Donald Trump likes to blame all his personal failures and failings on other people. He can never act presidential and take accountability for his own actions.
Trump’s number one response tactic to his political foes has always been this—lie. Lie your pants off. Lie about anything and everything under the sun.
You’re getting nervous about your political opponent? Why just make up a bogus story about his father being in on the JFK assassination. Does it appear your opponent is beating you in the polls? Well, shucks, that’s no biggie: Make up ridiculous conspiracies about her, use anything, keep drilling the words “e-mail” and “private server” into the public’s consciousness, and if you say it loudly and indignantly enough, it it just might stick, it just might become reality. Enraged that your predecessor drew much larger crowds on his inauguration day than you on your own? Heck, that’s okay—lie again. This time around, blame it on the “crooked media” and all their untouched aerial shots.
Blame everything on the “crooked media.” Those words are magic words, you see—right up there with “abracadabra” and “open sesame.”
After sleazily and shamelessly attacking Hillary Clinton for everything last year, Mr. Trump ostensibly extended an olive branch to Mrs. Clinton earlier this year, after he invited her to the White House, and waved at her, as if to say, See? I’m a nice guy, too—I don’t harbor any grudges!
But the nice guy facade didn’t last long. In March, the 45th president stupidly accused his predecessor, Barack Hussein Obama, of illegally wiretapping Trump Tower.
After that wholly irrational and nonsensical social media outburst, Democrats and even some Republicans—like Arizona Senator John McCain—voiced their displeasure with Trump. This only enraged Donnieboy further, who then went ranting on Twitter about how the Democrats chose a “weak” candidate (Clinton)— this not long after Donald ostensibly extended an olive branch to Hillary Clinton, remember that. He went on complaining with tweetstorms about how the Democrats had “chosen” such a terrible candidate, how it was all sour grapes, etc.
This is, very obviously, a man who always had to blame someone else for his own personal blunders, his own foibles, and even his own impeachable offenses. This is a defense mechanism, for President Trump, it is the way he keeps his fragile ego intact: Blame someone else. Anybody!
Is this really an honorable trait in a president?
There’s a fantastic book that’s been out since 1936—Dale Carnegie’s “How To Win Friends and Influence People.” In one chapter, Carnegie writes about how in business it is a great idea to take personal responsibility for your own actions, and he cites Harry S. Truman, who famously had a plaque on his desk that read: The Buck Stops Here. President Truman would perhaps ask his underlings questions, take their answers and suggestions into consideration, but at the end of the day, he alone accepted all responsibility for his actions.
The Buck Stops Here.
This is not the case with President Trump.