A Sacred Oath: Memoirs of a Secretary of Defense During Extraordinary Times – An Instant New York Times Bestseller: A Pentagon Insider's Tumultuous Years Under President Trump

by Mark T. Esper

As with so many other matters, all this scheming was completely unnecessary, because all the president ever had to do was issue a direct order to effect what he wanted. I never disobeyed a direct order from the president, but then again, I received so few to begin with. Rather, I worked to implement his signed policies and documents, like the National Defense Strategy, which went through a deliberate, coordinated process and had his explicit approval. Trump was, after all, the elected head of government. For some reason, though, the president was always reluctant to issue orders or ask people directly to do something. It seemed he didn’t want to own the decision, even though a president is inevitably responsible for everything. The Trump administration had a lot of shortcomings, but second only to the president’s personal style and crass behavior was how the White House treated people who were doing their best to serve the country under difficult circumstances. An organization is only as good as the people who constitute it, and that is true whether you serve in the military, work in a large corporation, are employed at a nonprofit, or are on the government payroll.