Hello and welcome to the Americano podcast, a series of discussions about American politics and the Trump presidency for the new Spectator USA website.

I'm joined by Jacob Harbrun, who is editor of the national interest and a much-loved Spectator USA contributor.

And we're going to be talking about the anonymous, scandalous piece in the New York Times supposedly written by a senior official

inside the Trump administration. Jacob, we've had a lot of reaction online, obviously,

and a lot of reaction from the president himself

about this article in which the anonymous supposedly senior officials says that there is a

resistance within the Trump administration to try and prevent Trump doing as much damage as he

possibly can to America. First of all, your starter for 10. Who do you think it is this senior official?

Well, a lot of officials are saying it wasn't them. Dan Coates, the Director of National Intelligence,

and his deputy just announced that they unequivocally did not write the article. There are so many possible

culprits, if that's the right word to use. But what it reminds me, I mean, it could be John Bolton,

it could be James Mattis. There are a variety of figures.

I was even speculating that it might be Kelly Ann Conway, that perhaps George Conway,

who's a vehement anti-Trumper, had finally gotten to her.

Interesting.

Though that seems unlikely.

It's a little reminiscent.

Actually, the last time Washington, D.C. went into this kind of a frenzy over an anonymous article was the

X article that George Kennan published in Foreign Affairs in 1947.

And that caused a stupendous outcry and eventually Walter Lippman or Arthur Crock in New York

Times figured out that it was George F. Kenan.

Whoever wrote this article simply by the anonymity has in fact increased the attention that the article is receiving.

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