‘He doesn’t listen to anyone’: Author of Trump tell-all rejects idea groups can influence his decision making

As President-elect Donald Trump picks his Cabinet members for his second administration, veteran journalist Michael Wolff warns that Trump’s second term will be no different from his first.

Despite the fear surrounding Project 2025’s influence during the 2024 campaign cycle, the Fire and Fury author expects that prominent rightwing think-tanks will have little influence over the president-elect. Wolff, who has written numerous books about Trump during his presidency, predicted his second term will serve as the preamble for his first: “He doesn’t listen to anybody…he just does what he wants to do.”

When asked what Trump 2.0 would look like, the journalist told the Hollywood Reporter: “The obvious answer is: we know what it’s going to be like because we’ve already lived through it before.”

Maer Roshan, the Hollywood Reporter journalist, pressed Wolff on his answer, asking whether he thought it was possible that Trump “now has a coterie of people around him who have been avidly preparing for this moment for the past four years, and who are determined to do it right this time.”

“Total bulls***, complete bulls***, bulls***, bulls***,” Wolff replied succinctly.

“That’s just their press. That’s just what they put out! He doesn’t listen to them. He doesn’t listen to anybody. There’s always people in Trump’s wake whispering to him about one thing or another. But since he doesn’t listen to anyone, getting anything done will be a very difficult proposition,” he continued.

Wolff then touched on Project 2025, a blueprint spearheaded by the Heritage Foundation in the case of a second Trump presidency that he has repeatedly tried to distance himself from, and America First Policy Institute (AFPI), a rightwing think tank founded by two former Trump administration officials.

“The Project 2025 people shot themselves in the foot by getting all that bad press. And now they’ve kind of been pushed aside by the America First Policy people,” he said. “So you have a bunch of rabid ideologues on one side, but at the same time, he’s also surrounded by this small group of insiders who ran his campaign who are not very ideological at all, but very disciplined, political, just get-it-done people like Susie Wiles.”

While Trump may be surrounding himself with disciplined folks, Wolff warned: “Never underestimate how short an attention span he has, because in Donald Trump, it is the shortest it can be. He is always on to the next rhetorical gesture. He exists wholly in a rhetorical world — doing things, getting things done, follow through, all of that normal business discipline doesn’t exist for him.”

As for the hypothetical tug of war between the rightwing think tanks and his disciplined staff vying for attention, Wolff believed Trump would ultimately not be influenced by either side.

He continued: “So which side prevails in the end? We don’t know. But the truth is, when Trump is involved, nobody ever wins. Donald is always at the center. It’s always about what he wants, which changes every moment, so it’s incredibly difficult to influence him. He doesn’t listen, he doesn’t hear, he just does what he wants to do.”

The president-elect is already filling out his Cabinet.

So far, Trump has tapped Susie Wiles as his chief of staff, Florida Senator Marco Rubio as secretary of state, New York Rep Elise Stefanik as United Nations ambassador, former senior Trump adviser Stephen Miller as deputy chief of staff for policy, Florida Rep Mike Waltz as his national security adviser, Lee Zeldin to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, and South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem as homeland security secretary.

When asked for three things to prepare for in Trump’s first 100 days of his second term, Wolff replied: “Chaos, chaos, chaos.”

He added: “It may well be the start of a real national nightmare. But at least nobody will be bored.”