Would You Give This CEO the Keys to Your Business?
Evaluating leadership through the lens of basic business standards.
Below are 12 documented actions taken by a leader in a position of overseeing the organization, framed exactly as they would appear in a corporate performance review. Read through them as if they were happening at your own company and ask yourself: If this were your business, would you renew this person's contract?
1. Ignoring the Corporate Bylaws
The Hypothetical: Your manager decides that the company’s founding legal charter—the document that limits his power and protects the rights of the owners—should be "terminated" or ignored because it is preventing him from overturning a decision made by the Board of Directors.
The reality: In December 2022, Donald Trump called for the "termination" of parts of the Constitution to allow for his reinstatement as president, claiming that "massive fraud" justified throwing out the nation's foundational legal document. https://www.rev.com/transcripts/former-president-trump-calls-for-termination-of-the-u-s-constitution-transcript
2. The "Shadow Board"
The Hypothetical: You hire a manager to run your most sensitive division. Instead of listening to the experts you paid to work there, the manager secretly takes orders from three of his golfing buddies who don't even work for the company. These friends have no experience, yet they are allowed to make final decisions on billion-dollar contracts and personnel behind the scenes.
The reality: For years, three members of the Mar-a-Lago club secretly steered the Department of Veterans Affairs. They were given the power to review personnel decisions and multi-billion dollar policy changes through private email chains, bypassing the official chain of command.
3. Extorting the Vendor
The Hypothetical: Your company relies on a critical partner for security. The manager tells that partner that if they want their next shipment of supplies, they first have to "do him a favor" and dig up dirt on the person running against him for his job. He effectively holds the company’s safety hostage for his own personal career gain.
The reality: The first impeachment inquiry centered on a phone call where military aid to Ukraine was withheld while the president requested an investigation into his political rival, Joe Biden.
*citing pages 12 and page 98
4. Exposing Trade Secrets
The Hypothetical: The manager invites a representative from a major competitor into his private office and casually shows them top-secret photos of a new prototype—photos provided by a different partner who specifically said not to share them. This breach of trust makes your partners refuse to share sensitive information with your company in the future.
The reality: In 2017, during an Oval Office meeting, the president revealed highly classified intelligence regarding an ISIS plot to the Russian foreign minister—info that had been provided by a close ally under strict confidentiality.
5. Raiding the Benefits
The Hypothetical: You find out your employee health insurance premiums are rising and 401(k) matches are being cut. It turns out the person you hired to run the show diverted those funds to pay for a construction project you and the Board had already rejected—raiding your staff's retirement and family benefits to pay for a vanity project.
The reality: Over $3.6 billion was diverted from military construction projects, including funds for military schools and family housing, to fund border wall projects that Congress had not authorized.
*citing page 12
6. The Ego Relocation
The Hypothetical: Your company is based in a city where all your skilled workers live. The manager you hired decides to move the whole operation to a remote town five hours away—not because it’s better for the business, but because the manager owns land there and wants to boost their own property value.
The reality: The relocation of USDA research agencies from D.C. to Kansas City was criticized as a "brain drain" that cost the government years of expertise, reportedly to sideline researchers whose data didn't align with administration goals.
https://farmpolicynews.illinois.edu/2026/05/76-of-usda-researchers-tell-union-they-wont-relocate/
7. Sabotaging the Deliveries
The Hypothetical: Your team is working overtime to get orders out, but the manager tells the shipping department to park the trucks and turn off the sorting machines. It turns out they want to slow down your company’s deliveries so a competitor’s business can take your clients during the rush.
The reality: In 2020, the USPS Inspector General confirmed that operational changes implemented by Postmaster General, Louis DeJoy, led to a massive spike in delayed mail, which occurred just as mail-in voting reached record levels.
https://www.uspsoig.gov/reports/audit-reports/operational-changes-mail-delivery
8. The "Quality Control" Purge
The Hypothetical: Your company’s safety team is made up of independent university professors who verify your products are safe. The manager you hired fires all of them and replaces them with the very people who sell you the chemicals. Now, your "Safety Board" is run by the people who have a financial interest in telling you that everything is fine, even if it's not.
The reality: In 2017, the administration purged independent academic scientists from the EPA’s Science Advisory Board. They implemented a new rule: if you received an EPA research grant (the hallmark of an independent expert), you were banned—but if you worked for a chemical or oil company, you were allowed to stay.
https://climate.law.columbia.edu/content/epa-scientific-advisory-board-members-dismissed
9. The Hostile Takeover
The Hypothetical: After the Board of Directors votes to replace the manager, he organizes a rally of disgruntled workers. He tells them the vote was "stolen" and encourages them to march on the headquarters while the Board is meeting. When the mob breaks in and threatens the Board members, the manager watches it on TV for hours and refuses to call security to stop the violence.
The reality: On January 6th, 2021, a mob stormed the U.S. Capitol following a speech by the president. Despite multiple pleas from advisors, the president waited 187 minutes before telling the rioters to go home.
*citing paragraphs 1, 2,3, 5
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-J6-REPORT/html-submitted/ch7.html
10. Interfering with the Auditors
The Hypothetical: When the company’s Internal Audit team starts looking into the manager’s conduct, he calls the Lead Auditor into his office and demands "loyalty." When the auditor refuses to stop the investigation, the manager fires him and then spends months publicly calling the entire audit team "crooked" to turn the staff against them.
The reality: After demanding "loyalty" from FBI Director James Comey and asking him to drop an investigation into an advisor, the president fired him. He then engaged in a years-long campaign to discredit the FBI and DOJ.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dismissal_of_James_Comey
11. The "Self-Dealing" Lease
The Hypothetical: The manager forces the company to rent luxury office space from a building he personally owns. Even though the rates are inflated and there are better options, he uses your company’s budget to pay himself rent every month, pocketing millions in profit from the very organization he is supposed to be serving.
The reality: Throughout his term, government officials and Secret Service details stayed at Trump-owned properties, resulting in millions of taxpayer dollars flowing directly into the President’s private businesses.
12. The "Quick Fix" Directives
The Hypothetical: Your facility is facing a complex technical problem. Instead of listening to the experts who run the equipment, the manager walks in and demands a dangerous or impossible "quick fix" because they have a "feeling" it will work—and then threatens to fire anyone who doesn't take the idea seriously.
The reality: Officials confirmed the president floated using nuclear weapons to stop hurricanes and suggested "injecting disinfectant" or using "UV light inside the body" to treat viruses during live televised briefings.
The record of Donald J. Trump isn't just a political debate; it is a management crisis that has already played out in real-time. In the private sector, any leader who ignores the company bylaws, raids the budget for personal projects, and encourages a hostile takeover would be removed immediately to protect the organization’s future. As citizens, we must hold our public servants to at least the same minimum standards we would demand from a manager running our own company. If you wouldn't trust this 'CEO' with your own business, you cannot justify leaving him in charge of our country.
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Note: This article was drafted with the assistance of AI, based on specific historical data and research prompts provided by the author to ensure factual accuracy. Author cited sources.
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