UPDATE: Trump's "Treason?" tweet was only his first response. Here's more:
The New York Times has published an anonymous, scathing, anti-Trump opinion essay from someone it identifies only as "a senior official in the Trump administration whose identity is known to us and whose job would be jeopardized by its disclosure."
The paper justifies its unusual move by adding the following:
We believe publishing this essay anonymously is the only way to deliver an important perspective to our readers. We invite you to submit a question about the essay or our vetting process here.
The Op-Ed calls out the president's "amorality," volatility, recklessness, and utter incompetence. It cites as an example his attitude towards Russia:
Take foreign policy: In public and in private, President Trump shows a preference for autocrats and dictators, such as President Vladimir Putin of Russia and North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, and displays little genuine appreciation for the ties that bind us to allied, like-minded nations.
Astute observers have noted, though, that the rest of the administration is operating on another track, one where countries like Russia are called out for meddling and punished accordingly, and where allies around the world are engaged as peers rather than ridiculed as rivals.
On Russia, for instance, the president was reluctant to expel so many of Mr. Putin’s spies as punishment for the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain. He complained for weeks about senior staff members letting him get boxed into further confrontation with Russia, and he expressed frustration that the United States continued to impose sanctions on the country for its malign behavior. But his national security team knew better — such actions had to be taken, to hold Moscow accountable.
This isn’t the work of the so-called deep state. It’s the work of the steady state.
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. So we will do what we can to steer the administration in the right direction until — one way or another — it’s over.
The White House has responded to the essay with a statement from Press Secretary Sarah Sanders:
The president posted a one-word tweet:
Read the full Op-Ed: I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration (NYT)