MAGA BETRAYAL ANXIETY

Why Desperate Trump Is Scrambling to Save His Base: Biographer

Trump’s biographer argues that Trump’s erratic behavior regarding the war in Iran could hurt him in the next election.

President Donald Trump’s war in Iran might be so difficult for some voters to swallow that they just won’t show up to vote in the 2026 midterm elections, Trump’s biographer argues.

Author Michael Wolff argued on the Daily Beast’s Inside Trump’s Head podcast on Saturday that Trump’s behavior regarding the war has been so erratic and unpredictable that his MAGA base and other Republican voters just might sit out the next election.

“Everybody could wake up tomorrow, wake up to a post in which Donald Trump announces that we have withdrawn from Iran in the region and declared victory. But what does that mean in terms of the regime still being in place?” Wolff asked.

“Does that bleed over into September and October? So everybody is beginning to say to try to find the political formula in which, you know, Donald Trump and MAGA and this whole enterprise can be saved, and beginning to worry that there is not such a formula,” he continued.

Co-host Joanna Coles argued that because Trump is so focused on the war, not affordability—a word he insists is a hoax made up by Democrats—he will lose voters.

“This is going to drive prices up. And it doesn’t matter if Donald Trump declares victory tomorrow or in a month’s time or three months’ time,” she said.

“Food is going to go up, transport’s going up, gas prices are going up,” she said, adding, “We already see prices going up. Gas has gone up by a dollar already.”

Republicans are already expected to lose control of the House in 2026, and some polling suggests that the Senate could be in play for Democrats as well.

Wolff said that in addition to the cost-of-living crisis, Americans care about the principles of the war in Iran, which could further negatively impact Republicans in November.

“Just look at this as a turnout thing, if there’s a sense of ambivalence in the MAGA base, that’s going to profoundly affect turnout,” Wolff said. “Turnout is going to be the key in terms of any chance, and there probably is no chance at this point of holding the House, but it also may well affect the Senate.”

“And if the Senate goes, then Donald Trump goes,” he added.

“So the war itself, beyond the energy, which is the energy crisis and the energy which is obviously directly related to the war,” Wolff said. “But even beyond that, that sense that he has he has betrayed his movement is, I think, real and going to bite him in the a--.”

The Daily Beast reached out to the White House for comment.

White House Communications Director Steven Cheung has previously given the Daily Beast a recycled statement on Wolff, saying, “Michael Wolff is a lying sack of s--- 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.”

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Annabella RosciglioneReporter

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