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Donald Trump stepped up attacks against an official who wrote anonymously in The New York Times that the cabinet had considered trying to remove him from office, accusing the author of being part of the “deep state” trying to undercut his presidency.
“The Deep State and the Left, and their vehicle, the Fake News Media, are going Crazy — & they don’t know what to do,” Mr Trump tweeted on Thursday in response to the opinion piece published by the NYT the previous day.
Washington was abuzz with speculation about the author, particularly because of the assumption that the NYT would only have let the official remain unnamed if they held a genuinely senior role. Just hours after the piece was published, Mr Trump tweeted “TREASON?” amid reports that he had ordered his staff to identify the writer.
In the article, the author said many Trump appointees were trying to thwart parts of his agenda because of concerns about his “instability” and “misguided impulses”. Early in the administration, the cabinet contemplated invoking the 25th amendment of the Constitution — starting a complex process to remove a president incapable of performing the duties of the office — but decided against taking the path.
Trump will use this to stoke the paranoia among his fierce partisans, just as it has already fed Trump’s own paranoia
Larry Sabato, University of Virginia
“Meetings with him veer off topic and off the rails, he engages in repetitive rants, and his impulsiveness results in half-baked, ill-informed and occasionally reckless decisions that have to be walked back,” the author wrote. “It may be cold comfort in this chaotic era, but Americans should know that there are adults in the room.”
Underscoring the fierce response from the White House, more than 20 cabinet-level officials issued statements denying that they were the author. They included Mike Pence, the vice-president; and Dan Coats, the head of national intelligence who last month criticised Mr Trump over his remarks at his summit with Russian president Vladimir Putin.
Mike Pompeo, secretary of state; Jim Mattis, defence secretary; and Steven Mnuchin, Treasury secretary, were among the higher profile officials who denied penning the article.
The White House continued to slam the NYT over the publication of the piece. Sarah Sanders, White House press secretary, tweeted out the phone number of the paper’s opinion desk and urged Trump supporters to call to find out the identity of the “gutless loser”.
Rand Paul, a libertarian Kentucky Republican senator, urged the White House to use lie detector tests to find the official who wrote the article. Mr Trump last month revoked the security clearance of John Brennan, the Obama-era director of the CIA who had been critical of the president, after Mr Paul suggested taking the action.
The article came as Mr Trump was dealing with the fallout from Fear: Trump in the White House, a book by Bob Woodward that paints the picture of a chaotic White House where aides either ignore demands from Mr Trump or try to circumvent him.
According to the book, which will be released next week, Mr Mattis at one point described the president as a “fifth- or sixth-grader”, while John Kelly, White House chief of staff, said he was an “idiot”. Both men denied making the comments, but they resembled previous claims about officials criticising the president. Rex Tillerson, who was secretary of state, never denied reports that he had called Mr Trump a “moron”.
Many officials privately say that working for Mr Trump is challenging given his erratic approach. But the NYT article was the first direct claim that officials were actively trying to block his agenda. The description of the administration echoed criticisms from Bob Corker, the Republican head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who has described the White House as an “adult day care centre”.
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Mr Trump has repeatedly described the anonymous government sources of critical stories as the “deep state” — a reference to officials inside his administration that he accuses of trying to undermine his presidency because they wanted Hillary Clinton to win the 2016 election. While the NYT article painted a scathing picture of his presidency, however, Mr Trump frequently uses such reports to rally his own base.
“Trump will use this to stoke the paranoia among his fierce partisans, just as it has already fed Trump’s own paranoia,” said Larry Sabato, a University of Virginia politics expert. “As the old saying goes, maybe you’re paranoid because somebody’s out to get you.”
Mr Trump’s counter-attacks have intensified in the run-up to the November midterm elections, which are widely seen as a referendum on him. He has also increasingly slammed the Russia investigation being led by Robert Mueller as a “witch hunt”.
He was particularly vocal last month after Paul Manafort, his former campaign manager, was convicted of tax evasion and bank fraud. He has also come under greater scrutiny after Michael Cohen, his former personal attorney, pleaded guilty to violating campaign finance laws by paying hush money to Stormy Daniels, a porn star who claimed to have had an affair with Mr Trump, at the behest of Mr Trump.
The Real Clear Politics average of polls show Americans now disapprove of Mr Trump’s performance by a margin of more than 13 per cent.
