Today The New York Times published an anonymous op-ed written by a senior member of the Trump administration. It tells a story of a chaotic West Wing in which department heads scurry to keep their concerns out of the president’s line of sight (and consequent whims), and level-headed adults actively thwart his wackier proclivities in order to keep Western civilization afloat.
(I’ve not exaggerated the tone of it much.)
I think the piece is likely what it is represented to be. It retains too much sympathy for the right for me to believe it’s a hoax in which The New York Times is complicit. And frankly, I think I’m right down the middle of the intended audience demographic: right-leaning people who haven’t found the Trump administration’s policies altogether distasteful, but who have had quite their fill of the man himself, as well as the anxieties understandably accompanying a POTUS whose behavior is, a great deal of the time, markedly adolescent.
“But these successes have come despite — not because of — the president’s leadership style, which is impetuous, adversarial, petty and ineffective.”
Shortly after Trump’s election, I considered that 2020 might be the first presidential election year in which we saw a serious primary challenge to an incumbent since Ted Kennedy very nearly wrested the nomination from Jimmy Carter in 1980. There’s been little indication that such might be a possibility, but then, we’re not even halfway through Trump’s term. Is this editorial a dog whistle to Republican challengers who might be considering an “All of the Good Things About Trump, Only In a Grown-Up” platform?
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