Why Trump thinks he can get away with Iran war despite MAGA outrage: Michael Wolff

U.S. President Donald Trump returns to the White House, after Israel and the U.S. launched strikes on Iran, in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 1, 2026. REUTERS/Nathan Howard

Donald Trump's deadly and divisive new war with Iran is yet another example of something that he is treating like a TV show, former biographer Michael Wolff claimed, with the president treating the conflict like a "mini series" starring himself.

Wolff is a veteran reporter and author, best known for his 2018 book, Fire & Fury, which used inside sources to detail the chaos and tumult inside the White House during Trump's first term. On the latest episode of his Daily Beast podcast, "Inside Trump's Head," Wolff broke down what things are actually motivating the military campaign in Iran, as experts struggle to parse what the president is ultimately trying to accomplish.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Wolff said it is all about Trump wanting to make himself look good.

"His entire foreign policy is focused on that question: ‘Can we get a win? What’s the win?’” Wolff said. “In Trump’s head, it’s always, ‘I can get a win.’”

Wolff dug in further, reiterating his past claim that Trump views everything about his life, his image and his political career "as essentially a stage set in television." This new war in Iran effectively serves as a "mini series" in which he is the main character, as opposed to past presidents who have preferred to let their generals and other military leaders take centerstage during wartime.

"The central casting, there’s only one central person. And that’s Donald Trump,” Wolff added. “It’s his war."

Wolff also claimed that Trump is fully aware of the potential pitfalls of Iran turning into another costly "forever war," which he vigorously campaigned against in the lead-up to his reelection. Some within the MAGA movement have already expressed outrage that Trump has engaged with Iran at all, but some within the White House believe that they will be able to get away with it if the conflict wraps up soon enough.

According to Wolff, Trump believes that George W. Bush erred during the Iraq War by not pulling troops out of the country after declaring "mission accomplished," and believes he needs a definitive endpoint in Iran to escape major consequences.

“Trump is like, ‘So why didn’t he go home?’” Wolff explained. “And very precisely then he says, ‘No one would have given a f—— about what happened after that if he had just gone home.' I think he very specifically has learned, or at least there is a good possibility, and he is certainly representing that, that he understands you’ve got to claim victory. There’s got to be that moment.”

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