President Donald Trump is building another slate of MAGA "buffoon" candidates for the coming midterms, but according to his one-time biographer, his absence from the ballot is setting up the conditions for a GOP disaster in November.

Michael Wolff, a longtime reporter and author known for his extensive coverage of Trump's political career, including several books about Trump's chaotic first term, made the comment in the latest edition of his Daily Beast podcast, "Inside Trump's Head." Wolff said he believes many voters will simply not turn out for the midterms because the president is not at the top of the ticket, leaving his army of "buffoons" without the support of their "ultimate buffoon." In a midterm environment, that matters because turnout is often lower than in presidential elections, and candidates in Trump-aligned races may have to rely more on local enthusiasm and party loyalty without the same national draw.

“There’s an interesting pattern of men who won’t admit to their wives that they are voting for Donald Trump, and then they vote for Donald Trump,” Wolff said. “The dynamic is different in this midterm election because he’s not on the ballot. So, you know, the buffoons who are running in his name don’t have the luxury of being the ultimate buffoon, as it were... You might like to vote for the greatest buffoon of all time. But the mini-buffoons, you don’t really want... Ken Paxton. Do you really want to vote for Ken Paxton ?”

Wolff's co-host Joanna Coles offered another explanation for why Trump outperformed expectations in 2016 and 2024, arguing that many people do not want to admit to pollsters that they support him. Coles said that same dynamic does not necessarily help MAGA-friendly endorsements, which are typically tested in races where name recognition, turnout and candidate quality can matter as much as the party label.

“I think a lot of people don’t want to admit that they support Donald Trump,” Coles explained. “They don’t want to admit they like his party, so they don’t admit it. And then, right up in their final run to the privacy of the voting booth, they can finally admit they do like him. Yeah, no, they would prefer him to the other candidates.”

Wolff later said that Trump's different kind of presence on the midterm ballot will be a net negative for Republicans, given what he described as growing voter disdain for the president's leadership.

“Donald Trump is not on the ballot, but Donald Trump is all over the ballot,” Wolff said. “He is the subject... We’re in a situation where the specter of Donald Trump is on the ballot, and that’s a negative, rather than Donald Trump in person being on the ballot, which turns out, inexplicably, to be a positive.”

Trump has also acknowledged the idea that his presence can affect turnout when he is on the ballot, and he is reportedly fond of that notion even as it leaves the GOP without him. In recent statements, he has urged voters to act as if he were on the ballot this year, though it remains unclear how effective those appeals will be.