Mike Pence’s office denies he wrote ‘lodestar’ anti-Trump NYT op-ed

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U.S. Vice President Mike Pence listens as U.S. President Donald Trump, left, speaks before signing S. 2155, the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, And Consumer Protection Act, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Thursday, May 24, 2018. 

Vice President Mike Pence’s office is denying that he is the senior administration official behind an extraordinary, anonymous opinion essay describing a “resistance” against President Donald Trump within his own administration.

The article’s publication in The New York Times set off a wave of intense speculation about the author’s identity. Observers seized on the essayist’s use of the word “lodestar,” which Pence often uses in his speeches and statements, as possible evidence the op-ed came from the vice president or among his top staff.

The vice president’s office “definitively denies” that he wrote the piece for the Times, according to NBC News.

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A top Pence communications official on Thursday also rejected the notion. “The Vice President puts his name on his Op-Eds,” Jarrod Agen wrote on Twitter.

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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also denied that he wrote the essay. “It’s not mine,” Pompeo told reporters in India, after ripping the Times for publishing the piece.

The op-ed, which the Times published Wednesday afternoon, describes a coordinated effort within the administration to undermine Trump, who he or she described as “amoral,” and “frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations.” The author also wrote that this internal resistance wants the administration to succeed, while praising some policy victories, such as a broad tax cut package last year.

The Times, in turn, defended its rationale for running the column by saying, “publishing this essay anonymously is the only way to deliver an important perspective to our readers.”

Trump responded to the piece by lashing out at the media and the anonymous author. NBC News reported that several of the president’s aides and allies have described his mood as “volcanic.”

On Wednesday night, one of his tweets said “TREASON?”

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The president continued venting his rage and frustration Thursday morning on Twitter.

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