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“We actually think the American people are smart and we should listen to them rather than preach at them. I think that's at the core of the president’s political strengths,” Vice President JD Vance said to Fox News News Channel’s Sean Hannity on March 3, 2025.
As President Trump’s Administration takes shape, I have noticed a pattern. The president and many of his cabinet members are using the tactic of listening to set their organizations on a successful path.
Vice President Vance explained that listening is the core of President Trump's leadership. The president gathers information by asking people questions. Not only does he listen to what the experts say about their own subject matters, but he also listens to what those experts say about policies not in their orbit.
When Karoline Leavitt was asked what surprised her the most about working for President Trump as his press secretary, she said that he listens.
“The best thing about him that I have learned is that he is a great listener. He values the opinions of everyone in the room.”
Leavitt found it fascinating that the leader of the free world cares what everybody in the room thinks.
President Trump's cabinet members are also listeners.
"I love what Sec Def Hegseth is doing, where he's really trying to listen to the frontline troops telling him what the needs are and seeing it first hand,” Delta Force member Brett Velicovich explained in an interview about Pete Hegseth, the new Secretary of Defense.
When Hegseth took his first international trip to Germany to meet with NATO members, he exercised alongside U.S. soldiers during their physical training sessions. This gave him an opportunity to ask them how things were going.
“This is not really about a fitness routine. It's about being in the grind with the soldiers and using it as an opportunity to understand the real military needs, the battlefield environment, and the troops on the ground from the men and women who are experiencing it first hand,” Velicovich said.
Listening is extremely important in the area of defense.
“When frontline troops respect you, they’re going to fight for you. It's going to resonate up the chain of command.”
When Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem visited the northern border with Canada in Vermont, she asked members of Customs and Border Protection if they had the resources they needed to do their jobs. This was immediately after a deadly shooting of a CBP officer in Vermont. She was stunned to find that these men and women did not have snow tires for their cars, which was a necessity during the winter weather.
“It was 4 degrees & snowing during my recent trip to the US-Canada border. I was shocked to hear that some of our border patrol agents don’t even have snow tires – due to the failures of the Biden Administration,” Noem later posted on social media.
“It’s a no brainer to make sure our law enforcement has vehicles with basic equipment for winter conditions,” said Noem, who shared pictures of her private meetings with federal agents in Vermont.
“Under President Trump, our border patrol agents will have snow tires & ALL the resources they need to do their jobs,” she pledged.
Noem was listening. She explained that she had been a listener as the governor of South Dakota and liked to find out what the people under her needed.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy also announced that he was listening to the needs of air traffic control to build a new state-of-the-art system. This followed a series of deadly plane crashes.
"America deserves safe, state-of-the-art air travel, and President Trump has ordered that I deliver a new, world-class air traffic control system that will be the envy of the world," Duffy declared.
"Tomorrow, members of @elonmusk’s SpaceX team will be visiting the Air Traffic Control System Command Center in VA to get a firsthand look at the current system, learn what air traffic controllers like and dislike about their current tools, and envision how we can make a new, better, modern and safer system."
"Later in the week, I will travel to the FAA Academy in Oklahoma to meet with air traffic controller instructors and students to learn more about their education and how we can ensure that only the very best guide our aircrafts," he noted.
Listening is an important part of leadership, especially when navigating organizations through change. As mentioned in part one of the series, George Washington was successful as the general of the Continental Army in part because he listened. Washington was willing to change his mind when facts on the ground shifted quickly. This truth remains relevant 250 years later as the current administration is demonstrating.
