See other Editorial Articles
Title: I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration
Source:
[None]
URL Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/05/ ... ouse-anonymous-resistance.html
Published: Sep 5, 2018
Author: senior WH staffer
Post Date: 2018-09-05 17:58:34 by Ada
Keywords: None
Views: 885
Comments: 17
I work for the president but like-minded colleagues and I have vowed to thwart parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations. The Times today is taking the rare step of publishing an anonymous Op-Ed essay. We have done so at the request of the author, a senior official in the Trump administration whose identity is known to us and whose job would be jeopardized by its disclosure. We believe publishing this essay anonymously is the only way to deliver an important perspective to our readers. We invite you to submit a question about the essay or our vetting process here. President Trump is facing a test to his presidency 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 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. Advertisement I would know. I am one of them. To be clear, ours is not the popular “resistance” of the left. We want the administration to succeed and think that many of its policies have already made America safer and more prosperous. But we believe our first duty is to this country, and the president continues to act in a manner that is detrimental to the health of our republic. That is why 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 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. Advertisement 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. In addition to his mass-marketing of the notion that the press is the “enemy of the people,” President Trump’s impulses are generally anti-trade and anti-democratic. Don’t get me wrong. There are bright spots that the near-ceaseless negative coverage of the administration fails to capture: effective deregulation, historic tax reform, a more robust military and more. But these successes have come despite — not because of — the president’s leadership style, which is impetuous, adversarial, petty and ineffective. From the White House to executive branch departments and agencies, senior officials will privately admit their daily disbelief at the commander in chief’s comments and actions. Most are working to insulate their operations from his whims. Meetings with him veer off topic and off the rails, he engages in repetitive rants, and his impulsiveness results in half-baked, ill-informed and occasionally reckless decisions that have to be walked back. “There is literally no telling whether he might change his mind from one minute to the next,” a top official complained to me recently, exasperated by an Oval Office meeting at which the president flip-flopped on a major policy decision he’d made only a week earlier. EDITORS’ PICKS The Storm Raged, and His Wife Was Dying. 911 Couldn’t Help. A ‘Generationally Perpetuated’ Pattern: Daughters Do More Chores How the Trump Administration Is Remaking the Courts Advertisement The erratic behavior would be more concerning if it weren’t for unsung heroes in and around the White House. Some of his aides have been cast as villains by the media. But in private, they 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. We fully recognize what is happening. And we are trying to do what’s right even when Donald Trump won’t. The result is a two-track presidency. Take foreign policy: In public and in private, President Trump shows a preference for autocrats and dictators, such as President Vladimir Putin of Russia and North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, and displays little genuine appreciation for the ties that bind us to allied, like-minded nations. Astute observers have noted, though, that the rest of the administration is operating on another track, one where countries like Russia are called out for meddling and punished accordingly, and where allies around the world are engaged as peers rather than ridiculed as rivals. On Russia, for instance, the president was reluctant to expel so many of Mr. Putin’s spies as punishment for the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain. He complained for weeks about senior staff members letting him get boxed into further confrontation with Russia, and he expressed frustration that the United States continued to impose sanctions on the country for its malign behavior. But his national security team knew better — such actions had to be taken, to hold Moscow accountable. This isn’t the work of the so-called deep state. It’s the work of the steady state. 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. So we will do what we can to steer the administration in the right direction until — one way or another — it’s over. The bigger concern is not what Mr. Trump has done to the presidency but rather what we as a nation have allowed him to do to us. We have sunk low with him and allowed our discourse to be stripped of civility. Sign up for the Sunday Best newsletter Discover the most compelling features, reporting and humor writing from The New York Times Opinion section, selected by our editors. Advertisement Senator John McCain put it best in his farewell letter. All Americans should heed his words and break free of the tribalism trap, with the high aim of uniting through our shared values and love of this great nation. We may no longer have Senator McCain. But we will always have his example — a lodestar for restoring honor to public life and our national dialogue. Mr. Trump may fear such honorable men, but we should revere them. There is a quiet resistance within the administration of people choosing to put country first. But the real difference will be made by everyday citizens rising above politics, reaching across the aisle and resolving to shed the labels in favor of a single one: Americans. The writer is a senior official in the Trump administration.
Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
#1. To: Ada (#0)
The writer is a crazed lunatic who may very get us into a nuclear war with Russia, against the wishes of the president and the American people. Sure, Trump is an amoral Zionist heffer. However, this Globalist NeoCon azzhat is a Koch brothers traitor. Clear as day. USA Inc is very short term for this world. There's no two ways about it. The NeoCon/NeoLiberal trash which is entrenched in the breast of Rothschild think they have it made. The Anti-QAnon? Anybody else buying into these theatrics, 'cause I'm not. They mean to keep you distracted, and I know why.
Does your why involve a global reset accompanied by lots of war?
Partially. That's a part of biblical prophecy that's being played out openly, but it's much bigger than just war. The big Revelation has yet to be sprung.
It will be significantly super natural such that many luke warm so-called believers will fall away, too.
Mayor Ruby Julie Annie How do we know that the writer is not a New York Times hack?
This is what I assume. Just more fake news. I seriously SERIOUSLY doubt anyone on his cabinet is willing to jump ship. Their are no Russian hackers, nobody gives a shit about liberal tears anymore except themselves because they wont stop crying, their is no insider opposition because if their were it would of come out before now. But bob wooward wrote a neat book nobody gives a shit about and this will help promote the press for other libby cry babies. Second speculation: wouldn't it be neat if this were a set up, if the inside opposition were planted so as to test the NY Post willingness to follow the law. IF fake information that should of been reported to authorities weren't... wouldn't that be a fun sting op to expose criminally fake news... Ahhh I can dream. ______________________________________ Suspect all media / resist bad propaganda/Learn NLP everyday everyway ;) If you don't control your mind someone else will.
there is no opposition as donnie keeps hiring the insiders The lunatics in charge know that the Christians will buy into Revelations being played out. Thing is, they are MAKING it play out, by the book, as they'll get the support of the evangelicals thinking that it's truly destined to happen. It's not destined other than what they are MAKING happen, happen.
Could be John Podesta for all we know. Too well written and arrogant for that piker to have pulled off. I'm thinking Frum or Kristol. So much arrogance, and sheer disdain for us flyover deplorables... this message was brought to you by www.frame-a-kike.com, bringing you over 80 years in quality surfacing repairs.... “I am not one of those weak-spirited, sappy Americans who want to be liked by all the people around them. I don’t care if people hate my guts; I assume most of them do. The important question is whether they are in a position to do anything about it. My affections, being concentrated over a few people, are not spread all over Hell in a vile attempt to placate sulky, worthless shits.” - William S Burroughs
😂🤣
If this "author" thinks throwing low blows at the President's family and faking dossiers in order to spy on other Americans should somehow create an atmosphere where labels are dropped and unity of spirit will be accomplished, he/she should seek serious mental help. Ephesians 5:11King James Version (KJV) 11 "And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. " The best thing about old age is that it doesn't last forever.
The writer is a senior official in the Trump administration.
"After tomorrow those SOB's will never embarrass me again. That’s not a threat. That’s a promise.” – LBJ to his mistress Madeleine Brown on the eve of JFK assassination 
#2. To: Ada (#0)
"Define yourself as one beloved by God. This is the true self. Every other identity is illusion."—Brennan Manning
#3. To: FormerLurker (#1)
"Define yourself as one beloved by God. This is the true self. Every other identity is illusion."—Brennan Manning
#4. To: Ada (#0)
#5. To: Obnoxicated (#4)
"Define yourself as one beloved by God. This is the true self. Every other identity is illusion."—Brennan Manning
#6. To: Rotara (#5)
#7. To: Obnoxicated (#6)
"Define yourself as one beloved by God. This is the true self. Every other identity is illusion."—Brennan Manning
#8. To: Ada, Ruby Julie Annie (#0)
The writer is a senior official in the Trump administration
DACA Shithole Dreamers - Make America Great Again?
#9. To: FormerLurker (#1)
The writer is a senior official in the Trump administration
#10. To: hondo68 (#8)
Mayor Ruby Julie Annie
#11. To: Ada (#9)
(Edited)
How do we know that the writer is not a New York Times hack?
#12. To: titorite (#11)
their is no insider opposition because if their were it would of come out before now.
I used to be in a hurry, then I figured out I was just getting nowhere fast.
#13. To: Obnoxicated (#6)
"After tomorrow those SOB's will never embarrass me again. That’s not a threat. That’s a promise.” – LBJ to his mistress Madeleine Brown on the eve of JFK assassination
#14. To: Ada (#9)
How do we know that the writer is not a New York Times hack?
"After tomorrow those SOB's will never embarrass me again. That’s not a threat. That’s a promise.” – LBJ to his mistress Madeleine Brown on the eve of JFK assassination
#15. To: FormerLurker (#14)
Could be John Podesta for all we know.
#16. To: Dakmar (#15)
"Define yourself as one beloved by God. This is the true self. Every other identity is illusion."—Brennan Manning
#17. To: Ada (#0)
There is a quiet resistance within the administration of people choosing to put country first. But the real difference will be made by everyday citizens rising above politics, reaching across the aisle and resolving to shed the labels in favor of a single one: Americans.
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest