{"id":10064,"date":"2026-10-01T10:15:58","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T10:15:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/?p=10064"},"modified":"2026-10-01T14:16:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T14:16:15","slug":"the-method-to-president-trumps-madness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/the-method-to-president-trumps-madness\/","title":{"rendered":"The Method to President Trump\u2019s Madness"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Daniel Butcher<\/a><\/p>\n

U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s behavior is often unpredictable and seemingly irrational, but most of his head-scratching decisions are actually calculated to provide a distraction from events that do not fit his preferred narrative.<\/p>\n

According to Academy of Management Scholar Jeffrey Sonnenfeld<\/a> of the Yale School of Management, who moderated the panel \u201cThe Framers of 1776 vs. The Nation\u2019s Leadership In 2026; Is the Vision Now Vivid or Blurred?<\/a>\u201d at the 2026 AOM Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, this helps explains Trump\u2019s behavior. Sonnenfeld has coauthored the book Trump\u2019s Ten Commandments: Strategic Lessons from the Trump Leadership Toolbox<\/em><\/a> with Steven Tian, also of Yale.<\/p>\n

Sonnenfeld noted that Trump is a master of redirecting the conversation when he gets bad news or when something crops up that he does not want to talk about. Trump often references scapegoats and bogeymen such as \u201cthe Deep State, immigrants and asylum seekers, the mainstream media, DEI, China, the UN, NATO allies, communists, and, of course, Democrats.”<\/p>\n

\u201cScholars and practitioners alike, as well as people from the left, right, and center, say, \u2018Yeah, this is in fact what he does,\u2019 and it has to be understood that there is a method to his madness,” Sonnenfeld said. “So much of what he does and says seems so arbitrary\u2014it seems so stupid.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe thinks it works, and it backfires sometimes, but it is not arbitrary, and people say he\u2019s dumb\u2014well, he\u2019s as dumb as a fox,\u201d he said. \u201cWe had a group of 12 federal judges meet with us recently, and they just were wondering, \u2018How does he keep getting away with this?\u2019 Even they didn\u2019t realize that there were these holes in the Constitution that Trump has exploited.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Founding Fathers didn\u2019t anticipate the unlimited use of the presidential pardon power, allowing him to enable murderous mobs to be blessed in advance to do whatever they want and not face federal charges or get presidential pardons after the fact, as happened with the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Daniel Butcher U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s behavior is often unpredictable and seemingly irrational, but most of his head-scratching decisions are actually calculated to provide a distraction from events that do not fit his preferred narrative. According to Academy of Management Scholar Jeffrey Sonnenfeld of the Yale School of Management, who moderated the panel \u201cThe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":9905,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_ppma_block_editor_authors":""},"categories":[23,71,19,78],"tags":[],"sp_smart_badges":[],"ppma_author":[70],"class_list":["post-10064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-behavior","category-communicating","category-leadership","category-policy"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Method to President Trump\u2019s Madness - Academy of Management Today<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s behavior is often unpredictable and seemingly irrational, but most of his head-scratching decisions are actually calculated to provide a distraction from events that do not fit his preferred narrative.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/the-method-to-president-trumps-madness\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Daniel Butcher\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/the-method-to-president-trumps-madness\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/the-method-to-president-trumps-madness\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Daniel Butcher\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/d1297a59039d9ca7bac9d9f0952e508c\"},\"headline\":\"The Method to President Trump\u2019s Madness\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-10-01T10:15:58+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-10-01T14:16:15+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/the-method-to-president-trumps-madness\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":349,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/the-method-to-president-trumps-madness\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/09\\\/President-Donald-J.-Trump-participates-in-an-interview-with-Foxs-Maria-Bartiromo-in-the-Diplomatic-Reception-Room-at-the-White-House-scaled.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"BEHAVIOR\",\"COMMUNICATING\",\"LEADERSHIP\",\"POLICY\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/the-method-to-president-trumps-madness\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/the-method-to-president-trumps-madness\\\/\",\"name\":\"The Method to President Trump\u2019s Madness - Academy of Management Today\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/the-method-to-president-trumps-madness\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/the-method-to-president-trumps-madness\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/09\\\/President-Donald-J.-Trump-participates-in-an-interview-with-Foxs-Maria-Bartiromo-in-the-Diplomatic-Reception-Room-at-the-White-House-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-10-01T10:15:58+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-10-01T14:16:15+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/d1297a59039d9ca7bac9d9f0952e508c\"},\"description\":\"U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s behavior is often unpredictable and seemingly irrational, but most of his head-scratching decisions are actually calculated to provide a distraction from events that do not fit his preferred narrative.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/the-method-to-president-trumps-madness\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/the-method-to-president-trumps-madness\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/the-method-to-president-trumps-madness\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/09\\\/President-Donald-J.-Trump-participates-in-an-interview-with-Foxs-Maria-Bartiromo-in-the-Diplomatic-Reception-Room-at-the-White-House-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/09\\\/President-Donald-J.-Trump-participates-in-an-interview-with-Foxs-Maria-Bartiromo-in-the-Diplomatic-Reception-Room-at-the-White-House-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1707,\"caption\":\"President Trump is a master of changing the subject and redirecting the conversation when he gets bad news or when something crops up that he doesn\u2019t want to talk about or acknowledge. Source: Shutterstock\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/the-method-to-president-trumps-madness\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Method to President Trump\u2019s Madness\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/\",\"name\":\"Academy of Management Today\",\"description\":\"Smarter, faster business news\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/d1297a59039d9ca7bac9d9f0952e508c\",\"name\":\"Daniel Butcher\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/01\\\/DanButcher_Academy-of-Management.webpdc4369982b23f58f26c42e618b9ef398\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/01\\\/DanButcher_Academy-of-Management.webp\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/01\\\/DanButcher_Academy-of-Management.webp\",\"caption\":\"Daniel Butcher\"},\"description\":\"Daniel Butcher is a writer and the Managing Editor of AOM Today at the Academy of Management (AOM). Previously, he was a writer and the Finance Editor for Strategic Finance magazine and Management Accounting Quarterly, a scholarly journal, at the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA). Prior to that, he worked as a writer\\\/editor at The Financial Times, including daily FT sister publications Ignites and FundFire, as well as Crain Communications\u2019s InvestmentNews and Crain\u2019s Wealth, eFinancialCareers, and Arizent\u2019s Financial Planning, Re:Invent|Wealth, On Wall Street, Bank Investment Consultant, and Money Management Executive. He earned his bachelor\u2019s degree, Cum Laude, from the University of Colorado Boulder and his master\u2019s degree from New York University. You can reach him at dbutcher@aom.org or via LinkedIn.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/aomtodayprod.wpenginepowered.com\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.linkedin.com\\\/in\\\/danielbutcher\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/author\\\/daniel-butcher\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Method to President Trump\u2019s Madness - Academy of Management Today","description":"U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s behavior is often unpredictable and seemingly irrational, but most of his head-scratching decisions are actually calculated to provide a distraction from events that do not fit his preferred narrative.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/the-method-to-president-trumps-madness\/","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Daniel Butcher","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/the-method-to-president-trumps-madness\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/the-method-to-president-trumps-madness\/"},"author":{"name":"Daniel Butcher","@id":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/#\/schema\/person\/d1297a59039d9ca7bac9d9f0952e508c"},"headline":"The Method to President Trump\u2019s Madness","datePublished":"2026-10-01T10:15:58+00:00","dateModified":"2026-10-01T14:16:15+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/the-method-to-president-trumps-madness\/"},"wordCount":349,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/the-method-to-president-trumps-madness\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/President-Donald-J.-Trump-participates-in-an-interview-with-Foxs-Maria-Bartiromo-in-the-Diplomatic-Reception-Room-at-the-White-House-scaled.jpg","articleSection":["BEHAVIOR","COMMUNICATING","LEADERSHIP","POLICY"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/the-method-to-president-trumps-madness\/","url":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/the-method-to-president-trumps-madness\/","name":"The Method to President Trump\u2019s Madness - Academy of Management Today","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/the-method-to-president-trumps-madness\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/the-method-to-president-trumps-madness\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/President-Donald-J.-Trump-participates-in-an-interview-with-Foxs-Maria-Bartiromo-in-the-Diplomatic-Reception-Room-at-the-White-House-scaled.jpg","datePublished":"2026-10-01T10:15:58+00:00","dateModified":"2026-10-01T14:16:15+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/#\/schema\/person\/d1297a59039d9ca7bac9d9f0952e508c"},"description":"U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s behavior is often unpredictable and seemingly irrational, but most of his head-scratching decisions are actually calculated to provide a distraction from events that do not fit his preferred narrative.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/the-method-to-president-trumps-madness\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/the-method-to-president-trumps-madness\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/the-method-to-president-trumps-madness\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/President-Donald-J.-Trump-participates-in-an-interview-with-Foxs-Maria-Bartiromo-in-the-Diplomatic-Reception-Room-at-the-White-House-scaled.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/President-Donald-J.-Trump-participates-in-an-interview-with-Foxs-Maria-Bartiromo-in-the-Diplomatic-Reception-Room-at-the-White-House-scaled.jpg","width":2560,"height":1707,"caption":"President Trump is a master of changing the subject and redirecting the conversation when he gets bad news or when something crops up that he doesn\u2019t want to talk about or acknowledge. Source: Shutterstock"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/the-method-to-president-trumps-madness\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Method to President Trump\u2019s Madness"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/","name":"Academy of Management Today","description":"Smarter, faster business news","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/#\/schema\/person\/d1297a59039d9ca7bac9d9f0952e508c","name":"Daniel Butcher","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/DanButcher_Academy-of-Management.webpdc4369982b23f58f26c42e618b9ef398","url":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/DanButcher_Academy-of-Management.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/DanButcher_Academy-of-Management.webp","caption":"Daniel Butcher"},"description":"Daniel Butcher is a writer and the Managing Editor of AOM Today at the Academy of Management (AOM). Previously, he was a writer and the Finance Editor for Strategic Finance magazine and Management Accounting Quarterly, a scholarly journal, at the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA). Prior to that, he worked as a writer\/editor at The Financial Times, including daily FT sister publications Ignites and FundFire, as well as Crain Communications\u2019s InvestmentNews and Crain\u2019s Wealth, eFinancialCareers, and Arizent\u2019s Financial Planning, Re:Invent|Wealth, On Wall Street, Bank Investment Consultant, and Money Management Executive. He earned his bachelor\u2019s degree, Cum Laude, from the University of Colorado Boulder and his master\u2019s degree from New York University. You can reach him at dbutcher@aom.org or via LinkedIn.","sameAs":["https:\/\/aomtodayprod.wpenginepowered.com","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/danielbutcher"],"url":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/author\/daniel-butcher\/"}]}},"authors":[{"term_id":70,"user_id":4,"is_guest":0,"slug":"daniel-butcher","display_name":"Daniel Butcher","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/DanButcher_Academy-of-Management.webp","url2x":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/DanButcher_Academy-of-Management.webp"},"author_category":"1","first_name":"Daniel","last_name":"Butcher","user_url":"https:\/\/aomtodayprod.wpenginepowered.com","job_title":"Managing Editor, AOM Today, Academy of Management","description":"Daniel Butcher is a writer and the Managing Editor of AOM Today at the Academy of Management (AOM). Previously, he was a writer and the Finance Editor for <i>Strategic Finance<\/i> magazine and <i>Management Accounting Quarterly<\/i>, a scholarly journal, at the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA). Prior to that, he worked as a writer\/editor at <i>The Financial Times,<\/i> including daily FT sister publications <i>Ignites<\/i> and <i>FundFire<\/i>, as well as Crain Communications\u2019s <i>InvestmentNews<\/i> and <i>Crain\u2019s Wealth<\/i>, eFinancialCareers, and Arizent\u2019s <i>Financial Planning, Re:Invent|Wealth, On Wall Street, Bank Investment Consultant<\/i>, and <i>Money Management Executive<\/i>. He earned his bachelor\u2019s degree, Cum Laude, from the University of Colorado Boulder and his master\u2019s degree from New York University. You can reach him at <a href=\"mailto:dbutcher@aom.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">dbutcher@aom.org<\/a> or via <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/danielbutcher\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">LinkedIn<\/a>."}],"rttpg_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/President-Donald-J.-Trump-participates-in-an-interview-with-Foxs-Maria-Bartiromo-in-the-Diplomatic-Reception-Room-at-the-White-House-scaled.jpg",2560,1707,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/President-Donald-J.-Trump-participates-in-an-interview-with-Foxs-Maria-Bartiromo-in-the-Diplomatic-Reception-Room-at-the-White-House-scaled.jpg",2560,1707,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/President-Donald-J.-Trump-participates-in-an-interview-with-Foxs-Maria-Bartiromo-in-the-Diplomatic-Reception-Room-at-the-White-House-scaled.jpg",2560,1707,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/President-Donald-J.-Trump-participates-in-an-interview-with-Foxs-Maria-Bartiromo-in-the-Diplomatic-Reception-Room-at-the-White-House-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/President-Donald-J.-Trump-participates-in-an-interview-with-Foxs-Maria-Bartiromo-in-the-Diplomatic-Reception-Room-at-the-White-House-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/President-Donald-J.-Trump-participates-in-an-interview-with-Foxs-Maria-Bartiromo-in-the-Diplomatic-Reception-Room-at-the-White-House-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/President-Donald-J.-Trump-participates-in-an-interview-with-Foxs-Maria-Bartiromo-in-the-Diplomatic-Reception-Room-at-the-White-House-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/President-Donald-J.-Trump-participates-in-an-interview-with-Foxs-Maria-Bartiromo-in-the-Diplomatic-Reception-Room-at-the-White-House-2048x1365.jpg",2048,1365,true],"owl_elementor_thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/President-Donald-J.-Trump-participates-in-an-interview-with-Foxs-Maria-Bartiromo-in-the-Diplomatic-Reception-Room-at-the-White-House-600x400.jpg",600,400,true],"owl_elementor_team":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/President-Donald-J.-Trump-participates-in-an-interview-with-Foxs-Maria-Bartiromo-in-the-Diplomatic-Reception-Room-at-the-White-House-350x450.jpg",350,450,true],"owl_elementor_testimonial":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/President-Donald-J.-Trump-participates-in-an-interview-with-Foxs-Maria-Bartiromo-in-the-Diplomatic-Reception-Room-at-the-White-House-100x100.jpg",100,100,true]},"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Daniel Butcher","author_link":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/author\/daniel-butcher\/"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/category\/behavior\/\" rel=\"category tag\">BEHAVIOR<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/category\/communicating\/\" rel=\"category tag\">COMMUNICATING<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/category\/leadership\/\" rel=\"category tag\">LEADERSHIP<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/category\/policy\/\" rel=\"category tag\">POLICY<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"By Daniel Butcher U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s behavior is often unpredictable and seemingly irrational, but most of his head-scratching decisions are actually calculated to provide a distraction from events that do not fit his preferred narrative. According to Academy of Management Scholar Jeffrey Sonnenfeld of the Yale School of Management, who moderated the panel \u201cThe…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10064"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10064\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10104,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10064\/revisions\/10104"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10064"},{"taxonomy":"sp_smart_badges","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sp_smart_badges?post=10064"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=10064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}