Trump slams anonymous New York Times op-ed writer as ‘gutless coward’
US President Donald Trump has again slammed the "gutless coward" who wrote an explosive, anonymous article on the New York Times that has plunged Trump’s presidency into its worst crisis yet.
Invoking national security concerns, Trump said Thursday the "failing" newspaper should reveal the official's name, before encouraging reporters to investigate the matter.
"The latest act of resistance is the op-ed published in the failing New York Times by an anonymous, really an anonymous, gutless coward," Trump told supporters at a rally in Billings, Montana.
"Nobody knows who the hell he is, or she," Trump said, adding: "Unidentified deep state operatives who defy voters to push their secret agendas are truly a threat to democracy itself."
In an interview that is slated to be aired Friday on Fox News, Trump said the Times never should have run the piece.
"Well, number one, the Times never should have done that, because really what they've done is virtually, you know, you could call it treason, you could call it a lot of things, but to think you have somebody in all of the Cabinets -- so many people, as you know," Trump said.
The White House has been shaken by a fevered hunt for the senior official who declared, in an unsigned article for The New York Times published Wednesday, that senior officials were quietly working within the Trump administration to frustrate the president's "worst inclinations."
In one eye-opening passage, the anonymous writer says cabinet members initially considered invoking the 25th Amendment of the US Constitution, which provides for the president's removal if he is "unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office."
On the internet and in Washington, rumors are going around about who the author might be, prompting nearly every cabinet-ranked member of the government to deny it was them.
US Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats were among those who issued denials.
The manifesto followed the release of excerpts from a bombshell book by Watergate reporter Bob Woodward, who portrayed Trump's White House as an out-of-control "crazytown."
The Woodward book, "Fear: Trump in the White House," reported that senior aides lifted documents from the Oval Office desk to keep the president from acting on his impulses, reinforcing the assertions in the Times article.
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