The fallout from the anonymous-penned anti-Trump op-ed in the New York Times continues.
The White House has reportedly narrowed down the suspect list to a dozen names, but we still don’t know the identity of the author, who claims to be a “senior official” within the Administration. (RELATED: White House Narrows Down Anonymous Op-Ed Author to 12 Possibilities.)
President Trump, despite juggling many other duties, is still on the warpath, trying to find out who exactly within his own Administration is feeding the media with a narrative about his own incompetence. And, given Washington’s usual inability to keep a secret for very long, it’s astounding that we still don’t know the identity of the anonymous writer.
Now, Donald Trump Jr. revealed a very intimate detail about his father, following the release of the op-ed. We’ve known for a while that President Trump didn’t mesh well with the Washington creatures surrounding him. But now he feels even more isolated and alone, even in the White House. From an exclusive ABC report:
Amid explosive allegations that some White House officials are actively working against President Donald Trump’s agenda, Donald Trump Jr. told ABC News the number of people in the White House that his father can trust is smaller than he’d like.
“I think there are people in there that he can trust, it’s just — it’s a much smaller group than I would like it to be,” Trump Jr. said in an interview aired Tuesday on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”
“It would be easier to get things done if you’re able to fully trust everyone around you,” he said. “I think that’s a shame.”
TOP STORY: Donald Trump Jr. told ABC News his father only trusts ‘much smaller’ group of aides in White House after op-ed: https://t.co/pL2JysqUch pic.twitter.com/GSphuFazMF
— Good Morning America (@GMA) September 11, 2018
FULL INTERVIEW: @ABC exclusive–@tarapalmeri goes one-on-one with @DonaldJTrumpJr: https://t.co/0wZJnpowI9 pic.twitter.com/pfYYtQLYt6
— Good Morning America (@GMA) September 11, 2018
This isn’t just a shame, it’s downright dangerous. You can not have a well-functioning White House when you don’t trust the people you work closely with. Just ask Richard Nixon about that.
Yesterday, we reported that all the clues we have so far suggest that the author probably doesn’t match the normal criteria people have when designating a “senior official,” meaning the author probably isn’t a household name to most Americans. He or she is likely a mid-tier executive at some far-flung agency, far from the center of power. (RELATED: New Clues Suggest Anonymous NYT Op-Ed Author Is Not That ‘Senior’.)
That may be so, but until the op-ed mystery gets solved, look for President Trump to become more irritable and less trusting in office. And that’s not good news for the nation.
