Michael Wolff, the journalist who has written four biographies of President Donald Trump — including the 2018 bestseller Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House — said on Tuesday that he and other longtime Trump observers are startled by how quickly the president has self-destructed since the start of his second term.

"It is hard to truly express how bad things are for Donald Trump at this point," Wolff told the Inside Trump's Head podcast, according to a report by The Daily Beast's Erkki Forster. Wolff said Trump's narcissistic impulses have set the stage for the "first act" of the president's "downfall."

Wolff added that even Tony Schwartz — the remorseful ghostwriter behind Trump's 1987 book The Art of the Deal, whom Wolff called "one of those people who really understand Donald Trump" — has told him he has been left stunned by the president's path of self-destruction in his second term.

Speaking with his podcast co-host, veteran magazine editor Joanna Coles, Wolff framed the question as central both to understanding the president and to understanding the historical moment. "I think that that is now a pressing question. I mean, in terms of certainly trying to understand Donald Trump and possibly in terms of understanding what may be this turn in history. Why is Donald Trump so self-destructive?" he said.

Wolff speculated that when Trump returned to office last year, he set out to pursue his personal agendas with little regard for the political consequences.

"The story of our podcast, now slightly more than a year old, is that he charged into this second term with more aggression, more venom, more determination than almost any president, certainly in modern memory, doing all sorts of things that were not thought out, in which he didn't really make a political calculation on what their ultimate effect would be," Wolff argued.

According to Wolff, the consequences of those choices are now catching up with the president. He sketched the questions Trump ought to be asking himself: "'OK, my numbers are sinking here. Obviously my immigration policies are incredibly unpopular Having masked men in the streets; that's not a good look. Shouldn't I adjust that? The war in Iran, should I have gone into that? I'm a president who got elected on the promise of no more forever wars. Shouldn't I have thought about that? Shouldn't I have had an exit strategy?'" Wolff continued: "I mean, is where the self-destructive nature of this comes in."

Earlier in October, Wolff argued that Trump's foreign policy may also be shaped by his fear of what Russian President Vladimir Putin might be able to prove about him. "Steve Bannon and I were talking about what Putin might have on Trump, and Bannon went through all the things dismissing them," Wolff said. "He said, what I think he has on him are his college transcripts," which could show that Trump struggled academically.

In September, Wolff argued that Trump has "departed reality," citing as an example the president's refusal to listen to experts about the threats posed by artificial intelligence. "What advisors are saying on a larger basis is he has departed reality," Wolff told Coles, adding that Trump "can't see clearly" that he should listen.

He continued: "In the case of the coming midterms, to deny that the Republicans are in serious trouble is again a departure from reality. So what the advisers, that is to say, the White House, and I detect Susie Wiles' hand in this... are taking issue with the president and with this president. Now, remember, these people know that he is Donald Trump, that he is mercurial, that he is, that he doesn't listen to people. They know this. They're used to this. So what they are saying is that this goes beyond that. We're in new territory." Wolff was referring to Wiles, Trump's White House chief of staff.