President Donald Trump is not actively planning for the possibility of dying in office, but his longtime biographer Michael Wolff suggests that doing so could ironically deliver exactly what the president has spent years chasing: an enduring, iconic legacy.

Wolff — a veteran author and reporter best known for his extensive coverage of Trump's political career, including a series of books such as Fire and Fury, Siege, and Landslide that detailed the turmoil of his first term — made the remarks on the latest episode of his Daily Beast podcast, "Inside Trump's Head." He was responding to a discussion from a previous Daily Beast podcast in which an author floated the possibility that Trump's death could spark "deep-state assassination" conspiracy theories and even inspire a "terrorist uprising."

Wolff has previously observed that Trump is deeply preoccupied with his own mortality. At 78, Trump is the oldest person ever elected to the U.S. presidency. On this episode, however, Wolff stressed that the president is not focused on contingency planning for a potential death while in office, a scenario that under the 25th Amendment would automatically elevate Vice President JD Vance to the presidency. Even so, Wolff argued that a sudden death during his second term would achieve something Trump has long desired, particularly given his mounting obsession with his historical legacy.

"If he died suddenly and in office, that might well transform Donald Trump into an iconic historic figure," Wolff said.

Trump's fixation on his significance as a global political figure has been conspicuous throughout his second term, most visibly through his push for sweeping construction projects designed to stamp his personal vision onto the White House and Washington, D.C. — part of a broader pattern, observed by multiple biographers and journalists, of tying his legacy to physical monuments and renaming initiatives. Reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan recently revealed that during interviews for their forthcoming book Regime Change, Trump showed them a written piece asserting that he was the most powerful and influential person of all time. Trump claimed the text was authored by a prominent historian; in reality, according to Haberman and Swan, it was written by the golf caddy of one of Trump's associates, a man who described himself as a history buff.

Co-host Joanna Coles pressed Wolff on whether that kind of posthumous transformation is something Trump would genuinely welcome, given his deep need to feel important and be remembered. Wolff acknowledged that dying in office is far from the only scenario Trump entertains — and certainly not the one he is actively mapping out.

"He's thinking that the options are he's going to go on indefinitely," Wolff explained. "He's going to leave office, he's going back to Mar-A-Lago. And then, he is no doubt already plotting how, from Mar-A-Lago, he continues to be the dominant figure in American politics."

Wolff also offered a broader observation about the aftermath of Trump's eventual death, particularly if it were to occur while he holds office. Comparing the moment to the removal of any dominant or authoritarian leader, Wolff predicted a profound national reaction.

"It's like when you remove any dominant figure, dictators," Wolff said. "I think people breathe a big sigh of relief. I think it's like the world clears, and with Trump, the quiet will be extraordinary. People will breathe again. History starts over again."