Report: Trump suspects the New York Times op-ed writer works in national security or the Justice Department

Donald Trump.
(Image credit: Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images)

An "absolutely livid" President Trump believes someone who works on national security issues or is part of the Justice Department is behind the anonymous New York Times op-ed published Wednesday that portrays Trump as behaving "in a manner that is detrimental to the health of our republic," The Washington Post reports.

Publicly, Trump has blasted the "failing New York Times" for running the op-ed, and White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders called it "pathetic," "reckless," and "selfish." Inside the White House, Trump and his aides are frantically trying to figure out who is behind the op-ed, two people familiar with the matter told the Post, analyzing speech patterns and looking for clues to the author's identity. Trump reacted to the op-ed with "volcanic" anger and a friend of the president's told the Post that Trump now believes the only people he can trust now are his kids.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.