Trump Chaos Hits a Breaking Point
6/9/20261 hr 4 min
David Rothkopf and Joanna Coles dive into a week of extraordinary political turmoil, from alarming warnings about Donald Trump’s reshaping of America’s national security apparatus to growing fears over the future of democratic institutions, the intelligence community, and a rapidly escalating Middle East crisis. Along the way, they unpack protests erupting overseas over Trump-linked business ventures, the fallout from Trump’s explosive confrontation with NBC’s Kristen Welker, and the stunning upheaval at 60 Minutes that has veteran journalists questioning the future of independent media. With sharp analysis, insider reporting, and plenty of the chemistry that makes their conversations so compelling, Rothkopf and Coles connect the dots between power, corruption, media intimidation, and a changing political landscape—culminating in a provocative discussion about why so many Americans seem unwilling to confront what they see as the defining crisis of the era. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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First 90 secondsDavid Rothkopf· Guest0:00
Bill Pulte is the worst appointment Trump has ever made. He has no intelligence experience. He is purely being picked because he will do exactly what Trump says, and Trump wants him there because he thinks that the intel community can help him invalidate upcoming elections, which is his main job. Vladimir Putin, if he sat with his generals in the planning room at the Kremlin, could not come up with a way to do more damage to America's national security than Donald Trump has done in the first year and a half of this presidency.
Joanna Coles· Host0:42
[upbeat music] I'm Joanna Coles. This is The Daily Beast Podcast. Who better to start the week with, of course, than the New York Knicks? No, just kidding. I'm talking about David Rothkopf, our global affairs editor, who's got very strong feelings about the appointment as acting director of the Office of National Intelligence of Bill Pulte. David Rothkopf has been talking to his sources in the intelligence community, and it's really terrifying what they're saying about the damage that Bill Pulte can do between now and the election. And he doesn't even need to be confirmed by the Senate, which is the normal practice for this job. He's remaining as acting director, uh, which still gives him an enormous amount of leeway. We also get into Scott Pelley and