Examining Donald Trump, a book review by our old friend Tom Rogers, commenting on the excellent writing of Jeff Sonnenfeld. T

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Opinion

The Method Behind Trump’s Madness | Opinion

Published Feb 13, 2026 at 06:00 AM EST

By Tom Rogers

Editor-at-Large for Newsweek

Every day seems to bring a new story epitomizing Donald Trump's norm-breaking behaviors, his narcissism, his tendency to make outrageous demands and his idea that all issues are about what personal gain he can wrestle from the situation. 

The latest such news is that the president rescinded federal funding for a major tunnel infrastructure project that would vastly improve train commuting connections between New York and New Jersey. Trump has stated he would reinstate the funding if Penn Station, where the trains come into, was renamed for him. Oh, and by the way, Dulles Airport outside of Washington D.C. must be named for him as well. Clearly this demand reflects a super-sized egotism, but it is not all that surprising after Trump unilaterally put his name on the most significant national site honoring President John F. Kennedy. 

To help make sense of stories like these, I want to focus this column on a soon-to-be published book about Donald Trump: Trump's Ten Commandments, which points out that in Trump's universe everything is about him and revolves around him—a god complex, thus the Biblically inspired title. What makes the book such a fascinating read is not only its distillation of the Trump playbook down to ten clearly delineated and oft-repeated Trump behaviors, but the unique relationship of the writer to the president, which drives a lot of its insight and authoritativeness. 

The author is Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, professor at the Yale School of Management and head of the Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute, and the book is co-written by his associate Steven Tian. Having been a participant in a number of the institute's gatherings, I can attest first hand to the fact that Sonnenfeld is a completely unique figure in the business world—combining top academic expertise in leadership management with personal relationships with a vast array of CEOs and government leaders around the world - further combined with a highly refined understanding of politics, all packaged together with very substantial media savvy. Professor Sonnenfeld has also had many personal interactions with Trump over the course of Trump's business and political career, giving him a vantage point on the president's style no one else can occupy.  

Sonnenfeld entered Trump's orbit as a media sparring partner when the TV show The Apprentice began. He believed the show was giving young viewers an horrendously inaccurate view of what real leadership is about. But Trump warmed to Sonnenfeld to the point that he offered him the presidency of Trump University. Very wisely, Sonnenfeld declined the offer. While Sonnenfeld admits to being charmed by Trump personally, he has become a significant organizer of business opposition to Trump's policy initiatives. Yet the book reads very objectively about how Trump returns to certain strategems over and over again regardless of context, and by no means a set of policy rebuttals.

A recent column in the Daily Beast labeled Trump "a dangerous lunatic moron," devoid of any attributes that would indicate a rational thought process behind his actions. This is not an uncommon way of viewing the president. But as Sonnenfeld argues, dismissing Trump's strategic acumen is a serious mistake.  

As the title indicates, Sonnenfeld and Tian's book identifies ten "commandments"—strategies to which Trump returns over and over again regardless of context. Three are worth highlighting here.

First, the real art of Trump's deal is to always start with a punch in the face, where other leaders would build trust. Trump always stakes out an outlandish position to disorient his opponent right from the start. His approach to Europe on Greenland was a good example of that tactic. Ultimately, he arrives at a deal that gives him a big win, just because it is significantly less draconian than what he originally staked out.  

Second is what Sonnenfeld and Tian call "the sleeper effect": repeating any assertion endlessly, regardless of whether it is true—and with Trump statements are more likely false than not—and with such confidence and certainty that over time it is taken as truth. Administration-friendly media sources often aid and abet Trump's efforts in this regard by repeatedly echoing those same assertions, which is all part of the Trump strategy. 

Third is Trump's "I alone can fix it" syndrome. Constantly speaking of himself and all his accomplishments in grandiose terms, giving all things Trump some heroic validation, requires a constant flow of superlatives for all that he stands for. And, of course, he feels he must literally coat in gold every space he inhabits.  

Sonnenfeld and Tian make clear that the ten-part playbook is one that Trump constantly returns to. Yet, so much of the body politic is either surprised by Trump's lying outrageousness, as if each new instance is unexpected in some way, or just shrugs. The president has worn down all sensibilities that might generate more reaction to his repetitive behaviors. 

No one but Trump could embody the entirety of this playbook; it requires a very unique combination of character attributes and flaws that add up to a very disturbed mental state, one which evidences the psychological profile of a complete sociopathic egomaniac. However, that is ground to be covered by a psychiatry professor, not the nation's leading academic on leadership.

The next time Trump makes a seemingly erratic, random demand—like the conquest of Greenland or the renaming of Penn Station—to decode what lies behind the seeming madness this book is a must read. 

Tom Rogers is executive chairman of Claigrid, Inc. (the cloud AI grid company), an editor-at-large for Newsweek, the founder of CNBC and a CNBC contributor. He also established MSNBC, is the former CEO of TiVo, a member of Keep Our Republic (an organization dedicated to preserving the nation's democracy). He is also a member of the American Bar Association Task Force on Democracy.

The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.

https://www.newsweek.com/the-method-behind-trumps-madness-opinion-11492150