U.S. President Donald Trump reacts in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., September 19, 2025. REUTERS/Ken Cedeno
On an episode of The New Republic's "Daily Blast" podcast, host and journalist Greg Sargent speaks with fellow journalist Brian Beutler on how President Donald Trump seems "more crazed and power-mad than usual" in his Tuesday press conference.
Referring to Trump's refusal to take a question from an ABC reporter because of an interview with Vice President JD Vance that went badly, the Pentagon requiring media to sign a pledge in exchange for curated coverage, and his threats to cut funds off from New York City if mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani wins, Sargent says, "Trump is clearly emboldened in a new kind of way."
Beutler agrees, saying, "And now they’re having hissy fits at reporters who want better, clearer, fuller answers from the administration about what actually happened there."
Referring to Sunday's interview with Vance, when host George Stephanopoulos cut the interview when the vice president refused to answer his question about a $50,000 bribe that border czar Tom Homan reportedly may have accepted, and then a $16 million settlement that Trump was able to "extort" from the network when Stephanopoulos said Trump was "liable for rape" of writer E. Jean Carroll, the president "went out of his way to attack ABC" at Tuesday's presser.
"So Brian, what we’re really seeing here is that the $16 million extortion payment didn’t buy anything in return," Sargent said to Beutler. "Trump is again attacking them for asking questions that displease him."
Beutler replied, saying, "every outlet that has paid a price has then gone on to be embarrassed," noting that media has to choose whether or not to be Trump's "lapdog."
"The Washington PostThe Washington Post, I feel like, is the poster child for this," Beutler says. They have not gone all the way toward sheer pro-Trump propaganda, but they’ve gone about halfway—and it’s cost them essentially everything."
In reference to Trump's taunting of Time Magazine for posting an unflattering picture of him to go with a glowing Gaza review of him by tech titan Marc Benioff, Sargent says, "That confidence is almost bottomless. It’s endless."
Beutler offered his own take, saying Trump's confidence is "hilarious," and that he "he looks—he sounds ridiculous. He sounds like a baby, you know?"
Sargent says that Trump's short-lived victory in the Middle East has further emboldened him, saying, "I think what’s going on here, he’s come back from the Mideast thinking he’s a world historical figure now . . . and it's ’s emboldened him to be even more of a mad dictator."
Beutler doesn't think Trump is delusional, but he does think that he knows he's not the greatest. "I think Trump is as much convinced of his own greatness as he is aware of his own mediocrity," he said.
"He knows that none of this is real—that he’s just trying to put on the best show possible to make him seem like a real-deal peacemaker, kingmaker, all-powerful figure—but that it’s all smoke and mirrors, ultimately," Beutler added.
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