Who Is Really Running the Federal Government? Hint, It’s Not Donald Trump

For a president who likes command and control, Donald Trump certainly says “I don’t know” a lot when asked questions about what is going on in the federal government he supposedly leads. His latest “I don’t know” came on July 22 in response to a reporter’s question about whether he “support(ed) the DOJ seeking an interview with Ghislaine Maxwell,” the former girlfriend of the notorious Jeffrey Epstein.

“I don’t know anything about it. They’re gonna what? Meet her?” said Trump. Trying to help out, the befuddled president, the reporter explained, “The deputy attorney general has reached out to Ghislaine Maxwell’s attorney, asking for an interview.”

Trump repeated, “Yeah, I don’t know about it, but I think it would be something—sounds appropriate to do, yeah.” Asked whether Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche should conduct the interview, the president again confessed his ignorance. “He’s a very talented person, he’s very smart. I didn’t know he was going to do it, I don’t follow it too much, it’s sort of a witch hunt.”

Before examining some of Trump’s other “I don’t knows,” and what they tell us about whether the president is really running the government, let’s recall the many occasions on which he accused former President Joe Biden of not being in charge.

For example, in June, Trump said of Biden, "He didn't have much of an idea what was going on. He shouldn't be ... I mean, essentially, whoever used the autopen was the president. And that is wrong. It's illegal, it's so bad, and then it's so disrespectful to our country," Trump said.

As ABC News reports, “Shortly after Trump directed the Justice Department to investigate the circumstances surrounding Biden's supposed execution of numerous executive actions during his final years in office."

In June 2024, at the time Biden dropped out of the presidential race, Trump said, “All those around him, including his Doctor and the Media, knew that he wasn’t capable of being President, and he wasn’t.”

And in March of that year, Trump offered this assessment of his predecessor. “He has no clue, like with the documents hoax. How about that? He’s not competent to stand trial, but he’s allowed to be the president.”

No clue? For a president who so frequently says he doesn’t know about things the government is doing, no clue might be an apt description.

Recall that during the 2024 campaign, “I don’t know anything about it” was his standard answer when he was asked about Project 2025. On one occasion, he explained, "I know nothing about Project 2025. I have no idea who is behind it. I disagree with some of the things they're saying, and some of the things they're saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal. Anything they do, I wish them luck, but I have nothing to do with them."

"I don't know anything about it. I don't want to know anything about it," could have been his campaign slogan.

But the “I don’t knows” did not end when the campaign ended and Trump began his second term.

In May, NBC’s Kristen Welker asked the president whether people subject to deportation had a constitutionally protected right to due process of law. Trump’s reply had a familiar ring to it. “I don’t know. I’m not, I’m not a lawyer. I don’t know,” he said.

Welker pressed the question, “Do you need to uphold the Constitution of the United States as president?” “I don’t know,” Trump replied. “I have to respond by saying, again, I have brilliant lawyers that work for me, and they are going to obviously follow what the Supreme Court said.”

The president simply doesn’t understand his legal obligations. That was made clear in May as well.

During an Oval Office press availability, he was asked, “Is the administration sending migrants to Libya?” Given the importance of immigration and deportation policy to his administration, one might have thought this would be an easy question.

Not for the president. “I don’t know,” he responded. “You’ll have to ask the Department of Homeland Security.”

On May 7, Trump was asked about Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s discussion of possible tariff exemptions for certain consumer goods. Tariffs are another key area of administration policy.

But no change.

“I don’t know, I’ll think about it,” the president said. “I don’t know. I really don’t.”

And recently, when asked, “Why do you think your supporters in particular have been so interested in the Epstein story?” The president again professed ignorance.

“I don't understand…. I don't understand it.”

As MSNBC’s Steve Benen has rightly observed, “Most objective observers would probably agree that if Joe Biden repeatedly said, ‘I don’t know’ in response to simple questions about his own administration, it would be front-page news.”

Since the president returned to the White House, it has not been.

Nor has the press paid much attention to how little time President Trump spends at work. A website that tracks his golfing habits reports that as of July 25, he “has golfed 43 days out of 187 days since returning to office (23.0% of the presidency spent golfing).”

He spent eight of April’s 30 days on the golf course and eight of May’s 31 days there as well.

Even when he is in the White House, the president devotes enormous amounts of time to what is politely referred to as “executive time.” During that time, he is not in the Oval Office or doing official business.

In his first term, such executive time meant that he spent “his mornings in the residence, watching TV, reading the papers, and responding to what he sees and reads by phoning aides, members of Congress, friends, administration officials, and informal advisers.”

In 2019, Newsweek explained that “Trump Spends Two-Thirds of his Time as President Doing Nothing in Particular.” With this schedule, it is no wonder that the president appears to be unfamiliar with his policies, constitutional duties, and the actions of his subordinates on his behalf.

Delegation is one thing; indifference is another.

What the columnist Steve Chapman wrote early in the president’s first term remains true today. “Much of Trump's cluelessness about issues,” Chapman argued, “stems from his refusal to make more than a minimal effort at his job…. “

Trump, Chapman continued, “is not merely too lazy to learn; he's too lazy to notice there is anything others know that he might need to. His is indolence on an epic scale.”

Democratic governments can work well when power is delegated by political leaders who remain attentive and accountable. But a leader’s laziness, indifference, and ignorance are a toxic brew in any government, but especially in one as powerful as our own, and where the people entrust much of that power to the president.

Austin Sarat is the William Nelson Cromwell professor of jurisprudence and political science at Amherst College.