'Hilarious, ridiculous people' surround Donald Trump

You see what the president has said? He said, in response to obviously this absolute drubbing that he's received over the course of the week, he sent out a post on Truth Social saying, the stock market crashed today because the Democrats had a big Tuesday. So sad to see you only have yourselves to blame. Ha ha ha ha! President Donald J. Trump. He's so gracious, isn't he? Very gracious. I know it's amazing what happens also when you two weeks ago claimed that affordability is a Democrat hoax as well. Yeah, I mean, the thing is, I mean, Trump really is kind of as a campaign strategy to sort of end on when you're being accused of basically being Marie Antoinette and not caring at all about affordability to go as your closing statement to stand outside the reflector pool. And basically tell Americans that this is more important than oil prices. It's a play, isn't it? I mean, it's literally Narcissus. He's the only person he can see in that reflective pool is himself. And you're looking great. You're looking great, Donald. You're looking great. It is amazing. I mean, there's a sort of decadence to the whole. I mean, that's the thing it feels to me that's important about these results. It is the first time that Trump has actually... Had a proper rebuke election. Because actually, in every election he's done, he's kind of tended to overperform. Even in 2020, when he lost, he still actually got more votes than he did in 2016. There was a feeling that it was a bit contingent, COVID. It's the first time he's got a battering. And as we were saying, he's taking it well. He's taking it really well. But, you know, it's kind of unfortunate that he's taking a battering at the exact time that he becomes a lame duck. President. So it's kind of like it's sort of unfortunate that it's the final two years. He would have been sort of lashing out anyway. And I think it's it's us that's going to be suffering the people outside of America because foreign policy is going to be the only the only areas he can he can sort of operate in now. And although we were just talking about the the new White House press secretary. Well, this is the thing we should we should update people on this. I mean, the next two years, I mean, it's usually a president kind of starts to wind down. You know, but I think like any good comic, actually, he's leaving his best material for the end. Absolutely. Completely reinventing himself all the time. So in case people haven't seen this story last night, people will know that Susie Wiles, who was kind of the moderating hand. I mean, this is all relative stuff. I mean, it's all relative stuff. The sort of moderating hand of the Trump administration has been replaced as chief of staff by someone who has actually genuinely been accused of being a Nazi, an actual sort of, or at least a sort of far-right figure, which is... OK, yeah, tick for the White House, I guess. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Stephen Miller. That's her replacement. But, of course, there's also another vacancy been doing the rounds, which has been the press secretary job ever since we had Katie Zakaria, had her... Good morning! ...ill time. It'll start, Ron, I think it's fair to say. Good morning. Collectors edition items of the White House press secretary, secretary briefings. Anyway, that has been vacant since then. And last night it emerged that someone called Dana White ...has been appointed to the job. And there are two Dana Whites, it turns out. One has a connection with fighting. One was the former assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs. Donald Trump thought it was the fighting guy. Was it the chairman of the UFC or the head of the UFC? Correct, yes. And now he appears to have got the job because Trump thought... That it was this guy that Susie was referring to on the list. It gets even better because, again, he's the most literal president ever. He's like, OK, we need a fighter. We'll get Dana in, the head of UFC. We need someone white. His surname's White. Dana White, he's perfect. But he's also, Donald Trump has also been talking about how he's been sharing these pictures of Dana White behind the press secretary podium with six UFC fighters. Well, I mean, the thing is, so he offered the job to this former chief executive of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, which he did on Truth Social, by the way. He said, we need these people to defend us against the lunatic left. Dana, please take the job. Please take the job, Dana. It was initially unclear whether the job offer was part of a natural plan or an attention-grabbing stunt from the president or a confusion, because, as I say, Susie Wiles left this list, Dana White, the former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs. I know what my money's on. There was no immediate... I love her work as the Assistant Secretary for Defense for Public Affairs. How do you balance both jobs, Dana? There was no immediate response from the Dana White. Some observers noted, might hesitate to leave a lucrative role running the UFC, which has earned him a fortune estimated to be in excess of $600 million. For a job in government service that pays $195,000 a year. That's a very pre-Trump way of looking at it. I mean, the cash you can make these days in the Trump administration. Exactly, yeah. Honestly, $600 million. Pocket money, Dana. Pocket money, yeah. We'll get you some crypto. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, the next crypto surge. I just now hope that the Dana White of the State Department just becomes the head of the UFC. But the thing is, he was asked about the President's post at a news conference after a boxing match in London. Ha, ha, ha, ha. He said he's on the way back to Washington, D.C. now. On Saturday night. He said, I'm flying to Washington right now. Without saying whether he'd accept the job, I'm going to meet with him and have a meeting on Monday. So I'm sure I'll have more to talk about after that. I mean, I suppose on this basis, we should be grateful that there aren't other people serving as spokespeople for government departments who happen to share their names. Happen to share similar names, I know. I know, yeah. Imagine if there had been a Cody Darla. Cody Darla, who is like Assistant Secretary for Agricultural Affairs or something. Cody, we need your help. Or Vladimir Putin. Mr. Stinky Dum-Dum himself. That's exactly the sort of person we need. That's who we need. That's who we need. Mr. Dum-Dum. Do you think, I mean, as someone who satirizes, as a satirist, I mean, Trump, do you get the feeling, I mean, I've watched more Trump stuff, as you can tell, and it's healthy for any Yeah, man. Yeah, you're really twitching. I know. That's just the time of the day. We'll I mean, do you think, though, and I have thought, you know, having watched him for a long time, and obviously it's hard to say because obviously he's never see been a kind of picture of serenity and calm, right? We can't clearly say, God, wow, this is nothing like you used to be. you But it is true, isn't it, that even for him, the number of times that he's completely mad later. or seems to be saying completely mad stuff has increased versus what it used to be. I mean, yeah, I mean, it really has. But are you trying to say the satire is dead? I'm sort of trying to say, I mean, it was always hard to satirise Trump. But how do you begin? I mean, yeah, it was even harder, isn't it? I guess it is. harder when it's mainly hard because you might be able you can make a good joke and then these days people are like uh oh it writes itself you go no it very much doesn't write itself it does take some effort but i said i say this uh like in plenty of places like uh i really do think like the best comic characters when you come to write comedy if you write a sitcom the best comic characters have like a a flaw It's like, you know, like Only Fools and Horses, Del Boy's great flaws. He wants to be a millionaire. I mean, you don't get a comic character stronger than Trump because he has plenty of flaws. So in that sense, like he is he's funny in and of himself. But like he does, you know, it's mainly the sycophants around him now that I think provide the comedy. Like Katie Zacharia, who good morning, press secretary. Like those people are just ridiculous and hilarious as well. What do you make of his... Turn, let's say, towards the admiration of the male physique. I'm starting to speak. Well, I mean, it's only continuing with the appointment of Dana White. Like I say, he keeps sharing six UFC fighters. Yeah, we need to protect ourselves from the lefty Democrats and they got great asses. I mean, imagine if, I mean, the thing, I sort of thought, I was in America last week and I was talking to a guy who was like, a guy who was like, You know, I never thought that I might have to accept that Trump would in fact be our first gay president. You know, he's not the gay president we imagined, but he's the one we got. I mean, that would be, if he came out, I mean, I always think, like, you know, there's very little he could do to surprise, but if he came out, that would be the thing. Well, do you know what, Lewis? I mean, I actually wouldn't be surprised. He's completely unpredictable, and I feel like, you know, he will kind of, he will do anything to be unexpected. So I can kind of see it on the horizon, actually. If he, you know, he's been... To be fair, it isn't just men that he's talking about, because actually in late October, during a Daytona Beach rally, he digressed into, once again, his own family, talking about his sisters. They're beautiful, but I was never, to be clear, I was never particularly attracted to either of them. The use of the word particularly is... It's not my deal. It's not my deal. Which, again, is so much Trump had there, as you say. Not particularly attracted. I'm not particularly attracted to my sisters. It's mainly my daughter. It's no one's deal, Don. That's no one's deal. No one's deal is being attracted to their sisters. What the hell is wrong with you? A very, very tiny subsection of humanity of whom we rightly don't speak. How do you how does British politics all feels a bit sort of stale by comparison? Well, yeah, I mean, do you know what? So so I kind of so to link the midterms. So, like, basically, I think this midterm success with the Democrats is exactly like the Labour landslide here, where it's like it's mainly a reaction to the Republicans and people in America. I mean, I didn't see any thirst trap content stuff about Keir Starmer the way that my timeline is basically just Jon Ossoff porn at the moment. OK, fine. I mean, there might be there might be a bit of love for some Democrats. But basically, like, I think. UK politics has always been presented as a bit more stale to the American politics, where it's like, you know, the Americans have all the money and they're all put together. And it's like, you know, in the UK, like, oh, we don't have any money and we wear anoraks to the cenotaph and things like that. But I actually think in writing my book, I've realised that we're actually a lot more similar than you think, like, especially on the money front. So I discovered all sorts of really disturbing lobbying things. And like, I think we have to I have to become a bit more awake to this idea that, you know, Are these millionaires in America bankrolling politics? It's actually kind of happening here. And I'm not just talking about Reform UK and their crypto sugar ghouls. There was a moment, though, earlier in the week when I was covering the midterms, and I was just seeing what's going on in Britain at the moment. And there is a little bit of you always as a journalist. Sometimes when you're sort of like breathing the sort of deep, fresh air of American politics because it's just so crazy and it's so... It's so prime for stories, right? And I look back over to America, to Britain, and what did I see was the top story that day? So Burnham era, it was like Andy Burnham vows not to allow the EU to take away our ketchup sachets. And it was like, oh, man. This is actually... Oh, man. This is exactly what you... That's so Burnham era, though, isn't it? So Burnham. No way. Yeah, he's mentioned Twiglets again. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're stockpiling. Angela, what are you having? Pinot Grigio. It's just ridiculous. What next? Taking away salad cream over my dead body. Garlic bread We're in the garlic bread era of politics. It's the Peter Kay era of politics, isn't it? Yeah, it is, it is. Do you find Burnham easy to satirise? I mean, he's got to be right. I mean, it's just the right to itself. It's the sort of like, it's the sort of northern kind of man with a whippet, but we all know he's not. I mean, it is that. And I think, I think absolutely. We used to drink poison as a child. Yeah, yeah, exactly. All that stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I... Formaldehyde on our toast. Every morning. I think, though, that this is kind of what Burnham and Number 10 want, where it's like a lead into this idea of like, Andy, just say you like Twiglets. Just say you like Twiglets over and over and over again, and no one is actually going to look at the actual bad stuff you're doing, which is like oil and gas in the North Sea, not nationalizing our industries. I think they're like absolutely. Trump would disagree. You ready? You ready? Great decision from Andy. He's a great guy. Exactly, and I actually think that. In itself, it's symptomatic of something quite serious, right? It's like, Burnham looks nice. He talks great. You know, he's a great communicator. He talks about salad cream. But I'm like, well, actually, on the big decisions, if Donald Trump is like, great job, Andy. You know, that's a real problem. One thing Trump hasn't done with Burnham, though, is something he did do with Starmer all the time. Two things, actually. One, compliment his voice. Two, compliment his wife, which Trump did all the time. Trump used to compliment Starmer's voice the whole time. He used to say, beautiful voice. God, he has lost his mind. What the hell? I think literally the only person who's ever described Keir Starmer's voice. Mr. Strangulate himself the only person It's not my person. It's not my... Don's like, you know, you could do audio books The only reason he doesn't say that about Burnham is he can't understand what the hell he's saying. Where is this man from some town some town some town in France Cody Tony. Pleasure to see you. Thank you, Lewis.