""What do you think of Mattis?" Trump asked, in line with his management style, which almost no one believed was conducive to building trust and confidence among his subordinates. But he did it all the time. And only a fool would not assume that if he asked me questions about Mattis, he was surely asking others about me. I gave a partial answer, which was both true and important: I said Mattis was "good at not doing what he didn't want to do" and that he had "a high opinion of his own opinion." With that, Trump was off, explaining that he didn't trust Mattis and how tired he was of constant press stories about Mattis's outwitting Trump. I didn't say it to Trump, but this was the biggest self-inflicted wound by the "axis of adults." They thought themselves so smart they could tell the world how smart they were, and Trump wouldn't figure it out. They were not as smart as they thought."