In a candid discussion regarding the mechanics of President Donald Trump’s hold on power, longtime Yale leadership scholar (and regular Fortune contributor) Jeffrey Sonnenfeld warned the president’s chaotic style is often mistaken for incompetence when it is actually a calculated strategy. Speaking on the Raging Moderates podcast with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov, Sonnenfeld laid out the thesis of his new book, Trump’s Ten Commandments, while explaining Trump is “dumb as a fox,” and business leaders underestimate him at their peril.
Sonnenfeld, who frequently convenes top CEOs to discuss civic engagement for Yale’s Chief Executive Leadership Institute, pushed back against the notion that Trump’s controversial behavior is impulsive. “Just because Trump often appears convincingly ignorant doesn’t mean he’s stupid,” Sonnenfeld said. “He’s dumb as a fox. He has incredible street savvy.”
“We know from mythology and science across centuries and cultures that even foxes can get outfoxed on occasion,” Sonnenfeld told Fortune, noting he’s often been a critic of Trump, but has praised him on occasion as well. He claimed he knows what he’s talking about, since he’s had more experience with Trump than anybody in the current White House and more than anyone in his first term, excepting family members. Sonnenfeld is an influential leadership whisperer, with long stints at both Harvard and Yale, who has known Trump for years, and was one of the first to predict he would run for president. He also claims he’s had dozens of in-person conversations and calls with Trump. For instance, he said that Trump often checked in with him during his first campaign, even though Trump knew Sonnenfeld was supporting Hillary Clinton.
One of Trump’s most effective tactics is a distraction device Sonnenfeld calls “the wall of sound.” Drawing a comparison to 1960s pop-rock record producer Phil Spector and his technique of layering instruments to create an overwhelming sonic experience, Sonnenfeld explained Trump keeps “so many instruments blaring at once” it disorients the public. Whether it is threats to annex Greenland or attacks on Venezuela, Sonnenfeld said he has come to see these as “deliberate strategic devices” designed to shift the conversation away from damaging domestic issues, for instance, millions losing their health care insurance or Trump’s appearance in the Jeffrey Epstein files.
Without even referencing Spector’s own disgrace—the record producer died in prison in 2021, after being convicted of murder—Sonnenfeld noted Trump’s “wall of sound” has taken a darker turn recently. Of course, this was a reference to Trump’s posting of a racist AI-generated video regarding Barack and Michelle Obama. Sonnenfeld characterized these provocations not as dog whistles, but as “screaming racial venom,” utilized because Trump needed to change the subject, likely from fresh revelations in the Epstein files. “Using race is always a last resort of scoundrels and he’s not above that,” Sonnenfeld stated.
Inside the commandments
Sonnenfeld told Fortune that although Trump is a well-covered figure, with seemingly dozens of books being written about him every week, most “whisper the gossip of disenchanted insiders and repeat the laments of political historians.” This book is intended to provide actionable insight into Trump’s next moves, not only as the first one written by a leadership scholar, and the only one written by someone who has known Trump personally and studied his leadership devices for a quarter-century.
Sonnenfeld told Galloway and Tarlov a clear example of these “commandments” is the unfolding scandal involving Commerce Secretary nominee Howard Lutnick, who is fielding new questions from revelations he lied about a longer relationship with Epstein after 2005 than previously known. When asked how a leader like Trump handles such a liability, Sonnenfeld noted “Trump doesn’t ever apologize,” contrasting him with past politicians who resigned out of shame.
However, Sonnenfeld predicted Lutnick’s utility might be expiring, explaining he hears from CEOs behind the scenes Lutnick has a declining reputation, despite a long career on Wall Street. One of Trump’s commandments, Sonnenfeld added, is he “moves away from losers,” he may eventually cut Lutnick loose, not out of ethical obligation, but because he has become a liability.
This book, Sonnenfeld told Fortune, will be the only one “that decodes what people wrongly think is Trump’s madness, to reveal the pattern behind what he does and suggest actions to anticipate and respond to his maneuvers.”
A need for collective CEO action
Despite the efficacy of Trump’s tactics, Sonnenfeld argued on the podcast the business community holds the key to breaking his momentum through “collective action—that’s how you take down a bully”. He cited the business exodus following the 2017 Charlottesville protests as proof that unified corporate resistance can work. There’s just a problem: fear, he said.
When I talk to CEOs about taking a stand right now, they’re afraid,” Sonnenfeld said. After all, he pointed, Trump has attacked JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, “the most feared and revered” finance leader in the world. He’s also gone after Brian Moynihan of Bank of America, David Solomon of Goldman Sachs, and beyond finance, all-American brands including Coca-Cola, Delta, and Harley-Davidson, the iconic brand whose very logo is the bald eagle. These fights served as a “cautionary tale” to CEOs, Sonnenfeld added: “You can’t act alone.”
Sonnenfeld emphasized that for CEOs to find their courage, other pillars of society must step up first. “Where are the clergy?” he asked, noting the silence of religious leaders, trade unions, and professional associations compared to the civil rights era.
Ultimately, Sonnenfeld warned stakeholders against passivity. “They’re sitting home eating their steak, watching TV and scrolling, expecting Trump’s imminent demise—and they’re wrong,” he said.
Business leaders, he added, can’t just argue their patriotism or personal values or ethics are at stake, because they are required to act in the interests of shareholders.
“Unless they’re one of those handful of oligarchs, they’re a custodian of other people’s resources,” said Sonnenfeld, citing the writings of the great sociologist Alexis de Toqueville, who visited the U.S. in the early 1800s and wondered about why American law functioned so well.
In order for the laws to work, de Toqueville said, there needed to be trust in the community, including in leaders of business and other functions, who serve to “certify the truth.” This was called “social capital” by de Toqueville. “These people are the pillars. They are the most respected. Sadly, legislators, federal, state, local, the media, academia, clergy have all lost standing in American society. Business leaders are still ascendant.” But they need to understand what they’re up against.
[This report has been updated to correct that Phil Spector was convicted of murder, but not of his wife.]
