The buck stops somewhere else: A look at Trump’s tendency to avoid blame when things go awry

Photo: Former President Harry S. Truman sits at the desk in a reproduction of the President’s office in the Harry S. Truman Library. “The Buck Stops Here” sign is on the desk – July 1959. Photo credit: Harry S. Truman Library / NARA. Article by Will Weissert. AP News – August 15, 2026.

WASHINGTON (AP) — It is among the most famous phrases in presidential history: “The buck stops here.” Except with President Donald Trump, it almost never does. Concerns about a weak economy and still-high inflation? His predecessor, Joe Biden, saddled him with that, he says, even though the Democrat has been out of office for 18-plus months and despite Trump once promising an immediate turnaround. The problem-plagued revamp of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool? That was marred by vandalism, the Republican president insists, even though the office of a prosecutor he put in the job has said the damage was due to shoddy workmanship. […]

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