--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: But this sense of duty and virtue…" description: "\"“But this sense of duty and virtue involved a complicated calculation about your positive effect on the White House versus its negative effect on you. ..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c2a/michael-wolff-423_white-house_but-this-sense-of-duty-and-virtue-involv_1578271.jpg" --- # But this sense of duty and virtue involved a complicated… ![“But this sense of duty and virtue involved a complicated calculation about your positive effect on the White House versus its negative effect on you. In April, an email originally copied to more than a dozen people went into far wider circulation when it was forwarded and reforwarded. Purporting…” quote by Michael Wolff](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c2a/michael-wolff-423_white-house_but-this-sense-of-duty-and-virtue-involv_1578271.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c2a/michael-wolff-423_white-house_but-this-sense-of-duty-and-virtue-involv_1578271.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c2a/michael-wolff-423_white-house_but-this-sense-of-duty-and-virtue-involv_1578271.jpg) > ““But this sense of duty and virtue involved a complicated calculation about your positive effect on the White House versus its negative effect on you. In April, an email originally copied to more than a dozen people went into far wider circulation when it was forwarded and reforwarded. Purporting to represent the views of Gary Cohn and quite succinctly summarizing the appalled sense in much of the White House, the email read: It’s worse than you can imagine. An idiot surrounded by clowns. Trump won’t read anything—not one-page memos, not the brief policy papers; nothing. He gets up halfway through meetings with world leaders because he is bored. And his staff is no better. Kushner is an entitled baby who knows nothing. Bannon is an arrogant prick who thinks he’s smarter than he is. Trump is less a person than a collection of terrible traits. No one will survive the first year but his family. I hate the work, but feel I need to stay because I’m the only person there with a clue what he’s doing. The reason so few jobs have been filled is that they only accept people who pass ridiculous purity tests, even for midlevel policy-making jobs where the people will never see the light of day. I am in a constant state of shock and horror.”” [Michael Wolff](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-wolff/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Inside the White House, staff felt trapped by chaotic leadership and toxic culture, leading to constant shock and moral conflict. **In simple terms:** Staff faced chaotic leadership and moral conflict. Key Takeaway Seek environments with ethical leadership. Themes politics leadership ethics Mood anxious disillusioned Type cautionary reflective When to use this quote - government jobs - corporate settings - nonprofits - political campaigns Key Concepts toxic culture bureaucracy whistleblowing Questions to Reflect On - What would you do if you felt your workplace was morally compromised? - How can you protect your well‑being in such environments? 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I'd love to see a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tina-fey/i-really-like-john-mccain-he-s-an-awesome-dude-and-was-a-lot-of-fun/) [Tina Fey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tina-fey/) [Browse all 27,810 Trump quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/trump/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“But this sense of duty and virtue involved a complicated calculation about your positive effect on the White House versus its negative effect on you. In April, an email originally copied to more than a dozen people went into far wider circulation when it was forwarded and reforwarded. Purporting to represent the views of Gary Cohn and quite succinctly summarizing the appalled sense in much of the White House, the email read: It’s worse than you can imagine. An idiot surrounded by clowns. Trump won’t read anything—not one-page memos, not the brief policy papers; nothing. He gets up halfway through meetings with world leaders because he is bored. And his staff is no better. Kushner is an entitled baby who knows nothing. Bannon is an arrogant prick who thinks he’s smarter than he is. Trump is less a person than a collection of terrible traits. No one will survive the first year but his family. I hate the work, but feel I need to stay because I’m the only person there with a clue what he’s doing. The reason so few jobs have been filled is that they only accept people who pass ridiculous purity tests, even for midlevel policy-making jobs where the people will never see the light of day. 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