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Home » CurrentEvents

"I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration" September 5, 2018 4:30 pm RL

This is not so much of a “Rat fleeing sinking ship” scenario… It is more of a “Rat on sinking ship throws out a message in a bottle declaring that he tried to prevent the ship from sinking in hopes that the rat may be able to salvage his career once the ship has sunk” scenario….

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.

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.

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.

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.
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.

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.

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.

  • Moved to Flame by podrock 2018-09-05 21:18:13
    • The timing was perfect. by ER 2018-09-05 19:51:11
      • And that Supreme Court Thing by podrock 2018-09-05 20:10:36
        • Yes, the Supreme Court Thing. by ER 2018-09-06 07:01:32
      • Wow. A reasoned commentary by all. n/t by RobVG 2018-09-05 19:33:59
        • :) You voted for it- you own it.... by RL 2018-09-05 19:45:11
          • We were given a voice by RobVG 2018-09-05 20:30:55
            • So, Rob, How do you like the 'voice' you chose now that you have had 3 an a half years to get used to it? by RL 2020-05-31 10:36:53
              • Did you ever honestly feel you had been shut out? by mcfly 2018-09-06 09:23:27
                • Well, 'i' have. by RobVG 2018-09-06 12:59:55
                  • I'm at a loss to think of worthy values that Trump is trying to bring back by mcfly 2018-09-06 15:29:03
                    • Yeah... by RobVG 2018-09-06 18:44:57
                      • You have to work damn hard to be that detached from reality by RL 2018-09-06 20:28:13
                        • Nope... by ER 2018-09-06 19:42:02
                          • You could show Rob the Pee tape... by RL 2018-09-06 20:31:43
                      • WHAT 'conservative values' would those be? by RL 2018-09-06 15:09:36
                        • Racism was never a Conservative value by ER 2018-09-06 13:14:22
                      • Too bad that voice was as stupid, amoral and bigoted as you are.... by RL 2018-09-05 20:46:15
                        • Robert Shepard by RobVG 2018-09-05 20:58:08
                          • Rob V**G*****g by Robert 2018-09-06 11:48:58
                            • To be fair to Rob... by ER 2018-09-06 13:10:51
                              • Wow by RobVG 2018-09-06 13:06:31
                              • We have been given a voice too, Rob. by ER 2018-09-06 05:57:47
                                • You guys reach for the same pile of stones if someone expressive their views. So much your tolerance. by RobVG 2018-09-06 13:01:38
                                  • Its not the views, Rob. by ER 2018-09-06 13:29:02
                                • It's the voice that said "“Ripping” children from their mothers arms was a long overdue deterrent." by RL 2018-09-05 21:03:42
                          • Its like we're witnessing the death of Caligula. by ER 2018-09-05 19:41:39
                          • The fallout begins... by RL 2018-09-05 19:06:10
                            • Trump's Response.... by RL 2018-09-05 18:11:00
                              • But I thought Trump hired 'The Best' and 'High Quality' people.... Right? by RL 2018-09-05 18:25:13
                              • "There Ain't No More Strawberries" by podrock 2018-09-05 17:51:02
                                • Funny you should say that. by ER 2018-09-06 08:57:07
                                  • No... I think it's self preservation... nothing deeper by RL 2018-09-05 18:07:49
                                    • Or self Promotion. by podrock 2018-09-05 18:23:24
                                      • Only the guy that wrote it... by RL 2018-09-05 18:34:28
                                        • I don't respect them either by podrock 2018-09-05 18:52:57
                                          • He may have done it because he thought he was about to be fired... by RL 2018-09-05 18:56:31
                                            • I'm thinking it is someone who cannot be fired. by podrock 2018-09-05 19:17:33
                                              • Does Anyone hold that title in this administration? by RL 2018-09-05 19:32:51
                                                • A few. by podrock 2018-09-05 19:52:59
                                                  • Dan Coates is being floated in the media as a likely culprit by RL 2018-09-05 20:02:03
                                                    • This is a reality TV show come to reality. by podrock 2018-09-05 20:20:11
                                                      • Maybe it's one of Trump's alter-egos run amok... by mcfly 2018-09-06 09:42:33
                                                        • "gollum...gollum" by podrock 2018-09-06 10:41:31
                                      • Oh, and DO keep in mind... by RL 2018-09-05 18:21:58
                                        • Hence the dangerous game by podrock 2018-09-05 18:24:03
                                          • Meanwhile the GOP charges ahead to quickly confirm the man Trump chose to get him off... by RL 2018-09-05 18:45:41
                                            • So to speak. by Robert 2018-09-05 18:48:35
                                              • Cut me some slack... by RL 2018-09-05 18:55:29

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