Ten Commandments of Trump + A Conversation With Jeffrey Sonnenfeld
February 16, 2026
1 hr 7 min
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253 of 272
February 16, 2026
Ten Commandments of Trump + A Conversation With Jeffrey Sonnenfeld
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Michael Cohen Episodes Around February 16, 2026
Episode 253 of 272 — walk the feed in the order it was published.
Ten Commandments of Trump + A Conversation With Jeffrey Sonnenfeld
Summary
Today on Mea Culpa, I sit down with Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, senior associate dean at Yale School of Management, founder of the Chief Executive Leadership Institute, and author of the forthcoming book Trump’s Ten Commandments, to examine Donald Trump’s leadership style through the lens of corporate power and institutional behavior. An early critic dating back to The Apprentice, Sonnenfeld draws on decades of research on CEOs and crisis leadership, paired with my firsthand experience with Trump, to break down how he governs through intimidation, retaliation, and has an inability to accept loss. We explore why appeasement by universities, corporations, and civic institutions only accelerates democratic erosion, the risks of normalizing coercion, and whether collective resistance remains one of the most effective counterweights to abuse of power.
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