Good Thursday morning, I'm Anna Palmer, and welcome to your Politico Playbook Audio Briefing,

sponsored by the National Retail Federation. And I'm Jake Sherman, alone. That is what President

Donald Trump is feeling this morning. In the last two days, the Washington establishment has pummeled

him like no other president has been pummeled before. Bob Woodward's book, Fear, has 400-plus

pages drawn from hundreds of hours of interviews

with people who work for the president.

It has senior members of his cabinet dumping on him, stealing his papers, and generally

treating him like an out-of-control toddler.

An anonymous op-ed in the New York Times, written by a person the newspaper calls a senior

official in the Trump administration, delivered a stunning rebuke of the president,

gently praising his work on deregulation and tax reform, but criticizing him on every other critical issue.

The Washington parlor game of guessing who wrote the op-ed is at an all-time high.

Everyone around town is buzzing about who it might be.

The question has dominated cable news. And the author will be revealed. Remember primary colors? And all the New York Times

can do is hope that they did not use an ambiguous definition of senior administration official.

The Washington Post described the combo of the Woodward book and the Times

op-ed as a thunder clap, portraying Trump as a danger to the country that elected him and feeding

the president's paranoia about whom around him he could trust. The president at this point is

isolated in the most isolating job on the planet. He can't trust anyone around him. His closest

aides, advisors, and cabinet officials

are dishing to Woodward and shipping fiery op-eds up to 6th Avenue for the New York Times to publish.

These aren't attacks from outsiders, Democrats, or the media. These are coming from people who work for

...