NYT Runs Op-Ed from Anonymous Senior Trump Admin Official...

[eric82oslo]

On the flip side of this coin...

Note the word "lodestar."

Only Preacher Pence has used that word in a speech...

Note the phrase "first principles"

Only Mad-Dog Mattis has used that phrase in a speech...

Why couldn't it have been written by more than one person? To me, it seems much more logic if two, three or even four high ranking colleagues jammed together over the Labour Day weekend trying to come up with something stingy, hard-hitting and eloquent (and diffusing as to who might have authored it), so that not only one person would have to bear the burden of paranoia for the rest of his or her White House tenure.

[|˶˙ᵕ˙ )ﾉﾞ]

Trump having another meltdown over the op-ed

https://www.twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1037479248125153281

[Mr. Illini]

These are the most unstable times this country has been through in a long time.

The President's cabinet considered ousting him from office via the 25th Amendment.

[Wrong about 2024 Ghost]

These are the most unstable times this country has been through in a long time.

The President's cabinet considered ousting him from office via the 25th Amendment.

So did Reagan's staff.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1988/09/15/aides-87-memo-raised-question-of-removing-reagan-from-office/a9ec7c98-2783-4362-8d9c-af41664af057/

[new_patomic]

Yeah. So. He's not really handling it well right now.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1037485664433070080

[GeorgiaModerate]

Yeah. So. He's not really handling it well right now.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1037485664433070080

I wonder if Trump might try to take some form of action against the NYT.  (Of course, the anonymous group would probably prevent it from being carried out.)

[IceSpear]

Yeah. So. He's not really handling it well right now.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1037485664433070080

Demanding a media company hand someone over to the government who dared write an op ed critical of the president?

Yeah, that's not fascist at all.

[|˶˙ᵕ˙ )ﾉﾞ]

Yeah. So. He's not really handling it well right now.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1037485664433070080

Trumps final meltdown

[Wells]

Not impressed by the op-ed. These people should be actively working to remove Trump if they think he's a problem, instead of being a literal deep state.

It will be fascinating to see if congressional Republicans finally grow a spine because of this. The odds may be above 0 this time.

[Abolish ICE]

You win this thread

[Progressive Pessimist]

I appreciate the sentiment but they are still part of the administration and therefore part of the problem and not truly resisting as much as they think they might be.

[Wrong about 2024 Ghost]

Not sure if this should go under "Crazy Trump Tweets" or not. Settled on putting it here.

Trump demands NYT turn anonymous source over to government ‘for National Security purposes’

You must be logged in to read this quote.

[Darthpi - Crush the Oligarchy]

I still have the same view that I had in 2016: It was profoundly irresponsible and an enormous abdication of responsibility for the electoral college to have ever allowed this man to become president in the first place. We have been in a constitutional crisis ever since, and this op-ed merely confirms that fact.

[Darthpi - Crush the Oligarchy]

Not impressed by the op-ed. These people should be actively working to remove Trump if they think he's a problem, instead of being a literal deep state.

This.

[หมูเด้ง]

Not impressed by the op-ed. These people should be actively working to remove Trump if they think he's a problem, instead of being a literal deep state.

This.

Pretty much advertising that they are cucks and that Trump is for hiring them.

In reality, this feels like the third or fourth week of my undergrad class on modern middle eastern history where it was discussed in the 1700s and 1800s that the Turks had idiots for sultans and that their country was being run by the viziers while monied interests slowly ate away the Empire in "capitulations". Or this could be like when Nero was the ruler of the greatest country in the world at the time. Sure he was doing all kinds of fukt things and unwilling and unable to do his job but the country got through it in one peice and arguably some of it's better days were still ahead.

[Darthpi - Crush the Oligarchy]

Not impressed by the op-ed. These people should be actively working to remove Trump if they think he's a problem, instead of being a literal deep state.

This.

Pretty much advertising that they are ducks and that Trump is for hiring them.

In reality, this feels like the third or fourth week of my undergrad class on modern middle eastern history where it was discussed in the 1700s and 1800s that the Turks had idiots for sultans and that there country was being run by the viziers while monied interests slowly ate away the Empire in "capitulations".

An unsettling but appropriate comparison.

[หมูเด้ง]

Not impressed by the op-ed. These people should be actively working to remove Trump if they think he's a problem, instead of being a literal deep state.

This.

Pretty much advertising that they are ducks and that Trump is for hiring them.

In reality, this feels like the third or fourth week of my undergrad class on modern middle eastern history where it was discussed in the 1700s and 1800s that the Turks had idiots for sultans and that there country was being run by the viziers while monied interests slowly ate away the Empire in "capitulations".

An unsettling but appropriate comparison.

I guess we are all just waiting for our Atraturk.

[SteveRogers]

Yeah. So. He's not really handling it well right now.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1037485664433070080

I wonder if Trump might try to take some form of action against the NYT.  (Of course, the anonymous group would probably prevent it from being carried out.)

If the President thought he actually had the power to demand that kind of action, he wouldn’t announce it via a tweet.

[Alabama_Indy10]

Who do you guys think wrote this?

[KingSweden]

Who do you guys think wrote this?

Come join us in the speculation thread!

[Alabama_Indy10]

Who do you guys think wrote this?

Come join us in the speculation thread!

Oh man! I didn’t even see that!

[Dr. Arch]

An NYT tweet confirmed the author is male.

Which tweet? Could be subtle/intentional misdirection. If it were you doing something like this, wouldn't you have to know what Trump's reaction would be, and try to arranged in coordination with the NYT all the misdirection/ambiguity that you could in advance?

https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1037428142649094145

The tweet says "he" so obviously it's a male.

It could actually be the traditional (and somewhat archaic at this point) general/gender-neutral "he." It's completely feasible that a well-recognized writing organization like the NYT still follows those pronoun usage rules.

I very highly doubt that a publication as major as the New York Times would still be using default male pronouns in 2018. I think this tweet is definitely an indicator that the op-ed author is male.

EDIT: Based on this blog post about the NYT's style guide, it would seem that while the publication has no hard rule on the matter, most of their writers are trending towards using "they" as a singular pronoun when specifically identifying a person as "he" or "she" is not an option. I would guess that the social media team is probably not adhering to archaic grammar rules, either.

All fair points, but while there is no hard stance, we can't be certain or make any presumptions. They have ample space to punt, and they can if they so wish, especially because we have no baseline, no way through which we can identify the writer's specific pragmatic patterns to draw a conclusion with any confidence.

[Miss J]

Sad!

[|˶˙ᵕ˙ )ﾉﾞ]

Trump paranoia reaching new highs

https://www.twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1037517032131055616

[Dr. Arch]

Trump paranoia reaching new highs

https://www.twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1037517032131055616

So we're already at this stage of Trump's presidency: