The fallout from President Donald Trump’s divisive agenda will likely leave him unscathed but cost Republicans the midterm elections and their control of Congress, his longtime biographer said Wednesday.
At an exclusive live taping of Inside Trump’s Head in New York, author Michael Wolff predicted that Republicans will lose the House in the November polls, thanks in large part to the Trump administration’s handling of the economy. Republicans are already clinging to a razor-thin majority.
In a rambling, low-energy speech before political and business leaders at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, Trump touted the U.S. as “the economic engine on the planet” and patted himself on the back for pulling off an “economic miracle.”
“When America booms, the entire world booms. That’s been the history. When it goes bad, it goes bad. You all follow us down, and you follow us up,” he said. “And we’re at a point that we’ve never—I don’t believe we’ve ever been. I never thought we could do it this quickly. My biggest surprise is, I thought it would take more than a year, maybe like a year and one month. But it’s happened very quickly.”
But Wolff warned that it’s exactly Trump’s economic agenda that will hurt his own party.
“His depiction of the last year was that everything had gone remarkably well: the best economy in the world,” he told co-host Joanna Coles. “The economy is going to defeat the Republicans in November.”
“I thought, ‘God, how can he do this? He doesn’t mean [it], he can’t possibly believe it.’ But I thought, ‘Oh, no, actually, he believes it,’” he went on. “So he lives in this Trump reality bubble, and that’s how he can keep going on this. And what do you do about that? You have to finally come to the conclusion that the President of the United States is delusional. He’s undoubtedly delusional.”
Polls have shown a resounding rejection of Trump’s economic policies.
A YouGov/The Economist survey, conducted between Jan. 16-19, found that 53 percent of Americans believe the economy is getting worse and 61 percent are unhappy with Trump’s response to inflation. A Wall Street Journal poll conducted from Jan. 8 to 13 similarly found that Americans believe Trump is more focused on foreign affairs than on their most pressing concern: the economy. A Quinnipiac University poll last month also found that registered voters said the cost of living is a “very serious problem” in the United States.
“The Democrats should just go home and they’ll be fine in November,” Wolff quipped. “So he’ll definitely lose the House in November. I think the Senate may become competitive, too, but I think the Republican world is going to become a difficult place to be in, a difficult place to inhabit after the midterm elections.”
“But Trump is separate from the Republicans,” he added. “I mean, he’ll sacrifice the Republicans for his own—the Trump show.”
White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles told reporters earlier on Wednesday that Trump will be going on a domestic traveling blitz to rally support for Republicans ahead of the midterms. Trump is expected to travel every week, with his first stop being Iowa.
Trump was quick to dismiss affordability as a Democratic “hoax” last year when Democrats secured victories in high-profile races after running on platforms centered around bringing down the fast-rising cost of living.
But at the end of the day, Trump likely knows he will take the MAGA movement along with him when he leaves office, Wolff said.
“It all passes with Donald Trump,” he said. “Donald Trump is not replaceable. He is an absolutely unique figure. No one will be Donald Trump again, and this entire MAGA movement, it is all directed at Trump. It’s not ideological America. I often try to make the distinction: it’s not a political base. It’s a fan base.”
The White House responded to Wolff’s comments with its boilerplate attack on the author.
“Michael Wolff is a lying sack of shit 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,” White House Communications Director Steven Cheung said.
