"Team of Rivals" or "Clashing Aides"

[Spock]

I got a kick out of this headline in the (Red) Star Tribune (Minneapolis).

"Trump Aides Clashed over Paris Accord."

Theme of the story is (obviously) the disastrous organizational problems of the Trump White House.

Something tells me that if it were a president that the Star Tribune liked that the theme of the story would be the "Team of Rivals" working on policy in the White House.

If the "Aides are Clashing" on policy-or (more likely) acting as a "Team of Rivals" , obviously Trump didn't surround himself with sycophantic Yes men.

[silverscreenselect]

I got a kick out of this headline in the (Red) Star Tribune (Minneapolis).

"Trump Aides Clashed over Paris Accord."

Theme of the story is (obviously) the disastrous organizational problems of the Trump White House.

Something tells me that if it were a president that the Star Tribune liked that the theme of the story would be the "Team of Rivals" working on policy in the White House.

If the "Aides are Clashing" on policy-or (more likely) acting as a "Team of Rivals" , obviously Trump didn't surround himself with sycophantic Yes men.

"Aides Clashed" implies that there was disagreement among the aides about what Trump did. "Team of Rivals" implies that people put aside whatever differences they had to work together toward the end result. Completely different implication here.