An author who has written four books about President Donald Trump is warning that Trump may soon worsen the growing controversy surrounding Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, not out of strategy, but because he is “fundamentally bored” by complex political situations.
Hegseth is currently under intense bipartisan criticism over the Defense Department’s strikes on suspected drug boats in international waters. One incident in particular, the September 2 “double tap strike,” has sparked outrage after shifting explanations about why survivors of the initial strike were later killed. Trump has tried to distance himself from the fallout, claiming he “wouldn’t have ordered the second strike.”
Journalist Michael Wolff discussed the situation on a new episode of Inside Trump’s Head, a podcast he co-hosts with Joana Coles of The Daily Beast. Wolff said Trump is still weighing what to do with Hegseth as pressure mounts, but the president’s decision-making style may complicate matters.
According to Wolff, Trump is not someone who thinks in long timelines or considers his place in history the way past presidents might. Instead, Wolff described him as a man who reacts to the present moment and chases immediate stimulation.
“People make the mistake of thinking of Trump as other presidents, that somehow he has his eye on the arc of history,” Wolff said. “Somehow, he sees how his agenda is playing out or not playing out. I want to…try to correct that Trump is a man who lives in the moment. It is about his stimulation now, and if that fails him, I think everything starts to fail him.”
Wolff went further, suggesting that the complexity of the Hegseth situation may push Trump into disengagement rather than decisive action. “If we’re suddenly in a political moment of which a more complicated, knotty, draggy political moment, the stimulation is going to go down, and, and I’m not sure that he knows what to do with that, except except, you know, his head droops and…then lists to the side because he is fundamentally bored, not only just old.”
This boredom, Wolff warned, could result in Trump leaving Hegseth in his role even as critics say the defense secretary is struggling to manage the fallout. He added that many Republicans have long viewed Hegseth as unqualified but tolerated him due to his loyalty.
“Every Republican was fully aware that these were morons, but they were Donald Trump’s morons,” Wolff said. As scrutiny of the September strike continues, both Trump’s response and Hegseth’s future remain unsettled with Wolff suggesting that Trump’s own temperament may shape the outcome as much as the controversy itself.
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