Donald Trump biographer Michael Wolff has said that the president is failing to grasp the “devastating” reality of his politics. The author claimed that this would cost the Republican Party badly in the upcoming midterm elections. He added that Trump’s standing among Americans is not as he perceives it to be.
During the State of the Union address on Tuesday, February 24, the president said, “This is the golden age of America. We’re winning so much that we really don’t know what to do about it.” Wolff, however, thinks that Trump has lost his grip on political reality.
On a recent episode of The Daily Beast’s Inside Trump’s Head podcast, Wolff said, “The state of the union was Trump reality, which was, by the way, largely, ‘The state of the union is utterly perfect’.”
Donald Trump delivered the longest-ever state of the union address in U.S. history last night. In his one hour and 47 minute speech, he cited tariffs and immigration policies as some of his triumphs.
“This is the golden age of America,” he said. pic.twitter.com/lEbMQgFGZV
— euronews (@euronews) February 25, 2026
He added, “Let’s see the world the way we want to see it, even though everybody else sees it differently and knows that it is different.”
A recent CNN poll showed that only 32 percent of American voters think that Trump is focusing on the important issues, while 68 percent of them disagree. A Reuters poll has revealed similar numbers. Wolff explained that the White House is failing to acknowledge the “true reality” of these poll results.
According to a NPR/PBS News/Marist poll released a day before the State of the Union, 60 percent of Americans said that the country’s economy is worse off than it was a year ago. Only a day after, the president claimed in his speech that “the roaring economy is roaring like never before.”
Not just that, he also stated that the “inflation is plummeting,” which, according to many, is one of the biggest misleading claims he made at the State of the Union address. Trump also claimed that he had successfully transformed America into “the hottest country anywhere in the world.”
However, it appears that the public does not agree with the president in this matter. On Sunday, February 22, a poll released by Washington Post-ABC/Ipsos showed that a majority of 57 percent Americans disapprove of how Trump is handling the economy, while only 32 percent approve of his policies.
Wolff noted that this obvious disconnect between how Trump sees his performance and how the public reviews it would mark a significant “inflection moment.”
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“We’re gonna put Trump on the ballot. He’s a turnout machine!” pic.twitter.com/4gS82BCbbw
— Hosna ⚖️ (@DOGEQEEN) December 25, 2025
“He can’t get anything right. He can’t even find the rhetoric now to create a kind of, a kind of consistent opposition to all of these things that are going wrong on a palpable basis for most Americans,“ the author told co-host Joanna Coles during the podcast.
Wolff also discussed how the rampant Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations in Minnesota further increased Trump’s disapproval among voters. “They sent in the troops to Minneapolis and basically lost their own issue there,” Wolff said. He was referring to how the administration was supposed to focus on the fraud scandal in the state, but instead shifted to an immigration crackdown.
“What happened in Minneapolis is hugely unpopular, incredibly unpopular, maybe one of the things that will result in the midterm election rout. Could not be less popular,“ Wolff said.
