Vice President Mike Pence's team shut down speculation Thursday morning that Pence was the author of an anonymous op-ed in the New York Times trashing President Trump.

"The Vice President puts his name on his Op-Eds. The @nytimes should be ashamed and so should the person who wrote the false, illogical, and gutless op-ed. Our office is above such amateur acts."

— Jarrod Agen, Pence's communications director and deputy chief of staff

The big picture: There was online speculation Wednesday that Pence could be the author based on the op-ed's use of the word "lodestar," which Pence has used throughout his career. But as Axios' Jonathan Swan reported earlier this year, White House officials who frequently leak pay attention to their colleagues' speech patterns to divert suspicion.