Bwoo-ha-ha: Resistance inside the Trump regime itself

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...The dilemma — which [Trump] 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.

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.

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.

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...

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.

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.

Not to beat the Nazi dead horse, but I think this is reminiscent of how Anti-Nazis such as Abwehr Chief Wilhelm Canaris, and various Wehrmacht officers such as Klaus Von Stauffenberg and Erwin Rommel were plotting resistance against Hitler from inside the Third Reich's government and armed forces. Hopefully the Anti-Trump resistance won't end with brave men being hanged slowly to death with piano wire.

"...a hunt for the author of the offending article was quickly initiated and scrutiny focused on a half-dozen names. Aides said they assumed it was written by someone who worked in the administration but not the White House itself, although they could not be sure...Mr. Trump later posted a message on Twitter that said simply, “TREASON?” and then another saying that “If the GUTLESS anonymous person does indeed exist, the Times must, for National Security purposes, turn him/her over to government at once!...The unnamed official, whose identity is known to the Times editorial page department but not to the reporters who cover the White House, described the president’s leadership as “impetuous, adversarial, petty and ineffective” and cited “adults in the room” who strive to prevent disaster. At one point, the official wrote, there was talk of the cabinet invoking the 25th Amendment to declare Mr. Trump unable to discharge his duties, but no one wanted a constitutional crisis.”

"There is a long history of people in the White House taking it upon themselves to curb what they saw as a president’s dangerous instincts or to compensate for his incapacity. When Woodrow Wilson fell ill late in his presidency, his wife, Edith, effectively made many decisions in his name. When Ronald Reagan seemed increasingly foggy toward the end of his tenure, some aides discussed invoking the 25th Amendment.

During the final days of Richard M. Nixon’s presidency, when he was depressed, drinking and railing against his fate as the Watergate scandal closed in on him, Defense Secretary James R. Schlesinger instructed the military not to carry out any nuclear launch order from the president without checking with him or Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger.

This has been a recurring theme in Mr. Trump’s presidency as well. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has ignored Mr. Trump’s public entreaties to investigate the president’s political enemies and shut down the Russia inquiry. Donald F. McGahn II, the White House counsel, has rebuffed the president’s efforts to fire Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel.

Eileen Murphy, a Times spokeswoman, responded, “We are incredibly proud to have published this piece, which adds significant value to the public’s understanding of what is going on in the Trump administration from someone who is in a position to know.”

Mr. Trump’s mood vacillated from fury to calm throughout Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday. Some of his top aides worked the phones to figure out who was leaking or who might have spoken, and his daughter Ivanka Trump and other advisers tried to quell his distress.

Not "the resistence" as it pertains to the entirety of the GOP and the crimes committed against democracy. This sounds more like someone covering for their own self-interest and future cowardice

It sounds a lot more to me like someone who has already made the plan to exit the regime, fully realizes that he/she is going to get caught and is making a big enough splash out of it to make his/her departure worthwhile to the Nation.

Not to beat the Nazi dead horse, but I think this is reminiscent of how Anti-Nazis such as Abwehr Chief Wilhelm Canaris, and various Wehrmacht officers such as Klaus Von Stauffenberg and Erwin Rommel were plotting resistance against Hitler from inside the Third Reich's government and armed forces. Hopefully the Anti-Trump resistance won't end with brave men being hanged slowly to death with piano wire.

These people should be arrested for treason. They are trying to thwart policies that Trump was elected on. At least the US can't roam round the world anymore pretending they care about democracy. These traitors are working against the elected President on behalf of the "Deep State" aka the war industry and global corporations that care more about their profits than they do about America.

These people should be arrested for treason. They are trying to thwart policies that Trump was elected on. At least the US can't roam round the world anymore pretending they care about democracy. These traitors are working against the elected President on behalf of the "Deep State" aka the war industry and global corporations that care more about their profits than they do about America.

Sure ... go ahead and have them arrested. I dare you!

For all we know, Trump could have written this letter himself as a way of going on another ego trip!

The Deep State is the Trumpian bogeyman. It's an ethereal idea that can take the shape of anything paranoid brains imagine it to be. You imagine it to be the war industry and global corporations, while various American right wingers have fantasies of embedded Obama and Clinton bureaucrats hiding in the government. The truth is, the Deep State is no more real than the monster you used to believe was hiding under your bed back when you were a kid.

For all we know, Trump could have written this letter himself as a way of going on another ego trip!