Trump slams ‘gutless’ New York Times ‘resistance’ op-ed

WASHINGTON » President Donald Trump on Wednesday lashed out at the anonymous author of a New York Times op-ed who claimed to be part of a “resistance” effort within his administration, calling the piece “gutless” and “a disgrace.”

The extraordinary op-ed, which was published online Wednesday afternoon, was written by a senior official in the Trump administration, according to the New York Times. It blasts Trump as morally unmoored, criticizes his “impetuous” leadership style and depicts a “two-track presidency” in which Trump acts according to his own whims while many of his top aides, in the author’s words, work to thwart his “more misguided impulses until he is out of office.”

In remarks to law enforcement officials in the East Room of the White House, Trump insisted that his administration is “doing a great job” and unloaded on the “failing New York Times” for running an “anonymous — meaning gutless — a gutless editorial.”

“Nobody has ever done in less than a two-year period what we’ve done,” he said. “So when you tell me about some anonymous source within the administration, probably who’s failing, and who’s probably here for all the wrong reasons — no.”

The newspaper, Trump added, “probably wouldn’t even exist” without him.

“Some day, when I’m not president, which hopefully will be in about 6 ½ years from now, the New York Times and CNN and all of these phony media outlets will be out of business, folks, because there will be nothing to write and there’ll be nothing of interest,” the president said.

In a separate statement, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders called the op-ed “a new low” for the New York Times and suggested that the newspaper should issue an apology.

“We are disappointed, but not surprised, that the paper chose to publish this pathetic, reckless, and selfish op-ed,” Sanders said.

She also called on the op-ed’s author to resign from the administration.

“The individual behind this piece has chosen to deceive, rather than support, the duly elected President of the United States,” Sanders said. “He is not putting country first, but putting himself and his ego ahead of the will of the American people. This coward should do the right thing and resign.”

In addition to painting a dire picture of Trump’s decision-making process, the op-ed also states that some top administration officials discussed early on in Trump’s presidency whether to seek to remove him from office via the 25th Amendment to the Constitution.

“Given the instability many witnessed, there were early whispers within the cabinet of invoking the 25th Amendment, which would start a complex process for removing the president. But no one wanted to precipitate a constitutional crisis,” the op-ed reads. “So we will do what we can to steer the administration in the right direction until — one way or another — it’s over.”