In the midst of the Golden Globes, as celebrities strolled the red carpet, smiling for the paparazzi, it felt like outside the confines of Tinseltown the world was boiling. Iran had struck an American air base in Iraq, Donald Trump was twittering away stirring the pot, and Australia was feeling the brunt of decades of disastrous climate change decisions.

On this week’s episode of Inside the Hive, Vanity Fair special correspondent Gabriel Sherman, who was attending the Globes for his show, The Loudest Voice, relayed a story that sums up the Trump presidency and the mess we’re currently living in. Standing near the bar, Sherman ran into Frank Luntz, the Republican pollster, and the two started chatting. Sherman asked Luntz when he last saw the President. “Last week, at the White House Christmas party,” Luntz said. Sherman asked what the two men talked about, to which Luntz replied that he had asked Trump what his middle initial “J” stands for. “Genius,” Trump responded.

In addition to this anecdote, Sherman elucidated how the Iran catastrophe went down inside the Trump White House, why anti-immigration scribe Stephen Miller still has a job, and why Don Jr. will go on to run for office, but Ivanka won’t.

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More Great Stories from Vanity Fair

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— Melania Trump believes Greta Thunberg had POTUS attack coming

— Inside Roger Ailes’s twisted game of mind control

— Why the White House belongs to Jared Kushner now

— Kamala Harris’ next act is destroying Stephen Miller

— From the Archive: Inside Jeffrey Wigand’s epic multibillion-dollar struggle

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