NEW YORK: The New York Times op-ed piece written by an anonymous White House insider has become the story of the year as US President Donald Trump launched a search or the person who has undermined him while still working inside the White House.

On Thursday, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders encouraged Americans to flood the New York Times switchboard in protest over an anonym­ous op-ed from a member of the Trump administration.

Calling the author an “anonymous coward” and a “gutless loser,” Sanders tw­e­­­­eted the opinion desk’s phone number, urging Trump supporters to ask about the identity of the writer, who criticised Trump’s “amorality” and poor management skills.

However, all subsequent reports say instead of outrage an outpouring of support for NYT editorial staff and emerged.

The NYT on its part defended the choice to grant anonymity to the author because he or she is “a senior official in the Trump administration whose identity is known to us and whose job would be jeopardised by its disclosure.” Trump called for the Times to disclose the author’s identity, calling it a threat to national security.

“If the GUTLESS anonymous person does indeed exist, the Times must, for National Security purposes, turn him/her over to the government at once!” he tweeted.

The tactic echoed something Trump did during the 2016 campaign, when he retaliated against Republi­can Sen. Lindsey Graham over criticism by sharing his cell phone number.

Published in Dawn, September 8th, 2018