Clark M. Clifford Quotes

Every president needs an S. O. B.

My role is not to be the President’s friend….When I am no longer the Chief of Staff, I expect to be the President’s friend.

The most difficult issues—the toughest decisions—are the ones that invariably end up on the President’s desk.

The man with the best job in the country is the vice-president. All he has to do is get up every morning and say, 'How is the president?'

It sure is hell to be president.

I spend a great deal of time with the President. We have a very close, personal, loyal relationship. I'm not, as they say, a potted plant in these meetings.

I have to give him and I have to have 100 percent of his confidence…. If I do not have his confidence, someone else should be chief of staff.

I am someone who facilitates the President’s ability to make tough decisions.

The presidency is not about easy choices.

Be a President. Don't try to be a lawyer.

Presidents today spend more time speaking than they do reading or thinking.

That's part of being President. You can't focus on any one thing to the exclusion of all other things.

We elect our presidents to protect U. S. national interests.

It seems to be the profession of a President simply to hear other people talk.

Yesterday the President had one of his busiest days. …. The corridor outside his study has been filled with gentlemen all day long. I often wonder how it is possible to adjust to so many different people and their interests in the course of a day, but after all that is one of the things every President must learn to do.

Being a wartime President is never just about leading the war. It is also about leading a nation at war.

In the White House there is nothing more valuable than the President’s time.

I suport every President.

I was deputy assistant to the president. My job was strategist in the office of the chief strategist, Stephen Bannon. Somebody once described me as the president's national security utility infielder.

A lot of that will depend on who the person is on [Donald] Trump's, you know, right hand side, whether it's [Stephen] Bannon or whether it's [Reince] Priebus.

Whatever the political affiliation of our next President, whatever his views may be on all the issues and problems that rush in upon us, he must above all be the chief executive in every sense of the word.

If you're in Congress, you vote and give speeches. But governors have to make decisions every day, and presidents have to make decisions every day.

During the years of my presidency, I lived a tough and difficult life.

My mum has always been by my side for every decision I take.

I think the president must be very watchful of what is happening. The president cannot deal with the bread and butter issues of Parliament, but he cannot be a sleeping president.