By Steve Adubato Ph.D.

In my new book, Lessons in Leadership, I wrote that great leaders can’t lead others until the learn to lead themselves. Being disciplined, being prudent, being thoughtful and, frankly, keeping one’s control, are the biggest challenges facing leaders today. Leaders don’t have the luxury to simply lash back at others when they feel attacked and respond with the “he/she did it first” mentality. That’s childish and immature.

It’s not okay when our kids do it. It’s not okay for the head of a corporation, a school, or any organization to do it. And clearly it’s not even remotely acceptable for the President of the United States and the alleged "leader of the free world.” Yet that’s exactly what President Trump continues to do in his online barrage of tweets and insults every time he feels aggrieved.

Trump is a professional victim. He’s ridiculously thin-skinned. His vicious and personal assault on MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski attacking her personal appearance when she was with Trump several months in Mar-a-Lago is over the line. Who does that? Who says these off the wall and sick things? Clearly not a grounded, mature confident leader. President Trump argues that he’s so tough but what he did on twitter this week is anything but tough. It’s incredibly weak, not to mention dangerous – it’s not even what mediocre leaders do.

Finally, what lessons for our children are coming from the oval office? This behavior is a total embarrassment and none of us would accept this from our own children. Trump does not have the ability to simply apologize and acknowledge his mistake. As usual he doubles down and attacks more. President Trump’s twitter rage against Mika’s personal appearance is a classic lesson in how not to lead. As I said in my book, Lessons in Leadership, l never thought Donald Trump had the emotional intelligence or ability to be a great leader as President. But even I never thought it would get this bad.

What impact do you think President Trump’s twitter rage has on his ability to lead our nation and help solve our many problems? Write to me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.