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.
In an extraordinary move, a furious Mr. Trump tweeted a demand on Wednesday night that if “the GUTLESS anonymous person does indeed exist, The Times must, for National Security purposes, turn him/her over to government at once!” White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders called on the “coward” who wrote the piece to “do the right thing and resign.”
White House officials did not immediately respond to a request to elaborate on Mr. Trump’s call for the writer to be turned over to the government or the unsupported national security ground of his demand.
‘Identify the leaker’
Mr. Trump has demanded that aides identify the leaker, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Trump allies and political insiders scrambled to unmask the writer.
The author, claiming to be part of the “resistance” to Trump “working diligently from within” his administration, said, “Many Trump appointees have vowed to do what we can to preserve our democratic institutions while thwarting Mr. Trump’s more misguided impulses until he is out of office.”
“It may be cold comfort in this chaotic era, but Americans should know that there are adults in the room,” the author continued.
“We fully recognise what is happening. And we are trying to do what’s right even when Donald Trump won’t.”
The text of the op-ed was pulled apart for clues — the writer is identified as an “administration official”; does that mean a person who works outside the White House? The references to Russia and the late Sen. John McCain do they suggest someone working in national security? Does the writing style sound like someone who worked at a think tank? In a tweet, The Times used the pronoun “he” to refer to the writer; does that rule out all women?
The newspaper later said the tweet referring to “he” had been “drafted by someone who is not aware of the author’s identity, including the gender, so the use of ‘he’ was an error.”