Remember that anonymous New York Times op-ed from a White House insider who claimed to be apart of “the resistance”?
Well, that person is back.
This unidentified person is reportedly publishing a tell-all book next month called A WARNING. The book will be a 200-300-page continuation of the 2018 New York Times op-ed, which was titled “I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration.” Or, as the book publisher is describing it, A WARNING is “an unprecedented behind-the-scenes portrait of the Trump presidency.”
Unprecedented indeed. More likely, the book will confirm a few things we already know: President Trump is an unconventional, often inappropriate leader bent on breaking norms and making life in the White House difficult for himself and those who work for him. Because of this, there are unelected bureaucrats running around in the administration bent on doing Trump’s job for him, thereby circumventing our system of governance. Both of these things pose a long-term threat to the republic.
Unless this anonymous author presents new, damaging information about alleged corruption and malfeasance in the administration, he’s not going to be saying anything new. Yes, Trump is “petty,” “adversarial,” “reckless,” and “impulsive,” as the anonymous op-ed claimed. You don’t need to read an entire book to figure that out, just go scroll through the president’s Twitter feed. He doesn’t try to hide it.
The book will also have little effect outside the Beltway echo chamber. It might dominate a news cycle or two, but practically, it will change nothing. To put it bluntly, what more could it do? Trump is already facing an impeachment inquiry due to allegations of corruption, he’s been rebuked by congressional Democrats and Republicans alike for his hasty Syria withdrawal, and he’s slowly losing public opinion.
What we should not allow this book or its author to do is give credibility to the idea that unidentified, unelected officials have the right or responsibility to undermine a duly elected president and take his governing powers into their own hands. Like him or not, the president is the president, and Article II puts the entire executive branch in his hands. We elect someone, and we must live with the consequences. That means that when you fight a president, you fight him on legal and constitutional grounds, or impeach him, or kick him out in the next election. It doesn’t mean you get to run your own unelected government behind the scenes.
Propping up “resistance” types as “patriots,” as the New York Times does and will do again when this book is published, is shameful. It represents an attempt to justify Democrats’ utter inability to accept that they lost to this man.
