Donald Trump’s biographer says the billionaire president is governed by “the grifter’s creed” as he wields his power in service of increasingly brazen cash grabs.
Author Michael Wolff said on the Inside Trump’s Head podcast that the 79-year-old president is undeterred in his shameless pursuit of self-enrichment, even after his $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” collapsed amid blowback from his own party.
“I was poking the people I know who are close to this,” Wolff said. “‘What’s going on?’ And this is what they said: ‘Well, it’s back to the drawing board.’”
“And I said, ‘Well, what does that mean?’” he continued. “Then they said, ‘What do you think it means?’”
The Trump administration temporarily suspended efforts to establish a taxpayer-funded “Anti-Weaponization Fund” on Monday after courts moved to block the plan. The president had faced intense backlash over the fund, which the Justice Department announced last month as part of a deal in which Trump dropped his $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS over leaked tax documents.
“The whole thing is preposterous to begin with… This is more preposterous than even the usual preposterous,” Wolff told co-host Joanna Coles. “He sued the IRS, which is effectively suing himself. And then he settled with the IRS, which is effectively settling with himself.”
Wolff argued Trump’s self-serving arrangement, which critics said would have channeled taxpayer funds to MAGA allies, was an “oh my God moment” for the “entire country,” including Republicans in Congress.
The president faced pushback on the fund from GOP lawmakers—including Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who threatened to block Trump’s legislative priorities unless it was scrapped.
“This is adding up. The grift becomes a significant issue. And this was a grift beyond just—this was just a grab in which they didn’t even care,” Wolff said. “So that’s the moment... in which this came tumbling down.”
But the author argued that the “idea” that Trump has been “chastened” is “totally not true.”
“Part of what is going on now is he’s figuring out what he gets, what he can get,” Wolff said. “He runs this government. This government... offers all kinds of opportunities. So they have to figure out what’s the opportunity they can get away with.”
“What he can get away with,” he added. “That’s the grifter’s creed.”
That strategy appears to be playing out in real time: While the Trump administration may have hit pause on the payout pot, a separate provision of Trump’s deal with the Justice Department granting him and members of his family a sweeping tax amnesty is set to proceed.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s vaguely worded agreement declared the IRS is “FOREVER BARRED and PRECLUDED” from “prosecuting or pursuing” all claims and “examinations” of Trump or “affiliated individuals” as well as related trusts and businesses.
When reached for comment, White House Communications Director Steven Cheung sent the Daily Beast a recycled statement:
“Michael Wolff is a lying sack of s--t and has been proven to be a fraud. He routinely fabricates stories originating from his sick and warped imagination, only possible because he has a severe and debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome that has rotted his peanut-sized brain.”
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