Donald Trump’s love fest with Zohran Mamdani at the White House blindsided his inner circle and has one of them feeling 25th Amendment jitters, according to Michael Wolff.
The author shared on the Inside Trump’s Head podcast that White House insiders told him they were floored as the president, 79, lavished praise on the Democratic New York City mayor-elect, 34, during their warm-and-fuzzy Oval Office press conference on Friday.
Wolff told co-host Joanna Coles that a source in the White House who is “quite up close to what is going on” told him the collective reaction to Trump’s gush session was simply, “What the f—?”
“Nobody expected that. This was not the script. It was completely out of the blue… and concerning,” the White House insider said, according to Wolff.
The person added, “This wasn’t just losing the plot. This was like a different guy. The look in his eyes was crazy.”
Wolff said White House staff had expected Trump to project a “message of dominance and submission” in his presser with Mamdani, whom the president had previously trashed as a “communist lunatic” and threatened to arrest and deport.
Instead, a fawning Trump said he would “absolutely” feel “comfortable” living in Mamdani’s city, defended him against the right’s “jihadist” label, and pledged to help the new democratic socialist mayor do a “good job.”
According to Wolff, his White House source told him, “The only explanation was that the guy forgot who he is—so weird,” confessing, “It gives you a 25th Amendment shiver.”
The 25th Amendment affords the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet the power to declare the president unfit if he is no longer able to perform his duties.
Questions about Trump’s mental and physical fitness have long fueled online debate about invoking the amendment. But in recent weeks, as cracks have appeared in the elderly president’s grip on the MAGA movement amid struggles to deliver on his campaign promises, even some MAGA loyalists have called on JD Vance, 41, to take action.
When reached for comment, White House Communications Director Steven Cheung told the Daily Beast, “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.”
Wolff said the White House had greeted Mamdani’s victory in America’s largest city earlier this month as a welcome opportunity to create a “perfect enemy” who would act as a foil to Trump.
“It just fit every category that they needed until he comes to the White House and becomes the model citizen for Donald Trump’s new world,” Wolff observed.
“What about the idea that somehow Trump is playing three-dimensional chess?” Coles questioned.
“I’m glad you asked,” Wolff responded, explaining that the White House insider had told him, “He doesn’t play 3-D chess. He has one game, and this wasn’t it.”
Wolff, who Trump allowed behind the scenes of the White House for nine months during his first term, noted that the former reality TV star usually wants to project a “dominant” and “angry” persona—but not around Mamdani.
“Trump is so good at playing the role, but he clearly was… out of character playing a different role,” Wolff said. “And the view of this person [in the White House] and people around Trump was that they had no explanation for what was going on here.”
Mamdani walked out of the White House sit-down having scored a political win. Trump on Saturday backed down from sending federal troops into the city—a significant reversal of his previous stance to “clean up the crime” and “save New York City”—saying he would do so “if they need it.”
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