At the risk of sounding like a LinkedIn poster, leadership is often said to be best modeled by example. While the maxim may not often be linked with President Donald Trump, he did first enter mainstream American culture during a boom in popularity for the self-help industry. His entry into the field, the ghostwritten 1987 book “The Art of the Deal,” presented his riches-to-riches story as a roadmap for aspiring moguls. But relatively few would-be boardroom executives are likely studying Trump’s leadership style today.
As president, he has nurtured a culture in his administration where deflecting blame for mistakes, lapses and failures is completely normal. The buck never stops with the people who actually hold power. Instead, responsibility is typically laid at the feed of the person who held the job previously; underlings; Democrats (in general or specific); strawmen of any political stripe; or, in a pinch, other key members of the administration.
As president, he has nurtured a culture in his administration where deflecting blame for mistakes, lapses and failures is completely normal.
Trump put on a master class of the technique during an interview with Punchbowl News last week. His abysmal polling numbers and string of unforced errors have threatened the GOP’s chances of holding control of Congress after the midterm elections. Trump insisted, though, that he isn’t the source of the problem: “The question is, will they vote? Because a lot of them are very angry at Republicans, to be honest with you. … They’re angry at Republicans, but they’re not angry at me.”
While no one in Trump’s Cabinet has yet proven themselves as capable as Trump at this kind of redirection, there are plenty of emulators willing to take his lessons to heart.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has been a skilled student in his time in office. In the early days of the war against Iran, the Pentagon chief was full of bravado and happy to take credit for what he claimed was a swift, decisive victory. As the conflict stretched out and munitions stockpiles have reportedly been massively depleted, he’s sought to duck any criticism. While begging Congress for a cash infusion to restore the military’s weapons supply, Hegseth both denied that there is even a shortage and also blamed the Biden administration for “four years of underinvestment and mismanagement.”
According to The Washington Post, a furious Trump confronted Hegseth over the shortages during a meeting at Camp David at the end of last month. Rather than accepting responsibility, the defense secretary instead reportedly “defended himself and blamed his deputy, Stephen Feinberg, for the shortages and for not ensuring Trump was fully apprised of the issue.” The deflection appears to have worked: NBC News reported that Feinberg received an angry call from Trump that same day, prompting him to scramble to find ways to quickly ramp up production.
U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro has likewise proven adept at following Trump’s example. Since landing the role last year, Hegseth’s fellow Fox News alum has been struggling to deliver prosecutions against the president’s political opponents. But Pirro’s job security became uncertain last week when she opted to drop federal felony charges against former Olympian David Hearn. Pirro instead admitted that the damage to the Reflecting Pool she’d pinned on Hearn came from a flawed installation rather than the vandalism her office and the White House had claimed.
The president was initially apoplectic, saying that he 100% disagreed with Pirro’s decision.
“There may have been some contractor difficulty, but the major damage was caused by VANDALS!” he wrote on Truth Social.
But Pirro was ready to defend herself, reportedly attending a high-stakes meeting at the White House last week with one goal: throw Interior Secretary Doug Burgum under the bus. According to The New York Times, she “directly confronted Mr. Burgum, accusing him of misleading the president” and “made the case that Mr. Burgum had promoted a self-serving cover story to conceal his own missteps.”
Blame can be spread laterally among equals, down toward subordinates or even backward against the flow of time, but never up to the top.
The redirection was apparently successful, as Pirro managed to hold onto her job, for now at least. But charging Hearn in the first place was ironically an attempt from Trump to shift the blame for the Reflecting Pool’s botched renovation, leaving Pirro to find a culprit. In throwing in the towel, she came dangerously close to blaming Trump himself and thereby violating the one absolute sin in this administration.
There is zero room for punching up in Trump’s leadership model. Blame can be spread laterally among equals, down toward subordinates or even backward against the flow of time, but never up to the top. Federal staffers down the chain are in turn left unable to push back against their superiors but expected to shoulder the consequences for whatever missteps might have been prevented.
While President Harry Truman’s sign reading “The Buck Stops Here” is more famous, the Missourian’s farewell address put a finer point on the idea behind his desk ornament: “The President — whoever he is — has to decide. He can’t pass the buck to anybody. No one else can do the deciding for him. That’s his job.”
Trump’s abdication of this tenet has fostered this fecundity of finger pointing. Beyond the unnecessary drama it engenders, it is simply no way to run a government. Without accountability, failures are left to fester instead of getting fixed. Trump has crafted an administration that follows his example in shirking responsibility, placing self-interest above the interests of the nation. The buck stops nowhere in Trump’s White House.
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