DC obsessed: Who is the op-ed writer? ‘TREASON?’
Trump blasts ‘gutless’ anonymous official who claims he’s thwarting president
A “senior” Team Trump official published an anonymous opinion column in The New York Times on Wednesday, revealing the “quiet resistance” against the president inside the White House.
The column claims that there’s a “two-track presidency” in place and that some of Trump’s aides “have gone to great lengths to keep bad decisions contained to the West Wing, though they are clearly not always successful.”
“It may be cold comfort in this chaotic era, but Americans should know that there are adults in the room,” the author wrote.
“We fully recognize what is happening. And we are trying to do what’s right even when Donald Trump won’t.”
President Trump called out the writer in a one-word tweet: “Treason?”
“Someday when I’m not president — which hopefully will be in about 6½ from now — The New York Times and CNN and all of these phony media outlets will be out of business, folks,” Trump said to reporters in Washington.
“So if the failing New York Times has an anonymous editorial — can you believe it? anonymous — meaning gutless, a gutless editorial.”
Later in the evening, Trump took to Twitter to demand that the Times reveal the name of the writer.
“If the GUTLESS anonymous person does indeed ex- ist, the Times must, for National Security purposes, turn him/her over to government at once!” he tweeted.
The column’s headline reads, “I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration.” The opening lines describe “a test” that Trump is facing “unlike any faced by a modern American leader.”
“It’s not just that the special counsel looms large. Or that the country is bitterly divided over Mr. Trump’s leadership. Or even that his party might well lose the House to an opposition hellbent on his downfall,” the writer says.
“The dilemma — which he does not fully grasp — is that many of the senior officials in his own administration are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations. I would know. I am one of them.”
The author insists that this was not a liberal resistance, writing, “We want the administration to succeed and think that many of its policies have already made America safer and more prosperous . . . Although he was elected as a Republican, the president shows little affinity for ideals long espoused by conservatives: free minds, free markets and free people. At best, he has invoked these ideals in scripted settings. At worst, he has attacked them outright.”
The writer also says, “This isn’t the work of the so-called deep state. It’s the work of the steady state.”
The column says Trump’s “in- stability” led to “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. So we will do what we can to steer the administration in the right direction until — one way or another — it’s over.”
The official goes on to claim that there is “a quiet resistance within the administration of people choosing to put country first.”
The writer says that “the root of the problem is the president’s amorality.”
“Anyone who works with him knows he is not moored to any discernible first principles that guide his decision making,” the op-ed says.
The official then paints a heroic portrait of Trump staffers who are trying to save the country from the president:
“The erratic behavior would be more concerning if it weren’t for unsung heroes in and around the White House.”
The Times, in a preface, said it was taking the rare step of publishing an op-ed anonymously because the official’s “job would be jeopardized by its disclosure.”
In a statement Wednesday night, the White House said, “We are disappointed, but not surprised, that the paper chose to publish this pathetic, reckless, and selfish op-ed.
“The individual behind this piece has chosen to deceive, rather than support, the duly elected president of the United States. 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.”