Leakers and White House Fallout

Welcome back to Newsgirls. I'm Ren and I'm Mabel. And guys, today we want to go through some of the juiciest insider reporting that we're getting from regime change, which is a book investigating Trump's first year as president. It's from acclaimed New York Times reporters and it's actually coming out tomorrow. Ron and I have pre ordered it. We are so excited . And from the excerpts that have already been released, we're already getting a lot of intel on Trump's life, his like thoughts and how this administration works. Yeah, one of the juiciest bombshells from this book is kind of the inner workings of Trump and Melania's marriage right now because we've known for a while that they famously sleep in separate bedrooms. But now we know that Melania took the lavish master suite at the White House . T Andrump has been relegated to the second floor living room and converted that into his bedroom and we can put up a map. You can see the rooms are right next to each other, but they are separate . And according to the book, this arrangement has sparked a full blown domestic turf war because Trump is quote determined to have the better room. So he's been stealing things from the hallway and like all the rooms that Melania has decorated and taking them into his room so that there's like all this gold and like extra lamps and pillows so he has the better room. And apparently staffers are like Mr. President, your wife picked that out for like these rooms and he's like, I don't care. They say it seems like he's like truly trying to compete with her. And in my head, I'm just like imagining a raccoon like scurrying around at night and taking things back to his room . And since Melania, as we know, is barely in DC, staffers have to text her pictures so that she can approve replacements and they're just like crossing their fingers. She won't ask. Okay, where did it go ? So that's one juicy tidbit. And then we're also learning about Trump's bathroom , which is probably a topic most of us like never wanted to know anything about. We didn't need to know these details , but you do need to know that Trump apparently has a fully carpeted bathroom . He brought in carpet. No, it's disgusting. I guess he did this in the first term as well , but the portion of the carpet that is right next to the shower gets soaking wet whenever he takes a shower that they're worried like mold is going to grow underneath the carpet. So they have little patches of carpets. Like they're not bath mats, they're little patches of the same carpet that they put on top of the carpet next to the shower so that they get wet and then they can take those , dry them. And they have like I guess like rotating patches so that there's always like a fresh dry patch. So there's staffers that have to dry Trump's bathroom carpet. No, that's so disgusting. I was gonna even say about like the Melania Trump wars. Like it's kind of so crazy that these journalists got all of these details. I would their relationship is so private. That's why we're all so excited about getting it. But because of the fact that so many staffers are involved, I guess it's not that surprising that they got at least like a couple of them to talk because so many people are involved in this like disgusting war and bathroom situation . No, it's so true. They do say there's also like a rotating ro ster of staff that's coming through because you know how they have Ki turn . And it has been a while since we've gone any insights into the Trump marriage. I feel like during the first term , we heard about it more and then this term it's been less so we're all antsy for these scoops . We have one more domestic anecdote that they were able to get. So we know Trump loves to stay up late and he loves to eat . So he is a notorious nighttime snacker and they wrote in the book that the president would frequently leave an array of empty potato chip bags, starbucks, wrappers, and ice cream cartons on the trash or on the floor, but he's not just throwing away trash because staffers realized he's been throwing out the White House stirling silver silverware. Like when he throws away like an ice cream carton, he just throws away the spoon with it. So now staffers have to monitor his garbage, like look through the garbage to make sure he hasn't thrown away any silverware . He's like a child. It reminds me of like my big like my brother and my mom's biggest war growing up and even now is like the fact that he'll just like eat in his room and like leave stuff around. But now she's like, you're twenty five and you can't be like this and he's like no it's so true like I'm too old to be like this and he's like this eighty year old president just like leaving his gross shit everywhere. So also according to this book, after Trump won the twenty twenty four election, he apparently just revelled in the ways that tech leaders who had once looked down on him were now quote kissing my ass. So apparently especially enjoyed the attention from Mark Zuckerberg, who rem ember banned Trump from Facebook and Instagram after january sixth . And we have seen those tides really turn even most recently when he was at Trump's UFC White House fight. And so clearly the two are really close. And remember he's sponsored it because when we were walking around the grounds, there's so much meta AI like your post like makeup poster, you have sea poster . We talked about that a lot . Exactly. And it's kind of crazy to now understand that Trump was just enjoying that so much and he just loves the fact that they're all now kissing up to him. Reportedly at Marlago Trump would tell visitors about texts that he got from these Titans of tech companies. So this is crazy. Once he showed guests a photo of a letter from one of Zucker berg's children who had allegedly written that they were excited for quote, the golden age of America that is now starting because of Trump . It's crazy that the president is such a named dropper such a president . Also, do we believe that Zuckerberg's I looked at up? His like eldest kid is ten? He did not write this letter being like, I can't wait for the golden age of America starring Trump Trump also showed off a text that he got from Jeff Bezos that was just a selfie of Bezos and his wife Lauren Sanchez and apparently Trump wasn't going around showing visitors like Jeff Bezos texts me. So it's like it's just so embarrassing that he's so excited about being reached out to from powerful figures. It gives us a lot of insight into what he really values . And Bezos clearly knows the key to Trump's heart is to kind of hate on the media because at a dinner we,'re learning about this from the book. After the presidential election, Bezos told Trump that buying the Washington Post has been his worst investment ever. He said, quote, the people there are terrible, they don't listen, my other companies, they listen. So the idea of saying that people there are terrible about the Washington Post, which is it's literally the post is one of the pinnacles of American journalism. Like Spielberg literally made a movie called The Post about the Washington Pohn had Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks who was yeah, yeah, Tom Hanks like oh my gosh, he should not own it. I know no one made you do that and so they're kind of getting together just hating on all of these like media organizations. And again, Trump just loved all of the attention, according to the book, he was talking to Elon Musk about this saying, quote, they hated me and look at them now. And then Elon Musk is like, oh yeah, quote, first class groingve.ll So they're just acknowledging this. And you know, Ren and I have talked a lot about this during Trump's first year . I'm just being so surprised at how tech leaders were bowing down to Trump. And so it is really interesting to get this insight into what he was thinking at the time because I guess he was also really shocked. Well, it does seem like the second term has been such a war trip for Trump because he apparently is also comparing himself to some of the most powerful leaders in history. So he actually sat for an interview with Haberman and Swann for regime change . And in it he compared himself to Alexander the Great, William the Conqueror , Mao Genghis Khan and they met with him two weeks after he first attacked Iran . So he might have just been feeling really revved up and powerful and like on the offense and maybe that was what spurred on these comparisons , but he was also trying to imply he was better than some of these people because he has modern technology. He said, quote, they didn't have airplanes . What does the have anything to do with it? Yeah, like okay, because airplanes didn't even exist, like how was Alexander the Great supposed to have an airplane? He should have thrown in a Democratic leader too. Like it's just so it's just all of these conqu erors who are known for being so terrifying and awful to their people. Like why are you doing this? Yeah , it seems like so then halfway through the conversation, it almost seems like he hears that like people are going going to not to like these comparisons then apparently this was like a quote from the book. He then recited more names Napoleon Hitler and Stalin and said those leaders maintained power through fear. Who would ever do a thing like that, right ? So then it was almost like then he like flipped and was saying he's not like the like those leaders he was talking to reporters that are reading a bunch . And that's not gonna look good. So weird . I don't even know what to make. I don't know if the who would ever do a thing like that, right was sarcastic or if he was still trying to compare himself to that and like pretend I don't know. That was weird . No, that's super interesting. And like Ren and I keep saying this book we're so excited for because it's really going to help us understand how the White House works, how Trump's mind works. And so I want to run through a list of examples from this book that from the excerpts that we've gotten that show kind of how the White House operates like this weird fusion between reality and like show business just because they want maximum impact when they are announcing anything. So for example, Trump has reportedly said to an ally quote, We need plot twists . Like as a president, like he wants to just give people plot twists. And apparently this came up when he was mulling over whether to appoint Florida Governor Ron DeSantis as defense secretary. He was like, We need plot twists. That is bizarre. Like that, I've never heard anyone think like that. No, it's terrifying. He apparently also nominated the CIA director, John Ratcliffe as director because quote , if you were going to cast a guy to play CIA director, that's who you'd pick. It's not a show . You're not casting these people actually like have actual power it's like he doesn't understand that . No, and it's not his priority. Like he just wants, it's so crazy because he hates the media so much but needs like this attention and wants to make this like movie about his life. It's insane. He also talks about that awful moment we remember between him and Ukrainian President Zelensky last year when he came to the White House and everyone was making fun of him and his outfit. And the rest of the world was like, this is such a terrible, disrespectful way to invite a foreign leader to your to your house , but Trump called it, quote, great television better than the apprentice. This is so disturbing. Well, no, Ron, it actually gets more disturbing because reportedly, Trump's defense secretary, Pete Hisfarently keeps Trump updated with gruesome video footage of the bloody effects of drone strikes on human targets . We don't really know why he does that , but apparently every time there's a video of it Hegs will give it to Trump and Trump really likes to see them, which remember you and I have made the point after the State of the Union about how Trump seems to be really into like gory details and violence. And so this reporting kind of confirms that. Apparently, one official has described them as Hexeth snuff films . Second UFC isn't violent enough for you . Exactly. So clearly there's this he just really likes violence or something. And this is a bit unrelated, but it was in this reporting and it's kind of miscellaneous, so I want to throw it in there. Even the way he talks about foreign policy and war is just so unserious. So we remember he began his second term talking a lot about wanting to seize Greenland and making Canada the fifty first state , but apparently privately, Trump was a lot more focused on Venezuela, even suggesting that it could become a state where he'd be allowed to appoint the governor. And the reason is because Trump told the writers of this book that he had quote, a love affair with Venezuela because of the beautiful women in it. And I guess his interest in the country began when he owned the Miss Universe pageant. And then he said, Even though he doesn't like Ukraine, he's a fan of their women because they keep winning Miss Universe. Well, this is hysterical. It turns out Trump apparently has been personally super gluing on the gold trimmings in the Oval Office . And there's an anecdote about this in the book. Apparently Caroline Lovett walked into the Oval Office one day to see Trump like super gluing them. This is the quote from the book. The president had a tube of super glue in his hand to add golden decorations to the marble fireplace mantle as he was known to prefer his own aesthetic handiwork to anyone else's . The sight of the president squeezing glue onto gilded appliques and mounting them on the wall himself surprised no one in his inner circle . I'm so surprised though. I think that's so weird. And we reported a lot about all the gold trimmings added and they do look like they were glued by an amateur. That was a joke that we made when we saw it. We were like, oh, it looks like they glued it themselves and they actually did. He did. Yeah, he actually did. And we were talking about how they look like they came from like ACE hardware and they told me did. If he's just like super gluing them up and they're not professionally applied , it's just like this is ridiculous . It is so crazy. I mean, this is why we're so excited, we keep saying it, for this book because we're getting so many embarrassing, insane details . And we know that Trump is not happy about this because when Trump found out that this book was being written. Apparently he went on a rampage in the White House and had officials go on an actual manhunt to sus out who the leakers are. And so, you know, he was found out that this was happening and started calling treason and apparently quote loudly demanded to know who his cabinet 's team had spoken to the writers because he knew that all of these details were coming out . And we know that that's ramping up a lot more ever since the regime change excerpts came out about how top Trump officials like J D V,ance Todd Blanche, Susie Wils, everyone met in the situation room, AKA War Room to discuss Epstein File Fallout. That obviously made huge news last week because we found out that JD Vance was suggesting that Tucker Carlson interview Galaine Maxw ell, but only if she said that Trump was innocent. So we remember how they were kind of constructing like these PR strategies to save face for Trump . And that reporting coming out has only emphasized the White House's desires to kind of hunt down the leakers because of how accurate the reporting has been. So JD Vance actually went on Meghan Kelly and said that he read the excerpt and it concerned him because it was clear that someone had been taping. And the reason he had said that was because he was like taping in the situation room as a felony. Whoever did that, like, this is illegal. But what he actually ended up doing was just like validate the reporting. And the fact that the White House is freaking out is just making everyone even more sure that this reporting is legitimate because like a better strategy would just be like pretend that you know this is all fake and not give it any like noise . Yeah, just denied and we actually talked about this with Representative Garcia when we had him on the show a couple of weeks ago. So you haven't seen that. He had some very strong reactions and insights to this reporting. So definitely recommend that. Yeah, and it was such a big, this reporting was such a big deal that now he wants JD Vance to come in for questioning because of the way that he was handling this. So clearly this reporting is having an impact in this political world. AXIO repSorted that Trump was furious, quote, about the blow by blow accounts, such as the details that all of this reporting is having. One unnamed administrative source said, quote, we're afraid some of our most sensitive conversations were being recorded, and we have no idea which ones . And apparently there were other situation recordings and meetings that were being recounted, including a meeting between Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu weeks before the U. S. began strikes on Iran in February. And during that meeting, Netanyahu reportedly told Trump that Iran was ripe for regime change. So that's clearly what influenced the title of the book. It's such a good name. It is really good. Thanks everyone for tuning in to another episode of Newsgirls. Don't forget to follow us on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, our substagger podcast. We put out content literally everywhere you guys, so don't miss it . Bye