President Trump Just Blew Up Over the New York Times’ Anonymous Op-Ed

An anonymous column from a Trump administration official slammed the president’s behavior and actions.

Susan Walsh/AP

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On Wednesday, the New York Times opinion page published a blockbuster op-ed from an anonymous Trump administration official that excoriated the president, calling his leadership style “impetuous, adversarial, petty and ineffective,” and arguing that Trump’s behavior is “detrimental to the health of our republic.” As the New York Times itself reports

At an event at the White House, Mr. Trump angrily assailed The Times for publishing the Op-Ed column, the second time in two days that news reports highlighted the way that some members of his team quietly act to undermine the president when they believe he may be acting dangerously.

“We have somebody in what I call the failing New York Times talking about he’s part of the resistance within the Trump administration,” the president said. “This is what we have to deal with.”

He went on: “So when you tell me about some anonymous source within the administration, probably who’s failing, and who’s probably here for all the wrong reasons. No. And The New York Times is failing.” He added: “So if the failing New York Times has an anonymous editorial, can you believe it, anonymous, meaning gutless, a gutless editorial.”

The president took his criticism even further on Twitter: 

Read the original op-ed here.

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DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do things differently in the aftermath of a political crisis: Watergate. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after, and go deep on, stories others don’t. And we’re a nonprofit newsroom because we knew corporations and billionaires would never fund the journalism we do. Our reporting makes a difference in policies and people’s lives changed.

And we need your support like never before to vigorously fight back against the existential threats American democracy and journalism face. We’re running behind our online fundraising targets and urgently need all hands on deck right now. We can’t afford to come up short—we have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

Please help with a donation today if you can—even just a few bucks helps. Not ready to donate but interested in our work? Sign up for our Daily newsletter to stay well-informed—and see what makes our people-powered, not profit-driven, journalism special.

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