Inside Trump's Head What Being Mocked Really Does to Trump: Wolff
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Jan 7, 2026 
Michael Wolff, an experienced journalist and bestselling author, joins Joanna Coles to delve into Trump's psyche, particularly highlighting how Maduro's mocking dance became a personal humiliation for him. Wolff explains how Trump's foreign policy often serves as a performance to maintain attention rather than a strategic approach. He discusses the MoCA test as a measure of competence and how distraction is a key political tactic. The conversation underscores the interplay between ego, narrative, and domestic issues, revealing the psychological undercurrents driving Trump's actions.
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Presidency As Reality Television
- Donald Trump runs the presidency like reality TV, prioritizing inescapable attention over coherent policy.
- Michael Wolff says Trump seeks singular news dominance because attention is a zero-sum game.
Measure Actions By Media Dominance
- Focus on dominating headlines, not just approval metrics, to control political narrative.
- Ask 'How's it playing?' to measure whether an action monopolizes attention, Wolff suggests.
Venezuela As A Plotline, Not Policy
- Venezuela is a plotline Trump adopted to dominate news cycles rather than a coherent geopolitical strategy.
- Wolff argues advisers like Stephen Miller and Marco Rubio fed him the storyline and he personalized it into an enemy narrative.