President Donald Trump is quick to sue or push for charges against his perceived enemies as a form of self-soothing, his longtime biographer Michael Wolff says.
The Justice Department this week launched a criminal investigation into journalist E. Jean Carroll, whose successful lawsuits against Trump netted her $88.3 million in damages.
Wolff says the federal probe into Caroll is the latest in a string of attempts by Trump to use the justice system to seek revenge against those who oppose him—the sort of battle that he believes is Trump’s primary motivation.
“This is central to understanding what’s in his head because it’s all about who his enemies are,” Wolff said on the Daily Beast’s Inside Trump’s Head podcast, which he co-hosts. “That’s the thing that most motivates him.”
Wolff continued, “Other presidents function in a world, in a political system, and a historical system, and see themselves as part of this, as part of this much larger thing. Trump doesn’t. It’s all about him. It’s all one-on-one.”
Wolff says that Trump’s ability to make every political fight so personal is part of why people cannot turn away from what he does each day. He said it is also evidence that Trump has a “complete misunderstanding of the job he is in.”
Trump’s self-obsession bleeds into his foreign policy positions, too, said co-host Joanna Coles.
Coles noted that Trump is quick to cozy up to autocrats who have historically been viewed as adversaries of the United States, such as Russian President Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping. However, Coles said that Trump values his personal relationship over everything else.
“He trusts Putin. Putin trusts him. He trusts Xi Jinping that Xi and he are friends,” Coles said. “He gets on great with them as if his relationship is more important than anything else.”
Wolff agreed.
“I think many people in the country find it appalling,” Wolff said of Trump’s self-centered approach. “And certainly... his polling numbers now indicate that. At the same time, it is exactly the thing that makes so many people pay attention to him. So many people follow the story instead of turn off the story.”
Wolff said that Trump lives for the fight and that his attorneys have to bring “offerings” to him to keep him content—sometimes in the form of legal battles.
“That’s what keeps him happy,” Wolff said.
However, that joy can evaporate quickly, Wolff said.
“Trump doesn’t stay happy for very long,” he said. “So it’s like everybody’s always rushing around. ‘OK, he’s unhappy again. What do we bring him?’ And so obviously to target one of his enemies, that’s a great boon. But it is not even that: it’s to bring him the headlines about the targeting of his enemies.”
Wolff added, “An indictment that is obtained, an indictment that holds—irrelevant. What is relevant is that the intent: the enemy has been identified, publicly identified, held out there, and the story, the narrative, the story is for all to see."
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