Searing Trump op- ed sets off wild guessing game on author
The GUTLESS anonymous person does indeed exist, the Times must, for National Security purposes, turn him/ her over to government at once! — Donald Trump, US Prez
Washington, Sept. 6: An opinion piece in the New York Times by an anonymous senior administration official claiming to be part of a “resistance” working “from within” to thwart President Donald Trump’s “worst inclinations” set off a wild guessing game inside and outside the White House on the author’s identity.
Swift denials of involvement in the op- ed came Thursday from top administration officials, including the office of vice- president Mike Pence, and secretary of state Mike Pompeo.
Mr Trump himself was furious, tweeting on Thursday morning that “The Deep State and the
Donald Trump's top lieutenants scrambled Thursday to deny authorship of an explosive op- ed article that has plunged his presidency into its worst crisis yet by proclaiming a secret insider resistance to his reckless, "amoral" leadership.
The White House has been convulsed since Wednesday by a fevered hunt for the senior official who declared, in an unsigned article for the New York Times, that "unsung heroes" were quietly working within the administration to frustrate the President's "worst inclinations."
Vice- president Mike Pence, secretary of state Mike Pompeo and director of national intelligence Dan Coats stepped forward, one after another, with their own version of the same message: "Not me."
But the internet and Trump's own aides were abuzz with speculation over who the unnamed official might be and whether the act of defiance was tantamount to a coup in the making.
"TREASON?" Trump asked in a furious volley of tweets. Moving to squelch internet speculation, Pence's spokesman said the vice president did not write the article.
"The Vice President puts his name on his Op- eds. The @ nytimes should be ashamed and so should the person who wrote the false, illogical, and gutless oped," Agen wrote on Twitter. "Our office is above such amateur acts."
The manifesto followed a bombshell book by Watergate reporter Bob Woodward, who portrayed Trump's White House as an out- of- control "crazytown."
The Woodward book, Fear: Trump in the White House, reported that senior aides lifted documents from the Oval Office desk to keep the President from acting on his impulses, reinforcing the assertions in the Times op- ed piece.
News of the letter caught up with Pompeo in New Delhi, where he was traveling with US defense secretary Jim Mattis. Pompeo denied writing the article, calling the Times' decision to publish "sad" and "disturbing." "I come from a place where if you're not in a position to execute the commander's intent, you have a singular option, that is to leave," he said.
"And this person instead, according to the New York Times, chose not only to stay but to undermine what President Trump and this administration are trying to do.