WASHINGTON
\nIt is among the most famous phrases in presidential history: \u201d The buck stops here.\u201d Except with President Donald Trump, it almost never does. Concerns about a weak economy and still-high inflation? His predecessor, Joe Biden, saddled him with that, he says, even though the Democrat has been out of office for 18-plus months and despite Trump once promising an immediate turnaround.
\nThe problem-plagued revamp of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool? That was marred by vandalism, the Republican president insists, even though the office of a prosecutor he put in the job has said the damage was due to shoddy workmanship. The increasingly unpopular war in Iran that has kept oil prices high, Trump\u2019s approval rating low and sent shock waves through the global economy? Actually, this was Trump making up for timid earlier presidents who, he argues, squandered nearly 50 years of opportunities to curb Tehran\u2019s nuclear ambitions.
\nPithy slogans aside, all modern presidents shift responsibility onto others to some degree, frequently blaming the commander-in-chief who preceded them, Congress \u2014 or both. But Trump has taken it to a new level, effectively embracing a de facto political strategy of being in charge of everything but responsible for nothing when things go badly.
\n\u201cTaking responsibility being a characteristic of presidential leadership \u2014 or any kind of leadership \u2014 is absolutely true,\u201d said Nicole Anslover, a history professor at Florida Atlantic University and author of \u201cHarry S. Truman: The Coming of the Cold War.\u201d Trump\u2019s tendency to point fingers at others is increasingly in the spotlight before November\u2019s midterm elections, when Republicans are trying to retain control of Congress.
\nHis unwillingness to accept blame sometimes leads him to deny that there are problems at all, and could leave GOP leaders in tight races with little reassurance for voters that their concerns are being addressed. The White House counters that Trump is working to correct long-festering challenges, not simply throwing up his hands and ignoring them.
\nThe president is \u201crightfully addressing the failures of his predecessors while taking action to deliver big wins for the American people,\u201d spokesperson Taylor Rogers said, pointing to a series of policies that she said Republicans can run on, including tax cuts, efforts to lower prescription drug prices, cracking down on immigration and the US-Mexico border, increasing domestic energy production and a strong stock market.
\nTruman famously kept a \u201cThe Buck Stops Here\u201d sign on his desk as president. That came from \u201cpass the buck,\u201d which, according to Truman\u2019s presidential library, dates to frontier times, when poker players would pass a buckhorn handle knife to the person whose turn it was to deal the cards. \u201cThe president, whoever he is, has to decide,\u201d Truman said during his farewell address in 1953. \u201cHe can\u2019t pass the buck to anybody. No one else can do the deciding for him. That\u2019s his job.
\nThe understanding of the phrase has broadened over the years to include taking responsibility for the outcome of tough decisions. Trump used to espouse similar beliefs, saying back in 2013 that in running a business, \u201cWhatever happens, you\u2019re responsible. If it doesn\u2019t happen, you\u2019re responsible.\u201d Accepting the 2016 presidential nomination, Trump said, \u201cNobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it.\u201d
\nBut as president, he has often suggested that the solution and blame rest elsewhere. \u201cThe buck stops with everybody,\u201d Trump said in 2019, during a lengthy government shutdown. In 2020, on the same day he declared the coronavirus pandemic a national emergency, he said, \u201cI don\u2019t take responsibility at all\u201d for a lack of COVID-19 testing.
\nAnslover said Truman took full responsibility for dropping atomic bombs on Japan even though he was not informed that the US was developing such weapons until his predecessor, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, died. John F. Kennedy saw his approval ratings rise after he acknowledged he was to blame for the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in Cuba. Ronald Reagan said he was sorry for any involvement he may have had in the Iran-Contra scandal even while saying he wasn\u2019t sure he was to blame. \u201cThe buck stops here with me,\u201d he said then.
\nAt his final news conference in early 2009, George W. Bush listed a series of mistakes he had made, including failing to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. His successor, Barack Obama, said, \u201cI screwed up,\u201d after his nominee for health chief, Tom Daschle, withdrew because of unpaid back taxes. The president acknowledged in a recent Punchbowl interview that voters are angry, but he said they are not mad at him but at congressional Republicans. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WASHINGTON It is among the most famous phrases in presidential history: \u201d The buck stops here.\u201d Except with President Donald Trump, it almost never does. Concerns about a weak economy and still-high inflation? His predecessor, Joe Biden, saddled him with that, he says, even though the Democrat has been out of office for 18-plus months […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":505517,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-562537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n