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I Know What Trump Will Do After Crushing Defeat | Inside Trump’s Head

The Daily Beast | October 21, 2026



Michael Wolff and Joanna Coles look ahead to the morning after the midterms and ask what happens if Donald Trump loses control of Congress. Wolff, who watched Trump’s inner circle confront him with the 2020 results, explains why he believes the president cannot accept a loss and how a defeat could become an excuse to blame Susie Wiles, Mike Johnson and Republicans who kept their distance from him. Coles presses Wolff on a closer, messier result: Could recounts and challenges leave the country in weeks of chaos? They also imagine who will be at Trump’s side as the returns come in, whether he could still surprise his opponents at the ballot box and why Wolff expects him to fight for the spotlight even if Democrats win.

00:00 – What Trump Will Do After a Midterm Defeat
04:28 – Could Democrats Win a Blue Wave?
08:55 – Why Trump Still Believes He Won in 2020
13:24 – Why Trump Cannot Accept Losing
18:06 – Why Voters Still Stand by Trump
23:06 – How a Close Election Could Fuel Chaos
27:31 – Who Trump Would Blame for Defeat
32:00 – Could the Midterms Spark Another January 6?
36:28 – Why Trump Would Attack After Losing

#trump #podcast #news

📖 Title: I Know What Trump Will Do After Crushing Defeat
👂 Podcast: Inside Trump’s Head
📺 Episode: 180
🎧 Format: Full Podcast
📅 Date: October 20, 2026
🎙️ Hosts: Joanna Coles, Michael Wolff

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Written by The Daily Beast

Comments

This post currently has 40 comments.

  1. @DN-Op

    October 21, 2026 at 3:33 am

    Trump will call the result fake, cause trouble and then call out the military to quell the riots. A state of emergency will be called and the military takes charge. The end of the end of democracy in the US.

  2. @petervandevoorde9720

    October 21, 2026 at 3:33 am

    The American law profession now has far too many rats in its ranks, who have infiltrated into too many government institutions, making too many laws unworkable, allowing too many of Trump's criminal activities to go unpunished!!!!!

  3. @jamie-the-sketch

    October 21, 2026 at 3:33 am

    All this just goes to show how pathetic the USA are as a country. It will be a sh*tshow regardless of the outcome. Glad I'm Canadian. I would move to New Zealand if I could just to get further distance away from that country.

  4. @kmlund42

    October 21, 2026 at 3:33 am

    Trump will not accept a loss and it is hopium for any of us regardless of party to think so. We need to prepare to peacefully protest en mass, use our dollars to send a message, and organize. Now, time is running out.

  5. @loricarmichael2218

    October 21, 2026 at 3:33 am

    I googled Trump saying "We lost by a whisker" (in 2020) because I heard him say it.

    His saying later that he meant it sarcastically is BS. I HEARD how he said it.

    Key Instances and Locations

    • Moms for Liberty Summit (Washington, D.C.): On August 30, 2024, Donald Trump remarked during a far-right event in Washington, D.C., that Joe Biden "beat us by a whisker".
    • Lex Fridman Podcast: In a podcast interview recorded and released in early September 2024 by Lex Fridman, Donald Trump again stated that he received millions more votes than in 2016 and "lost by a whisker".
    • Mint Hill, North Carolina Speech: On September 25, 2024, during a campaign speech in Mint Hill, North Carolina, Donald Trump repeated the sentiment, stating, "They beat us by a whisker. They beat us by a little whisker".

    Subsequent Clarifications

    During the ABC News presidential debate on September 10, 2024, in Philadelphia, Donald Trump walked back the remarks when questioned by moderator David Muir, asserting that his "by a whisker" comment was meant sarcastically and maintaining his false claim that he had won the 2020 election.

  6. @FrankDeVuonoIII

    October 21, 2026 at 3:33 am

    So easy to armchair after the moment, but the follow up for Osoff's great question to his opponent, 'aren't you humiliated claiming Trump won the '20 election ?' Since the beginning the winner gets the White House, so if he won what was he doing in Mar a Lago for 4 years?

  7. @tamarazwinak

    October 21, 2026 at 3:33 am

    infamous. the republicans terrified us for years and the people are afraid no longer. Trump terrorized everyone during his revenge campaign. we want him to lose and lose spectacularly. i look forward to the day January 20, 2029 we he is walked out of the White House and forgotten in a split second.

  8. @Margaret-n2n

    October 21, 2026 at 3:33 am

    By constantly saying the election was "stolen"…and all the "phony" lawsuits against him, the Trumpster made a whole lot of money crying "how everyone else is against him accept his loyal ( & ignorant) MAGA folks. People need to understand that this country is long past saving…too much immorality, corruption & evil to fix. Hmmmmm! 🤔

  9. @simonfeldman6505

    October 21, 2026 at 3:33 am

    DJT will go down in history as an unforgettable person, much like Genghis Khan, Attila The Hun, Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler.
    Like them, he will be remembered as a tyrant, and a stain on humanity.

  10. @claireheffernan4575

    October 21, 2026 at 3:33 am

    Hello from Canada … It is my opinion that the USA is suffering from post civil war psychosis. And unlike countries like South Africa, you have never addressed slavery, the genocide of indigenous people and horrific racism. You have a lot of work to do America. 🇨🇦

  11. @oldnewsclipster

    October 21, 2026 at 3:33 am

    38:00 Michael, the word I think you're looking for is 'loathing.' Also, thanks for the bracing: "Effectively nothing else in American politics matters, except what Trump is thinking at any given moment." Terrifying. I love you two.

  12. @descartes7126

    October 21, 2026 at 3:33 am

    He will find a way to use it and then declare the election invalid. No Fascist leader in human history has been removed/defeted via an election. This election will not make any difference even if the dems win

  13. @wendyfrith3407

    October 21, 2026 at 3:33 am

    The guy depends entirely on his giant barrel of red herrings to get from minute to minute. But it's little league compared to what, he, himself, is …a red herring – our red herring, of such gigantic proportion that it could never fit into his relatively thimble-sized fishy barrel…he is chosen by you and me and all the rest of us to distract ourselves from what's really happening – the galloping mass extinction, including of ourselves, that we are causing…very, very soon….but we sit like a drooling idiot doing nothing about it, the way no one does anything about Trump. The only bigger fool on the hill than Trump is, as Pogo said, us. But we know on some level we need him; he is our river in Egypt, the bandaid on our broken heart. And anyway, what good is fame if there's no one around to recognize you, nor history to record you? A cockroach will wear no hat to tip in his direction.
    But I do enjoy listening to you two.

  14. @Handle1969

    October 21, 2026 at 3:33 am

    LOOK, IM SOME NOBODY NAM VET. NEVER did we have a screw ball. cutting off the transmission from some common satellite so Russia can clobber our ally Ukraine. Unbelievable. Maybe a war crime? Er, ah, prison or … … … worse?

  15. @Camkitsune

    October 21, 2026 at 3:33 am

    38:00
    And I will say again as I said before:
    If they do not pursue him, we do not have a country anymore.

    The entire thing that keeps the impossible macroorganism of the modern state running is the collective agreement that the rules matter and that we ought to follow them.

    If Donald Trump gets to flagrantly and repeatedly violate the law, and he is not held to account by the people whose job it is to hold him to account, then America dies.
    It either dies under the boot of the world's most pathetic dictator, or it dies because We The People decide to tear the whole rotten edifice down for failing to serve its intended function.
    And as much as I want to believe it would be the latter, all signs point to it being the former.

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