Kathrine Frich
The change was mostly about his demeanor.
Heavy losses in politics usually bring out fiery speeches and finger-pointing.
After a bruising week at the ballot box, though, the mood inside one famous building has taken a very different turn.
Close allies are noticing a sudden shift behind the scenes, and it is making some of them nervous.
A quiet shift
After a “blue wave” handed Congress to the Democrats in this week’s midterm elections, the Irish Star reported that US President Donald Trump felt the need to remind voters he was “still your president.”
On Wednesday, November 4, he stepped out to meet TV crews at his multimillion-dollar White House ballroom construction site.
Instead of his usual fiery rally style, the president seemed much more subdued, according to the Irish Star. Author Michael Wolff told co-host Joanna Coles on the Daily Beast podcast “Inside Trump’s Head” that people close to the president spotted an unsettling change in the “way he carried himself.”
“So the other interesting thing that I heard from two people – and they found it interesting and a little frightening – was that the day after, he seemed markedly older,” Wolff said on the podcast.
When Coles asked about specific signs, Wolff explained that the change was mostly about his demeanor.
Shock in Washington
“While he will never admit his own defeat, he looked like defeat. I mean, he was less… He was quieter, I mean, which is a really kind of weird Trump symptom. Trump going quiet. ‘Is Trump dying, really?” Wolff told the Daily Beast podcast.
“And, I mean, the only thing that they compared this to is actually after the Butler, Pennsylvania, shooting when suddenly, you know, Trump was listening to people instead of talking.”
During the chat, Coles suggested the president might be “realizing his own vulnerability,” while Wolff guessed he was dealing with a “kind of shock.”
That comparison goes back to July 2024 in Butler, Pennsylvania, when 20-year-old kitchen worker Thomas Matthew Crooks fired an AR-style rifle from a roof, killing one person, wounding two others, and striking Trump’s ear before a Secret Service sniper shot him dead.
Three months later, Trump told a crowd in Butler: “For 15 seconds, time stood still. This vicious monster unleashed evil… the villain did not succeed in his goal.”
Even with the quieter mood, the president is already preparing for his lame-duck years. After signing an order to protect his gold Oval Office and Cabinet Room decor, the Irish Star noted he placed a red MAGA hat reading “Veto” in the Oval Office on Thursday as a warning to incoming Democrats for 2027.
