“If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt it is mine alone.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower, June 5, 1944
Prior to the invasion of Normandy, Supreme Allied commander General Eisenhower, drafted a speech taking full and personal blame should the D-Day invasion turn into a military catastrophe, despite the fact it was an incredibly complex operation involving dozens of subordinates, thousands of young men who could be killed, and unpredictable weather.
President Truman famously had a sign on his desk reading, “The buck stops here,” acknowledging his ultimately responsibility for the actions of his subordinates and Administration.
After the disastrous failure of the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, President Kennedy publicly took personal responsibility and remarked, “There’s an old saying that victory has a hundred fathers and defeat is an orphan.”
Ronald Reagan admitted “mistakes were made” by he and his Administration with respect to the Iran-Contra scandal.
When the initial rollout of Healthcare.gov in 2013 ran into serious trouble, President Obama assumed personal accountability.
Republican president George W. Bush took responsibility and apologized for reprehensible incidents on the part of U.S. soldiers including using copies of the Koran for target practice.
Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz acknowledged his mistakes in Starbucks’ expansion strategy and took steps to rectify.
PepsiCo CEO Nooyi, speaking of her leadership admitted she made mistakes with some of her decisions that didn’t go as planned, such as failed product launches.
Cracker Barrel CEO Masino has addressed the company’s failed, short-lived 2025 logo rebrand, admitting it was a significant misstep.
Warren Buffett: spoke openly about his investment mistakes over the years, admitting to errors in judgment, such as investing in companies that later under performed or missing out on lucrative opportunities. He stressed the importance of humility and continuous learning in the investment process.
In each instance, as well as those of most respected and successful leaders, was a recognition and admission, “leaders must bear ultimate responsibility for all outcomes.” Whether in politics or business, by admitting mistakes and personal fallibility, a leader can garner greater respect and credibility among subordinates, stake-holders, and the public. They understood success most often stems when “Great leaders take ownership of their mistakes!”
In contrast, Donald Trump has apparently never lied, misspoken, made a mistake or assumed responsibility for his subordinates … despite numerous documented business failures; his embarrassing personal exploits from his fling with Stormy Daniels to still-being-revealed relationships with Jeffrey Espstein’s world; inciting the January 6th assault on Capital; claims he “knew nothing” about Project 2025 before implementing many of its most anti-democratic policies once in office; weaponizing the Department of Justice to go after his critics and political opponents; making inappropriate calls to Volodymyr Zelenskyy in 2019 seeking non-existent “dirt” on the Biden family and in January 2021 with Brad Raffensperger looking for him to “find” 11,780 votes, and the recent social media posting of a meme depicting Barack and Michelle Obama looking like monkeys.
When questioned about these and other potentially embarrassing issues, he has stated, “(he) didn’t make a mistake,” “I don’t know anything about it,” claims of “fake news,”, “It never happened,” “It was perfect call,” and similar self-serving excuses and a willingness shift the blame to others.
Any objective look at the facts, particularly since his second inauguration, suggest the president is an unapologetic narcissistic living in an alternative universe of exaggerated claims of his successes; is laser-focused on the accumulation of personal and family wealth, is attempting to affix his name to as many public programs and facades as possible, believes he can exercise unilateral power; basks in the adulation of seemingly adoring followers; and continually whines about his unfounded claims or a stolen 2020 election and not being awarded a Nobel Peace Prize.
Absent is any deep respect for his oath of office, the Constitution, laws enacted by Congress, or the future of our representative democracy.
Rather, while he claims to be making his county “great again,” alluding to some ill-defined utopian time which actually never existed; he stokes fear of immigrants, Muslims, and other “outsiders”, fans “white replacement” and other far-right conspiracy theories; attacks and threatens the media and free speech of anyone critical of him or his policies; demonizes intellectuals, education, science and the arts; engages in foreign military adventurism in the name of “national security”; and has effectively created a national police force he defacto lets operate outside the bounds of Constitutional limitations and guaranteed individual rights.
Tragically, we’ve witnessed the results of this playbook far too often across Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America over the past century.
James Madison prophetically wrote, “I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.”
