Twitter gumshoes are trying to figure out who penned the New York Times 'resistance' op-ed piece

Hope Schreiber
·Writer

An anonymous New York Times op-ed was published on Wednesday by a source the Times identified as a senior Trump administration official. In it, the unnamed source comments on President Trump’s “amorality” and reckless decision making while assuring readers that the “resistance” inside the administration is not in line with the left but instead attempts to check Trump’s “misguided impulses” while still pushing a conservative agenda.


The letter led the commander in chief to call the writer “gutless” and to write the simple tweet: “TREASON?”

Now, social media detectives are the on the case. After all, who doesn’t love a good mystery? It’s the reason that Serial and Agatha Christie novels are so popular.

Who exactly is behind the “I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration” op-ed?

You ready, gumshoes? Our case begins as so many do, with a typical femme fatale: Omarosa Manigault Newman. The former political aide to Trump and author of Unhinged, her New York Times bestselling book, which recounts her time in the White House, offers a hint as to who’s behind the piece.

At the time of this writing, Manigault Newman has made her Twitter account private. This is a screenshot of her tweet. (Photo: Twitter)
At the time of this writing, Manigault Newman has made her Twitter account private. This is a screenshot of her tweet. (Photo: Twitter)

“Many in this silent army are in his party, his administration, and even in his own family,” the text reads. Cue gasps. Barron? Could the savvy writer, who uses the term “lodestar” and has inspired a surge in traffic to the Merriam-Webster dictionary website, actually be the 12-year-old first son? Probably not.

In fact, it’s that word, “lodestar,” that sticks out like a sore thumb. Lodestar can mean a star that helps guide ships, like Polaris, but lawyers use the term as well. The “lodestar method” is a method for calculating attorney fees in which a trial court multiplies the number of hours reasonably spent by trial counsel by a reasonable hourly rate.

While our source could be really into celestial navigation, it’s also possible that a lawyer is the Gossip Girl of the White House.

Kellyanne Conway is a lawyer, as is her husband, George T. Conway III, who is well-known for butting heads with the president.

While plenty of attorneys know the term “lodestar,” the legal definition doesn’t fit in the context of the op-ed piece, which reads: “We may no longer have Senator McCain. But we will always have his example — a lodestar for restoring honor to public life and our national dialogue.” Using our context clues, we can deduce that the meaning of the word is more accurate to a guiding star than to how attorney fees are calculated.

But who uses such a word in everyday jargon? People form habits of using certain idioms, and one person in the White House has used “lodestar” multiple times: Vice President Mike Pence.

Dan Bloom tweets: “‘Lodestar’ just seems like an unusual word to use in general, not to mention in an op-ed that’s going to be widely read. It has this whiff of sanctimony. So I search for John Kelly and James Mattis ever having used the word ‘lodestar.’ Nothing. But then…”

He goes on to list three more sources in which Pence used the term “lodestar.”

Pretty damning evidence, but it brings us back to the beginning of the Times article, within the disclosure. It reads, “The Times today is taking the rare step of publishing an anonymous Op-Ed essay. We have done so at the request of the author, a senior official in the Trump administration whose identity is known to us and whose job would be jeopardized by its disclosure.”

Vice President Pence cannot be fired from his position, but perhaps “jeopardized” is used loosely here. Maybe, if he were found out, he would not be able to perform his duties as well as if he remained anonymous.

But could someone have planted the word to set Pence up to be the scapegoat?

Whoever the leaker may be, it’s safe to assume that Trump will try to sniff him or her out quickly.

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