Anonymous official rips ‘amoral’ Trump in editorial

An anonymous senior Trump administration official wrote an opinion piece in The New York Times on Wednesday claiming to be part of a group of people “working diligently from within” to impede President Donald Trump’s “worst inclinations” and ill-conceived parts of his agenda. Trump called it a “gutless editorial” and “really a disgrace,” and the press secretary called on the official to resign.

The writer, claiming to be part of the “resistance” to Trump but not from the left, says, “Many Trump appointees have vowed to do what we can to preserve our democratic institutions while thwarting Mr. Trump’s more misguided impulses until he is out of office.” The newspaper described the author of the column as a senior official in the Trump administration.

A defiant Trump, holding an event with sheriffs at the White House, lashed out at the Times for publishing the op-ed.

“They don’t like Donald Trump and I don’t like them,” he said of the newspaper.

The publication of the op-ed immediately triggered a wild guessing game as to the author’s identity on social media, in newsrooms and inside the West Wing, where officials were blindsided by its publication.

In a blistering statement, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders accused the author of choosing to “deceive” the president by remaining in the administration.

The writer of the Times op-ed said Trump aides are aware of the president’s faults and “we are trying to do what’s right even when Donald Trump won’t.”

The writer also alleged “there were early whispers within the cabinet of invoking the 25th Amendment” because of the “instability” witnessed in the president. The 25th Amendment allows the vice president to take over if the commander in chief is “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.” It requires that the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet back relieving the president.

The writer adds: “This isn’t the work of the socalled deep state. It’s the work of the steady state.”