MAGAThread XIV: All persons born or naturalized ...

[Gravlen]

So does anyone have any response to Trump's protester comments that don't involve whataboutism regarding guns?

Eh, apart from the fact that he's showing of his stupidity again (as Iffy points out), it's not something I would spend time on, given the context.

[Sovaal]

"You need to own a TV to observe what our government is doing" is not a good precedent.

Oddly, I don't actually own a TV.

At least, I don't own a TV being used as a TV, in the traditional sense.

I too use a TV as a cutting board.

[Ngelmish]

Because a judge is a person, a person has opinions, and opinions effect decisions.

In the UK, judges are people, they have opinions (but they're very good at impartiality) and I'm sure their opinions affect decisions. Still, no politics here

The premise -- and it's shared by members and politicians of both parties, though it's slanted more heavily towards one than the other -- is that judicial impartiality doesn't really exist because political outcomes are effected by judicial interpretation.

Of course, those arguing that point would piously argue in favor of judicial restraint, impartiality and the importance of political norms if they were confident that the judges currently in power would consistently rule in favor of their political outcomes. It's about authoritarian contempt for the idea that there are any meaningful rules to the game, not genuine principle.

[Vassenor]

Also he's back to screaming about how libel laws need to be changed to make it harder to criticise him in print.

[Tobleste]

Here's the thing though. How does only having a protest ban cover one room make it magically not a FA violation?

There are obviously some places forbidden from civilian protest, like pretty much the entire White House property, as well as many other government locations. Allowing protest in, say, the Situation Room, would be just silly. This is the same thinking behind not being allowed to yell "fire" in a crowded theater when there isn't an actual fire.
Where, exactly, are Kavanaugh hearings taking place, and what's the nature of the protest?

The protests seem to be about his threat to women's reproductive rights. As for the location, I think it's in some senate committee room.

[Vassenor]

Here's the thing though. How does only having a protest ban cover one room make it magically not a FA violation?

There are obviously some places forbidden from civilian protest, like pretty much the entire White House property, as well as many other government locations. Allowing protest in, say, the Situation Room, would be just silly. This is the same thinking behind not being allowed to yell "fire" in a crowded theater when there isn't an actual fire.
Where, exactly, are Kavanaugh hearings taking place, and what's the nature of the protest?

So how are these protests intended to incite imminent lawless action?

[Jerzylvania]

I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration

Schizoprenic administration detected. Here's the whole thing in case you can't access the NYT...

President Trump is facing a test to his presidency unlike any faced by a modern American leader.

It’s not just that the special counsel looms 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 on his downfall.

The dilemma — which he does not fully grasp — 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 to the health of our republic.

That is why many Trump appointees have vowed to do what we can to preserve our democratic institutions while thwarting Mr. Trump’s more misguided impulses until he is out of office.

The root of the problem is the president’s amorality. Anyone who works with him knows he is not moored to any discernible first principles that guide his decision making.

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.

In addition to his mass-marketing 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 negative coverage of the administration fails to capture: effective deregulation, historic 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, adversarial, petty and ineffective.

From the White House to executive 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 their operations from his whims.

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.

“There is literally no telling whether he might change his mind from one minute to the next,” a top official complained to me recently, exasperated by an Oval Office meeting at which the president flip-flopped on a major policy decision he’d made only a week earlier.

The erratic behavior would be more concerning if it weren’t for unsung heroes in and around the White House. Some of his aides have been cast as villains by the media. But in private, they have gone to great lengths to keep bad decisions contained to the West Wing, 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.

Take foreign policy: In public and in private, President Trump shows a preference for autocrats 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, like-minded nations.

Astute 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 and punished accordingly, and where allies around the world are engaged as peers rather than ridiculed as rivals.

On Russia, for instance, the president was reluctant to expel so many of Mr. Putin’s spies 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 further confrontation with Russia, and he expressed frustration that the United States continued to impose sanctions on the country for its malign behavior. But his national security team knew better — such actions had to be taken, to hold Moscow accountable.

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 of invoking the 25th Amendment, which would start a complex process for removing the president. But no one wanted to precipitate a constitutional crisis. So we will do what we can to steer the administration in the right direction until — one way or another — 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 to be stripped of civility.

Senator John McCain put it best in his farewell letter. All Americans should heed his words and break free of the tribalism trap, 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 for restoring honor to public life and our national dialogue. Mr. Trump may fear such honorable men, but we should revere 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 and resolving to shed the labels in favor of a single one: Americans.

The writer is a senior official in the Trump administration.

1; Im sure he is.
2: Still, would any of us here be surprised if it came out that Trump did basically fuck all?

There are a few diehards on this forum who will go down to the bottom with the Trump ship. I figure this happens when the midterms are a GOP disaster in the House and Trump points fingers at everyone but him. Meanwhile the GOP congressional delegation will finally lay blame to Trump. OTOH, if the Senate somehow goes to the Dems, then it's all over for Donnie and enough of them jump off the Trump ship to convict. He resigns by Jan 3rd 2019 when the new congress convenes and Pence gives him a blanket pardon. Then the GOP commences to pretend they were on the right side of this all along. Just wait and see.

[Proctopeo]

There are obviously some places forbidden from civilian protest, like pretty much the entire White House property, as well as many other government locations. Allowing protest in, say, the Situation Room, would be just silly. This is the same thinking behind not being allowed to yell "fire" in a crowded theater when there isn't an actual fire.
Where, exactly, are Kavanaugh hearings taking place, and what's the nature of the protest?

The protests seem to be about his threat to women's reproductive rights. As for the location, I think it's in some senate committee room.

That's a bit of a gray area then. Protest seems inappropriate for the situation and location, but allowing it isn't particularly wrong or weird there.

There are obviously some places forbidden from civilian protest, like pretty much the entire White House property, as well as many other government locations. Allowing protest in, say, the Situation Room, would be just silly. This is the same thinking behind not being allowed to yell "fire" in a crowded theater when there isn't an actual fire.
Where, exactly, are Kavanaugh hearings taking place, and what's the nature of the protest?

So how are these protests intended to incite imminent lawless action?

You avoided the entire other half of my post, lol
try rereading it

[Vassenor]

Scuttlebutt has it that the vocab used in the op-ed fingers Pence as the author.

[Jerzylvania]

Scuttlebutt has it that the vocab used in the op-ed fingers Pence as the author.

That word is unusual. The fact it keeps turning up in Pence's words year after year is telling. The 25th amendment which is mentioned by the author is all about replacing Trump with Pence. Wow.

If this would be true, will Trump try and fire Pence? Oh Lordy.

[Galloism]

Scuttlebutt has it that the vocab used in the op-ed fingers Pence as the author.

That word is unusual. The fact it keeps turning up in Pence's words year after year is telling. The 25th amendment which is mentioned by the author is all about replacing Trump with Pence. Wow.

If this would be true, will Trump try and fire Pence? Oh Lordy.

Trump can't fire Pence. He's an elected official.

[Jerzylvania]

That word is unusual. The fact it keeps turning up in Pence's words year after year is telling. The 25th amendment which is mentioned by the author is all about replacing Trump with Pence. Wow.

If this would be true, will Trump try and fire Pence? Oh Lordy.

Trump can't fire Pence. He's an elected official.

Thanks for that newsflash. I know, but does idiot Trump?

If Trump's head hasn't exploded yet this may do it. OTOH, maybe the actual author chose this word to throw off the scent of the bloodhounds?

If Trump's base thinks Mike Pence wrote this, then Pence's compromised politically going forward. He'd never win election in 2020. Think about it.

[Vassenor]

Also he may be randomly shouting about treason again.

[Jerzylvania]

A category 7 tweet storm is in the forecast.

[Major-Tom]

Trump can't fire Pence. He's an elected official.

Thanks for that newsflash. I know, but does idiot Trump?

If Trump's head hasn't exploded yet this may do it. OTOH, maybe the actual author chose this word to throw off the scent of the bloodhounds?

If Trump's base thinks Mike Pence wrote this, then Pence's compromised politically going forward. He'd never win election in 2020. Think about it.

I have a feeling it was an author using the word to throw off the scent, as you said. That seems most plausible. Or coincidence (though even I had never heard of the word lodestar, to be quite honest).

[Jerzylvania]

Thanks for that newsflash. I know, but does idiot Trump?

If Trump's head hasn't exploded yet this may do it. OTOH, maybe the actual author chose this word to throw off the scent of the bloodhounds?

If Trump's base thinks Mike Pence wrote this, then Pence's compromised politically going forward. He'd never win election in 2020. Think about it.

I have a feeling it was an author using the word to throw off the scent, as you said. That seems most plausible. Or coincidence (though even I had never heard of the word lodestar, to be quite honest).

FWIW, I'm pretty old and went to college etc etc etc. and I don't recall ever hearing the word before either. I'm also wondering who else uses that word regularly, going back at least to the 1990s (the earliest record found so far of the many times Pence used it was as an IN rep at a congressional hearing on the EPA in 2001). Pence picked it up somewhere in his life. I'd be interested in where and why he loves that odd word so much.

Now, the motive of another high WH official using it is simple. Ruin Pence. So they must support someone else for the 2020 GOP nomination other than Trump or Pence. Maybe low energy Jeb has a low friend in a high place who's very clever.

[Ifreann]

And that's fucking demented, and therefore the posters lining up to agree with him just to be contrarian should stop doing so.

I don't think you understand what we're agreeing with.

I understand perfectly. You were very clear.

He's absolutely correct in that it's embarrassing for the country to allow morons to stand up and start screeching about shit while we're trying to evaluate the merits of a potential Justice.

But you don't allow that. You arrested people for doing that. TWhat am I going to hear next, you allowed Ted Bundy to kill all those people?

---

And that's fucking demented, and therefore the posters lining up to agree with him just to be contrarian should stop doing so.

Murder is illegal, do you consider those who want gun free zones in schools 'fucking demented'?

You must be lost, this is the Trump thread, not the gun control thread.

The Police stopping a man who has done nothing wrong and then harassing him, or worse, framing him for drug possession or something is illegal, do you consider people who advocate for police body cameras to be 'fucking demented'?

We could go on...

I'm sure you could. Maybe if you went on for long enough you might realise that what I am calling demented is the President somehow failing to understand that since people were arrested for screaming from the gallery, they very obviously are not allowed to scream from the gallery, and it is very obviously not true that nothing was done to stop them screaming from the gallery.

But gosh, this is so inconsiderate of me. You keep trying to talk about whether Congress should have public galleries, and here I am talking about Trump and his mind-boggling ignorance.

[Scomagia]

Look, I dislike Trump, but am I the only one who has concerns about insubordination in the White House? He may be a completely unqualified, amoral business crook but he is The President.

[The Derpy Democratic Republic Of Herp]

I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration

Schizoprenic administration detected. Here's the whole thing in case you can't access the NYT...

President Trump is facing a test to his presidency unlike any faced by a modern American leader.

It’s not just that the special counsel looms 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 on his downfall.

The dilemma — which he does not fully grasp — 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 to the health of our republic.

That is why many Trump appointees have vowed to do what we can to preserve our democratic institutions while thwarting Mr. Trump’s more misguided impulses until he is out of office.

The root of the problem is the president’s amorality. Anyone who works with him knows he is not moored to any discernible first principles that guide his decision making.

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.

In addition to his mass-marketing 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 negative coverage of the administration fails to capture: effective deregulation, historic 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, adversarial, petty and ineffective.

From the White House to executive 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 their operations from his whims.

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.

“There is literally no telling whether he might change his mind from one minute to the next,” a top official complained to me recently, exasperated by an Oval Office meeting at which the president flip-flopped on a major policy decision he’d made only a week earlier.

The erratic behavior would be more concerning if it weren’t for unsung heroes in and around the White House. Some of his aides have been cast as villains by the media. But in private, they have gone to great lengths to keep bad decisions contained to the West Wing, 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.

Take foreign policy: In public and in private, President Trump shows a preference for autocrats 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, like-minded nations.

Astute 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 and punished accordingly, and where allies around the world are engaged as peers rather than ridiculed as rivals.

On Russia, for instance, the president was reluctant to expel so many of Mr. Putin’s spies 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 further confrontation with Russia, and he expressed frustration that the United States continued to impose sanctions on the country for its malign behavior. But his national security team knew better — such actions had to be taken, to hold Moscow accountable.

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 of invoking the 25th Amendment, which would start a complex process for removing the president. But no one wanted to precipitate a constitutional crisis. So we will do what we can to steer the administration in the right direction until — one way or another — 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 to be stripped of civility.

Senator John McCain put it best in his farewell letter. All Americans should heed his words and break free of the tribalism trap, 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 for restoring honor to public life and our national dialogue. Mr. Trump may fear such honorable men, but we should revere 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 and resolving to shed the labels in favor of a single one: Americans.

The writer is a senior official in the Trump administration.

Wow.

[Seangoli]

1; Im sure he is.
2: Still, would any of us here be surprised if it came out that Trump did basically fuck all?

To 1, Sarah Sanders more or less admitted to believing the person is actually in the administration by stating they should resign. It seems the administration believes whomever wrote the op-ed is the real deal.

[Sovaal]

1; Im sure he is.
2: Still, would any of us here be surprised if it came out that Trump did basically fuck all?

To 1, Sarah Sanders more or less admitted to believing the person is actually in the administration by stating they should resign. It seems the administration believes whomever wrote the op-ed is the real deal.

Eh, I'd be surprised if anything comes from it if true.

[Jerzylvania]

Look, I dislike Trump, but am I the only one who has concerns about insubordination in the White House? He may be a completely unqualified, amoral business crook but he is The President.

Sorry but no, I doubt there is much concern about it considering the overall situation.

[Geneviev]

I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration

Schizoprenic administration detected. Here's the whole thing in case you can't access the NYT...

President Trump is facing a test to his presidency unlike any faced by a modern American leader.

It’s not just that the special counsel looms 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 on his downfall.

The dilemma — which he does not fully grasp — 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 to the health of our republic.

That is why many Trump appointees have vowed to do what we can to preserve our democratic institutions while thwarting Mr. Trump’s more misguided impulses until he is out of office.

The root of the problem is the president’s amorality. Anyone who works with him knows he is not moored to any discernible first principles that guide his decision making.

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.

In addition to his mass-marketing 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 negative coverage of the administration fails to capture: effective deregulation, historic 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, adversarial, petty and ineffective.

From the White House to executive 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 their operations from his whims.

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.

“There is literally no telling whether he might change his mind from one minute to the next,” a top official complained to me recently, exasperated by an Oval Office meeting at which the president flip-flopped on a major policy decision he’d made only a week earlier.

The erratic behavior would be more concerning if it weren’t for unsung heroes in and around the White House. Some of his aides have been cast as villains by the media. But in private, they have gone to great lengths to keep bad decisions contained to the West Wing, 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.

Take foreign policy: In public and in private, President Trump shows a preference for autocrats 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, like-minded nations.

Astute 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 and punished accordingly, and where allies around the world are engaged as peers rather than ridiculed as rivals.

On Russia, for instance, the president was reluctant to expel so many of Mr. Putin’s spies 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 further confrontation with Russia, and he expressed frustration that the United States continued to impose sanctions on the country for its malign behavior. But his national security team knew better — such actions had to be taken, to hold Moscow accountable.

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 of invoking the 25th Amendment, which would start a complex process for removing the president. But no one wanted to precipitate a constitutional crisis. So we will do what we can to steer the administration in the right direction until — one way or another — 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 to be stripped of civility.

Senator John McCain put it best in his farewell letter. All Americans should heed his words and break free of the tribalism trap, 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 for restoring honor to public life and our national dialogue. Mr. Trump may fear such honorable men, but we should revere 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 and resolving to shed the labels in favor of a single one: Americans.

The writer is a senior official in the Trump administration.

This is exactly what the world needs right now. A sign that the White House isn't completely insane.

[Jerzylvania]

1; Im sure he is.
2: Still, would any of us here be surprised if it came out that Trump did basically fuck all?

To 1, Sarah Sanders more or less admitted to believing the person is actually in the administration by stating they should resign. It seems the administration believes whomever wrote the op-ed is the real deal.

The NYT knows exactly who wrote it. They wouldn't publish it otherwise. I also believe they wouldn't try publish a low level WH employee, like a speech writer. This has to be a big fish.

[Ifreann]

1; Im sure he is.
2: Still, would any of us here be surprised if it came out that Trump did basically fuck all?

To 1, Sarah Sanders more or less admitted to believing the person is actually in the administration by stating they should resign. It seems the administration believes whomever wrote the op-ed is the real deal.

Shyamalan twist: It was Trump.

---

I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration

Schizoprenic administration detected. Here's the whole thing in case you can't access the NYT...

President Trump is facing a test to his presidency unlike any faced by a modern American leader.

It’s not just that the special counsel looms 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 on his downfall.

The dilemma — which he does not fully grasp — 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 to the health of our republic.

That is why many Trump appointees have vowed to do what we can to preserve our democratic institutions while thwarting Mr. Trump’s more misguided impulses until he is out of office.

The root of the problem is the president’s amorality. Anyone who works with him knows he is not moored to any discernible first principles that guide his decision making.

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.

In addition to his mass-marketing 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 negative coverage of the administration fails to capture: effective deregulation, historic 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, adversarial, petty and ineffective.

From the White House to executive 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 their operations from his whims.

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.

“There is literally no telling whether he might change his mind from one minute to the next,” a top official complained to me recently, exasperated by an Oval Office meeting at which the president flip-flopped on a major policy decision he’d made only a week earlier.

The erratic behavior would be more concerning if it weren’t for unsung heroes in and around the White House. Some of his aides have been cast as villains by the media. But in private, they have gone to great lengths to keep bad decisions contained to the West Wing, 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.

Take foreign policy: In public and in private, President Trump shows a preference for autocrats 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, like-minded nations.

Astute 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 and punished accordingly, and where allies around the world are engaged as peers rather than ridiculed as rivals.

On Russia, for instance, the president was reluctant to expel so many of Mr. Putin’s spies 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 further confrontation with Russia, and he expressed frustration that the United States continued to impose sanctions on the country for its malign behavior. But his national security team knew better — such actions had to be taken, to hold Moscow accountable.

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 of invoking the 25th Amendment, which would start a complex process for removing the president. But no one wanted to precipitate a constitutional crisis. So we will do what we can to steer the administration in the right direction until — one way or another — 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 to be stripped of civility.

Senator John McCain put it best in his farewell letter. All Americans should heed his words and break free of the tribalism trap, 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 for restoring honor to public life and our national dialogue. Mr. Trump may fear such honorable men, but we should revere 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 and resolving to shed the labels in favor of a single one: Americans.

The writer is a senior official in the Trump administration.

This is exactly what the world needs right now. A sign that the White House isn't completely insane.

Everyone already knew that. This is the Republicans giving themselves an out in case Trump crashes and burns. "It's not OUR fault! We were keeping the country running while that crazy man was at the helm."