The meeting between New York City mayor elect Zohran Mamdani and Donald Trump did not go according to plan, according to a biographer.
Michael Wolff suggested the president's plan had been to be tough but instead Trump looked as though he was won over by the Democratic socialist during their Oval Office press conference. The slip up from Trump, who had reportedly been set to be tough on Mamdani only to say he and the NYC mayoral elect agreed on several issues, has made some insiders "shiver", The Daily Beast reported.
Wolff quoted a source during an appearance on the Inside Trump's Head podcast, claiming an insider had been brief to expect quite the opposite from Trump during his meeting with Mamdani.
Wolff, quoting the unnamed source, said, "'Nobody expected that. This was not the script. It was completely out of the blue... and concerning. This wasn’t just losing the plot. This was like a different guy. The look in his eyes was crazy.'"
The biographer has gone on to suggest this will set alarm bells off for some members of the Trump administration, with Wolff suggesting the 25th Amendment could come into play.
The source told Wolff, "The only explanation was that the guy forgot who he is—so weird. It gives you a 25th Amendment shiver." The 25th Amendment was written to ensure the vice president takes over in the event the president dies, resigns, or is removed from office by impeachment.
The amendment also provides the temporary transfer of the president's power to the vice president, and this, crucially, can be on the initiative of the president or the vice president. The latter would need a majority of the president's cabinet to agree to make the change of power, which would have the vice president step in as acting president.
White House Communications Director Steven Cheung has since hit out at Wolff for his comments. He said, "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."