President Donald Trump is entering unstable “new territory,” according to his one-time biographer, as new reports indicate that his closest officials and allies are being driven to betray him and leak stories out of frustration.
Michael Wolff is a longtime author and journalist, best known for his extensive coverage of Trump’s political career, including several books about his tumultuous first term in office. In the latest episode of his Daily Beast podcast, “Inside Trump’s Head,” he argued that there has been a major change among the president’s closest, “ultra-loyal” allies, given the recent stories from The New York Times and The Washington Post “detailing internal White House debates over the threat of AI and the GOP’s odds in” the midterms.
These leaks, Wolff argued, are the result of brewing frustrations among Trump’s staff about his conduct.
“What advisors are saying on a larger basis is he has departed reality,” Wolff told co-host Joanna Coles, adding, “He can’t see clearly” that experts in the AI industry are sounding an alarm that he should pay attention to.
He added further: “In the case of the coming midterms, to deny that the Republicans are in serious trouble is again a departure from reality. So what the advisers, that is to say, the White House, and I detect Susie Wiles’ hand in this… are taking issue with the president and with this president. Now, remember, these people know that he is Donald Trump, that he is mercurial, that he is, that he doesn’t listen to people. They know this. They’re used to this. So what they are saying is that this goes beyond that. We’re in new territory.”
The Times report specifically notes that Trump has been having outbursts behind closed doors about the suggestions from AI industry leaders that government regulations should be in place to slow down the technology’s development. Wolff explained that the president is likely worried because of the potential stock market impact, given that the markets are among the few issues he actually cares about. In various public statements, Trump has leaned on his old tactics to shut down these slowdown calls, calling them a “hoax.”
“I think it’s probably a nice way of saying that he’s concerned with his own issues, which is that if the stock market plunges before the election, that’s a problem,” Wolff said. “Plus he and his family are heavily invested in this. There is this major issue—possibly, arguably the major issue of our time—which he is dismissing out of hand for his own self-interest. That’s what the White House, the West Wing staff, is saying on that issue.”