IT’S LIKELY NOT PENCE, DESPITE ‘LODESTAR’

Throughout Wednesday, speculation was rife that the author was none other than VicePresident Mike Pence. This was all based on one piece of evidence: the use of the somewhat outdated word “lodestar.” Pence says “lodestar” a lot; in one supercut compiled by Buzzfeed, Pence could be seen using the term — roughly a synonym for “beacon” — five times in televised speeches or interviews.

The op-ed also uses the term “first principles,” a military-esque term often used by Secretary of Defence James Mattis. Claire Hardaker, a forensic linguist at Lancaster University, suspects that the insertion of these terms is not an accident.

“If you wanted to throw off the scent, these are precisely the kinds of eye-catching breadcrumbs you would leave in your writing to lead people astray,” she told the Post (she was also skeptical forensic linguistics could work in this case). And indeed, staffers in the Trump White House have admitted that they do engage in these kinds of deceptions when leaking to the press.

“To cover my tracks, I usually pay attention to other staffers’ idioms and use that in my background quotes. That throws the scent off me,” said one White House leaker quoted in a May article about leaking.