Donald Trump’s top qualification for president was supposed to be his management prowess. On the campaign trail he repeatedly pledged to “hire the best people, not the biggest donors!” Less than a month into his presidency, the opposite appears to be true.

That was clear on Monday with the departure of Michael Flynn, whose resignation as national security adviser so early in a presidential tenure was unprecedented. With just 24 days in office, Flynn is the shortest-serving national security adviser in history, the average tenure being 2.6 years. And it was reaffirmed two days later, when Andrew Puzder, his pick to lead the department of labor, was forced to withdraw, making him only the 12th cabinet nominee ever to do so.

Trump built his entire brand on being an expert manager and hiring the best people, from The Art of the Deal to The Apprentice. Now he is failing at what was meant to be one of his core strengths.

During the campaign, many Americans said they liked Trump because he was a businessman not a politician. Research showed Trump consistently beating opponents on metrics associated with management, including “emphasizes success” and is “competitive”. More recent polling evidence from Survey Monkey has backed that up.

More than anything else this year, polling has shown Americans wanted a “strong leader”. But with the White House staff reportedly in “survival mode” and death watches out for a whole host of leadership figures within the Trump campaign, from Reince Priebus to Sean Spicer and Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s already shown himself to be anything but.

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Neither Flynn nor Puzder should ever have been in consideration. Flynn had long been reviled in the national security community, as a “hothead” with an abusive leadership style. It shouldn’t have taken the highly public revelation that he’d spoken repeatedly and quite possibly illegally with the Russian ambassador last year, reportedly about lifting US sanctions, to keep him out of the administration.

Meanwhile Puzder’s nomination faced opposition on half a dozen different fronts, from his franchises’ long list of labor violations, to his failure to file financial documents, to his hiring of an undocumented worker in his home. The latter reveal is something that has single-handedly tanked nominations in the past, and that’s before we add in the almost comically off-putting context that Puzder was running to be the country’s top labor official in a historically anti-immigrant administration.

So it shouldn’t have taken the release of footage showing Puzder’s ex-wife going on national television to accuse him of domestic abuse to put the kibosh on his nomination. But that appears to be the low bar Trump’s confirmation process has stooped to.

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Beyond the scandalous behavior of Puzder and Flynn, there’s the simple fact that Trump’s picks to fill top slots in his administration seem to have little or no relevant experience for the titles he expects them to fill. That’s bad management, pure and simple.

Being good at acting is not unrelated to being a successful politician – Ronald Reagan taught us that much. Obama’s chief asset when he ran for president on a relatively thin résumé was his charisma, but he backed it up by running a “no drama” White House.



Charisma alone doesn’t help you govern well. It doesn’t help you make savvy policy decisions. It doesn’t even make you a good manager.

Unfortunately for the country, artifice is what Trump does best. And now he’s playing make-believe not just at being CEO but at being the president with America as his dollhouse. Without the ability to edit the final product before it airs, his true lack of management skills is on full display.