Anonymous official cites Trump ‘amorality’ in NY Times op-ed

SHARE Anonymous official cites Trump ‘amorality’ in NY Times op-ed
trump_e1536184172355.jpg

A senior administration official sounded an alarm Wednesday about President Donald Trump’s “amorality” and “impetuous” leadership style in an unsigned opinion piece published in The New York Times. Trump swiftly responded, calling it a “gutless editorial” and “really a disgrace.” | AP file photo

WASHINGTON — A senior administration official sounded an alarm Wednesday about President Donald Trump’s “amorality” and “impetuous” leadership style in an unsigned opinion piece published in The New York Times. Trump swiftly responded, calling it a “gutless editorial” and “really a disgrace.”

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 anonymous column as “a senior official in the Trump administration.”

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.

It was not immediately clear what, if any, steps were being taken by the White House to attempt to unmask the writer.

The column was released a day after the release of details from an explosive new book by longtime journalist Bob Woodward that raises concerns among the highest echelon of Trump aides about the president’s judgment.

The writer of the Times op-ed said Trump aides are aware of the president’s faults and “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.”

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

Trump lashed out at the Times for publishing the op-ed during an event with sheriffs at the White House on Wednesday afternoon.

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

RELATED

Trump disputes book’s portrayal of White House dysfunction

Woodward book says Trump aide privately called him ‘idiot’

The Latest
The man was shot in the left eye area in the 5700 block of South Christiana Avenue on the city’s Southwest Side.
Most women who seek abortions are women of color, especially Black women. Restricting access to mifepristone, as a case now before the Supreme Court seeks to do, would worsen racial health disparities.
The Bears have spent months studying the draft. They’ll spend the next one plotting what could happen.
Woman is getting anxious about how often she has to host her husband’s hunting buddy and his wife, who don’t contribute at all to mealtimes.
He launched a campaign against a proposed neo-Nazis march at a time the suburb was home to many Holocaust survivors. His rabbi at Skokie Central Congregation urged Jews to ignore the Nazis. “I jumped up and said, ‘No, Rabbi. We will not stay home and close the windows.’ ”