“I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration” is the title of an explosive, anonymous op-ed published today in the New York Times.
Authored by a senior official in the Trump administration, the piece is a behind-the-scenes firsthand account of the struggle taking place in the eye of the hurricane: the Trump administration itself. According to the anonymous author, President Donald Trump’s closest collaborators are, in fact, working against him, undermining the president’s decisions and steering the administration in the direction they believe is beneficial to the health of the republic.
While the author praises the Trump administration’s accomplishment, he or she argues the following.
“But these successes have come despite — not because of — the president’s leadership style, which is impetuous, adversarial, petty and ineffective.”
The author touches on Trump’s impulsive, destructive, and unpresidential behavior, concluding that there is “a quiet resistance within the administration of people choosing to put country first.”
In the second-to-last passage of the op-ed, the author touches on the recently deceased Republican Senator John McCain.
“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.”
Who wrote the anonymous New York Times op-ed?
Hundreds of journalists, bloggers, and citizens are obsessed with a single, uncommon, unconventional, unusual word the author used: “lodestar.” The word has captivated people on social media, prompting them to develop wild theories, the Business Insider reports.
According to the same outlet, this is due to the fact that Vice President Mike Pence is known to have frequently used the unusual word, in speeches, public appearances, and the like.
"lodestar" (h/t @danbl00m) pic.twitter.com/SqKFlBTR0f
— David Mack (@davidmackau) September 5, 2018
This is an interesting theory using an interesting clue. "Lodestar" is, in fact, a very unusual word. So unusual that if I wanted someone to wonder if I were Mike Pence, I might use it. Or, perhaps, if I were someone who worked with Pence and picked up the word as a result. https://t.co/bruo7gsVb8
— Rebecca Lavoie (@reblavoie) September 5, 2018
If "lodestar" is the big clue, and given that Pence has used the word routinely in speeches, I would propose the key suspect is Pence's *speechwriter.*
— David Corn (@DavidCornDC) September 5, 2018
According to the theory, Pence, or someone close to him — his speechwriter, perhaps — is the author of the New York Times op-ed.
Google defines “lodestar” as “a star that is used to guide the course of a ship, especially the pole star.”
Interestingly, the theory about Mike Pence being the author of the NYT op-ed comes right after the vice president — in a statement which appears to be out of character, in collision with many of his previous, publicly conveyed attitudes — directly contradicted President Trump, praising the Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
As the Inquisitr previously reported, in Fear: Trump in the White House, renowned journalist Bob Woodward described Pence as “a glorified golf caddy who doesn’t want to rock the boat lest Trump tweet something mean about him,” but today Pence broke with Trump, stating the following.
“I hold Jeff Sessions in the highest regard. I appreciate his service to the nation.”
While the theory is continuing to spread on social media, the Business Insider noted that administration officials often use idioms, or phrases employed by their colleagues, in an effort to cover up their tracks, and throw President Trump off.
“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,” an official said in May this year.
According to Vox, considering the fact that it is impossible to know how many rounds of edits NYT editors went through with the anonymous author, the theory that Mike Pence, or someone close to him, wrote the piece is nothing but wild speculation.