JD Vance and Political Ambitions

Choice Hotels get you more of what you value. Comfort in It's calling your name Save on the stay. Oh and free waffles are yours to claim Book Direct at choice els dot com com This episode is brought to you by Fox One . Watch all one hundred four matches of the FIFA World Cup live in four K for just nineteen ninety nine cents a month with three days free. Build your own multi view, choose up to three streams and follow players spotlights. Stay on top of every moment with live stats, highlights, and instant replays. The FIFA World Cup, streaming live on Fox One offers a subject to change CFOX dot com for complete terms and conditions . And we're live on match day as Doug reaches for a buffalo wing. He's got it. Oh, and he's gone for a can of Pepsi too. What a finish . There's no doubt about it. He just tastes better. Match days deserve Betsy . Everything that he reads is funneled through Natalie Harp because she's the human printer. She prints out this stuff. Things that cause her ire that the president that will also cause the president ire , that goes to him. She's also frequently includes personal notes to him . You're the alpha and the omega, the be all and end all. What would I be without you? The Natalie Harp notes were passed to me by other aides of the president who were e qually as appalled by this. This is a person who the president has allowed to become really his closest confidant. Michael I'm so hot I may be delirious with hot . You didn't let me say Joanna . You just well stepped on you stepped on it. I stepped on you, Michael. Yes, but I'm interested to hear how hot it is because you are in the middle now of experiencing the leading news story in the world . Is it really the leading news story in the world? No, absolutely the meltdown of Europe . I mean, this is this is this is this is a significant event. The Europeans coming to terms with the fact that their world is utterly changing. It is now they now live, at least will live part of the year in Houston , basically. Houston or Phoenix? I mean or Phoenix? I think Phoenix is officially the American's hottest city , which frequently gets up to one hundred and fifteen degrees and of course how do Phoenicians live? They live with air conditioning. conditioning . This is the thing which I mean so the Europe ans are not only confronted an ecological event, but it's also an aesthetic and taste event. You know, the Europeans always say, oh Americans air conditioning. Oh, I could never live in that in that sterile world . And the answer now is you can't live outside of that world . It's so hot that people aren't actually going down to the edge of the river. I went down to I went down to the river. I went down to the River Sine today to sort of poke around the rehabilitation of Notre Dame and I thought oh there'll be lots of people walking along the rivers. It's too hot even for that. Yesterday there was a brief breeze and briefly I thought it was going to be cooler today than yesterday but it,'s not and it's very humid . So you just I don't like taking showers. I'm a bath person. This may be TMI for watching . But I actually find showers kind of kind of horrifying to know. Thank you. And that would also by the way be a European thing because which of course you are a European, because showers are so terrible in Europe . Well, that might be why so you're always cold, but I always find showers a bit sort of violent and I like a bath anyway, which doesn't mean I don't take showers all the time, but my point is I've literally been taking also good to know . But I have had four or five showers a day here because there is no way to survive without doing that and we actually have air conditioning in my older son 's apartment. But I'll bet it's bad air conditioning because even when the Europeans get air conditioning and then they're then they're very proud of this and you say no , this is not air conditioning. Air conditioning is when you are cold . Yeah, it's terrible air conditioning. I would say that it takes the temperature down by about three degrees and it's a mobile one so you can move it around. And then we have a series of fans which are unbelievably noisy . So it's the apartment sounds like a tractor blowing hot air at you sometimes very hot air. Exactly. So we've got hair dryer essentially we've got hair dryers on it all time. It's very noisy and we've got hopeless air conditioning. But it does make you think how do people live in Phoenix or Houston or Palm Springs without making any complain t whatsoever bureaus are going to have to be no it's a total of the H vac industry. It's if you're in the I mean, I can't I can't believe that people in the H vac business are not looking at Europe and thinking, Oh my God, there's our future. Right, next big opportunity . And I think they've had four times the regular number of deaths at this time of year because people are just keeling over. Crying, of course. They often. I mean, it's extraordinary . I mean, I have been in Europe in these last years of of heat and it really is extraordinary . Yeah, it is extraordinary. And of course Paris is so the streets are so narrow, so it's as if you're sort of baking as you're walking along. Anyway, I'm leaving for air conditioned comfort back to the states tomorrow all being well . So I will leave this . You've been gone . You've been gone now. Three months . Seven months. twelve months. I've been gone for two years. Someone reminded me yesterday I actually have a life in America and I've sort of forgotten about it. I'm very excited to come back . But I guess before we get cracking with all the things we have to talk about, which is Stephen Miller's victory in the Supreme Court and Donald Trump clearly lying about his height and the state fair and actually I thought perhaps we should have our own state fair. You could represent New Jersey. I'll represent New York I think you would have to represent Yorkshire . I could represent Yorkshire. We used to have the great Yorkshire show is an absolutely wonderful thing. You speak the highlight of my summer when I was at school . Largely because you got free paper hats, which I really loved and they're often cut in spirals. Anyway, I digress. We've got to talk about the church and state, whether or not Donald Trump is trying to squeeze them closer together. And of course, it reminds me of your friend Hagers saying lots of prayers all the time very moments praying and JD writing a book about his conversion just one more of the many conversions in his opportunistic convers ions in his life . Yes. I'm looking forward to him reading that on storytime with the second lady because when we read we grow just to remind you anyway . Before we do that, quick reminder, please subscribe to the Daily Bees podcast. We're independent media. That's why we can bring you these conversations . But before we actually get started, we wanted to bring you a message from a friend of Donald Trump's Hi, wow. Love the way the clouds are lining up tonight and they look like real clouds. What do we know? Got to keep praying for that because God knows we're doing everything else to make sure we have real skies and clean air but just wanted to say hello and I've had the most incredible time with my grandson and just took off for a day and a half with a couple girlfriends who said, Isn't it time we just have fun? So may still be working , but I'm going to have fun in my process. So just want to send some love your way. Just sending just sending some love your way to all our viewers and all our readers in case you haven't seen Marla Maple's Donald Trump's second wife, mother of Tiffany Trump . She's sending love, are we, Michael? It's a nice thought. The real clouds behind her in the sky. It's always good to know they're real. What do you think motivates people to do these to suddenly think they have to have a social media instagram life ? I mean I suppose I should I suppose I should talk, but I know Donald Trump motivates me. Maybe he motivates Marla too . Well, Joe Biden has just started an Instagram account too. So we're going to keep an we're going to keep a watchful eye on Dr. Jill who was doing that on her. Do you think people they think somebody comes along, they get some young people in their life who say, you know, you need an Instagram, you need a social media strategy. What's your social media strategy? And they go, I don't know . And they said, Okay, this is what you have to do. You have to just be yourself since that's what everyone says your social media strategy should be. I think it's a way for people to try and stay relevant, right? So Marla Maples why do we care about Marla Maples? She was married to the president, but only briefly and then seemed to warn her friends against letting their daughter work' ats Marlago. I guess she's doing it to sort of say look over here . Here I am. But I don't know why she would do that. Why wouldn't you just want to stay quiet? And likewise the Bidens, I mean, one of the things let's say about the bushes is that they don't have a social media strategy , nor actually do the Clintons really have a social media strategy. So so Dr. Jill stop it . Yeah, don't even try. Don't even try . We don't need to see Dr. Jill in her kitchen . Terrible kitchen too . It's a strange ly dated kitchen feeding her dogs in the morning. Why is she doing that? I guess she's doing it to promote her book , right? That's why people really do it. They've got something to promote. So I don't know why totally that is actually you hit it because all publishers who are incapable of promoting anything then say their answer to this is oh you need a social media strategy . Yeah . And so they just put their life on it. Yeah, since we can offer you nothing , because we're hopeless . Now you have to do this because you have social media. You can do it for yourself. Okay, I get it. Completely so that's why they're doing, I think, to sell something or to stay relevant anyway . Comcast is delivering extraordinary experiences in live sports, through the incredible broadcast and storytelling from NBC, innovative and personalized viewing features on Xfinity and Peacock, and the country's most reliable Wi Fi. Viewers can enjoy every game changing play faster and more seamlessly than ever. All in a network built to deliver unforgettable moments as close to live as possible. The ultimate experience for the American sports fan. Learn more at c Castomp Cororation. com slash sports. I tell you who is staying relevant even if his wife's podcast seems to have disappeared. Stephen Miller . Stephen Miller had a win this week. Well, Donald Trump had a win this week. I mean, Stephen Miller I'm sure this is he's very pleased about this, but this is again all about Donald Trump. And we're talking about the Supreme Court win talking about a ruling that gives the gives Donald Trump and the Trump administration significantly more power in its efforts to deport a lot of brown people . Well, but specifically Haisians and Syrians , right? It's removing their temporary protected status . Yes, but this goes on this this essentially essentially radiates out into creating a precedent in which in which it basically says in which the Supreme Court basically says the president of the United States has a has a near open field to make immigration policy and to and his in the and and the way in which he enforces immigration laws. And so this is a this is a new power, this is an expanded power which will , you know, affect tens , hundreds of thousands of families actually . Families who thought that they were secure in their lives in the United States are now no longer secure. Well, and the idea that they might be picked up and shipped back to countries where they have no connection anymore and broken countries like Syria and Haiti in particular, do you think this is actually Donald Trump, or is this Stephen Miller? There are two ways to look at this. Obviously, this is Stephen Miller's initiatives, him pushing this , but the Supreme Court in the way they are in their favorable ruling , that's all about Donald Trump. And the interesting thing in this is , I mean, to expand this a little wider, you know, Donald Trump, the truth of the Trump administration is that it has met roadblock after road block after roadblock in federal courts , in local authorities , foreign powers, its own incompetence , setback after setback after setback is the truth of this administration . But the really reliable place, the reliable piece of the power grid that he's been able to count on over and over and over again is the Supreme Court . And in fact, the Trump administration and what we've seen over the last almost year and a half of this of this term is a set of actions that have been reliably bolstered backed up by the court . And you know, and and you look at this I mean it's in I think it's totally fascinating because in and what it is is kind of extra constitutional . And the court , I think for our assumptions about the court is that no matter no matter its ideological direction, it is underpinned by a constitutional analysis, whether you agree with it or not , it has a kind of, I mean, it has , it reverts to a logic . And I think that has that has passed. That is no longer true. I think in Donald Trump's court, you have two just ices, Alito and Thomas, who are just as old , as racist as on the take as Donald Trump himself . That's it. They're in the bag for him. It's, you know, their interests are aligned with his . And then you have the three other justices , Kavanaugh , Barrett and Roberts who are not reading the Constitution as much as they are reading the room . So I think they're very attentive at all times to what they have to give Donald Trump You really think that they're that attentive . And are you putting gorsuch as a kind of maverick? No, no, no, go moresh such situation no No I'm putting him in that in that reading the room group too. Yes. Yes, absolutely . And I think that the issue is is, yeah, I mean, the issue is frankly they're, afraid of Don ald Trump . So I think that they feel that they are somehow protecting the establishment that they don't know what Donald Trump will do or what he is capable of. So it's a very meticulous parsing of how to keep him happy . Again , nothing to do with the Constitution. And I am reminded of a story from the first campaign, the twenty sixteen campaign , when it looked it began to look like he actually might be the president of the United States , shocking everyone, including the people around him, but they hurriedly, his aides hurriedly con vened a meeting with Donald Trump to explain to himed thestitut Cionon . And last he lasted in the room for ten minutes and then was gone. So what he knows about the Constitution was information was ten minutes worth of information. Well, and I'm sure he doesn't care, right? Whatever, he doesn't care if it's in the Constitution or not, it just wants to add to the Constitution. Well, I guess that leads us on then to the subject of religion and separation of church and state , which has also come under scrutiny this week with this report from his religious commission . I mean, the religious Liberty Commission is what it's called, and it comprises one Orthodox Jew and everybody else is a conservative Christian. Andes y, and it would seem an evangelical Christian. Yes. So that is, I mean, I mean, from Donald Trump's point of view, and remember, Donald Trump is probably the least the most eer religious president we have ever had . I mean the only time he has ever even made a nod toward religion is when that has been forced upon him in the presidency . He is , you know, the idea that Donald Trump would acknowledge a higher power is a very funny idea. Well, and he's frequently AID out this year pictures of himself as Christ saying he's a healer. He's aer he.al Donald's the healer. You know, he has no interest in the pope. He says that the only reason the pope's got his job is because of Donald Trump. That's why they needed an American pope. I mean, he holds religion in such low regard apart from when he needs its voters . Yeah, no, and I would add to this, I myself hold religion in low regard . So this is perhaps a where maybe the two of you in common. Exactly. Exactly. And he is, you know, Donald Trump is a New Yorker like I am a New Yorker and and , you know, sees se sees the world through that lens and it's a lens of how would we describe it's the lens of we're in, you know, a proudly atheist city . This episode is brought to you by Google Health. Stop chasing someone else's definition of health. What matters is what's healthy for you. Google Health offers a new kind of coach built with gemini for effortless tracking, sleep insights, and holistic coaching tailored to you. Visit Googlestore. com to learn more and start a new relationship with your health. Requires Google account, Google A and Happy Gppoog Inleternet Health Premium Scription features subject to change, availability and results vary, not intended for medical purposes, works independently of Gemini apps. Check responses for accuracy. He's just proudly expedient, though. He'll pretend he believes in God if he needs to . Yeah, but I mean, he doesn't pretend very hard. That's also the interesting thing . So it's well , and I wonder again, I've been thinking about the point you made last week that actually cult urally , you know, with UFC and things he's actually people are relieved by, they're relieved by the lack of pretension. They say he's just like me. When he picks up the Bible and he holds it upside down , which he may have done on purpose actually. It's a way of indicating to people that he doesn't take this stuff terribly seriously. And I think although there are lots of people out there who do, the majority of people know they can't live up to it and it's there if they need it . But most people don't feel they need it all the time. Yeah, I mean I feel you're being accommodating on this . I think I also bit more sympathetic to people who feel that they want some kind of religion or faith. Having just literally last week buried my mother, I've felt very glad for the rituals of a Christian funeral service to go to the church where she was a member of that community and sing hymns that I'd grown up singing. It felt like there was a rite of passage here that and the formality of the service helped. But but you don't and you won't and you will be , I assume putting an urn and left in a closet somewhere and that'll be nobody will be sprinkled in the hudson, Michael Or possibly off the off East Hampton Beach ? Yeah, possibly, but I find most ly that people don't get around to doing that. Well, I don't want to I don't want to sit in a plastic bag in an urn. Actually, I should say she was cremated and then put in an eco box , which is now in the ground and then it goes back goes back to the earth. The point is not the burial or the cremation. The point is the service for the people who are . Yes. Well, the point for Donald Trump is a very specific constituency and that constituency, which has he has made a deal with at some point and he has consistently delivered for and that deal did not did not include that he had to be a believer. That was what that was what the interesting thing. The histor interesting thing about that deal . I don't believe in any of this. You can't even I don't even no one even has the pretense here that I believe in any of this. I am as openly blasphemous as any president has ever been in thought and action , but that doesn't make any difference because I am going to give you what you want. And this is one of those instances . Right. And he's enjoyed the blasphemy, right? I mean the other thing is he looks like he enjoys himself . I think it is it is true that he's he's had this both ways. And I think whereas whereas JD Vance who is courting this crowd has just wrote a book about his his conversion to Catholicism seems like a like just like a suck up in a Dweeber and and I, you know, and I don't think anyone takes this seriously because we know he's a cynical guy and we know why he's doing this , but he is trying to he's trying to fool everybody. And Donald Trump isn't trying to fool anybody. But he doesn't make it look fun either, does he JD Vance? It looks like it's a struggle, root back to his faith. Well, in all fairness, it should be a struggle. Religion is a struggle. Well, and that's why Donald Trump doesn't like it . And that's why people and connect with him. It's his it's his power to connect over stuff like that because you know that he's he's winking even as he's a cynical man. He's a cynical guy and I think cynicism is probably has been deeply underrated in politics . Well , this is a nod to it's a nod to the evangelicals because he wants them in his court come the midterms, right ? Yes , much. I mean, I mean this is, I mean, that is he's just delivering this. And to some great extent, it's also it's completely meaningless. The fact that and and let's say this document argues that the division that church in state is a constitutional misunderstanding . So it's, I mean, it's kind of like , you know, everything that you have ever thought the way this country operates is not true . Right. And of course, in fact, we know lots of people came to this country fleeing organized religion. So their insistence on the originalist's point of view doesn't quite make sense of it. Anyway, it's politically expedient, but it's still interesting nonetheless. And as you say, he got ten minutes into the Constitution and then left the room. So maybe this was a bit he didn't understand. But it appears that we are back at war with Iran, or at least they bombed a tanker or they sent a drone over and it exploded on a tanker. So now we've gone and bombed them. So I'm not quite sure what happened to the ceasefire or the memo of possibly misunderstanding at this point. Well, I think that this is we're still at the face saving stage of this. I mean, Donald Trump, we're still in this moment of Donald Trump figuring out how to get out of this situation with the least amount of damage. And he's being accused pretty much everywhere of complete capitulation , of giving up everything of surrendering . And so I think instance and this instance could, of course, spiral out of control at any minute, but this instance is him being able to say no, we're firm, we're standing . We will push back and we have the biggest, mightiest military, et ceter a, et cetera . But real message, I want you to forget about this as quickly as possible . Right . And so which prompts the question will people forget about this the midterms ? And I mean, this is a kind of fundamental premise of modern politics, certainly of Trump politics is that people do forget about seemingly everything . They really do. But if this escalates , they're not going to forget . And Iran has, I mean, Iran does this obviously, but they have made very threatening statements after latest contradon saying, you know, we're going to go after your allies. We're going to essentially reign holy hell if you provoke us again . That would be very bad for Donald Trump So I think that that would indicate that he will give them again whatever they want . He'll give them more so that this doesn't happen. Donald Trump has to get out of this war, has to do it essentially now in order for this not to be an overriding issue in the midterms . So I mean , well, it looks like prices, at least the price of oil is coming down at the pump a bit. So he may get the benefit from that consumer sentiment appeared to be slightly on the up first time this year . No, I mean, I think that this is that this is the I mean, I mean, we now have this peace deal is doing it is giving everyone the opportunity to smooth this over . And so that's the question. We all know what this war has been about. We all know that this war has been a disaster . We all know that in order to stop this war , he has had to essentially gain nothing from from the four months we've been fighting this war . Nothing is nothing is materially improved for the interest of the United States now more than it was before the war started. It's a deal already worse. It's significantly worse. Yes. And the deal that he has that he has cut is less than the deal that Obama cut, which he then ran against , made that a prime issue of his of his of his of his political life . So we all know that. That's there. It's all laid out, could not be clearer . Will that , will we remember any of that come November . And the answer strangely, I mean, it's perplexing to me is no, we probably won't. Well, there'll be other things to think about then, but well, that's the point. There are other things, yes, there are other things that come that there are other distractions , there are other things that pile on top of this . But this is and I mean right now is the leading issue of that defines Donald Trump . And the fact the fact that that by the time November comes around, he may actually get away with this is astounding to me . With over two decades of scientific innovation across oncology, Pfizer continues to drive the next wave of cancer breakthroughs . Approximately forty percent of all our R and D is invested in oncology. With ninety plus clinical trials across more than four thousand sites , Pfizer is focused on eight new medicines by twenty thirty, all with a single focus helping your patients with cancer. Learn more at cancer dot pfizer. com . Well, it gets away with so many things. One of the things I'm slightly fascinated that he gets away with is clearly lying about his height. I saw a photo this week which I wanted to bring to your attention because it involves my friend John Thune , who, I think, looks so much more presidential than Trump. Well, wait a minute, wait a minute. Let's stop there. The idea that anyone that Trump way looks presidential. Yes, fair . I mean, he's a grotesque, clownish , I mean the only way that he looks presidential is in the context that in order to be president , you have to people have to have to be just can't take your eyes off of you. Well then that's certainly true. But can we totally agree? Okay, now can we look at the height different here of these two guys? Because John Thune is six foot four. Donald Trump insists he's six foot two , but he's shrinking . He's shrinking into the giant shrimp that Steve Bannon said that he was. I think he looks more like Visen because he's so sort of big around the shoulders. But he's definitely not six foot two. I mean, John Thuen looks like he's got four inches on him there. I know that size isn't supposed to matter, but I think it does in this situation. Well, we do shrink. I'm shrinking as we sit here . Can I just tell you the benefit of having I've had in the last year regular viewers and listeners will know, I've had not one but two hip replacements in the last year and I have grown an inch hugely grateful to my doctor for giving me an extra height, extra inch of my height. Anyway, I don't think that's what John Thune is doing. I think that Donald Trump is literally shrinking as we see him. How old is John Thune? He was born sixty one, so he's sixty five . Well, Donald Trump is as we know eighty and as we should repeat on a regular basis, Donald Trump is eighty . And you know , you shrink . There it is . He drink. Well, we're watching it, but maybe he's got accelerated drinking , which could be a new form of syndrome . Excelerated AS I think he's got accelerated shrinking syndrome, Michael. And diagnosing him, which I know you don't like it when people do. Okay, so the New York Times appears to have frankly caught up with something that we have been talking about since we started this podcast, which is that Donald Trump basically has a series of obsessions and he rules by obsession. That's what that's what 's there for. At all, I think it's extraordinary that the Times has taken so long to get to this. I mean, they have so assiduously tried to see Trump in a relatively normal political contexts cause an effect. This is he does this to pursue this goal . And so this week in this times in this time story, they basically threw that out. I mean, after ten years , they basically say, Oh yeah, yeah, that's not true. He does things for no reason whatso ever except that they live in his head , which if you came here and we would tell you well hello in Trump's head that suddenly would have us doing this. Yes. You know, he his policy is based on whoever annoyed him on television that morning. I mean I have, , you know, criticized the times again and again and again, but this was kind of kind of stunning, a stunning admission on their part that they literally do not know how to report about this president Their way of reporting about a president is as we report about politics . It's a process business . And this story is identifies the exact opposite situation. There's no process at all . It is pure obsession. Whatever comes into his head, the goddamn reflecting pool . The reflecting pool literally that exists outside of politics. There's no cause and effect. This is not going to be good for him in any way . He is not going again from this . The only and the only reason it is happening is that he can't it can't get it out of his mind . It is something it literally 've spoken to people in the White House who are kind of agog at this too. You know, it's all he talks about . So all that the New York Times , the next logical headline for the New York Times President of the United States crazy as a fruit cake . Now they will not get there , of course , but this is effectively what they are saying now finally . Well , I find the New York Times compelling for all sorts of reasons and it's a huge resource, but at the same time, they've also really struggled to they were really, really late on understanding the importance of the Epstein files . Well, they can't even get that story. I mean, I mean, they did a story of Jeffrey Epstein's Geoffrey Epstein as a as a child was this one on growing up in which they managed to spend they spent a lot of words saying Jeffrey Epstein appears to have been absolutely normal . No one noticed as a child that he was going to grow into one of the most diabolical people of the century . Well I'm trying to think that I would say that that would be a New York Times line and clearly an overstatement in reasonable context of history. But what can I say? Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile with a message for everyone paying Big Wireless way too much. Please, for the love of everything good in this world, stop. With Mint, you can get premium wireless for just fifteen dollars a month. Of course, if you enjoy overpaying no judgments, but that's weird . Okay, one judgement Anyway, give it a try at midmobile. com slash switch. Upront payment of forty five dollars for three months plan equivalent to fifteen dollars per month required , introduce first months only then full price plan options available, taxes and fees extra, seeful terms MitMobile. com. So there's lots of Natalie Harp stuff in regime change, the new Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swann book. I feel like you had all this in your book and we've been talking about Natalie Harp, AKA the Human Printer for some time now. Again, the New York Times, what I mean, how I mean , I mean, they're running years behind at this point. I mean, Natalie Harp is a good story and a kind of important story because she spends so much time . She is the person who spends nobody spends more time with the President of the United States than Natalie Harp. And this is a relationship that , yeah, I described at great length my brain or nothing about the campaign . Yeah . So the fact that the New York Times suddenly wakes up to this , you know , again and I think that part of the part of the history of understanding the Trump presidency be understanding how poorly the news media, the New York Times , particularly has covered this guy. And they have and this has happened because they just don't understand them because he exists outside of outside of politics and all of their political reporters exist inside of politics . Right. But I would go back to say that Natalie Harp's story is a piece of work. And in my book in All or nothing, I , you know, I produced a set a set of notes that she had written the president. I mean, love letters , in which everybody during everybody was in a major kerfluffle over this, including the Secret Service warning the president of the United States or warning aides to the president whose job it was then to bring to the president whether they did or not that they saw her as a danger to herself and to him . And is the implication that she's in love with him in these notes? Because she writes in those notes you know No one is more important to me . I mean these are love notes, mash notes yeah completely and she leaves them in his private spaces. What are his private spaces? No she leav,es them. So Natalie Harp is everything that he reads is funneled through Natalie Harp because she's the human printer. She prints out this stuff . And so and the stuff that she prints out is this laudatory stuff, any anything laudatory she has she's searching for at all times and then giving to the president , other things that will that will cause him fire . So in actually that would be that would be her agenda . So things that cause her ire that the president that will also cause the president ire , that goes to him. But in this pile of papers, she's also frequently includes personal notes to him and notes that, you know, you're the alpha and the omega, the be all and end all. What would I be without you And then weird kind of kind of language of which kind of suggests him punishing her I don't know I'm not even gonna go there . H im punishing her, that sounds very strange. Well, they're sort of motivational love notes, aren't they? That's what I thought when I read them that they're sort of supposed to be motivating for him and no, I don't I don't think that that's true at all. I think that they're they're straight up you know I want to , you know, I want to climb into bed with you. She doesn't say this, but I think that she said that's the tone of this. I love you. I exist because of you. I exist only in your shadow. And how do they compare with the love notes that RFK Jr still Jr at seventy two the love texts that he sent to Olivia Nutzi . I want to put a baby in you . I need you to there was some very strange language around those texts . Yeah, well I think most Most love notes should not be read by outsiders, but that all most love notes should not be written, I think, is the is the conclusion from or certainly not left around for public consumption . And those notes that the Natalie Harp notes were passed to me by other aides of the president who were equally as appalled by . And that's one of the things that exists in currently in the Trump White House , this tension that she has that this is a person who the president has allowed to become really his closest confidant . And she looks like Melania with blond hair. I mean, to your point, we've talked extensively on this podcast about how the women around Trump all look the same. They wear boots, they wear skirts, they have long hair, Margot Martin, Melania, Hope Hicks . And I remember Hope Hicks telling me that she used to get up at three in the morning so that she was always at her desk by five AM because we know that he doesn't sleep . And it sounds like Natalie Harp is sort of twenty four seven of the White House at this point . Yeah, no, and she was I mean during during the campaign there was a concerted effort to to to get her away from the president , to get in her way to do anything to impede her access . And when they moved during the summer of twenty twenty four when they moved up to Bedminster . Actually, this was probably the summer of twenty twenty three because they then they stayed in Palm, anyway . They move they moved up there and they did not give her any housing accommodations and then she arranged it on her on her own that she would that she would get she would be able to stay in the in a maid's quarter at Bedminster . But that was far from the main house where Trump was. So instead she moved herself into the women's locker room and spent the summer there . Was there a bed in the women's locker room? That I don't know . I can't't hope she didn have to have been it cannot have been very comfortable. I hope she didn't have to squeeze herself into a locker and sleep there. Perhaps she had to lock herself into a locker at night so no one could find her. Well, the mystery of Natalie Harp continues , but I remember those love notes and I remember talking about them with you when we first started doing inside Trump's head, which is ten months ago at this point. We promised that we would talk about Lee Greenwood . Lovely Greenwood . God bless the USA. This was always, you know, the other thing that I looked for when I had to go to these, when I did go to these Trump events, always the moment I looked forward to is Lee Greenwood tottering out on stage . The oldest the oldest country music star in the world . There you go. Would that be true? He's only eighty three. I feel like there are lots of them that are probably older than that. Well, you know, I said that as I said that, I realized the country music probably attracts a lot of oldsters . Yeah . And of course , you know, he had his he had as many stars might have been slowing down twenty years ago at his age because he's eighty three now so he would have been sort of sixty then . He got a whole new surge of popularity post nine eleven, didn't he? I mean, our producer, Ryan, was saying that they were always playing God bless the USA in school and it was a sort of it's like a sort of shadow star spangled banner. Yeah, no and again there,'s that thing about, you know, Trump and his idea of American taste . So I mean, I find it hard to imagine that actually this has that this has resoundingly scored with we're going to just stop a minute as you get the that's Paris. That's Paris, the church bells in Paris. And it's rather wonderful, isn't it to hear the bells? You have the Amigan sit horn at noon . But it's so Lee Greenwood, you know, I mean, Trump is in the middle of this of having to stage this two hundred and fiftieth birthday of the United States of America, which is apparently going as a total fiasco . And the only basic star he's been able to produce is Lee . And of course it's particularly th rown into contrast because Barack Obama had Stevie Wonder and who must actually be around the same age as Lee Greenwood is I take back this everybody country is now is now in their in their eighties totally Paul McCartney is my amig ant neighbor is yeah everyone in their eighties every,body's in their eighties at this point . Yeah, all the musicians, but certainly, I mean, the boss isn't quite eighty. Musicians, all of the politicians, everybody . Right . We've rolled here. No , I think it's, I mean, all this criticism of Donald Trump for being eighty may just be that the world is eighty , that the only people who really matter are eighty . Yeah, NATO's eighty . I mean, think of it in that way. So Lee Greenwall, Jesus, why am I making him Jewish he is the least Jewish person on earth , but at any rate Lee Greenwood not as well might be the only star at the at the Trump Fair at the Trump two hundred fiftieth birthday fair . But and he actually may be the only person or among the few people who show up. So Joanna, you have a PERV report from the Americas , what is this thing called America's Fair America America America State Fair . Okay, the PERV report . A PERV report. Well , it was simply that a MAGA live streamer called Manny, who was dressed up as Uncle Sam, you know, complete stars and stripes absolutely everywhere. It turned out that because there weren't very many people there , he was easy to spot . Plus he was live streaming and there was an acrobatic group of sort of circda silly light and Nanny was reported to be enjoying himself rather too and his hands apparently were down the front of his pants and not once not twice but three times he had to be approached by police and finally they took him away and arrested him , which must have been tough because that must have brought the numbers of the crowd down significantly. I think we're going to show some pictures of just how few people have turned up for this thing. And it was one of these uncle Sam caricatures on stilts. He was on stilts. I thought he was on stilts He wasn't on stilts. I thought he was on stilts. How was not on stilts? How disappointing? Do you want to make any remarks on JD Vance embracing the mantle of Richard Nixon? I do. I think extraordinary. What could have motivated that except that there is a thing and this is a Trump thing . So everything and I think you have to understand see it in this light, everything that JD Vance says, every single word out of his mouth some ulterior motive in with regard to Donald Trump . So Donald Trump has a Nixon fixation often comes up. Nixon got a b um deal, Nixon was screwed, or the favorite thing, Nixon should have burned the tapes. If Nixon had only burned the tapes , I would've Trump saying this , burned the tapes so much so within within the Trump circle it's the burn they go burn the tapes rolling their eyes, having heard this so often . Right. So I think this is JD Vance is sending that message back to Donald Trump. I agree with you. I'm on I'm on the same plane. The Nixon thing, Nixon got a bum deal . So is he saying that because he's projecting because he thinks he got a bum deal last time around or what is the what is the contrast gainer here as you would J D Vance is just saying this just to please Donald Trump. Everything he's saying a way to please Donald Trump, everything a his campaign to ultimately get Donald Trump's approval. There is going to be a moment where Donald Trump is going to have to say I endorse JD Vance or I endorse someone else or I endorse nobody or I endorse all of them. I mean we just had a race candidates. Exactly, exactly . But JD Vance, JD Vance's life at this point is hooked on one event, that event, Donald Trump saying, I endorse you. We've got a new contributor to our limericks. This one is from Nicholas Roschford , New Blue Pool , not so cool. Arpers flies off the handle, can't afford another scandal, go to find and jail a vandal Very apripo. Then this is one from someone called Havathink. There once was a king with a pool. When he looked at it, he saw a fool. So he puffed and he puffed, ordered help to be snuffed and succeeded in ending his rule . And then we have one from Galfried . There was once a man trump in a funk by a pond with a green algae quite sunk , while the wars ra ged abroad and his polls took applaud, he still brooded on slime in the bunk. Very creative , very creative. We get lots of them and I'm not very good at collating them, but very good news . We have an intern starting on Monday who's going to start going through the comments and being really methodical about how we res pond to them and how we collect your comments and take themes from them and actually answer some of your questions specifically. And someone made a very good point last week, which I hadn't noticed, and Michael you didn't notice either, which I that constantly refer to Ukraine as the Ukraine because when I grew up in school, that's how it was referred to. But in fact, in nineteen ninety one, when Ukraine became its own country , you're supposed to drop the definite object. So I've corrected you on this before and I've given up yes, and I've given up because you can only correct someone so often. Well, it turns out that we have a very knowledgeable Ukrainologist, I think , listening to the show. And they write everybody they wrote a long literally everybody has learned this lesson over the past four years. Okay, well never having talked about Ukraine, we do now talk about Ukraine regularly and I've got to drop the So duly corrected, duly noted, thank you. And if you have been, thank you for watching and thank you for listening . And I will see you in person , I believe. Very excited. Over quite if you if you indeed do come back , which I still have my doubts about from the hottest places on Earth. Not Thank you Ryan, Heather , Neil, John , there's one more Don't tell me Rachel for God's sake, Rachel . Thank you . So the good news is we have so many Be Tier members now there are too many names to read out and we really appreciate your support. Spotify, it's Jay Shetty. Are you one of those media strategy people scrolling through spreadsheets, searching for an audience that pays twice as much attention to your ads than they do on social , let me introduce you to fans and they're here with me on Spotify. Trust me, I know fans. They don't skip, they stay for hours . 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