White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders ripped the anonymous senior administration official who wrote an op-ed for The New York Times slamming President Trump’s conduct.
“The individual behind this piece has chosen to deceive, rather than support, the duly elected President of the United States,” she said in a statement. “He is not putting country first, but putting himself and his ego ahead of the will of the American people.”
{mosads}”This coward should do the right thing and resign,” she added.
The statement follows criticism from Trump himself, who called the op-ed’s author “gutless.”
The author of the op-ed wrote that there are multiple people in the administration who are acting as a check on the president’s “misguided impulses.”
“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 official writes.
The White House aide says meetings with Trump often “veer off topic and off the rails” and slams the president as “amoral.”
“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,” the official says.
Any successes from the White House “have come despite — not because of — the president’s leadership style, which is impetuous, adversarial, petty and ineffective,” the author writes.
Sanders’s statement also included a defense of the president.
“President Trump has laid out a bold and ambitious agenda. Every day since taking office, he has fulfilled the promises he made. His accomplishments in less than two years have been astounding,” she said.
The Trump administration has repeatedly railed against The New York Times, slamming it as “fake news” and labeling it the “failing” New York Times.
“We are disappointed, but not surprised, that the paper chose to publish this pathetic, reckless and selfish op-ed. This is a new low for the so-called ‘paper of record,’ and it should issue an apology … This is just another example of the liberal media’s concerted effort to discredit the president,” Sanders said.