Macroscope | ‘It’s not my fault’: Donald Trump is about to emerge as world’s most powerful buck-passer

Everyone can pass the buck – except for investors

“The buck stops here” was a sign on President Harry Truman’s desk indicating that whatever blame there was to be handed around – it all ended up in the Oval Office.

Truman’s sign showed that true leaders know that eventually they are going to have to take the rap for mistakes made on his watch.

I fully understand the desire to pass the buck from my own days as a UK politician because there is always someone else after your job. If you make a mistake, you show weakness, and that reduces your ability to keep that job. Worse still, your enemies are likely to amplify any admissions and pin a label on you such as “lacks judgement” or “a weak pair of hands”. Even if you are squeaky clean, your enemies will try to make up the dirt, so it doesn’t hurt to get your retaliation in first.

Weak leaders are unwilling to take any blame onto their shoulders. Better leaders know what to keep and what to pass on to someone else. Long-lasting leaders are able to ride-out even quite serious blame burdens. Angela Merkel of Germany is very good at saying “sorry”, which often kills the headlines. It remains to be seen whether falling on her sword by admitting that it may have been a mistake to allow a million illegal migrants into Europe, as well as a handful of suicidal extremists, is a mea culpa too far.

Brazening out obvious mistakes is another strategy. Who could forget Bill Clinton testifying about the Monica Lewinski case in front of the Grand Jury in 1998 supported only by a can of Diet Coke? And 100 years ago, David Lloyd George, Prime Minister of the UK, did the same to the House of Commons, despite his nickname being “the Goat”. It was said by General Kitchener that he avoided “sharing military secrets with the Cabinet, as they would tell their wives; apart from Lloyd George who would tell someone else’s wife”.