By Sam Zuckerman ’21
An anonymous source claiming to be a high ranking official from the White House dropped a bomb by releasing a opinion piece in the New York Times titled “I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration.” It has undoubtedly caused a stir in America, with many people hailing the writer as a hero, while others, including Trump himself, deemed the author a coward and a traitor.
The op-ed’s author should have stayed silent. The piece has created an immediate problem, and has potential to create a second one.
First off, there is too much talk of impeachment and Vice President Michael Pence taking over our nation right now. This, coupled with the political division in the public and the government, makes it easier for our enemies to take advantage of our country.
The release of this Op-Ed essay could give other countries leverage over us when it comes to discourse regarding international policies, which leaves the states in a very poor position.
National security is a problem that can be exploited very easily by many people very quickly. That’s another problem with this piece. It exposes a weak government.
If Trump is being kept in line by a secret group that even he doesn’t know about, nations that are negotiating with the United States can use this as a bargaining chip.
This has happened in history before, and it humiliated the United States. On Jan. 20, 1981, the two-year Iranian hostage crisis ended. On the first day of Ronald Reagan’s presidency, the hostages were released even though Jimmy Carter arguably did all of the work to get the hostages out. Why?
What ended up transpiring is that the Ayatollah released during the Reagan presidency to humiliate Carter and his administration as he left office. This could plausibly happen again, but with Trump being humiliated this time.
American foreign policy is already in a poor spot; a global humiliation because of this Op-Ed could lead to domestic and international problems.The absence of this essay would nullify this threat altogether.
But our foreign policy could change if the immediate problem we have is put into place. This problem is known as the 25th amendment.
The 25th amendment states many things, but the one that is getting people tight is section four, which states “…the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.” The problem that has been created is that people are unsure if Trump will be impeached, and our already split nation would be in a terrible, as a more conservative president would take office.
I would liken the situation in which we are currently embroiled to a second Watergate. We have an insider source releasing information that the public shouldn’t know.
The key difference between the two is that Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein released information with the help of their informant Deep Throat, which led to the resignation of Nixon. Trump, however, has done nothing illegal whatsoever in relation to the Op-Ed.
No good will be gained from this; it will only result in further national conflict and problems on the world stage. Ultimately, our country would be in a better place right now without this piece.
