Opinion: No, anonymous Trump official, you’re not ‘part of the resistance.’ You’re a coward

A New York Times op-ed allegedly written by a senior Trump administration official has set the internet ablaze. Its headline: “I am part of the resistance inside the Trump administration.” Its premise: A group of Trump appointees is working from the inside to stop the president from fulfilling the parts of his agenda they disagree with.

Obviously, the writer and other like-minded higher-ups are not part of the “resistance” that’s marching in the streets protesting.

The piece suggests America is currently under a “two-track presidency.” If President Donald Trump wants to do something the people in his administration think is good, they go along with it. If he wants to do something they think is bad, they find ways around it. This is in keeping with what the Bob Woodward book excerpt revealed: Senior officials are taking things off Trump’s desk to keep him from seeing them.

Nobody who’s part of the real resistance should be celebrating this. If you work in this administration and carry out any part of Trump’s agenda, you are enabling him, not undermining him. If we have a president so incompetent that his most trusted advisers have to play peekaboo to preserve national security, then those people should be working to get him out of office, not just spare us from his cruelest impulses.

The op-ed says Trump is anti-trade and anti-democratic. His leadership is characterized as “impetuous, adversarial, petty and ineffective.” It says he goes on long, repetitive rants and makes “half-baked, ill-informed and occasionally reckless decisions.” It says these “unsung heroes” are protecting America from Trump’s “erratic behavior.”

If they really believe there’s a need to subvert the president to protect the country, they should be getting this person out of the White House. But they’re too cowardly and afraid of the possible implications. They hand-wave the notion thusly:

“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.”

How is it that utilizing the 25th Amendment of the Constitution would cause a crisis, but admitting to subverting a democratically elected leader wouldn’t?

The truth is, Republicans don’t want Trump out of office. They’re clearly pleased with this “two-track” arrangement. They’re advancing the right-wing economic agenda that President Jeb Bush or Ted Cruz would have been championing while preserving their popularity with Trump’s base.

If you’re reading this, senior White House official, know this: You are not resisting Donald Trump. You are enabling him for your own benefit. That doesn’t make you an unsung hero. It makes you a coward.

This article originally appeared in the “Enter the Fray” blog.