Trump seethes after attack by anonymous White House official

▶ Hunt is on for author of article which claimed President’s team work actively to frustrate his plans

Donald Trump’s fury was on full display on Thursday as the White House hunted for the author of a sensational newspaper article claiming government officials were running interference to protect the nation – and the world – from the president.

The article by a “senior official in the Trump administration”, published anonymously in The New York Times, claimed Cabinet ministers even considered triggering constitutional provisions to remove Mr Trump from office.

The president demanded the author be handed over and issued a one-word tweet: “Treason?”

Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo were the first to deny involvement on Thursday. The Pentagon later said Defence Secretary James Mattis was not the author either.

The article could not have come at a more embarrassing time. It appeared a day after extracts from a new book by journalist Bob Woodward added to perceptions of a White House spiralling out of control, where aides are contemptuous of the president and his ability.

The result is a new low even by the yardstick of a government that has been mired in crisis almost since day one.

Mr Trump turned on his favourite targets, denouncing The New York Times as failing and claiming he was the victim of vested interests in Washington.

“I’m draining the Swamp, and the Swamp is trying to fight back,” he said on Twitter. “Don’t worry, we will win.”

The president also demanded that the official be named.

“If the gutless anonymous person does indeed exist, the Times must, for national security purposes, turn him/her over to government at once,” Mr Trump wrote.

He reacted to the article with a “volcanic” display of anger, insiders said.

“There’s a sense that we just don’t know what he will do next,” a former official told The National.

The Washington Post reported that aides and outside allies swapped messages saying “the sleeper cells have awoken” as they began the search for the person responsible.

They cancelled meetings and phoned journalists for clues to the writer’s identity.

Sources speculated that the writer may be a member of the government who works outside the White House, possibly in national security because of the article’s references to Russia, or at the Justice Department, which has frequently been the target of Mr Trump’s wrath.

The article goes beyond existing suspicions of a “deep state” of career civil servants and security officials trying to undermine the president’s agenda.

Instead it details how even his appointees have become concerned about his amorality and an “impetuous, adversarial, petty and ineffective” leadership style.

“Given the instability many witnessed, there were early whispers within the Cabinet of invoking the 25th amendment, which would start a complex process for removing the president,” the author wrote. “But no one wanted to precipitate a constitutional crisis.”

The 25th amendment sets out provisions for succession if a president is incapacitated by illness or an accident, or is removed from office by impeachment.

It would be an unprecedented step to use it to oust a president because of concerns about his performance.

Instead, the author said, officials were working to thwart Mr Trump’s more “misguided impulses” or “worst inclinations”.

“It may be cold comfort in this chaotic era but Americans should know that there are adults in the room,” the piece says.

“We fully recognise what is happening. And we are trying to do what’s right even when Donald Trump won’t.”

The claims chime with anecdotes revealed by Woodward in his book, Fear: Trump in the White House.

He describes how Gary Cohn, former White House chief economic adviser, boasted to colleagues of removing the documents from Mr Trump’s desk before the president could sign plans to withdraw from a trade deal with South Korea.

And Mr Mattis reportedly ignored an order to assassinate Bashar Al Assad, the Syrian President, after a gas attack last year. Instead he drew up plans for limited air strikes.

The anonymous article set off a guessing game in Washington. Mr Pompeo said during a trip to India that he was not the author and accused the media of trying to undermine the Trump government.

One online sleuth wondered whether the use of the word “lodestar” offered a clue.

The word occurs frequently in speeches by Mr Pence, although the vice president’s reputation for quiet loyalty makes him an unlikely candidate.

His office was forced to issue a denial, saying Mr Pence always put his name on his opinion pieces.

“The New York Times should be ashamed and so should the person who wrote the false, illogical and gutless op-ed,” his spokesman said.

Meanwhile, offshore bookmaker MyBookie was offering 1/3 on “the field”, suggesting the most likely source was a lesser known name beyond its list of cabinet members.

Justice Secretary Jeff Sessions, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin or even Mr Trump’s daughter Ivanka.