President Donald Trump’s mounting failures are doomed to drag down the rest of the Republican Party with him, his one-time biographer argued this week, with his tanking economy and obsession with his own self-interest set to bring on major midterm defeats.
Michael Wolff is a longtime reporter and author who has extensively covered Trump’s life and political career, notably writing a series of books about the chaos behind the scenes of his first term in the White House. During the latest edition of his Daily Beast podcast, “Inside Trump’s Head,” he predicted that Trump’s second-term failings will inevitably cause a midterm wreckage for the rest of his party, with his co-host, Joanna Coles, adding that she could not “imagine anything worse right now” than being a Republican running for reelection.
“There’s a central thing that matters here, and it’s that kind of psychological factor: how much wind is against Donald Trump at this point,” Wolff explained. “And if the wind is against Donald Trump — as it seems now that it is — then it’s over; then it doesn’t matter. Then, actually, every individual race matters significantly less. And it just means that the wave is going to carry everybody, carry all of the Democrats into Congress. And effectively cut Donald Trump out.”
He further predicted that his latest slate of endorsed candidates, whom he has taken great pride in leading to primary success, are doomed to fail in the general election, as a result of actions almost “designed to alienate people.”
“He has run, in any political context, a completely irresponsible—forget policy, forget democracy—just from a political point of view,” Wolff continued. “It has been completely irresponsible. It has as though been designed to alienate people.”
“I can’t imagine anything worse right now than being a Republican congressperson hoping to get back into office with this man as the head of the party and as president,” Coles said in response. “He’s done nothing to help anybody get back into office. He’s only served to undermine them.”
“To serve up candidates who have a significantly diminished chance of winning and therefore supporting the party’s majorities, which, it would seem by every indication, they will lose their majority in Congress,” Wolff added. “And every day they seem to have a better chance of losing their majority.”