With the title "I am part of the internal resistance of the Trump Administration," The New York Times published on Wednesday, an anonymous article by a senior US government official describing an unusual situation in the presidency of the country, that several members of the Executive feel so alarmed by the "impulses" of the Republican leader that they work to control and shape their agenda. They even raised the possibility of requiring the president's incapacitation. The newspaper admits in a note at the beginning of the text that disclosing an opinion article without informing the author's identity - which the publishers know - is an exceptional measure, but justified by the interest of sharing their perspective. It rains on the wet: the publication comes out the day after the excerpts from a new book by journalist Bob Woodward in which he also talks about members of the Administration terrified by the White House's directions.
"I work for the president, but like other colleagues, I promised to boycott parts of their agenda and their worst inclinations," says the senior official who asked the Times for anonymity to protect his job. The author stresses that he is not part of the so-called "resistance" of the American left, says he is seeking the success of this Government and that many of the measures in force have proven to be beneficial to the US (tax cuts and increased military spending, for example ), but considers that the President acts in a manner "detrimental to the health of the Republic". Thus, several members of the Republican team try to redirect discreetly the "most mistaken impulses" of Trump until the New Yorker is out of government.
Trump's reaction came in several doses. First, she described the article as a "shame," and spokeswoman Sarah Sanders called the text's "coward" and instigated him to resign, giving credence to the authorship. Then, in remarks to the press, he assured that CNN, the New York Times and all the "false media" would eventually leave the business. In his Twitter account, he first wrote in capital letters "TRAFFIC?". He then argued that if this high official really exists, the Times has an obligation to "turn it over to the Government for reasons of national security."
As if it were one of those Vatican plots, the official of Trump's step-up act describes a sort of "parallel state" that prevents blunders from the US president's statements in his account on Twitter, for example, or in front of a camera. irreparable damage. The story recalls some of the episodes in Woodward's book, Fear: Trump in the White House, which will go on sale next week. In him, according to excerpts already known, the journalist also speaks of an "administrative coup d'etat", according to which the president's closest advisers hide papers for fear that he signs and unleashes a catastrophe.
"The root of the problem is the president's amorality," says the anonymous author in the Times. "Anyone who has worked with him," he continues, "knows that he is not anchored in any discernible principle that guides his decision-making." Although he has been elected "as a Republican," he shows little sympathy with the principles of market freedom, thought, and the people conservatives proclaim, he says, deploring acts like the president brandishing the press as "the enemy of the people."
The article represents a good metaphor for what happens to the Cabinet and the Republicans. While privately many want to make it clear that they are appalled by the trumps of the Trump era (insults to allied countries, affinity with authoritarian leaders, and xenophobic attacks), very few people raise their voices in public. Now, with the legislative elections in November, they seek to distance themselves from the controversial figure of the leader.
The "resistance" quoted by the text attempts to isolate the effective actions and policies of each branch of the Administration from the impulses of its president, whose style he defines as "superficial, ineffective, conflicting and impulsive." In meetings on some question, he says, deviates from the subject and gets entangled in loud and repetitive discussions, and his impulses sometimes lead him to make rash decisions that later have to be corrected or amended. "There is literally no subject in which he can not change his mind for a minute to the other, "says the top official in the article.
"Americans have to know there are adults in the room," says the author, trying to reassure readers (and voters) in the United States. In this line, there is a presidency that moves by "two ways". The senior official gives the example of foreign policy: "President Trump shows a preference for autocrats and dictators such as Vladimir Putin of Russia and Kim Jong-un of North Korea," but the Administration at the same time accuses countries like Rús.
