Anonymous senior Trump official behind 'resistance' op-ed has written a book -- and will stay anonymous
WASHINGTON -- The anonymous senior Trump administration official behind a 2018 New York Times op-ed that declared there was a "resistance" within the administration is writing a book available next month, the person’s publisher said on Tuesday.
The book, entitled "A Warning," will be published Nov. 19 and will give "an unprecedented behind-the-scenes portrait of the Trump presidency from the anonymous senior official," the publisher, Twelve, said Tuesday.
"There is a quiet resistance within the administration of people choosing to put country first," the official wrote in the Sep. 5, 2018, opinion piece, which set off a firestorm in Washington.
The author will stay anonymous, Twelve, an imprint of Grand Central Publishing/Hachette Book Group, said. A spokesperson for Twelve had no comment as to whether the author is still in the administration.
The New York Times had identified the op-ed author as a "a senior official in the Trump administration," and on Tuesday, the spokesperson for the book's publisher said that Twelve would not "embellish or elaborate on how the New York Times initially characterized our author" so as to protect that person's identify.
White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham, in response to the publisher's announcement, said in a statement, "It takes a lot of conviction and bravery to write a whole book anonymously."
The official wrote last year that a group of officials was working within the administration for the express purpose of thwarting what the author said are dangerous tendencies on the part of the president.
"I work for the president but like-minded colleagues and I have vowed to thwart parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations," the person wrote.
The author said he or she supported the president's policies but not the president's temperament, painting a portrait of an unfocused president with rash tendencies and poor decision-making abilities.
"We believe our first duty is to this country, and the president continues to act in a manner that is detrimental to the health of our republic."
After the op-ed was published, President Donald Trump blasted it as "gutless," tweeting, "TREASON?" "If the GUTLESS anonymous person does indeed exist," he wrote on Twitter that day, "the Times must, for National Security purposes, turn him/her over to government at once!"
The official did not receive an advance payment for the book and will donate royalties "substantially to non-profit organizations that focus on government accountability and on supporting those who stand up for the truth in repressive countries around the world," Twelve said.
When The New York Times published the op-ed, the newspaper's op-ed editor explained that his team took what he called the "extraordinary step" of publishing it without a byline after the writer was "introduced to us by an intermediary whom we know and trust."
The editor, James Dao, said that the paper became certain of the author's identity "[t]hrough direct communication with the author, some background checking and the testimony of the trusted intermediary."
He said that the term "senior administration official," in the newspaper's view, was "used in Washington by both journalists and government officials to describe positions in the upper echelon of an administration, such as the one held by this writer."
ABC News' Jordyn Phelps and Ali Ehrlich contributed reporting to this article.
