Someone who points fingers in a crisis is hardly a shining example of leadership.
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President Harry S. Truman, the thirty-third United States President, popularized the phrase “The buck stops here.” He used it as his motto and even had a sign with this phrase on his desk in the oval office during his presidency. The phrase refers to the notion that the President has to make the decisions and accept the ultimate responsibility for those decisions. The term “The buck stops here” derives from the expression ‘passing the buck’ meaning passing the blame on to someone else
The sign “The Buck Stops Here” that was on President Truman’s desk in his White House office was made in the Federal Reformatory at El Reno, Oklahoma. Fred A. Canfil, then United States Marshal for the Western District of Missouri and a friend of Mr. Truman, saw a similar sign while visiting the Reformatory and asked the Warden if a sign like it could be made for President Truman. The sign was made and mailed to the President on October 2, 1945.
Whereas Harry S. Truman took responsibility, many of those who came after him, especially those in the last decades, tended to pass the buck and shift responsibility. When anything went wrong, the blame went to others.
In particular, President Barack Obama was quick to have a scapegoat when anything went wrong, absolving himself from any and all responsibility. President Trump has also made it abundantly clear that he is not and will never take responsibility for anything that goes wrong. And yet, he is willing to take full credit for the good things he has done (and even for things he has not done).
President Donald Trump, in this first three years in office as president, has developed the habit of passing blame to everything and anything except himself. The person most often receiving the blame is his predecessor, President Barack Obama. One recent example that perfectly encapsulates this administration mentality of shifting blame is with the Coronavirus pandemic. President Trump has flat out said, “I don’t take responsibility at all.”
This dodging of responsibility has become commonplace for president Trump and his administration. It stands in stark contrast and contrary to what he previously tweeted about leadership. In 2013 during the Obama presidency, he tweeted that “Leadership: Whatever happens, you’re responsible. If it doesn’t happen, you’re responsible.”
Leadership: Whatever happens, you’re responsible. If it doesn’t happen, you’re responsible.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 8, 2013
This is just one of many examples of Trump tweeting about things during the Obama presidency but doing the exact opposite now that he is the president. Trump would be wise to take his own previous advice on leadership and take responsibility. Donald Trump is president, and, because of that, the buck stops with him if he likes it or not.
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