President Donald Trump gave a lengthy response to yet another public indictment of his leadership on Wednesday, listing off his administration's achievements and guaranteeing he'll be re-elected in 2020.
An anonymous person identified as a senior official in the administration wrote a New York Times op-ed headlined, "I Am Part of the Resistance in the Trump Administration." The person wrote that he or she and others wanted the administration to succeed, but they were working to undercut Trump's worst impulses and called him "detrimental to the health of the republic."
Trump repeated the headline and said "this is what we have to deal with" during freewheeling remarks in front of the press at an event for sheriffs from around the country. Reading off a list, he said nobody had matched his administration's accomplishments, touting the country's economic gains since his election.
"Nobody has ever done in less than a two-year period what we have done," he said. "So when you tell me about some anonymous source within the administration, probably who's failing and probably here for all the wrong reasons, now, and the New York Times is failing. If I weren't here, I believe the New York Times probably wouldn't even exist."
He predicted some day when he was not president, the New York Times and CNN "and all of these phony media outlets will be out of business."
"Can you believe it? Anonymous. Meaning gutless. A gutless editorial," he said. "We're doing a great job. The poll numbers are through the roof. Our poll numbers are great. Guess what? Nobody is going to come close to beating me in 2020 because of what we've done. We've done more than anybody ever thought possible in—it's not even two years."
In a separate statement, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the op-ed writer was a "coward" who should resign.
"Nearly 62 million people voted for President Donald J. Trump in 2016, earning him 306 Electoral College votes—versus 232 for his opponent. None of them voted for a gutless, anonymous source to the failing New York Times. We are disappointed, but not surprised, that the paper chose to publish this pathetic, reckless, and selfish op-ed. This is a new low for the so-called 'paper of record,' and it should issue an apology, just as it did after the election for its disastrous coverage of the Trump campaign. This is just another example of the liberal media’s concerted effort to discredit the president," she said.
"President Trump has laid out a bold and ambitious agenda. Every day since taking office, he has fulfilled the promises he made. His accomplishments in less than two years have been astounding. The individual behind this piece has chosen to deceive, rather than support, the duly elected President of the United States. He is not putting country first, but putting himself and his ego ahead of the will of the American people. This coward should do the right thing and resign."