriotically. It's 250 years of the American republic, which is something that we are about to discuss. But they're thinking that because they would like to go to Europe, they would like to go farther afield. Maybe it's, you know, whatever, but they can't afford it. So they're they're cutting back. Well, and also people can't afford to come to the US. I mean, again, another flight flights to the US are much more expensive than they were. And so our own the American tourist industry also suffers. But we were talking about 250 years of the American republic. And I think that's that's almost the theme of the week, the concert that was the concert series that was planned for it has been falling apart. Right? I mean, not unfamiliar for Rick Grinnell, who former German former ambassador to Germany was running the Kennedy Center until apparently almost everybody pulled out. So they closed the Kennedy Center down, in theory, to redesign it. It's got to be beautiful, those beautiful, beautiful concert hall. And Rick Grinnell is now having to deal with the fallout of people who I think had been told they were going to perform at a national state fair. But in fact, it turned out to be essentially a kind of mugger event. And so Martina McBride has pulled out. Florida is trying to figure out if he's going to pull out of Milli Vanilli. I realize Vanilli was still going. The Commodores have pulled out. I love the Commodores. Is merely Vanilli or are Milli Vanilli. How is it? Is it a plural or is it singular for this is. That's a really good question. We had to debate about this yesterday, and we decided that Milli Vanilli are a group, so they we should treat them as a you know, we should say that Milli Vanilla is a band and treat them as a singular. But many people will remember the bizarre backstory of Millie Vanilli, right? A German French pop duo who is short of their Milli Vanilli shot to fame with girl. You know it's true, right? I I'm not going to go there. I'm not going to go there. You're so beautiful, though. Look at these guys. So beautiful. So there is a tragic twist to this story. As body will remember, they were busted for lip syncing and that kind of took, you know, took a bit of the gloss of their career. So many people have lip sync. Surely lots of professional. Yes, yes. But in fact it's under the bed. Thinking right now. There was actually a question. The comments is this live? It's definitely live. It's definitely live. And if you'd been with us two minutes before it went live, you would have heard hysteria in the studio anyway, as we were going to be late. John Leary in the comment seven five, three six. Thank you for your support. The Daily Beast rightly points out they never sang on their own records at all. It wasn't just lip syncing, it was, as John says, fraud. Sadly, there were two of them, Rob Pilots and Fab Morvan. And sadly, as we know, other people remember. Rob died in 1998, aged 33. Victor death. Anyway, as it turns out, Billy Vanilli still exists and have been touring. Who knew? Which is thanks to the backing singers who are sisters Judy and Linda Rocco, right? They do the singing and they actually do the singing in public as well. So how does why why don't the Rock. What did you say? They were called the Rocco Sisters. Yes, the Roku sisters. So why aren't they? Why don't they have their own band? Why are they singing under the name of Milli Vanilli? That seems like that. Makes no sense, I agree. I've done. We've reported on this and done research into it. And, you know, there are some questions are just too weird. We don't know. But they issued a statement saying that they exactly this. Right. They thought they were going to a bipartisan celebration of 250 years of the Republic. And in fact, it turned out that it was a kind of MAGA get together. And they pulled out of it. They said the they had not the in fact, they said that they had once put in their mouth, which would be a familiar feeling for the front people of Mary Vanilli. But they but they pulled out. However, in a weird twist, Fab Morvan, who has never sung for real, says he is looking forward to the chance to sing in public for real. How fascinating that, well, good for so many other people, right? But the other person of others have pulled out, right? I was going to say probably the biggest star of all of them is Martina McBride. Yes. Huge country singer, millions, you know, dozens of millions of copies of songs sold. Fabulous singer who didn't understand, said she'd been sold under a kind of state fair vibe. Yeah. And she has now said that I'm not a political singer. I don't want to be allied with either side. Yeah. And this is I think this is like the serious thing that is happening here, that it's 250 years of the United States. This should be a huge celebration. And there is a brilliant piece by Michael Daly or distinguished columnist, excellent columnist, which is on The Daily Beast, and it will be on The Daily Beast Substack as well. Shortly about what happened in 1976. It's a parable of the birthday that Donald Trump, basically the birthday party Donald Trump basically stole from us, 1976. The president was humble. The country came together. People really, genuinely celebrated what this what what this country America was represents. And this spectacle in the National Mall. That's not what this is about. And these performers have pulled out. And Martha McBride was very eloquent about feeling she wanted to celebrate America. She did not want to celebrate Division. What do we think about the big fight on the South Lawn of the white House? UFC Dana White's Ultimate Fighting Championship, where there appeared to be no rules? I know you can't bite, I learned today. Oh, there's this hard bite. So any any biters out there? You can't bring that to the South Lawn. That's a good PSA for the next time I'm in a UFC fight. What's the name of the big UFC fight? Is it Conor McGregor? You know, I think someone Conor McGregor is expected, I believe, or has been hyped as a possible appearance at this UFC. Well, and he remains undefeated. He remains undefeated. I wonder if Donald Trump is going to get in the ring. I mean, the symbolism of him having the Ultimate Fighting Championship on the white House lawn cannot be ignored, right? Says he's I mean, who is he fighting for? Obviously self, but is he fighting for the American people also? If he's knocked out, is Melania going to rush to his help? Very good question. Very good question Hughie. And signs 2935 suggests it should be known as the mole on the mole. So thank you all on them all. That's very good. Very good. Nicoletta Cini says we should invite Mary Trump's to talk to us, which we should. And we've done lots of interviews with Mary Trump. You've done some amazing interviews with Trump. Yes. We've got greetings from Estonia and from South London, where I have spent a lot of my life, Scottish girl in Florida. So she has no problems understanding Hugh. Thank you. That's good. I will say sometimes people do and I occasionally get comments saying don't understand your accent. So I am always trying to be aware of that. Lip sync pronouns. What does that mean? I'm not sure what that means. Interesting. So yeah, UFC, the pictures are amazing of the octagon going up thing going up. Also dating as you can see the white House through it when it's taken from the other side of the South Lawn and the white House, you can actually see it framed under this. Yes. Oh, Bruce Graham says invite Doctor John Gardner. In fact, I had the privilege of speaking to him last week, or I suppose. Yeah, last week, four episodes ago, we will put the link in Bruce because it was an excellent conversation and he is a great friend of the show, and I'm sure he will be back soon. He has plenty of observations about Trump's health. Well, and he has very I mean, his point. And we take the point that you cannot diagnose somebody if you haven't actually examined them, except that Doctor John Gartner's point of view is that Trump is a man who's been in the public eye for the last 40, 50 years, and that one of the things that you trace any cognitive changes with, or one of the most useful symptoms is language. And we know how Donald Trump spoke 40 years ago because it's all out there. It's all on. It's all on film, it's all on video. And we can compare it to how he speaks now. And according to Doctor John Gartner, who is an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins, a center of great excellence, it's very clear that his speech has diminished. He uses fewer words, he's become more disinhibited, and he's become more aggressive and more angry. I'm just to go back to 1976. Thank you to sunny son Angel Rivka. I would say Sonny and Cher there. Oh my God. Well, they were back in 1976. Son Angel Rivka. I was 14 years old in 1976, and I can't overemphasize how huge the bicentennial was. There couldn't be a bigger contrast between 1976 and 2026. It's really sad. We will put a link to Michael Dealer's column in actually, because it's amazing pictures of what was a great moment of national unity. And I see that Gerald Ford did not make himself the center of events, but we were talking about aggression. That might be because America had gone through different things at that moment. Right? Was coming out of Vietnam. It was coming out of a president who'd been forced to resign. So America was in a different place, too? Yes. Yeah, very much so. I mean, it's really fascinating. And we are going to be reporting more on that and the contrast. I think there's a lot of stories from 1976 that are relevant now. It's, it's there's, you know, between now and I, the fourth or I suppose the bigger celebration, of course, June the 14th, Donald Trump's birthday. But between now and July the 4th, I think there's a lot to a lot to explore there. But we're talking about aggression and disinhibition, and I think that might bring us to the top kind of serious topic. Jean. Carol. Eugene, Carol, who as we know won two cases against Donald Trump, the first four. She accused him of sexual assault. When was it? 20 odd years ago. But during a brief period in New York when you could, the statute of limitations had run out, but they lifted it for a year. She brought the case against Donald Trump, claiming he'd sexually assaulted her in a changing room in Bergdorf Goodman. Jury agreed with her. She got a what? Initially she it was he was adjudicated sexually assaulted her right. And she got a $5 million I guess settlement. Is that how you refer to it? Compensation. Right. But but he was liable for $5 million in compensation to her. Yes. He then does what Donald Trump does frequently effectively, which is doubled down, but in this case less effectively. He relabeled her, said she was a crazy person. And so there was a second case libel where he was found to. Well, they came up with another settlement of $83 million. Yes. This is now being continuing to be adjudicated through the court system. Yes. Because Trump keeps appealing. Right. And therefore hasn't paid up. He's had to put a bond in, but he has not paid up. And I know the bonding is basically the same as having the money in escrow. Yeah. Basically. Yes. So the money is sort of sitting there. Aegean Carol has seen not a single cent, and this thing has tied up her life for the last, I think seven years at this point. So she, she first she first told her story in 2019. Right. So that was during Trump's first presidency. And he then responded, as you've just said, to call her a corn job and not and he'd nothing to do with her. And she wasn't his type, not his type. And then, of course, he pointed her out in a photograph and claimed she was Marla maples, his second wife, proving she was very much history. Actually. Have that video and it'll take a minute to cure up. But we've got that extraordinary moment, which I think the thing about this case is, and the reason that we're talking about it, know, is that Trump has this is the thing that this is the case that has really, really got to Trump. I think it is, first of all, he was found. He was educated. He was found by a jury on the preponderance of evidence. I'm just checking my notes to make sure I use exactly the right phrase, right on the preponderance of evidence to have committed a sexual assault. You might remember Eugene Carroll sued for sued and said that she had been raped by Donald Trump. And the jury did not find that. But it's very well, it's very important to say that the judge in the case, Judge Louis Kaplan, wrote subsequently to explain that this was a very precise and focused definition of rape because they had to apply. What was the law in New York at the time of the, of the assault that she was she was talking about, and that meant that it did not meet what he describes as the ordinary of common modes and what we talk about as rape and common modern parts. So common mordant, more, more common mode. I can't even say it myself. Comments. Not my accent, by the way. No, no it's not. It's the formality of the language. It's the legal term. Common modern parlance, a modern parlance. Sorry, you said mordant, I think I did, yes. Okay, okay. But you know, this judge said the definition of rape in the New York penal law is far narrower than the meaning of rape in common modern paralogs. Its definition, some dictionaries and some federal and state criminal statutes, and elsewhere. As the evidence that the trial recounted below makes clear the the sorry she she alleged that Mr. Trump raped her as many people commonly understand the word rape. Indeed, as the evidence at trial recounted below makes clear, the jury found that Mr. Trump, in fact, did exactly that. So this this is a really bad judgment for Trump. It's 83.3 million. It is a formal finding that he is adjudicated as somebody who committed the sexual assault and that that sexual assault, in the words of the judge in common, modern parallels amount to what we would commonly talk about as rape it has triggered is not even the word for this, but it's now this week come into a very sinister light, which I know you've been fascinated, fascinated by in a dark way, but I know you've. Well, they've come after her with criminal charges for perjury, saying that she didn't declare that part of her case was being funded by the founder of LinkedIn, who is a well known Democratic supporter. Now, in fact, this was raised during the trial and the judge dismissed it as irrelevant. But because Donald Trump is punitive and has essentially I mean, it's hard to think other than he now has his own Justice Department, that he's turned the US Department of Justice into the Donald Trump Justice Department. Look no further than the actual building in D.C., where there is a huge banner of his face. Lest you have any doubt about this, they've gone after her with criminal charges for perjury, saying that she said she wasn't being supported by anybody, that her funds weren't being paid, when in fact some of them were. So I just want can I just do two things? I mangled some language. So I'm just going to clear up. And Barbara of a seal on Substack points out the case is not being adjudicated. Right. Sorry, that was my it was being appealed as the world I should have used. It has been adjudicated. That's now being appealed. Sorry, that's I'm obviously having language issues today. I know what you're trying to do is get it specifically right because it's complicated. We've got a picture of. Right. And and this this is so, you know, this this case out. And this is important. It played out in the civil courts where the language is different from the criminal system. But Trump this week has we don't know if Trump did this right. Because we're going to talk about that a bit. But what we have seen this week is that it's now moved into the criminal arena. And the language of course, there is different and they have opened an investigation. Which could lead to charges are and could lead to other. Well it seems highly likely that that will not come up because this was raised during the trial and it was dismissed by the judge. And but it doesn't dismissed on appeal as well. Right. Exactly, exactly. Twice before for federal judges. Right. One, one, you know, Judge Kaplan and then three judges on the second quarter of the Second Circuit. So it does. Well. Right. But this is what Donald Trump does. He uses the law to harass people, to undermine people, to irritate them, to distract them. And, Jean, Carol, I hope you use this as publicity for your documentary, which is out this week and is a stellar documentary I highly recommend. It's had enormous difficulties getting distribution, but it's out in movie theaters and it is really worth going to see. I had no idea of Egan's backstory, and what's fascinating is she explains how she ran into him in Bergdorf Goodman. In fact, it was sort of going around the revolving door. I think he was coming out of the store. She was going into the store and he goes, hey, you're at the advice lady? Because she was on television at the time. She had a column in L magazine, which she then lost, but he recognizes her and she's gorgeous. She looks just like Marla maples, also gorgeous. And they go up to the lingerie floor. He says he's buying a gift for someone and he wants some help from her. And that's where she says the assault took place. Anyway. It's a really it's really recommended watching, and she's a fascinating, eccentric character. And and I mentioned this to to Michael Wolff on Inside Trump's head. But the tragedy of of for her the assault was that she has not had a relationship since then. She's not had sex since then. The the other I'm not going to say tragedy because this is not a tragedy. This is this is the opposite. I mean, this is this is something that we should all I think, be morally outraged about is that Trump has been very clear that he wants action taken by his Department of Justice against people who he regards as enemies and Aegean. Carol, me, you know, is is clearly in they have opened this investigation with an intention of causing her harm in some way. And just being investigated, by the way, is, you know, something that nobody would want distress. Aegean Carol was a private person. She's she's 83 now, right? Yeah. She she doesn't deserve or need this. She won her case. But the other person that he's going after is Reid Hoffman, who is the billionaire who helped fund it. And I just want to say he has actually literally directed his Justice Department previously to go after Reid Hoffman. And he did it on Truth Social. So this, you know, we were talking about health and disinhibition. This is disinhibited. It's disinhibited. And we start at the beginning of the conversation talking about Doctor Jill Biden and what, you know, what would Melania do I wonder? Here is a documentary. Melania, of course, did her own documentary, Melania, financed by Amazon. I wonder if Melania will see the Gene Carole documentary. She must have read Aegean accusations. We know she didn't go to the courts. A lot of times politicians wives turn up to support them in situations like this. They may not want to, but they do. We all remember Silva Spitzer standing next to then Governor Spitzer when he was accused of breaking the very law that he created about trafficking women across state lines. But Melania Trump very, very obviously didn't turn up to support Donald Trump when he was in court over the Aegean accusations. I wonder what she thinks about this documentary and actually be worth watching the documentaries back to back. The Melania documentary, which is about the 20 days and the run up to the inauguration, and then the Jean Carole story, which is about her life as an advice columnist and what happens in the run up to the assault, and then what happens after. And there's another bit that we should cover on this, the attorney general, the acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, was Donald Trump's defense attorney. In another case. I mean, how many of us have defense attorneys in multiple cases, not only but. Well, that's because he goes through lawyers. Yes, he does. Yes. But and he's going through Tony Generals. It turns out he's coming through it all in his general. But he Blanche is in charge of the Justice Department, and he says he's recused himself from this case. You know, we have I suppose we should take him at his word. But there is no doubt that Trump literally ordered the Department of Justice to investigate and, among others, Reid Hoffman. He also wanted Bill Clinton, Larry Summers, JPMorgan Chase. That's one company, Donald JPMorgan Chase. But he put a comment. Right. But you know, James Komi, Jim James, call me James. The you know, I believe, you know, one of the oath that people take in federal office is to, you know, against all enemies, foreign and domestic. These are against all enemies, personal, well, and also some enemies within the Republican Senate. So John Cornyn, Bill Cassidy, and these are people that in fact, because he backed or endorsed Ken Paxton and Ken Paxton this week won the Republican primary for Senate seat or more now run against the Democratic candidate, James Talarico puts Texas in play for a Senate seat, which we've heard about that many times. It was Beto ORourke at one point he was going to win. But it does put Texas in play, which actually puts the Senate in play, especially with Bill Cassidy being replaced by a Trumper. So it's almost as if he's doing this against his own interests too, because many people think now in the midterms, he will not only lose the House, but he might lose the Senate. Well, again, I'm going to say the word disinhibition. He was at his cabinet meeting this week that was itself had lots of elements of spectacle. And I just want to say welcome to everybody on YouTube and on Substack. Thank you for joining us. This is not a Trump cabinet session. So you don't have to do not have to give us any praise in the comments. Don't worry. But we do want your comments. We don't necessarily want Trump style comments. We want your question. We want your questions. You want to see your questions. But he said at the cabinet meeting and hopefully we have this cued up. We did. Oh we don't. Sorry. Was this where he said he didn't care about care about the midterms? That's the level of disinhibition. They thought they were going to outwit me, you know? Well outweighed him. He's got the midterms. I don't care about the midterms. Look what happened last night. That was the prelude to the midterms. People understand it. They know that. Very simple. Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. I'm doing that for the world. I'm not doing it just for us. And we've had great support from other nations, by the way. We don't need it at all. But we've had great support from other nations. The problem is you always get the support when you don't need it. When you need it, you don't get the support. With Operation Epic Fury, our warriors are ensuring that the world's number one state sponsor of terror never obtains a nuclear weapon. And they won't. I mean, there was a lot of thoughts to unpack there, but I don't care about the midterms. No, that must have sent a collective shiver through every Republican who is up for reelection in November. I don't care about the midterms. Well, guess what your party does. And also, he's behaving as if he's not. As if he's not on the ballot. I don't care about the midterms. Right. And he is he is the ballot for Republicans. He is the ballot. Who's who are people going to vote on? They're not really voting on their local candidate. They're voting Donald Trump because he has made himself the one person he wants his name on the currency. He wants his name on the Kennedy Center. He wants he's got his face on the justice. He's got his face on the Justice Department. This is a government of one. People are going to vote on a government of one. I just want to go back to an excellent comment before it hurtles off the screen. We asked earlier. How would Melania react if Donald Trump had a health event? This is because, of course, he said that Jill Biden should have rushed to the rescue of her husband during that debate. And in fact, this excellent comment has hurtled off the screen so fast, I'm going to have to scroll back and carry buyers. 257 Melania will be texting her stylist, unpack my black hamburger hat and ten inch Louboutins. Very good. We've got hello from Belgium, hello Belgium, hello from South Africa and we don't claim Elon Musk. You can keep him. Thank you. Lindy mint. Lindy, Mitt. And I know we've divided. I know some division in the comments. But whether we should show where people were from I just it's great. It's great. There are so many people watching and we just want to make sure that everybody feels part of the deal about family, which is so it's an honor. It's a privilege to be able to talk to people. Well, and Charlotte Noise says that Carol's audio book, Not My Type, which is, of course, the line that Donald Trump used about her, is one of the very best audiobooks I have ever listened to. Yeah. I think I think one of the contrasts that Carol draws so strongly with Donald Trump is, that she has articulated this, told this story, told it so consistently, and done it in such a way that it is impossible not to to feel like, you know, huge sympathy, but also huge respect for her ability to, to do so and extraordinary circumstances. She literally has the government coming after her and she is still bravely standing there. Yeah. So props to Aegean Carol and I think it's almost time for some lunch here. It's Friday and it's 5 to 1. Is this going to be a Trump themed lunch? I actually I brought salmon and salad today. Oh my God, you took Melania's advice. I took Melania's advice. Thank you very much for joining us. We'll be back. We'll be back next Friday. You'll be away. I'll be traveling there, but I will be back. I just I was good to say. I'm going to go to Yellowstone, one of our great national parks. I've never been. It's beautiful. You will love it. And the reason I mentioned that is because Trump has a subject of Trump putting his face on things. He has put his face on a special National park pass. Oh yes he has. Can you get one for me? I will do my best. I say, might not have a choice. You may not. May not have a choice. Right. I just what's the. When is he just going to start building the extra ramp, Mount Rushmore? That's a good question. Right? That's obviously coming. I know that Kristi Noem was trying to get that done. Right. Yeah, and he doesn't want to be with the other ones, surely, you know. Well, I don't know. I think he probably does want to be does it? Because he normalizes him and makes him feel like he's a historic figure? Yes. He's definitely a historic figure. He's definitely. He has a historic figure. It's got can cause he's got a historic figure. He's got chronic venous insufficiency. Don't. We'll. Don't you all. If you have. Thank you for joining us. Have a fantastic weekend. How are you going to celebrate America's 250th? Yeah, actually, that's one thing we really want in the comments. There are some great memories of American America in 1976. We really want to hear those because it's absolutely fascinating. You weren't born in 1970. I was I was born in 1970. You were okay? Yes. I'm in 1976, baby. In Britain, where I'm from, obviously, it was remembered most of all for a heatwave. I remember my mother brings up to me how difficult that heatwave was. Someone here says, can we host Eugene? Carol? Do not think we haven't tried. We did do an interview with her during a brief lull in her cases, but I think she has legal restrictions on what she can and can't do actually. But I really recommend the the movie go and see it. Oh, and good news if we if I buy a lifetime National Park pass, it does not have Trump's face on it. Okay. Incentive to support National parks lifetime pass. Thank you for that detail. That's a very good detail. I wonder how much a lifetime pass is. Sounds like it would be worth it. Yes, and thank you to Bruce Graham. He is going to be celebrating Independence Day with a double IPA. You might need more than that if if you're going to Trump concert. And. To somebody points out that I slightly cover up the junior picture if I move, you do. And I think a few people thought that that RFK picture we had, in all seriousness, in fact, we we it's a it's being satirical. It's a satirical image of him, as is Trump as Napoleon. Obviously, one of the things we really enjoyed doing at The Daily Beast is we have a fantastic visual department with Brockway, and they do amazing satirical drawings. Yes, shout out to Eric Thomas and Victoria. Yes. Thank you for joining us. Have a fab weekend. Tell us how you're planning to spend America's great holiday, Donald Trump's birthday, and we will see you. I will see you next Friday at the same time. God willing. Have a great weekend and God bless America. Thank you. Joanna. Thanks.