President Trump excoriated the New York Times and an unnamed Trump administration official Wednesday for being “gutless” after the publication of an anonymous opinion piece describing how some White House aides were trying to undermine the president.
“He’s part of the resistance within the Trump administration. This is what we have to deal with,” Trump said during a East Wing event for local law enforcement officers. “It is really a disgrace.”
The mystery writer describes in the op-ed published Wednesday afternoon how they and other staffers work “diligently” to frustrate parts of Trump’s agenda and “his worst inclinations” because they believe their first duty is to the country rather than the Trump White House.
[Related: 7 points on the anonymous New York Times ‘resistance’ op-ed]
“It may be cold comfort in this chaotic era, but Americans should know that there are adults in the room,” the op-ed states. “We fully recognize what is happening. And we are trying to do what’s right even when Donald Trump won’t.”
The author was widely speculated to be a man following a New York Times tweet that referred to the staff member as a “he,” but the newspaper’s communications team said the gender had been ascribed erroneously.
Trump on Wednesday also called the piece “gutless,” adding that the official was someone “probably who’s failing and probably here for all the wrong reasons.”
“If I weren’t here, I believe the New York Times probably wouldn’t even exist,” Trump said. “Some day when I’m not president, which hopefully will be in about six and a half years from now, the New York Times, and CNN, and all of these phony media outlets will be out of business, folks. They’ll be out of business because there will be nothing to write and there’ll be nothing of interest.”
President Trump on @nytimes anonymous op-ed: ” A gutless editorial. We’re doing great job. The poll numbers are through the roof. Our poll numbers are great. And guess what, nobody is going to come close to beating me in 2020 because of what we’ve done.” pic.twitter.com/CUvytTnIT7
— CSPAN (@cspan) September 5, 2018
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders released a statement shortly after Trump’s comments, saying the administration was “disappointed, but not surprised” that the New York Times published “this pathetic, reckless, and selfish op-ed.” She additionally implored the “coward” aide to resign.
“The individual behind this piece has chosen to deceive, rather than support, the duly elected President of the United States,” Sanders wrote. “He is not putting country first, but putting himself and his ego ahead of the will of the American people.”
