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So the former Trump administration official behind the notorious and anonymous 2018 New York Times op-ed that called the president “amoral” and “generally anti-trade and anti-democratic” has come forward — and folks on both sides of the political aisle responded with a collective shrug.
Miles Taylor, the former chief of staff of the Department of Homeland Security, revealed on Wednesday that he wrote both the op-ed and the 2019 anti-Trump tome “A Warning.”
Taylor resigned from the administration last year and endorsed Trump’s Democratic rival for the White House, former Vice President Joe Biden, over the summer. He has been a vocal critic of the president since the summer, and joined CNN as a contributor in September.
“Donald Trump is a man without character. It’s why I wrote ‘A Warning’ … and it’s why me & my colleagues have spoken out against him (in our own names) for months. It’s time for everyone to step out of the shadows,” Taylor said in a tweet that included a longer statement describing why he is no longer anonymous.
Trump’s re-election campaign responded with a statement calling this the “least impressive, lamest political ‘reveal’ of all time.”
“I worked with DHS officials while I was in the White House, and even I had to research who Miles Taylor was,” Hogan Gidley, the Trump 2020 national press secretary, said in a statement distributed to reporters. “He’s just another standard-issue arrogant, Washington, DC swamp bro who loved President Trump until he figured out he could try to make money by attacking him.”
And many on Twitter TWTR, -5.34% seemed to agree on Wednesday, tweeting memes that mocked the anticlimactic announcement, or calling out Taylor for waiting until just six days before the Nov. 3 election to come forward.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany didn’t hold back on insulting him in a statement to reporters, either. “This low-level, disgruntled former staffer is a liar and a coward who chose anonymity over action and leaking over leading,” she said.
