Yesterday, The New York Times published a stunning op-ed, which said that there were “early whispers” by the president’s cabinet about invoking the 25th Amendment, which would start the process of removing the president.
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.
But one of the most shocking parts? The letter was attributed to “a senior official in the Trump administration whose identity is known to us and whose job would be jeopardized by its disclosure.”
Jim Dao, the Times‘ Op-Ed editor, played coy in several interviews about the matter. He would not confirm the person’s gender or get any more specific about the person’s job. CNN points out that many officials in the White House can be classified as “senior.”
The opinion section is separate from the newsroom, meaning that journalists at the Times don’t even know the identity of the source.
So basically: Times reporters now must try to unearth the identity of an author that our colleagues in Opinion have sworn to protect with anonymity? https://t.co/wj2nKmDHz9
— jodikantor (@jodikantor) September 5, 2018
The guessing game began almost immediately. CNN’s Chris Cillizza suggested the piece could have been written by White House Counsel Don McGahn, adviser Kellyanne Conway, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats or Chief of Staff John Kelly, among other suggestions. Axios reported that two senior administration officials reached out to them to say “the author stole the words right out of their mouths.”
From Axios AM:
“I find the reaction to the NYT op-ed fascinating — that people seem so shocked that there is a resistance from the inside,” one senior official said. “A lot of us [were] wishing we’d been the writer, I suspect … I hope he [Trump] knows — maybe he does? — that there are dozens and dozens of us.”
And it didn’t take the president long to begin responding via Twitter and on television.
Does the so-called “Senior Administration Official” really exist, or is it just the Failing New York Times with another phony source? If the GUTLESS anonymous person does indeed exist, the Times must, for National Security purposes, turn him/her over to government at once!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 5, 2018
Will we ever know the identity of the source? What does it mean that people who were not elected are stepping in to make significant choices about the direction of the nation?
Text by Gabrielle Healy.
GUESTS
Jeff Mason, White House correspondent, Reuters; @JeffMason1
For more, visit https://the1a.org.
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