Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts

by Carol Tavris

Within two years, the Brookings Institution reported, he had a senior staff turnover rate of 43 percent, and Business Insider began keeping a running tally of all the top-level people who had been fired or who “resigned.”* “A high turnover rate is a signal of rot and decay within any organization,” wrote Stephanie Denning in Forbes, hardly a left-wing mouthpiece.18 Moreover, while it is not unusual for politicians to disagree with a president in their own party or even say negative things about him, the vitriol directed against Trump is unique in American history—and it has come from his employees, friends, allies, and members of his inner circle, including his secretary of state, his secretary of defense, his national security adviser, and his chief of staff.19 They have called him “a supreme sexist,” “like an 11-year-old child,” “morally unfit and untethered to truth,” “less a person than a collection of terrible traits,” “dumb as shit,” someone who “sucks up and shits down” (this from former Fox News chief Roger Ailes), “not only crazy but stupid,” and “an idiot.”