What does a TRUMP presidency look like?

[PJL]

Reminds me of those German Generals saying Hitler was to blame for all the bad stuff in their memoirs. Or Kruschev's destalinisation policy.  But both of those were after they had died.

[11B4V]

Well, if this is to be believed, Trump has a full-blown underground resistance right in the White House... Cue conspiracy theories on how the US is being taken over by a shadowy cabal.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/05/opinion/trump-white-house-anonymous-resistance.html

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.

Sept. 5, 2018

The Times today 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.

President Trump is facing a test to his presidency unlike any faced by a modern American leader.

It's not just that the special counsel looms large. Or that the country is bitterly divided over Mr. Trump's leadership. Or even that his party might well lose the House to an opposition hellbent on his downfall.

The dilemma — which he 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.

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.

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.

Russians. Well played Putin, well played.

[DGuller]

Why the hell would you write that before his administration is over? Worst sleeper agent ever.

Desperately hoping that his administration would be over quicker if this were published?

[Josephus]

I like Frum's reply.

He's right, in that it begs just what exactly the op-ed is set out to do; other than wash the hands of those in the administration, after the shit goes really down the tubes.

[Admiral Yi]

I disagree.  Informing the public is a responsible act.

[DGuller]

I think the argument is that what the anonymous author is informing the public about is the constitutional crisis part.  There is probably an argument there, but with our constitution and our partisanship, constitutional crisis is inevitable.

[Admiral Yi]

I think the argument is that what the anonymous author is informing the public about is the constitutional crisis part.  There is probably an argument there, but with our constitution and our partisanship, constitutional crisis is inevitable.

You mean Frum's argument?  His argument was that you don't rat on a paranoid retard because it makes him a more paranoid retard.

[Legbiter]

It reads pretty fake to me. Rather histrionic.

Trump Derangement fanfic by the looks of it.

Also, people if you're running a secret cabal, then keep it a secret.

[DGuller]

I wonder if this actually protects Trump's staffers.  The author will be revealed as soon as they are out of the administration, further validating this piece, so the incentive is to not go on the firing rampage.  The story will become more powerful with a known author, and unlike most such stories, it is published before the author is fired, therefore it cannot be sour grapes.

[DGuller]

It reads pretty fake to me. Rather histrionic.

Trump Derangement fanfic by the looks of it.

Also, people if you're running a secret cabal, then keep it a secret.

NYT claims to have spoken to the author directly.  I think believing that Times would be lying about that or the author's identity is the truly deranged position.  They will be out of business if they lie about something like that.

[Valmy]

He has been throwing LOLZ and other shit in our faces for years. This is just more of him taking pleasure in our predicament. So don't take it too seriously.

[Razgovory]

I think Trump will start a full on purge soon.  Maybe now, maybe after the mid-terms, but a lot of heads will roll.  I'd be surprised if more than half of the National Security Council will still be in place this time next year.  Trump gave this really weird press conference today, he walked away from the podium. paced back and forth, and ranted for 20 minutes while waving a piece of paper.

[Valmy]

Start? He purges regularly. That White House should have a revolving door.

[jimmy olsen]

Totally normal statement by a senator about a President from his own party

https://www.axios.com/trump-senior-official-nyt-resistance-op-ed-382a1e34-5357-4bca-979a-f74bf7eef638.html

Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN): "This is what all of us have understood to be the situation from day one... I understand this is the case and that's why I think all of us encourage the good people around the President to stay. I thank General Mattis whenever I see him..."

[jimmy olsen]

Hmm...