Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo both denied writing the editorial from “a senior official in the Trump administration” and accuses the president of acting “in a manner that is detrimental to the health of our republic." | Evan Vucci/AP Photo Trump officials race to deny they authored 'resistance' op-ed High-ranking officials ranging from Pence to Zinke all insist they're not responsible for the scorching editorial.

Vice President Mike Pence and other top Trump officials rushed on Thursday to deny that they authored an anonymous New York Times op-ed detailing a "resistance" movement inside the Trump administration — an extraordinary demonstration of how the editorial has rattled the highest levels of government.

The editorial — which was published on Wednesday from “a senior official in the Trump administration” and accuses the president of acting “in a manner that is detrimental to the health of our republic" — has kicked off a wild guessing game inside the White House and out about the author’s identity.


Members of the Trump administration ranging from HUD Secretary Ben Carson to Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to budget chief Mick Mulvaney have denied either publicly or in response to requests from POLITICO that they were responsible for the op-ed.

In the hours after the remarkable rebuke of President Donald Trump by one of his own, parts of the internet, searching for any clues as to who could have written the piece, latched on to the use of one word in particular: lodestar.

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Some pointed out that Pence had used the fairly uncommon word in at least two speeches he delivered in 2017. But in a tweet condemning the column as “gutless,” Pence’s office denied that he wrote it, charging that “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”, communications director Jarrod Agen wrote. “Our office is above such amateur acts.”

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, on foreign travel in India, also issued a rebuke of the editorial, criticizing the Times for publishing it to begin with and calling for the official’s resignation.

“If it's accurate, they should not have chosen to take a disgruntled, deceptive bad actor's word for anything and put it in their newspaper,” Pompeo said Thursday, adding: “I come from a place where if you're not in a position to execute the commander's intent, you have a singular option, that is to leave.”

“It’s not mine,” he said.

Mattis denied that he was responsible through a Pentagon spokesperson to reporters traveling with him in India.

It’s the second repudiation Mattis has had to issue this week to questions that he may have acted to undermine the president. He also denied claims in Bob Woodward’s new book that he disregarded some of the president’s directives and told associates that Trump acted like “a fifth- or sixth-grader.”

Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats on Thursday also denied writing the editorial, calling any speculation that he or his deputy were responsible “patently false.”

“From the beginning of our tenure, we have insisted that the entire IC remain focused on our mission to provide the President and policymakers with the best intelligence possible,” he said in a statement, referencing the intelligence community.

The intel chief has broken ranks with the president before, especially when it comes to Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Earlier this summer, his disbelieving response at a cybersecurity forum to learning the president had invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to Washington went viral.

A spokesperson for Kirstjen Nielsen rejected the idea that the Homeland Security secretary, who reportedly came close to resigning earlier this year, had authored the piece, saying that she had more pressing concerns. “Secretary Nielsen is focused on leading the men and women of DHS and protecting the homeland - not writing anonymous and false opinion pieces for the New York Times. These types of political attacks are beneath the Secretary and the Department’s mission,” press secretary Tyler Q. Houlton said.

Asked whether Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson penned the op-ed, a HUD spokesman responded in an email, “Haha nope.”

A spokesman for Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said it was “laughable” to think the editorial could have authored the column, bemoaning that “dignified public servants are forced to deny being the source.”

UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, Federal Trade Commission Chairman Joe Simons, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, Energy Secretary Rick Perry, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao and Small Business Administrator Linda McMahon have all denied being the source of the op-ed as well.

Despite the White House's internal hunt for the author, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Thursday criticized the “media’s wild obsession” with uncovering the identity of the “coward” who wrote the piece and said the inquiries were “recklessly tarnishing the reputation of thousands of great Americans” who work in the administration.

She then suggested that interested parties call the Times’ editorial desk and included its phone number. “They are the only ones complicit in this deceitful act,” she said.

Cabinet secretaries' denials seemed to become more strongly worded following Sanders' statement via Twitter, and as reports began to roll in that the president was having denials printed out for him.

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke retweeted Sanders' statement, adding that "Leaders like @POTUS charge up a hill under fire, not cower in a fox hole. Whoever this author is should be embarrassed at both their dishonesty and their cowardice. I proudly support @realDonaldTrump and work every day to advance our policies for the American people."

A spokesperson for Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta said that he was "definitively not the author," adding that Acosta " does not play these sophomoric Washington games.”

Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who the president has repeatedly ripped for his perceived insubordination, said through a Justice Department spokesperson that the editorial was not his doing, either. A DOJ spokeswoman referred POLITICO to Sanders' statement.

EPA spokesman John Konkus pointed to Sanders' statement when asked about acting head Andrew Wheeler's response. Konkus added, "Acting Administrator Wheeler supports President Trump 100% and is honored to serve in his cabinet, he also believes whoever wrote the op-ed should resign."

The Agriculture Department also referred to the White House press secretary‘s statement while saying that Secretary Sonny Perdue didn’t write the op-ed.

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross — who Woodward's upcoming book quotes Trump as calling untrustworthy and "past [his] prime" — tweeted that "I did not write and am thoroughly appalled by this op-ed. I couldn’t be prouder of our work at Commerce and of @POTUS."

Don McGahn, the White House counsel expected to depart once Trump's Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh is confirmed, also denied penning the piece to reporters outside of Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing.

The president has ripped into the editorial, slamming it at a White House event with sheriffs on Wednesday shortly after the piece went up, later musing whether the author was actually an administration official and whether the editorial amounted to “treason.”

He demanded that the Times, “for National Security purposes, turn him/her over to government at once.”

The seeming revelation of a group of administration officials working to thwart Trump has fueled conservatives' "deep state" conspiracy theory, and Trump referred to that theory in a tweet on Thursday, calling the “Fake News Media” a vehicle of the deep state.

The president's first campaign manager echoed that call on CNN Thursday morning. "If there is a movement which this individual claims there is — and I haven't seen it — that is what the deep state is," Corey Lewandowski said.

Ben Lefebvre, Margaret Harding McGill, Alex Guillen, Brianna Gurciullo and Katy O'Donnell contributed to this report.