The White House Reaction to the Anonymous New York Times Op-Ed Is Exactly as Dumb as Expected

Whatever you may have thought about yesterday’s bombshell anonymous op-ed in the New York Times, which detailed a clandestine cell of Trump administration officials who (supposedly) actively stymie the president’s agenda—was it an act of patriotic bravery, or cowardly self-preservation?—the fact remains that less than one day after this presidential “resistance” exposed itself, the reaction from the White House is just as dumb as expected.

Let’s meet the players, shall we?

First up, there’s Spartacus. Or, actually, multiple Spartacuses (Spartici?), who have joined the anonymous op-ed author in his quest to seem reasonable in the face of Hurricane Trump.

“I find the reaction to the NYT op-ed fascinating—that people seem so shocked that there is a resistance from the inside,” one senior official told Axios on Thursday.. “A lot of us [were] wishing we’d been the writer. I suspect—I hope [Trump] knows—maybe he does?…that there are dozens and dozens of us.”

Such heroism from, um, another anonymous “senior official” whose concerns about Trump’s behavior hasn’t actually stopped him from nevertheless working to advance the president’s agenda.

On the other end of the spectrum, there’s the usual suspects of administration ass kissers who would like the public to know that they absolutely did not write the op-ed, because they are HONORABLE and LOVE the president.

Speaking with the New York Times on Thursday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo emphatically denied being the author, declaring “It is not mine,” and adding that he’d resign, rather than work in a White House where he felt he couldn’t do his job.

“This person instead, according to The New York Times, chose not only to stay, but to undermine what President Trump and this administration are trying to do,” he added. “I have to tell you, I find the media’s efforts in this regard to undermine this administration incredibly disturbing.”

Speaking even more bluntly, the office of Vice President Mike Pence—whose frequent use of the term “lodestar,” which also appeared in the op-ed, has aroused the suspicion of internet sleuths—called the op-ed “amateur” and “illogical.”

And finally there’s the president himself, who spent the hours following the op-ed’s publication hollering about why the media needs him to a room full of sheriffs, ranting about treason, and demanding the Times hand over their source to the government “for National Security purposes.”

Given that Trump has reportedly taken to wandering the White House with a hand-written list of people he suspects have leaked stories to the press while muttering about “snakes everywhere,” it’s really no surprise that yesterday’s op-ed would only push him further into paranoia. And so, one can only imagine how dumb this is going to get if we eventually find out who actually wrote the damn thing in the first place.