The editors of the Wall Street Journal took Donald Trump to task on Friday morning for creating an atmosphere at the White House that has an aide -- or multiple aides -- boasting that they are undermining the president for the good of the country.
Under a lead editorial entitled, "The Anonymous Resistance," the editors claimed the anonymous author of the New York Times op-ed that has thrown the White House into a paranoid frenzy over the mystery leaker is "no hero."
However, they laid the blame for the fact the aides have reportedly substituted their own agendas for the presidents on Trump himself.
"One consequence of having such a polarizing and personally flawed man as President is the degree to which his opponents justify their own destructive excess in response," the editorial began.
Before turning back to Trump, the Journal admitted that they too have previously published anonymous pieces, but were unsure if they ever published one of a similar nature.
"We don’t recall offering anonymity to someone in government or American politics, though perhaps we have and we can’t say we would never do so," they wrote. "The op-ed in this case doesn’t meet those standards, not least because it isn’t news. The fact that senior Administration officials have been trying to block Mr. Trump’s uninformed policy impulses, and mute his self-destructive anger and narcissism, has been reported hundreds of times."
After touching on Trump's flaws as a president, the Journal went after the president for his personal demeanor, saying he brought the chaos and dysfunction upon himself.
"On policy, Mr. Trump has been better than we expected, and the economy has climbed to a new growth plateau (even amid a misguided trade war). This is surely why many voters continue to approve of Mr. Trump’s performance despite his tantrums," the editorial went on to explain, before stating that the president is likely destroying the Republican Party.
"The tragedy of this Presidency is that his rants and insults—even toward people who work for him—threaten to overwhelm his policy achievements," the editors lectured, "They fire up his loyalists but put off millions who expect better from a President. Mr. Trump is now determined against good advice to make this fall’s election a referendum on himself, and if Republicans lose the House the path to his destruction will accelerate."
You can read the whole editorial here (subscription required).
