In his 1513 political treatise "The Prince," Italian philosopher and statesman Niccolò Machiavelli argued that truly great leaders surround themselves with the best and brightest advisers they can find, famously summing up the point: "the first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him." More than four centuries later, Republican president Dwight Eisenhower was rumored to have privately made a similar observation, reportedly saying that "the greatest leaders are the ones smart enough to have people smarter than them around them."

By contrast, according to a journalist with multiple inside sources into President Donald Trump's White House, America's current chief executive takes a different approach — one journalist describes it as surrounding himself with incompetence.

"Speaking on the Inside Trump's Head podcast, Trump biographer Michael Wolff said, 'This is not a secret,'" The Daily Beast's Erkki Forster reported on Thursday, describing a conversation between Wolff and co-host Joanna Coles. Wolff, the author of multiple best-selling books on Trump's first term including "Fire and Fury," has reported on the administration since 2017 and has drawn both wide readership and criticism over sourcing and accuracy.

Wolff pointed to Trump's Secretary of Defense, telling Coles that "Pete Hegseth is a... blithering incompetent... yes-man, a suck-up, a man who... knows nothing, and no logic would say he would know enough to run the military-industrial complex." Hegseth, an Army National Guard veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, came to the job from a career in television and veterans-advocacy work rather than from senior Pentagon or defense-policy posts, a background that fueled debate over his confirmation.

He added that Hegseth's "primary qualification is that he was... a weekend television co-host. So what in the name of God would he know about running... the United States military... at a moment... in which we are in the middle of a, basically, a revolution in terms of munitions, logistics, and supply." Wolff's remarks come amid broader scrutiny of Hegseth's tenure, which has included controversy over a Signal group chat that inadvertently included a journalist in discussions of military operations.

Wolff concluded: "Pete Hegseth is in this job because Donald Trump is intimidated by competence. It's not just that he doesn't want to be bossed around by people; it's that he can't deal with people who know things because—for the obvious reason—because he doesn't know things."

This is not the first time Wolff has observed that Trump seems to actively avoid smart people. In August, he said that "he's filled the administration of the second term with unqualified people, morons of one variety or another, because he can't have people who are clearly smarter than he is."

Entrepreneur and investor Jason Calacanis offered a similar assessment earlier in September, saying that Presidential Rule No. 1 should be "don't start a never-ending war in the Middle East. Americans have PTSD from them. Presidential Rule No. 2: it's the economy, always has been. Leadership Rule No. 1: Surround yourself with competent people who tell you uncomfortable truths – not sycophants or loyal incompetents. The sycophants will do you in every time. Never get high on your own supply."