The author of an anonymous op-ed in the New York Times last year — whose piece outlined an inner “resistance” and gave fodder to President Trump’s “deep state” paranoia — doesn’t intend to remain anonymous forever.
During a Reddit “Ask Me Anything” session Tuesday evening, the writer, who also just penned a book called, “A Warning,” vowed that Trump had “not heard the last of me.” Anonymous has only thus far been described as a “senior official in the Trump administration” and the writer did not specify a timeline for when he or she might come forward.
“As far as anonymity is concerned, I will not keep my identity shrouded in secrecy forever,” anonymous wrote on Reddit Tuesday. “I am not afraid to use my own name to express concern about the current occupant of the Oval Office. Donald Trump has not heard the last of me.”
The writer also defended his or her decision to remain secret for the time being, arguing anonymity has played a storied role in the formation of U.S. democracy.
“When debating whether or not to ratify the new Constitution, for instance, the Founding Fathers wrote public essays about the controversial subject and disguised their names under pseudonyms. They hid their identities, not because they were scared to debate the issue openly, but because they wanted the public to focus on the message and not the messenger,” the anonymous writer wrote.
“I’m not Alexander Hamilton or James Madison by any stretch, but I don’t believe they were cowards for using anonymity as a tool to refocus the debate,” they continued. “Trump thrives on distractions, and anonymity is a way to deprive him of his favorite weapon of mass distraction — personal attacks — and force the discussion to center on the substance, his character.”
Anonymous pulled back from one of his or her previous assertions– that Trump could be controlled from within.
“In the New York Times op-ed, I suggested that the ‘Steady State’ of top officials in the Administration could ameliorate Donald Trump’s lapses in judgment,” anonymous wrote. “I was dead wrong. No one can thwart his attraction to wrongdoing.”
When the op-ed was first published in the Times, Trump reacted with fury, suggesting the author should be charged with treason. When the new book was published last week, the White House referred to it as a “work of fiction.”
