United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post on Friday ripping the anonymous piece from a senior administration staffer published in The New York Times this week detailing an effort to thwart Trump’s “worst inclinations” in the White House.
Haley argues in her opinion piece that concerns with the president’s actions should be brought to his attention publicly, arguing that she has done so on several occasions since joining the Trump administration last year.
{mosads}”I, too, am a senior Trump administration official. I proudly serve in this administration, and I enthusiastically support most of its decisions and the direction it is taking the country,” Haley writes.
“But I don’t agree with the president on everything,” the former South Carolina governor continues. “When there is disagreement, there is a right way and a wrong way to address it. I pick up the phone and call him or meet with him in person.”
Haley goes on to call the anonymous official’s decision to publish the piece “dangerous,” and responsible for “many problems” within the administration including spreading distrust among staffers.
“What this anonymous author is doing is very dangerous. He or she claims to be putting the country first, and that is the right goal,” she writes. “[But] what the author is describing is an extra-constitutional method of addressing policy disputes within the administration. That’s wrong on a fundamental level.”
“As a former governor, I find it absolutely chilling to imagine that a high-ranking member of my team would secretly try to thwart my agenda. That is not the American way. It is fundamentally disloyal, not just to the chief executive, but to our country and our values,” she concluded, adding that the anonymous official should resign or make their case directly to Trump.
The earlier op-ed titled “I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration” earlier this week has set off a flurry of activity in the White House, as staffers hunt for the identity of the author.
Trump himself has called for the Times to turn over the writer to the White House, on the grounds of national security, which the Times has refused to do.