Fake news in the New York Times?

A false flag leak?

The real deal?

I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration

I work for the president but like-minded colleagues and I have vowed to thwart parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations.

The Times 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. We invite you to submit a question about the essay or our vetting process here.

. . . .  

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.

Ballocks.

The party of Kavanaugh cannot pretend to commitment to republican liberty and rule of law.

It cannot pretend to reject authoritarianism; not with his construction of fundamentally lawless presidential power.

Or rather pretending is just what they are doing.

The Republicans of today are Trump's abused toadies or his ardent supporters who love his mini-Mussolini authoritarianism and his stupid and incompetent bragging and bullying.

He gave them their giant tax cut, he held up his end on efforts to repeal Obamacare, he supports them in their global warming denial, he executes their sabotage of the regulatory state just as far as he can, and so on and so on.

Thus this:

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.

. . . .

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.

. . . .

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.

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.

Um, it's the deep state.

The entire staff of the executive national security apparatus is committed to continuing American military and political globalism, as is nearly all of the classe politique of both parties.

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.