Trump biographer Michael Wolff on the ‘moron’ president’s ‘incredible incompetence’
Donald Trump’s second act is less a comeback than a test of the US system itself. This, at least, is the argument advanced by the journalist and author who has chronicled Trump’s rise, chaos…
Speaking to Georgina Godwin on Monocle Radio’s Meet The Writers, Wolff discussed his latest book, All or Nothing, and the extraordinary endurance of Donald Trump. The author has now written four volumes on Trump – a saga that he admits he never wanted to continue but one that has pulled him along “kicking and screaming” into each new chapter.
Below is an extract (edited for length and clarity) of Godwin’s interview with Wolff.
Do you think that the Trump who took office in 2024 differs from the Trump you explored previously? Your approach was that he didn’t have premeditated malice but was simply incompetent.
No, no, totally, incredibly incompetent. I don’t think it has changed. But the overriding reveal of All or Nothing is in the title. There was something in him that let this be an absolutely existential affair. He was willing to die, to give up his freedom, to go to jail. If he did not win the presidency, he would probably go to jail for the rest of his life. It was all or nothing.
Most people facing four criminal indictments would have said, “I’m finished; let me negotiate the best deal.” He didn’t do that. He went into each courtroom and did absolutely what you were not supposed to do – antagonise everyone. Every day, every move, every statement made it worse for him unless he won the presidency.
Across these four volumes, you’ve drawn a complete arc. It’s chaos, siege, collapse, resurgence. Do you see them as a single, collective portrait of Trump or four different channels?
The story goes on and I haven’t wanted it to go on. His relationship with the truth has profoundly changed the nature of the times we live in. My hopeful side says that Donald Trump is a unique and utterly sui generis figure. But the other side is this: the basic proposition in the 2024 campaign was that the system would destroy him or he would destroy the system. And we are now seeing, every day, that the system is being destroyed.
In your work, have you identified an ideology other than America First?
He does not have any policy goals. There are no beliefs that he is pursuing. It is just about Donald Trump at the centre of the universe. On Russia, yes – there might be long relationships and money changing hands – or perhaps he simply doesn’t care. In any case, it’s truly outside of his competence. It demands a level of attention and detail that he’s just not up to.
Is Donald Trump an intelligent man?
No. He’s a fucking moron. It’s extraordinary. He clearly has some street savvy but in terms of information and thinking about things in any coherent way, zippo. Steve Bannon once said that Trump’s whole life was a battle against information. He didn’t want to know things because that meant people would tell him things and he instinctively rebelled against that. So nobody tells him anything – not least because he never stops talking.
Your books are full of explosive claims, yet you have never been successfully sued. Why is that?
When he tried to sue me for Fire and Fury, my publisher said, “Bring it on.” There were no successful suits throughout the first administration. Coming into the second, I think that people have been genuinely scared. His threats are different. ABC News settled a preposterous case for $15m [€12m] – money that went straight into Donald Trump’s pocket. CBS folded during a merger process. Now he’s suing Rupert Murdoch and The Wall Street Journal. And why would he not sue? He gets a lot out of it. Various organisations are trying to do the forensic accounting of just how much he’s made out of the presidency. It’s extraordinary.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Listen to the full conversation on ‘Meet The Writers’ on Monocle Radio.
