Quotes About Leadership

One day in the Oval Office, Cohn brought in the latest job numbers to Trump and Pence. "I have the most perfect job numbers you're ever going to see," Cohn said. "It's all because of my tariffs," Trump said. "They're working." Trump had yet to impose any tariffs, but he believed they were a good idea and knew Cohn disagreed with him.

The tweets were not incidental to his presidency. They were central

the vice president was a counting clerk, period.

Trump had no understanding of how government functioned. At times he would just start drafting orders himself or dictating

We need to know if the commander in chief is fully with us or not," Mattis said. "We can't fight a half-assed war anymore." In order for the military to succeed, Mattis needed Trump to be all-in on the strategy. "I'm tired of hearing that we have to do this or that to protect our homeland or to ensure our national security," Trump said.

Real power is—I don't even want to use the word—fear." Presidential candidate Donald J. Trump in an interview with Bob Woodward and Robert Costa on March 31, 2016, at the Old Post Office Pavilion, Trump International Hotel, Washington, D.C.

Pence was staying out of the way. He didn't want to be tweeted about or called an idiot.

Later, when Trump brought up the second speech to him, the staff secretary said, "I thought the second speech was the only good one of the three." "I don't want to talk to you," Trump responded. "Get away from me.

Trump listens to you. He's always looking for adult supervision.

Trump had failed the President Lincoln test. He had not put a team of political rivals or competitors at the table, Priebus concluded. "He puts natural predators at the table," Priebus said later. "Not just rivals—predators.

Cohn realized again what he had said before to others about the president: "He's a professional liar.

If you have natural predators at the table," Priebus said, "things don't move." So the White House was not leading on key issues like health care and tax reform. Foreign policy was not coherent and often contradictory. "Why?" asked Priebus. "Because when you put a snake and a rat and a falcon and a rabbit and a shark and a seal in a zoo without walls, things start getting nasty and bloody. That's what happens.

Kelly said of the president, "He's an idiot. It's pointless to try to convince him of anything. He's gone off the rails. We're in crazytown.

If you want to do it now," Priebus continued, "Pence is prepared to step up, and Condi Rice will come in as his VP.

It's not what we did for the country," Cohn said. "It's what we saved him from doing.

I bring rage out. I do bring rage out. I always have. I don't know if that's an asset or a liability, but whatever it is, I do." Presidential candidate Donald J. Trump in an interview with Bob Woodward and Robert Costa on March 31, 2016, at the Old Post Office Pavilion, Trump International Hotel, Washington, D.C.

I realized," Bannon said later, "I'm the director, he's the actor.

The president has no moral compass," Mattis replied. The bluntness should have shocked Coats, but he'd arrived at his own hard truths about the most powerful man in the world. "True," Coats agreed. "To him, a lie is not a lie. It's just what he thinks. He doesn't know the difference between the truth and a lie.

All presidencies are audience driven, but Trump's central audience was often himself. He kept giving himself reviews. Most were passionately positive.

Mattis was particularly exasperated and alarmed, telling close associates that the president acted like—and had the understanding of—"a fifth or sixth grader.

many of the president's senior advisers, especially those in the national security realm, are extremely concerned with his erratic nature, his relative ignorance, his inability to learn, as well as what they consider his dangerous views.

Well," she said, "I hope you can prevail in the insane snake pit of the Oval Office and the crazy family as well.

All presidencies are audience driven, but Trump's central audience was often himself.

Trump seemed not to remember his own decision because he did not ask about it. He had no list—in his mind or anywhere else—of tasks to complete.