As among the most prominent public critics of Donald Trump’s perilous leadership methods, we offer a crucial warning that is being overlooked amid the fury over his racial provocations. Many may recoil at the President’s indefensible sharing of a blatantly racist, AI-generated video portraying Barack and Michelle Obama as apes—during Black History Month, no less—dismissing it as a disgraceful racist error made in a fit of late-night anger. The White House’s initial, unconvincing defense attempted to pin the racist post on an unnamed, unaccountable “staffer” who was supposedly accessing Trump’s personal social media account at the precise moment Trump was also active on it.

Certainly, this degrading bigotry must be confronted, especially as it followed incidents where armed federal agents stormed a hotel room to detain an unarmed Black journalist, and the National Park Service in Philadelphia. The pattern is unmistakable, encompassing the false birther conspiracy theories targeting President Obama, his description of African nations as “s-hole” countries, new restrictions on visas for Black Africans, and baseless, defamatory campaign claims that Haitian immigrants were consuming neighbors’ pets. It is also no accident that the Administration is now seizing the 2020 Georgia from predominantly Black voting districts.

These actions go beyond using repugnant, subtle racial dog whistles in cynically coded terms; they are about broadcasting overtly bigoted stereotypes at maximum volume. However, this post also signifies something more than racism alone. It exposes a broader Trumpian strategy: diverting public conversation away from subjects where his public support is waning, such as inflation and living costs, public opposition to deadly secret police ICE raids, or queries about his Administration’s management of the Epstein files, which mention Trump .

This incident is not an accidental misstep but typifies Trump’s method of deliberately generating and piling controversy upon controversy in a continuous, endless loop of diversion—a favored, recurrent tactic he employs repeatedly with significant effect.

As explained in our new book, , published and distributed by , this is Trump’s “Wall of Sound” method in action—inspired by Phil Spector’s famous music production style, defined by a massive, dominant group of musicians saturating the entire audio range to drown out all other sound. Trump’s Perpetual Distraction Machine is a constantly churning generator of fresh headlines, deliberately inflammatory remarks, and abrupt actions crafted to overpower, fragment, and redirect public focus—particularly when he aims to steer attention from unfavorable developments.

Trump’s method, however, diverges from that of typical leaders. Most traditional figures would attempt to alter the public narrative by highlighting positive news and setting constructive examples. Trump, conversely, habitually adds more controversy and negative news atop existing problems. While it frequently seems emotionally driven and impulsive, this can be wholly premeditated and purposeful, serving as a diversionary maneuver to move focus from difficult news periods and reset the conversation on topics he wishes to avoid, thereby evading accountability and substantive discussion. 

This is an element Trump’s critics frequently misread. For a person who utters as many rash, politically incorrect statements as Trump does, often seeming off-the-cuff, it is paradoxical how thoroughly deliberate many of his most contentious remarks and deeds actually are. When a harmful news cycle persists, Trump is inclined to deliberately and consciously launch a new, even more sensational headline of his own creation—a distraction that muddles media concentration and splits his opponents’ efforts.

Virtually no other leader matches Trump’s unique propensity for intentionally seeking controversy. He is inclined to deliberately initiate conflicts that others would avoid, even those that cause him real harm. Yet for Trump, who perceives every scenario as an opportunity for exploitation and manipulation, there is no better tool than battling a foe he himself provoked, even if it means inflicting self-damage to mobilize his base and foster the critical “us versus them” dynamic essential to his leadership.

The cumulative impact of Trump’s Perpetual Distraction Machine bewilders his adversaries, who regularly struggle to counter an overwhelming barrage of provocations or to successfully highlight Trump’s errors. Furthermore, with Trump perpetually on the offensive, opposing him on any single issue appears pointless, as he is omnipresent, involved in all matters simultaneously. The resulting reverberations create an illusion of a force greater than he actually represents.

Observe how Trump’s racist Obama post has redirected focus during a period when his approval ratings are sinking to record lows, pulling public examination away from matters like ineffective promises on affordability, a growingly unpopular and stalled involvement in Venezuela under the false guise of restoring democracy, and the fading of his extravagant Greenland ambitions amid united allied disapproval. Consequently, Trump shifted to unsuccessful attempts to imprison perceived political foes like the Federal Reserve chairman and special prosecutor Jack Smith or former FBI director James Comey, his renewed demands for “Republicans to elections” through the seizure of repeatedly audited and certified 2020 election despite losing 64 court cases, and alleged efforts to have a major New York/New Jersey traffic tunnel named after himself in exchange for releasing its ongoing Congressional funding.

However abhorrent the racist Obama post was, the more significant tale is the mechanism and rationale behind Trump’s repeated and escalating ability to evade consequences. Unless his opponents grasp the hazardous strategy underlying his playbook, they will continue to lose the narrative battle to the Perpetual Distraction Machine’s relentless stream of diversions and misleading tactics.

Jeffrey Sonnenfeld is the Lester Crown Professor in the Practice of Management at the Yale School of Management. Steven Tian is the Research Director for the Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute. Their new book, “Trump’s Ten Commandments,” is published by Worth Books/Simon & Schuster.