This Is the Proof that Trump Fears the Grim Reaper

**David Rothkopf** (0:00)
Trump probably, on some level, despite the fact that he's a narcissist and a psychopath and all these other things, at some level has the worst case of imposter syndrome in history.

**Joanna Coles** (0:11)
Imposter syndrome president.

**David Rothkopf** (0:13)
Yeah, and he knows he doesn't belong there. This guy, he's got imposter syndrome, and I also think he hears the grim reaper. I mean, he's hearing the footsteps of the grim reaper in the background, and he wants to memorialize himself everywhere he looks.

**Joanna Coles** (0:32)
David Rothkopf, in person.

**David Rothkopf** (0:35)
Is it a mirage? No, it's amazing.

**Joanna Coles** (0:37)
I think it might be a mirage.

**David Rothkopf** (0:38)
Do you think I look better in person?

**Joanna Coles** (0:41)
It's true. You are a real person.

**David Rothkopf** (0:42)
Yeah.

**Joanna Coles** (0:44)
You look magnificent, David, as does your T-shirt.
BeBeast. So good. BeBeast.

**David Rothkopf** (0:51)
I had to make this myself. You guys need more merch.

**Joanna Coles** (0:53)
I know we do need more merch. You're right.

**David Rothkopf** (0:55)
I mean, think of it. If you're watching this podcast and you want merch.

**Joanna Coles** (0:59)
Well, what merch would people like? Do you think they'd like hats, T-shirts, bags?

**David Rothkopf** (1:03)
T-shirts with your-

**Joanna Coles** (1:04)
Tattoos.
We could do tattoos. No, not stick-on. Permanent. A bit like Graham Plattner's tattoo. Joke. Obviously a joke.

**David Rothkopf** (1:15)
Which one? You mean the SS tattoo?

**Joanna Coles** (1:17)
Well, who knows? I never want to see Graham Plattner's. I feel like I was a bit taken in by Graham Plattner.
A little sad about that. Partly because when I talked to him, he was doing IVF in Norway, and I thought that was a kind of, felt like a modern man thing to do, but turns out he's not a very modern man.

**David Rothkopf** (1:37)
You mean all the sex abuse?

**Joanna Coles** (1:40)
I mean, the allegations of rape. Yeah. Anyway, he's gone.

**David Rothkopf** (1:44)
He's gone.

**Joanna Coles** (1:45)
The Democrats have got other issues. Now, before we get into it, a reminder, we are independent media, so we need your support. Please subscribe to The Daily Beast. We have all sorts of tiers of membership. You can be a BeBeast member, you can be a friend of the Beast, but please subscribe. And of course, we now have a new phone line where you can leave us messages, which we are going to start playing. Our number is 929-274-3577.
929-274-3577. So you can leave your messages for us there, leave special messages for David Rothkopf, Michael Wolfe for me, for Kurt Anderson, for anybody who like any of our regular guests, Jen Welch. And we will look forward to playing some of them on The Daily Beast Podcast. Today, we're going to talk about Trump melting down. We're going to talk about Putin melting down. We're going to talk about possibly Netanyahu melting down here tomorrow. Well, not literally here, but in DC tomorrow.
We're going to talk about the Pentagon fudging the numbers of American casualties, which is a much more serious story than... I feel like we should all be talking about this all the time, and we're not.

**David Rothkopf** (2:59)
It's way down in the headlines. It's insane.

**Joanna Coles** (3:02)
It's a terrible, terrible fudge going on by the Pentagon.
So that's just for starters. David, where do we begin? Where do we begin? White House correspondents' disaster that Trump has spent all weekend backstroking away from?

**David Rothkopf** (3:15)
Yeah, I mean, it was a disaster on every level, right? Let's start with the people who actually hosted it. Like, why did they do that? Should we have done this over again?

**Joanna Coles** (3:24)
Well, to celebrate the First Amendment. We know that.

**David Rothkopf** (3:26)
To celebrate the First Amendment with Donald Trump? Right, but there was a moment. He was the biggest enemy of the First Amendment there ever was?

**Joanna Coles** (3:34)
Well, is he or doesn't he just provoke the media because all they do is cover him, all we do is cover him. And he loves that. He lives in the attention bubble.

**David Rothkopf** (3:46)
There's a dichotomy there, but he also has his guy at the FCC intimidating people, trying to shut things down. He's suing people. He's cutting all these deals. He's got the Ellison's buying CBS, trying to buy CNN. I mean, he's trying to do a lot of stuff. You know, at the Defense Department, you can't actually get into the Defense Department anymore.
He's cut, you know, if you're a good reporter, they don't let you into White House briefings anymore.