In Conversation with Jim Acosta
18 June, 2026
[Transcript edited for clarity, flow and length]
It’s been quite a week for Donald, and I had the chance to break it all down with the excellent Jim Acosta. We discuss Donald signing his capitulation to Iran at Versailles, his bizarre performance at the G7, and much more. I hope you enjoy the conversation.
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Jim Acosta: Joining us now is Mary Trump. It’s great to see you, as always.
Mary Trump: Great to see you, Jim. And yes, it has been a week, a year, a millennium, whatever. At this point, it’s completely unrelenting.
Jim Acosta: It really is. I feel like saying, “What a year this week has been, and we’re not even at the end of it yet.”
Let’s start with the giant reflecting pool on the National Mall that Donald promised would be American flag blue by the Fourth of July. Instead, it turned bright green, and the memes are already everywhere. One of my favorites compares it to green gelatin.
I know you wanted to talk about the Iran deal and the Kennedy Center as well, but this whole episode strikes me as very Donald Trump. He approaches everything halfway, and the reflecting pool feels like another example of that, just as this Iran deal does.
Mary Trump: I would actually say it’s accelerating and getting worse, but you’re absolutely right. It’s completely on brand for him.
The difference is that his incompetence is now playing out on a much bigger stage, and his mistakes are impossible to hide. There simply aren’t enough people left to protect him or spin reality in a way anyone will believe.
You literally had a Fox personality standing in front of an algae ridden reflecting pool trying to convince us not to believe our own eyes while workers poured gallons of hydrogen peroxide into the water.
It’s difficult not to laugh.
The comparisons have been endless. Who wore it better, the reflecting pool or Kermit the Frog?
But underneath the humor is something much more serious.
This is what happens when someone with no understanding of basic science is placed in a position of enormous power without guardrails.
Dark colors absorb heat. Pools painted dark blue create ideal conditions for algae growth. It’s Biology 101.
This is also what happens when someone insists on doing things for which he has absolutely no skill and then hires other people who are equally unqualified.
Jim Acosta: We’ve seen video of the blue paint bubbling off the bottom of the pool. Hydrogen peroxide and paint don’t exactly work well together. There are clumps of paint floating in the water now.
His defenders insist he knows what he’s doing because he owns golf courses and luxury properties. They argue that someone who has built so many pools must understand how to solve an algae problem.
I’ve visited many of those properties. Some are attractive, but many are simply gaudy and tacky. I don’t necessarily see him as an authority on any of this.
Mary Trump: Donald has built nothing in his entire life.
When anything was actually being built, it was my grandfather using his own money, political connections, and business relationships.
Donald inherited projects or took them over.
The casinos are a perfect example. He either inherited them or acquired existing properties. Anything he has had a direct hand in creating has been shoddy, not simply gaudy.
The old Trump International Hotel in Washington was actually quite lovely because it existed long before Donald simply attached his name to it.
Donald has consistently demonstrated one particular talent.
He destroys things.
If the algae continues growing, perhaps the reflecting pool really will become taller than the Empire State Building.
For now, it’s simply an extraordinarily long pond full of pond scum.
Jim Acosta: It has become one giant science experiment.
Children could recreate it at home by painting small pools different shades of blue and watching what happens.
Mary Trump: Exactly.
Experiment with different shades of blue and see how quickly the algae appears.
This falls into the category of people asking who possibly could have known this would happen.
The answer is simple.
Anyone who passed Biology 101.
Jim Acosta: This comes immediately after the UFC spectacle at the White House and everything surrounding it.
July Fourth is turning into another MAGA rally. The UFC event was promoted as part of the nation’s 250th anniversary, but it looked much more like a birthday party for Donald.
It featured offensive comments, political theater, and an atmosphere that many people found grotesque.
He’s always been something of a man child, but now it almost feels like he’s aging backward and becoming more immature by the day.
Mary Trump: That’s actually an interesting observation.
I’ve heard people say recently that Donald isn’t the man they once knew.
That’s nonsense.
If anything, the combination of his cognitive decline, emotional deterioration, psychological instability, and physical decline is revealing exactly who he has always been.
We’re simply seeing it more clearly because he has less impulse control, less self awareness, and less ability to maintain the narrative that once protected him.
He’s always been extraordinarily immature.
Now he simply lacks the ability to hide it.
Jim Acosta: Another example is the agreement he signed with Iran at Versailles.
He’s so proud of the symbolism and the setting. He clearly sees himself as some historic world figure.
Yet it appears the Iranians completely outmaneuvered him.
Mary Trump: He was outmaneuvered by the Iranians, and he was outmaneuvered by Emmanuel Macron.
Again, this is what happens when someone who knows nothing about history is placed in a position of extraordinary power.
It’s also what happens when someone has spent decades promoting the myth that he’s a brilliant dealmaker despite being a failed businessman.
The consequences here are breathtaking.
The United States emerges weaker, poorer, and carrying responsibility for the deaths of fifteen Americans and hundreds of Iranian schoolchildren, along with countless Iranian civilians.
Iran emerges stronger, wealthier, and with effectively unrestricted opportunities to continue developing a nuclear weapons program while potentially maintaining control over the Strait of Hormuz.
All of this could have been avoided if Donald had simply left the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the original Iran nuclear agreement, in place.
But he was too petty and too jealous to allow one of Barack Obama’s accomplishments to stand.
Jim Acosta: The original agreement involved international inspections and six major world powers working together.
Now Donald appears to be saying that because other countries have missiles, perhaps Iran should have them as well.
This is what he said.
Donald: It is a little hard when somebody wants it and other adjoining states have it and you’re not letting them have it for purposes of electricity and things like that. It’s always a little tough. You have to use a little common sense.
Mary Trump: It is difficult to overstate what a defeat this represents.
Not one of the administration’s stated objectives was achieved.
Many of those objectives contradicted each other to begin with, but none of them were accomplished.
Iran leaves this agreement with everything it wanted and probably several things it never imagined possible.
Even Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly described it as a catastrophic capitulation.
The only potential positive outcome is that Netanyahu may be politically weakened before Israel’s election.
Otherwise, this is simply a disaster.
Donald cannot acknowledge failure, so he will continue telling increasingly absurd lies that are easily disproven.
Jim Acosta: Looking ahead, I also wonder what happens as his decline becomes more visible.
We continue seeing the bruises on his hands, the heavy makeup trying unsuccessfully to conceal them, the slumped posture, and moments where he appears confused or lost.
At what point do people around him begin restricting his schedule even further?
I also wonder whether Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump eventually return to help manage the situation or whether they’ve simply decided to move on.
Mary Trump: Personally, I would prefer to see them at The Hague.
Exile would be acceptable, but The Hague would be better.
The larger problem is that every relationship Donald has ever had, including those with his children, is entirely transactional.
As long as enough people believe he remains useful, they will continue enabling him.
The Ellisons and other technology billionaires continue profiting enormously from him, so they will happily continue attending UFC events and public spectacles regardless of how they actually feel.
Within the Republican Party, the calculation is similar.
Donald may no longer be particularly useful, but there is nobody else capable of replacing him.
What is truly astonishing is that there appears to be no one in his life who cares enough about him to intervene.
As long as he remains useful, he will continue humiliating himself in public and making decisions that reveal the full extent of his incompetence.
Jim Acosta: We also continue seeing him throw people under the bus.
When asked about bombing schoolchildren in Iran, he immediately pointed to Pete Hegseth.
When discussing future failures, he jokes about blaming J.D. Vance.
I’ve often said that the most crowded place in Trump world is underneath the bus.
Mary Trump: That’s something Donald inherited directly from my grandfather.
Neither of them ever accepts responsibility for anything.
I used to think one of the defining characteristics of adulthood was the ability to admit mistakes and accept responsibility.
Donald cannot do that because admitting error would require acknowledging weakness, and psychologically he cannot tolerate that.
What’s surprising is not that he throws people under the bus.
What’s surprising is that people continue believing they’ll somehow avoid ending up there themselves.
Nobody does.
Jim Acosta: James Carville recently suggested Donald may simply walk away after a devastating midterm defeat next year.
Do you think that’s consistent with the person you’ve known your entire life?
Mary Trump: It’s an interesting question.
Back in 2020, I believed that if Donald had lost by a wide enough margin, he might have declared that America didn’t deserve him and exited the stage in order to protect his narcissistic self image.
Instead, Republicans rallied behind him, embraced the Big Lie, and reinforced the alternate reality he preferred.
That’s one reason we’re here now.
Things are very different today.
His decline is much more advanced.
I don’t even know whether leaving would represent a conscious decision anymore because I question whether he will remain capable of making rational decisions.
What I see instead is someone whose ability to protect himself from the truth about who he is is rapidly disappearing.
His ability to hide that truth from everyone else is disappearing even faster.
As that continues, he’ll need increasingly grandiose distractions to preserve his fragile ego.
Leaving office voluntarily would require acknowledging reality.
I don’t believe he’s psychologically capable of doing that.
Instead, I think we’ll see increasingly extreme attempts to distract both himself and the country.
That should concern all of us.
Jim Acosta: I agree.
The more he declines, the more dangerous he may become.
He may attempt to reject election results, deploy federal forces, or refuse to recognize outcomes he dislikes.
I’ve worried about that possibility for some time.
Mary Trump: We absolutely need to take that possibility seriously.
Donald is a nihilist.
He doesn’t believe anyone should exist beyond him, and as he becomes increasingly desperate, he’ll look for more extreme ways to preserve himself.
If distractions stop working and people stop believing the economy is thriving while they struggle to afford gasoline and groceries, he’ll seek new distractions.
Stealing an election or refusing to acknowledge defeat becomes entirely consistent with that pattern.
Leaving voluntarily would require admitting failure.
I simply don’t believe he’s capable of doing that.
Jim Acosta: Mary, it’s always great talking with you.
Mary Trump: Thanks, Jim. I’m just sorry I couldn’t get you into the UFC fights.
Jim Acosta: Maybe next time. Just get me a backstage pass.
I was into professional wrestling when I was fifteen years old, and then I grew out of it.
Mary Trump: I think that’s entirely fair.
Jim Acosta: Great seeing you.
Mary Trump: Thanks, Jim. Take care.
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As DJT deteriorates he becomes more dangerous to the country and the world It is INCUMBENT on Congress to act to protect our nation and use every Constitutional tool to protect the American people.
It is distressing and sad that our country’s 250th anniversary is being celebrated while a narcissistic petulant Fascist child and his idiot cronies are controlling our government. It’s deplorable.