{"id":36710,"date":"2018-09-06T05:45:22","date_gmt":"2018-09-06T09:45:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=36710"},"modified":"2018-09-12T12:09:46","modified_gmt":"2018-09-12T16:09:46","slug":"the-administrations-nervous-breakdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2018\/09\/the-administrations-nervous-breakdown\/","title":{"rendered":"The Administration’s “Nervous Breakdown”?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Just what is going on in the White House?\u00a0 It sounds like the administration and White House staff are in full revolt against the president who appointed them.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the message of a new book by Watergate journalist Bob Woodward, and it\u2019s the message of an extraordinary op-ed piece in the New York Times<\/em> by an anonymous\u00a0\u00a0\u201ca senior official in the Trump administration.\u201d<\/p>\n

That official says that he and other administration officials and White House staff are so alarmed by President Trump\u2019s behavior that they are purposefully thwarting him.\u00a0 The writer says he supports the president\u2019s tax-cuts, deregulation, and military build-ups but says that these have happened despite the president, not because of him, and are examples of the staff essentially taking over the administration from someone who does not have a clue.<\/p>\n

\n

Read what he says.\u00a0 Here is a sample from I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration:<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

President Trump is facing a test to his presidency unlike any faced by a modern American leader.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just that the special counsel looms large. Or that the country is bitterly divided over Mr. Trump\u2019s leadership. Or even that his party might well lose the House to an opposition hellbent on his downfall.<\/p>\n

The dilemma \u2014 which he does not fully grasp \u2014 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.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
I would know. I am one of them.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n

To be clear, ours is not the popular \u201cresistance\u201d of the left. We want the administration to succeed and think that many of its policies have already made America safer and more prosperous.<\/p>\n

But we believe our first duty is to this country, and the president continues to act in a manner that is detrimental to the health of our republic.<\/p>\n

That is why many Trump appointees have\u00a0vowed to do what we can<\/a>\u00a0to preserve our democratic institutions while thwarting Mr. Trump\u2019s more misguided impulses until he is out of office.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

The root of the problem is the president\u2019s amorality. Anyone who works with him knows he is not moored to any discernible first principles that guide his decision making.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n
\n
\n

Although he was elected as a Republican, the president shows little affinity for ideals long espoused by conservatives: free minds, free markets and free people. At best, he has invoked these ideals in scripted settings. At worst, he has attacked them outright.<\/p>\n

In addition to his mass-marketing of the notion that the press is the \u201cenemy of the people,\u201d President Trump\u2019s impulses are generally anti-trade and anti-democratic.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t get me wrong. There are bright spots that the near-ceaseless negative coverage of the administration fails to capture: effective deregulation, historic tax reform, a more robust military and more.<\/p>\n

But these successes have come despite \u2014 not because of \u2014 the president\u2019s leadership style, which is impetuous, adversarial, petty and ineffective.<\/p>\n

[Keep reading. . .]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Bob Woodward\u2019s new book, Fear:\u00a0 Trump in the White House<\/a>\u00a0makes the same claims.\u00a0 Its sources are supposedly on \u201cdeep background\u201d to protect their identities, but Woodward quotes, by name, some of the more prominent members of the administration, including chief of staff John Kelly, who calls his boss an \u201cidiot\u201d and Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, who says the president has the understanding of a \u201cfifth- or sixth-grader.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sources also give examples of President Trump\u2019s \u201cunhinged\u201d behavior and questionable decisions that the staff thwarted by just removing articles from his desk so that he wouldn\u2019t see them or failing to carry out what he tells them to do.\u00a0 President Trump is quoted as deriding and humiliating his advisors and cabinet members, calling Jeff Sessions \u201cretarded\u201d and a \u201cdumb Southerner\u201d and mocking his national security advisor General H. R. McMasters.<\/p>\n

Read this account<\/a> drawn from the book.<\/p>\n

And yet now, Kelly, Mattis, and others cited in his book are denying<\/a> they said what Woodward said they said.<\/p>\n

So the question remains, what is going on in the White House?<\/p>\n

If these accounts are true, we are having unelected officials running the Executive Branch.\u00a0 If these staffers are being insubordinate, it was the president who hired them.\u00a0 And it is surely a fault of his leadership if he can\u2019t keep his own employees, as it were, in line or win their loyalty.\u00a0 Not to mention the concerns raised by the substance of their accusations about the president.<\/p>\n

If these accounts are false, how can we account for them?\u00a0 There must be some sources within the White House that are either leaking these stories or making them up.<\/p>\n

If things are really as bad as the op-ed and Woodward\u2019s book describe, if the White House in the alleged words of John Kelly has become \u201cCrazytown,\u201d there is a remedy.\u00a0 Not anonymous leakings to the press but the 25th Amendment to the Constitution<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Were the Cabinet and Vice-President to invoke that Amendment by declaring the president to be mentally incompetent, that would not be a Constitutional crisis, as the Op-Ed writer says.\u00a0 Rather, it would be following<\/em> the Constitution.<\/p>\n

If the \u201cresistance\u201d inside the White House is not prepared to do that, they should be quiet.\u00a0 If they think they have to manage their boss, fine, but that includes covering for him if necessary.\u00a0 It\u2019s hard to see what good it will do for the country by going public like this.<\/p>\n

If these people are really saving the country by controlling the president, as they say they are, they won\u2019t be able to do that if they tell the president, along with the rest of the world, that this is what they are doing!<\/p>\n

So why would they talk to the Watergate reporter and tell all about it by writing an Op-Ed in the New York Times<\/em>?\u00a0 This doesn\u2019t make sense.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Photo:\u00a0 Bob Woodward by Exchanges Photos (Bob Woodward and Edward R. Murrow partcipants) [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just what is going on in the White House?\u00a0 It sounds like the administration and White House staff are in full revolt against the president who appointed them. That\u2019s the message of a new book by Watergate journalist Bob Woodward, and it\u2019s the message of an extraordinary op-ed piece in the New York Times by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":36734,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[325,7473,4923,4926,7541,5134],"class_list":["post-36710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-bob-woodward","tag-channel-politics-red","tag-president-donald-trump","tag-trump-administration","tag-trump-administration-resistance","tag-white-house-staff"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Administration's "Nervous Breakdown"?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A new book by Bob Woodward and a New York Times op-ed by an anonymous "senior White House official" describe an administration in chaos. Whether this is true or false, we have problems.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2018\/09\/the-administrations-nervous-breakdown\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Administration's "Nervous Breakdown"?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A new book by Bob Woodward and a New York Times op-ed by an anonymous "senior White House official" describe an administration in chaos. Whether this is true or false, we have problems.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2018\/09\/the-administrations-nervous-breakdown\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cranach\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cranachblog\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-09-06T09:45:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-09-12T16:09:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/305\/2018\/09\/Bob_Woodward_and_Edward_R._Murrow_partcipants_30105092843-e1536196341718.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"764\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"472\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gene Veith\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Gene Veith\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2018\/09\/the-administrations-nervous-breakdown\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2018\/09\/the-administrations-nervous-breakdown\/\",\"name\":\"The Administration's \\\"Nervous Breakdown\\\"?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-09-06T09:45:22+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-09-12T16:09:46+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1\"},\"description\":\"A new book by Bob Woodward and a New York Times op-ed by an anonymous \\\"senior White House official\\\" describe an administration in chaos. Whether this is true or false, we have problems.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2018\/09\/the-administrations-nervous-breakdown\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2018\/09\/the-administrations-nervous-breakdown\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2018\/09\/the-administrations-nervous-breakdown\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Administration’s “Nervous Breakdown”?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/\",\"name\":\"Cranach\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1\",\"name\":\"Gene Veith\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Gene Veith\"},\"description\":\"Gene Edward Veith, Jr. is a writer and retired literature professor, serving as Provost Emeritus at Patrick Henry College. He has authored over 25 books on Christianity and culture, literature, classical education, and theology. Dr. Veith previously held academic and editorial roles at Concordia University Wisconsin and WORLD Magazine. A respected voice in Lutheran and classical education circles, he holds a Ph.D. in English and several honorary doctorates. He and his wife, Jackquelyn, live in St. Louis and have three children and twelve grandchildren.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cranachblog\/\",\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Gene_Edward_Veith\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/author\/geneveith\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Administration's \"Nervous Breakdown\"?","description":"A new book by Bob Woodward and a New York Times op-ed by an anonymous \"senior White House official\" describe an administration in chaos. Whether this is true or false, we have problems.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2018\/09\/the-administrations-nervous-breakdown\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Administration's \"Nervous Breakdown\"?","og_description":"A new book by Bob Woodward and a New York Times op-ed by an anonymous \"senior White House official\" describe an administration in chaos. Whether this is true or false, we have problems.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2018\/09\/the-administrations-nervous-breakdown\/","og_site_name":"Cranach","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cranachblog\/","article_published_time":"2018-09-06T09:45:22+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-09-12T16:09:46+00:00","og_image":[{"width":764,"height":472,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/305\/2018\/09\/Bob_Woodward_and_Edward_R._Murrow_partcipants_30105092843-e1536196341718.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Gene Veith","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Gene Veith","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2018\/09\/the-administrations-nervous-breakdown\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2018\/09\/the-administrations-nervous-breakdown\/","name":"The Administration's \"Nervous Breakdown\"?","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website"},"datePublished":"2018-09-06T09:45:22+00:00","dateModified":"2018-09-12T16:09:46+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1"},"description":"A new book by Bob Woodward and a New York Times op-ed by an anonymous \"senior White House official\" describe an administration in chaos. Whether this is true or false, we have problems.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2018\/09\/the-administrations-nervous-breakdown\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2018\/09\/the-administrations-nervous-breakdown\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2018\/09\/the-administrations-nervous-breakdown\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Administration’s “Nervous Breakdown”?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/","name":"Cranach","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1","name":"Gene Veith","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Gene Veith"},"description":"Gene Edward Veith, Jr. is a writer and retired literature professor, serving as Provost Emeritus at Patrick Henry College. He has authored over 25 books on Christianity and culture, literature, classical education, and theology. Dr. Veith previously held academic and editorial roles at Concordia University Wisconsin and WORLD Magazine. A respected voice in Lutheran and classical education circles, he holds a Ph.D. in English and several honorary doctorates. He and his wife, Jackquelyn, live in St. Louis and have three children and twelve grandchildren.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cranachblog\/","https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Gene_Edward_Veith"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/author\/geneveith\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1281"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36710\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}