David Pakman

And the deeper risk, I believe, is that when you have such a complicated adaptive system like the United States operating without a reliable and continuous leadership presence, what the hell is going to happen when these decisions have to be made?

And Trump just isn't really with with it.

The only other aspect of this that I think is important to mention is that there has always been this idea with Trump that maybe we're better off when he's not being the president.

In other words, if he's really so incompetent, isn't it better for him to be golfing?

We talked about this during Trump's first term.

If you remember, there is some sort of practical sense in which that may be true.

But the problem is Trump is still operating by setting the broader directive and leaving people who arguably don't even have all the information or resources to make decisions to make them.

And so for me, at the highest level, if we have economic volatility, which we do right now, if we're in the middle of a war, you've got to have a consistent presence there.

And when the consistency goes away, it's natural to say who is actually in charge.

Now, there are all sorts of names that are often filled in.

I mentioned Vance and Rubio.

Is Susie Wiles in charge?

Is it Stephen Miller?

Is it who the hell is it?

Is it Trump's assistant who types out his truths?

I don't know the answer, but we know because we've seen in other regimes when the leader is diminished and other people are actually making decisions, it's rarely a good thing.

As someone who spends hours every week in meetings, interviews and long form conversations, my biggest challenge used to be losing ideas the moment that the meeting ends or the conversation stops.

And I would try using my phone, but it had a bunch of limitations and trade offs.

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