There Will Be Grift: Jeffrey Sonnenfeld Reveals Trump’s 'Mad King' Playbook
The Lincoln Project
The Lincoln Project
4.6 • 9.1K Ratings
🗓️ 31 March 2026
⏱️ 48 minutes
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Summary
Trump isn’t impulsive. He’s not “just winging it.” According to Jeffrey Sonnenfeld and his new book Trump's Ten Commandments: Strategic Lessons from the Trump Leadership Toolbox, Donald Trump operates on a repeatable, deliberate playbook—ten core behaviors he’s used for decades. What looks like chaos is actually strategy. What feels like a meltdown is often the move itself. In this episode, Rick Wilson and Yale Business School Professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld break down Trump’s pattern of power: the same tactics, the same outcomes, over and over again. Once you see the playbook, you can’t unsee it.
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Jeffrey Sonnenfeld is on X at @JeffSonnenfeld, and his new book, ,’Trump's Ten Commandments: Strategic Lessons from the Trump Leadership Toolbox,’ is available now, wherever fine books are sold.
Rick Wilson is on X at @TheRickWilson, on Bluesky at @TheRickWilson.bsky.social, and you can check out Rick's Substack at therickwilson.substack.com. You can check out more of LP's work at www.lincolnproject.us and on X at @ProjectLincoln.
#Trump #TrumpStrategy #JeffreySonnenfeld #TrumpPlaybook #PoliticalAnalysis #LincolnProject #RickWilson #TrumpTactics #BreakingNews #USPolitics #Election2026 #Trump2026 #MAGA #PoliticalPodcast #NewsAnalysis #CurrentEvents #TrumpChaos #PoliticalStrategy
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I've been quite critical of him. |
| 0:02.2 | And weirdly, so far, knock on wood, I haven't gotten the IRS on it. |
| 0:05.9 | And the Justice Department hasn't come by just yet. |
| 0:07.8 | But, Rick, thanks to you, this could be the end. |
| 0:09.6 | You know what? |
| 0:11.0 | I'm like the golden touch for this stuff. |
| 0:13.3 | You're set. |
| 0:15.2 | Your task will not be an easy one. |
| 0:17.8 | Your enemy is well-trained, well-equ equipped, and battlehardt. There is not a liberal |
| 0:22.7 | America and a conservative America. There is the United States of America. Good night and good luck. |
| 0:32.4 | Hey everybody. Welcome back to the Lincoln Project Podcast. I am your host, Rick Wilson. As always, |
| 0:36.4 | we're delighted you joined us today. And folks, if you're watching on YouTube or any other platform, do us a big favor. |
| 0:41.2 | Click the like, follow. One of those buttons. You know the algorithm demands that we seek |
| 0:45.5 | out approval from you clicking like and follow. So please do so. I'm delighted to be |
| 0:51.2 | joined today by Jeffrey Sondonfeld. Jeffrey is a professor of Yale. |
| 0:55.5 | He is the founder of the Chief Executive Leadership Institute, which brings together CEOs from |
| 1:00.3 | around the country. And he is one of the smartest guys in understanding American corporate |
| 1:06.4 | life and business. And I'm so thrilled to have him with us today because he's got a great new book |
| 1:11.7 | coming out. It's called Trump's Ten Commandments. What this book does is breaks down Donald Trump's |
| 1:17.4 | style of leadership. And while you may not approve of the style of leadership that Trump exhibits, |
| 1:24.4 | the strategies and tactics he uses are important for us to understand. So I'm |
| 1:29.1 | delighted you could join us today, Jeffrey. Tell us about how you came to write this book. |
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