The writer is a senior official in the Trump administration.
President Trump is facing a test to his presidency(总统任期) unlike any faced by a modern American leader.
It’s not just that the special counsel looms(隐约出现) large. Or that the country is bitterly divided over Mr. Trump’s leadership. Or even that his party might well lose the House to an opposition hellbent(疾驰的) on his downfall(垮台).
The dilemma — which he does not fully grasp(领会) — is that many of the senior officials in his own administration are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations.
I would know. I am one of them.
To be clear, ours is not the popular “resistance” of the left. 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(不利的) to the health of our republic.
That is why many Trump appointees(被任命者) have vowed(发誓) to do what we can to preserve our democratic institutions while thwarting(挫败) Mr. Trump’s more misguided impulses(冲动) until he is out of office.
The root of the problem is the president’s amorality(毫无道德). Anyone who works with him knows he is not moored(系住) to any discernible(可辨别的) first principles that guide his decision making.
Although he was elected as a Republican, the president shows little affinity(喜爱) for ideals long espoused(支持) by conservatives(保守主义者): free minds, free markets and free people. At best(在最好的情况下), he has invoked(援引) these ideals in scripted settings. At worst, he has attacked them outright(直截了当地).
In addition to his mass-marketing(大规模营销) of the notion that the press is the “enemy of the people,” President Trump’s impulses are generally anti-trade and anti-democratic.
Don’t get me wrong. There are bright spots that the near-ceaseless(几乎无止境的) negative coverage(新闻报道) of the administration fails to capture: effective deregulation(宽松管制), historic(历史性的) tax reform, a more robust military and more.
But these successes have come despite — not because of — the president’s leadership style, which is impetuous(冲动的), adversarial(对抗的), petty(小气的) and ineffective.
From the White House to executive(行政的) branch departments and agencies, senior officials will privately admit their daily disbelief at the commander in chief’s comments and actions. Most are working to insulate(隔离) their operations from his whims(心血来潮).
Meetings with him veer off(转向) topic and off the rails, he engages in repetitive rants(咆哮), and his impulsiveness(冲动) results in half-baked(不成熟的), ill-informed(孤陋寡闻的) and occasionally reckless(鲁莽的) decisions that have to be walked back.
“There is literally(从字面意思上) no telling whether he might change his mind from one minute to the next,” a top official complained to me recently, exasperated(激怒) by an Oval Office meeting(椭圆桌办公会议) at which the president flip-flopped(快速翻转) on a major policy decision he’d made only a week earlier.
The erratic(难以捉摸的) behavior would be more concerning if it weren’t for unsung(无名的) heroes in and around the White House. Some of his aides(助手) have been cast as villains(大反派) by the media. But in private, they have gone to great lengths to keep bad decisions contained to the West Wing(白宫西翼), though they are clearly not always successful.
It may be cold comfort in this chaotic era, but Americans should know that there are adults in the room. We fully recognize what is happening. And we are trying to do what’s right even when Donald Trump won’t.
The result is a two-track presidency(双轨总统制).
Take foreign policy: In public and in private, President Trump shows a preference for autocrats(独裁者) 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(联合的), like-minded nations.
Astute(精明的) 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(干预) and punished accordingly, and where allies around the world are engaged as peers(统一战线) rather than ridiculed as rivals(对手).
On Russia, for instance, the president was reluctant(不情愿的) to expel(驱逐) so many of Mr. Putin’s spies(间谍) 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(陷入) further confrontation(对抗) with Russia, and he expressed frustration that the United States continued to impose sanctions(制裁) on the country for its malign(恶意的) behavior. But his national security team knew better — such actions had to be taken, to hold Moscow accountable(负责的).
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(内阁) of invoking(调用) the 25th Amendment(宪法修正案), which would start a complex process for removing the president. But no one wanted to precipitate(促成) a constitutional crisis. So we will do what we can to steer(掌舵) the administration in the right direction until — one way or another(无论如何) — it’s over.
The bigger concern is not what Mr. Trump has done to the presidency but rather what we as a nation have allowed him to do to us. We have sunk low with him and allowed our discourse(言论) to be stripped of civility(脱下文明的外衣).
Senator John McCain put it best in his farewell(告别) letter. All Americans should heed(留心) his words and break free of the tribalism trap(部落化陷阱，即分裂), with the high aim of uniting through our shared values and love of this great nation.
We may no longer have Senator McCain. But we will always have his example — a lodestar(北极星) for restoring honor to public life and our national dialogue. Mr. Trump may fear such honorable men, but we should revere(尊敬他们) them.
There is a quiet resistance within the administration of people choosing to put country first. But the real difference will be made by everyday citizens rising above politics, reaching across the aisle(走廊，即奔走相告) and resolving to(坚定不移地做) shed the labels(摆脱标签，即放下成见) in favor of(支持) a single one: Americans.
