President Donald Trump speaks as he participates in an interview on X, at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, U.S., August 12, 2024, in this picture obtained from social media.
Donald Trump's penchant for "deranged" posting sprees on his Truth Social platform in the middle of the night has become a consistent hallmark presence on the political scene, and according to biographer and White House insider Michael Wolff, officials and staffers in the White House are "as surprised as we are" by the things he says on social media.
Wolff is a veteran reporter and author who previously conducted extensive interviews with Trump and his associates for the 2018 book, Fire & Fury. On Wednesday, he spoke about the president's posting habit on the Daily Beast's "Inside Trump's Head" podcast, which he co-hosts with Joanna Coles.
As much as the rest of the world tends to be alarmed by Trump's late-night rants, Wolff revealed that those working for him are also taken by surprise. The difference is, he noted, that they then have to translate his posts into swift policy accomplishments.
“This certainly goes right to the heart of who Donald Trump is and how he governs,” Wolff explained. “And I use the word ‘govern’ loosely. It is literally off the top of his head.”
He continued: “I know people in the White House, and I speak to people in the White House often, and I think this is very difficult to appreciate — and probably impossible to appreciate — that the people within the White House are often as surprised as we are by what happens. They go to bed at night, and then they open up their phones in the morning, and they look to see what he has posted. And that becomes policy, that becomes reality.”
While the examples of these posting sprees are countless by now, the most recent example caused some of the biggest shockwaves after Trump revealed a text he sent to the Prime Minister of Norway. In it, he claimed that the decision not to give him the Nobel Peace Prize — a choice not controlled by the Norwegian government — was part of his recent motivation to keep doubling down on his desire to annex Greenland. He also later shared a text he received from French President Emmanuel Macron, in which the leader said, "I do not understand what you are doing on Greenland."
These sorts of revelations, Wolff explained, are still just as much of a shock to Trump's officials as they are to the outside world.
“A friend of mine was saying the other day that, ‘We just wake up to see what he’s posted and then we go into the office,’” Wolff added. “So Susie Wiles is, of course, the chief of staff, the person who is literally in charge of moving these policies through the executive branch to some kind of fruition or resolution. And she is as unaware of what is going to happen from day to day as again as we are.”
