TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/TRUMP PEOPLE: “For some top figures in the Trump administration—the ones who occupy the more conventional space of the political world—last week was a tough one.
They listened in distress as the president they work for appeared to defend a march marked by white-supremacist and anti-Semitic sentiments in Charlottesville. From the left, and from some never-Trump conservative circles, they were then told they had a moral responsibility to resign.
Meanwhile, on the Breitbart right, they were being called traitors and worse. There, they were labeled ‘White House globalists’ out to undermine President Donald Trump’s agenda, who had helped drive out strategist Steve Bannon. The cry was for them to be booted out.
Amid it all, some friends and allies were privately pleading with them to stay for the good of the country, arguing that less-qualified newcomers with dangerous ideas could take charge in their absence.
Caught in this swirl of conflicting forces, most feel compelled to stay for the greater good, convinced, justifiably, that they are helping steer the nation’s policies onto safer ground. Still, in many cases they left behind good careers or safe sinecures, only to find themselves under attack by both Trump lovers and Trump haters for doing so.”
-Gerald F. Seib, “Stay or Go? Some Trump Aides Are Pressed From All Sides,” The Wall Street Journal online, Aug. 21, 2017 12:18pm