In the 19th century, as the game of poker became more popular and cheating more widespread, players decided to rotate the deal around the table. A marker, often a knife with a handle made of buck’s horn, was set before each dealer, who then “passed the buck” — and responsibility for an honest shuffle — to the player to his left.
In 1945, while working in a reformatory in El Reno, Oklahoma, U.S. Marshal Fred Canfil saw a sign that said “The Buck Stops Here” and sent it to President Harry Truman, with the inscription, “I’m from Missouri” on the reverse side. Truman, born and bred in the “Show Me” State, often kept the sign on his desk at the White House.
It’s a safe bet that “The Buck Stops Here” is not displayed anywhere in President Donald Trump’s White House. Passing the buck for everything that goes wrong — while taking credit for good news — is standard operating procedure there.
Trump played the blame game throughout his first term. Democrats, he claimed, had boosted the death toll in Puerto Rico from Hurricane Maria “to make me look as bad as possible.” His administration “did a great job” handling COVID-19. “If you take the blue states out,” he declared, in one of many non-sequiturs, “we are at a level [of fatalities] I don’t think anybody in the world would be at.” Asked about inadequate testing capacity, Trump responded, “I don’t take any responsibility at all.” In contrast, he emphasized that the World Health Organization “severely mismanaged” the pandemic, causing “much death.”
After Trump lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden — in which he avoided any criticism for losing by claiming that he actually won — he blamed his civil and criminal trials and tribulations on partisan prosecutors and judges, and a “weaponized” Department of Justice.
In January 2025, Trump blamed immigration for a deadly New Year’s attack on pedestrians in New Orleans, even though the perpetrator was a U.S. citizen born in Texas.
“Governor Gavin Newscum,” he declared, was “to blame” for California’s wildfires and should resign or be fired. And the disaster would not have occurred if “they maintained their forests.” Trump did not mention that 58 percent of forested land in the state is owned by the federal government, whereas California owns only 3 percent, and private individuals, companies and indigenous people control the rest. Or that California has for years thinned out forests and shrub lands and used controlled fires to clear away brush and dried wood.
“On top of it all,” Trump added, “no water for fire hydrants, no firefighting planes.” In fact, fierce Santa Ana winds and smoke prevented planes from flying. Hydrants, which are not designed to fight wildfires, went dry because they couldn’t refill fast enough.
Nor did Trump acknowledge that L.A. a record amount of water on hand during the wildfires, thus making his criticism of Newsom for refusing to sign “a restoration declaration” transferring water from northern to southern California because he prioritized a small endangered fish species both irrelevant and false.
At the end of January, Trump directed the Army Corps of Engineers to release billions of gallons of water from reservoirs in Central California and declared “Victory! I only wish they had listened to me six years ago.” Fearing flooding at the Kaweah and Tule rivers and concerned the action would reduce the supply of water available for irrigation during the driest months of the year, local authorities persuaded the Corps not to release “the maximum amount” mandated in the president’s executive order. It is unlikely that any of the water reached L.A., some 200 miles south.
Around the same time, Trump acknowledged he did not know what caused the collision of a jet and a military helicopter over the Potomac River in Washington D.C., but had “very strong opinions and ideas.” He blamed the crash, which killed 67 people, on Obama and Biden administration orders to the Federal Aviation Authority to implement diversity, equity and inclusion criteria in hiring air traffic controllers.
Asked why he was making this claim before any investigation had even started, the president replied, “I have common sense, okay, and unfortunately a lot of people don’t.” Trump also deemed DEI partly responsible for the Federal Reserve’s failure to reduce inflation and the collapse of the Key Bridge in Baltimore; it is, he subsequently said, “just one reason why our country WAS going to hell!!!”
The Obama FAA, Trump asserted, “actually came out with a directive, too white.” And Biden “terminated” standards that “seek the opposite of brainpower and psychological quality.” Trump maintained, also falsely, that he had changed the standards from “mediocre at best … to extraordinary.”
The FAA statement about employment opportunities for disabled Americans was drafted in 2013 and remained on its website, unrevised, throughout Trump’s first term. Moreover, the FAA emphasized that, like all other applicants, disabled candidates for air traffic controller positions had to pass skills assessments, medical assessments and receive security clearances.
Playing the blame game often results in bad policies and is not politically advantageous. That said, Trump clearly believes that his victory in November showed that Americans want him to do things his way. Unless and until they send him a different message — and maybe not even then, since blaming and bragging are integral to his personality and character — Trump is likely to do everything he can to ensure that the buck doesn’t stop at his White House.
Glenn C. Altschuler is the Thomas and Dorothy Litwin Emeritus Professor of American Studies at Cornell University.
