It’s Best To Have A Plan. It Helps To Let Everyone Know Your Plan.

It’s Best To Have A Plan. It Helps To Let Everyone Know Your Plan.

By

Leonard Zwelling

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/24/opinion/trump-xi-washington-summit.html

This piece from The New York Times’ editorial board identifies three large issues that should have brought the United States and China together during Xi Jinping’s state visit to Washington recently. They are AI safety, climate change, and resolving the economic crisis caused by the war in Iran.

Neither the United States nor China will benefit if an AI agent goes rogue and undermines the security of its people or all people. China has become a leader in producing products that use renewable energy, especially cars. Dialing back the effects of man-made climate damage is in everyone’s interest. As for the U.S.-started war, it’s affecting oil shipments to China as well as the price of gas here. Both China and the United States need this needless war to end.

So, we can all be excused for having lowered our expectations for the recent summit because, despite these critical problems needing solutions, we are all fully aware that Mr. Trump stands in the way of putting guardrails on AI development in favor of “beating China,” the U.S. rejoining the Paris Accords to ease environmental stress, and finding a way to end the war that he, himself started.

Perhaps none of us should be surprised at Mr. Trump’s lack of leadership in these crucial areas. After all, his only plan for the country is and always has been accruing more power and money for himself. As far as strategies to address the problems that are affecting Americans right now, especially at the gas pump, Trump does not have a plan.

When you lead anything, it is always good to have a plan. What are you trying to accomplish? How will you do it? Who will do it with you? What are your strengths? Weaknesses? Opportunities? Threats? What is your strategy? What is your vision for the future and how does the plan get you successfully to that future? If you want people to sacrifice for a better tomorrow, they need to know what they are sacrificing for today.

From the earliest days of his first term, it was evident that Mr. Trump had no governing strategy. He had no meaningful goals beyond those of personal enrichment, exuding power, having his face on TV, and “owning the libs.” He has no compunction about lying or cheating or committing crimes to get what he wants, even trying to overthrow a legitimate election after having lost his re-election bid in the 2020 voting.

What about planning closer to Holcombe?

To his credit, Ron DePinho had a plan when he kicked off his presidency at MD Anderson. He wanted to cure five cancers and was going to do that through great scientific expertise and an academic drug development apparatus blended with a push to identify the genetic causes of malignancies through the collection and sequencing of thousands of patient samples. It turns out, he was on to something. It just wasn’t something that a single institution could take on, especially one whose major role in the world is caring for cancer patients. Dr. DePinho probably should have applied to lead the National Cancer Institute or a major pharmaceutical company. Perhaps he did. Perhaps he has since his fall from grace in Houston.

He had a plan and he had a vision. It was a naïve plan and he was unable to get the faculty to share his vision. I thought he was a poor fit for MD Anderson, but give the guy credit. At least, he had a plan.

His successor had no plan. He couldn’t have had a plan. He was an academic cancer surgeon who took some courses at Harvard, foisted himself off as a business-administrator-intellectual when he was none of those things, and then spent two years in Canada before returning to lead MD Anderson. His plan, much like Donald Trump’s, was self-aggrandizement, a big salary, surrounding himself with mediocrity to eliminate being challenged, and collecting awards from organizations that judge health care institutions, but aren’t such institutions themselves. In other words, Peter Pisters had no plan beyond improving the life of Peter Pisters.

I am not sure why Peter Pisters retired from MD Anderson. Did the Regents retire him? I have no idea. Should they have? Yes, about five years earlier when it became obvious he had no plan. It was obvious to me that he had no plan after I had dinner with him several times early in his tenure as president. Pisters’ major accomplishment during his presidency was getting the institution through Covid while only firing a few faculty for not getting vaccinated. Whether I believe the financial boasts he made as he walked out the door, again, I am not sure. I never trusted the financial people at Anderson since Ben Melson left.

Our country needs a plan to be a leader in this very complex world. Trump does not have the plan or whatever he purports it to be, his plan is not working. Americans know this every time they assess their personal finances.

Whoever has a good plan for the country, who can articulate it, and can attract qualified people to implement it, whether he or she is a Republican or Democrat, needs to be our next president.

Following the midterm elections, the competition for the White House will begin in both parties. Mr. Trump may believe he can anoint his successor. I believe that there are too many GOP pretenders to the throne for all of them to drop out in favor of Trump’s golden boy. On the Democratic side, there are an equal number of people vying for the top job. There will be two primaries and they ought to be allowed to play out until a single person is standing on each side. There should be no shortcut like the one that gave us Joe Biden in 2020.

Then, let’s hear the plans both during the primaries and once the nominations are set. Let’s try to make this coming election in 2028 about substance and not form. We need no more photons like Donald Trump. He’s all energy and no mass beyond his bulk.

America-it’s time to move on.

As for MD Anderson, I hold out little hope for any improvement as long as this Board of Regents, this Chancellor, and this Legislature are charged with finding the next president. They couldn’t make a plan for a cancer center so how will they recognize anyone else who can? Of course, I could be surprised. I hope so. But you have to admit, their last two choices were duds.