Not Knowing What We Don’t Know, and Not Caring

Donald Rumsfeld, who served two terms as Defense Secretary under two Presidents, is famous for this 2002 quote:

“…as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don't know we don't know. And if one looks throughout the history of our country and other free countries, it is the latter category that tend to be the difficult ones.”

It would be interesting to ask Mr. Rumsfeld what he thinks about voters in America in 2016. They elected as their President a man who seems not to care that he does not know what he does not know. Further, I wonder what he thinks about this President-elect not seeming to grasp the fact that he will be a very busy man for the next four years. So busy that he will not actually have the time for other roles such as Executive Producer of a television show (although the process to choose his Secretary of State seems to have all the hallmark features of a reality show.)

As the soon-to-be commander-in-chief, he already has shown a marked disinterest in taking his presidential daily briefings. One is reminded of the events in the month before 9/11. Very specific information contained in an uncharacteristically lengthy briefing was basically ignored by a similarly disinterested commander-in-chief.

With his actions and statements so far, it seems to me that Donald Trump will be content to merely “wing it” during his term(s) in office as President. He apparently has become convinced that the job, as it has been looked upon up to now, is obsolete- part of the Washington establishment tradition that needs to be cast aside. His perceived “white knight” status, as an outsider that is exempt from the usual rules, will allow him to continue as a businessman having an interesting (and financially lucrative) hobby as President of the United States. After all, how hard can it be?  Spending a little time each morning tweeting out his latest edicts and claims of his latest accomplishments is seemingly all it takes.

D. Norman