Yambo is desperately seeking a “big thing” to distract from Jeffrey Epstein—and is willing to sacrifice Ukraine to achieve it, his biographer Michael Wolff told the Daily Beast.
In the Daily Beast podcast, Inside Trump’s Head, the best-selling author told co-host Joanna Coles that the president is making “relentless” calls to aides and allies to demand something to get past the unending questions over his links to the dead pedophile and his surviving lover-turned-sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell.
And, Wolff disclosed, not only have successive plans failed or fallen flat, but Trump is now willing to give up Ukraine to Vladimir Putin when they meet in Alaska on Friday to achieve the distraction he needs.
"Big thing" options included making New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani the next MAGA enemy. The New York Times reported that Trump spoke with Andrew Cuomo, Mamdani’s chief rival, about the race in recent weeks, though both denied it. But that plan didn’t pan out, Wolff said.
“It didn’t get that traction,“ Wolff said. ”I mean, Epstein still goes on behind everything. Epstein, Epstein, Epstein, that drum beat."
Trump announced taking over D.C. on Monday but, Wolff said, is still seeking something “big” for the MAGA base—leading to the focus on Ukraine.
“That is what he got to,” Wolff said. “‘I’m going to have to do Ukraine.’”
Wolff explained that Trump would likely pull the U.S. out of any involvement in the Russia-Ukraine conflict—something which would please, in his judgment, the MAGA base, which has been opposed to U.S. involvement and particularly to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“He’s going to sacrifice Ukraine for Epstein,” Wolff said. “Essentially, this is, in his mind, a trade. It is the MAGA people who have pressed this Epstein issue constantly. I mean, they’re the threat.”
White House staffers were befuddled by Trump’s renewed direct involvement in brokering a settlement—including meeting with Putin directly, Wolff said—and they still weren’t sure what Trump would ultimately do. “Nobody in the White House can see this turning out so well for Ukraine,” he said.
Wolff said the distraction probably won't work.
“The Epstein drumbeat is real,” Wolff said. “It is unceasing and it is threatening, most of all, to Donald Trump.”
