Trump Threw Secret Situation Room Tantrum: Wolff

Inside Trump's Head

The Daily Beast

News, Society & Culture

4.3 • 696 Ratings

🗓️ 25 February 2026

⏱️ 59 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Michael Wolff joins Joanna Coles with a new window into the volatility inside the West Wing, describing what he says was a secret Situation Room tantrum by Donald Trump, a moment when military briefers could not give him the absolute guarantees he demanded, and the meeting spiraled. Wolff connects that flash of anger to the broader pattern he’s reported for years: a president who hates paper trails, avoids email, and warns aides never to “leave a record,” an instinct that now looms large as the Epstein Files fallout engulfs figures like Prince Andrew and Peter Mandelson. Why, Wolff asks, do so many powerful men have receipts—while Trump seems not to? From the chaos-as-cover strategy to the Iran briefings where strength is performative, and doubt is intolerable, this is a portrait of a leader who equates uncertainty with humiliation and reacts accordingly. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Attention.
0:02.0	Oh, hang on.
0:04.0	Attention.
0:05.0	Rail travellers, platform paces, window gazers and armrest negotiators.
0:10.0	Have you heard?
0:12.0	The big railfare freeze is here.
0:14.0	Railfares have been frozen across England until March 2027 on standard class tickets,
0:20.0	including off-peak, anytime, and season tickets.
0:23.4	For more information, visit nationalrail.com.ukuk slash fares for ease.
0:28.3	Teas and season exclusions apply.
0:29.7	General Kane, who apparently outlined that there were very problematic tactical and strategic
0:36.9	issues here.
0:38.2	Now, Trump translated that into saying, basically, we can do it.
0:42.9	Everything is going to go great.
0:44.4	Great.
0:45.4	It will be a success.
0:45.9	And then General Kane corrected him in subsequent statements.
0:50.5	He has said, that's really not what I said.
0:53.7	Quite the opposite.
0:54.9	That would comport with this description of Trump in the meaning because he doesn't listen.
1:03.1	Michael.
1:05.1	Joanna.
	...

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