Shhh. Be very, or even “wery,” quiet. Donald Trump is hunting op-ed writers. An internal White House witch hunt was already underway for anyone who would admit talking to Bob Woodward—which is everyone, except Trump. But following the publication of an anonymous op-ed in the New York Times by “a senior official in the Trump administration” half the White House residents have donned Sherlock-style deerstalker hats and taken out their magnifying glasses in an effort to determine just who dared say that … they support Trump’s goals but don’t like his style. Oh, and that Trump’s own cabinet thinks he’s cray-cray and wants to put him away, but are concerned that Trump supporters might not dismiss that action so easy as they do conspiring with Russia or paying off pornstars.
Following that publication, Trump went full Queeg in a rambling tirade concerning the “gutless” editorial. Subsequent reports paint Trump as “volcanic” as he directed his staff in an every office, cubicle, outhouse, henhouse, doghouse search to locate someone who would ‘fess up to being able to write a coherent paragraph. Officials at the White House have cancelled meetings as they eye one another suspiciously and wonder just who among them admitted what all of them know.
Early conjecture orbited around the word “lodestar.” (In case you’re wondering, it’s a another word for the North Star, or for anything that acts to point people in the right direction, either on a map or morally. In other words, it’s what Trump is not.) That word appears in the Times op-ed, and it also appears in several speeches by a guy who has been conspicuously invisible for some days? Weeks? Months? Hey, when is the last time anyone saw Mike Pence? As the BBC reports lodestar seemed like a … lodestar directing those looking for an answer toward the man who calls his wife “mother.”
But Pence has denied being the author of the op-ed. And there have been suggestions that whoever wrote the op-ed planted the archaic term expressly because it has appeared in Pence’s speeches—which is exactly the sort of paranoia you want to see among people making life or death decisions for millions. Whoever did write the op-ed tied the word lodestar to praise for John McCain, which was certainly a way to make sure that Trump noticed the term in a not-good way. All of which raises the skullduggery level in the White House to 13.
The Wall Street Journal reports that working around Trump is nothing new. In the first days of the White House occupation, Steve Bannon ordered staff to work around Trump. Though the idea that people were secretly following the wisdom of Steve Bannon is not the kind of thing that makes the nation seem either more stable or more sane.
In the current furor, Sarah Sanders appears to be acting as the chief inquisitor. In a statement, she called out the author of the op-ed saying “He is not putting country first, but putting himself and his ego ahead of the will of the American people. This coward should do the right thing and resign.” Which, not so oddly enough, is exactly what the author of the op-ed had to say about Trump. Which might make Sanders a … suspect. Hmm.
Anyway, some Trump supporters began to scowl over their Calabash pipes in the direction of Dan Coats, apparently because his title includes the word “intelligence,” and that’s enough to cause suspicion. But both Coats and his principal deputy have already entered a “not me” plea.
Vanity Fair discussed the pressure being applied to the New York Times end of this secret. Not even the Times reporters at the White House know the identity of the author, but that hasn’t stopped them from being the subject of heavy questioning. It would also be in the tradition of excluding CNN to keep those reporters out of the next White House briefing.
With Trump already tweeting out a demand that the Times turn over the traitor, and considering not just the CNN action but the fact that just last week Trump threatened to take away the broadcast license from NBC news, the thought that Trump might genuinely take action to stop the presses until he gets an answer doesn’t seem outside the realm of possibility. It would be crazy, of course. And the brave members of “the resistance inside the White House” would shake their heads about it. But they won’t actually do anything.
Come, listen, my men, while I tell you again
The five unmistakable marks
By which you may know, wheresoever you go,
The warranted genuine Snarks.