“What this person did is badly hurt the effort to rein in Trump … and it will make him crazy,” said a Republican close to the White House. “Now, if you say to the president, ‘I see where you’re heading, but I’m not sure about that’ — he’s going to think, ‘Ah, you wrote that.’”
Even some of Trump’s most public critics said they didn’t understand the value of the op-ed, other than to state publicly what’s been discussed privately among Washington Republicans since Trump was elected nearly two years ago.
“I’m not a fan of people doing things in an anonymous way. If you’ve got something to say, look the camera in the eye and say it. Talk to people directly. When I read it, to me there was nothing new,” said Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), a frequent Trump critic. “Any of us who have dealt with the White House understand the situation that’s there.”
Join the conversation as a VIP Member