这两天，华盛顿街头巷尾的每一个人几乎都在谈论同一个问题—“神秘作者”到底是谁？

与此同时，高级官员们又在纷纷否认—“这不是我写的！”

In the last two days, Washington was being consumed by a wild guessing game as to the identity of the writer, and swift denials of involvement in the op-ed came Thursday from top administration officials, including from vice president Mike Pence's office, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Dan Coats, director of national intelligence, and other cabinet members.

Screenshot of the New York Times anonymous opinion piece from a White House senior staff member /CGTN Photo

美国当地时间9月5日，《纽约时报》发表一篇匿名特朗普政府高级官员的评论文章，批评特朗普无德、鲁莽、冲动、行为方式有害国家利益。文章中提到，白宫内部诸多高官都在奋力抵抗总统的决定，试图挫败他的部分议程。

On Wednesday afternoon, The New York Times posted an anonymous op-ed article titled "I am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration", identifying the author as "a senior official in the Trump administration".

In the op-ed, the author described Trump's leadership style as "impetuous, adversarial, petty and ineffective".

"Many of the senior officials in his own administration are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations," the author wrote.

Pushing back against explosive reports about his own administration conspiring against him, US President Donald Trump lashed out against the anonymous senior official who wrote a New York Times opinion piece claiming to be part of a "resistance" working "from within" to thwart his most dangerous impulses.

文章发表不到一天，公众一片哗然。

英国《卫报》写道，疯狂从白宫倾泻而出，《纽约时报》前所未有的文章都在试图揭露“特朗普是当代不穿衣服的皇帝”。 《华尔街日报》称，有白宫官员透露，在白宫西翼，高层官员们当天下午取消了所有会议，挤在一起讨论如何找到这个人。

"The madness is pouring out of the White House now," The Guardian said later on, "An anonymous New York Times op-ed by a senior Trump administration official and an explosive new book reveal just how bad things are around the US president".

面对羞辱，特朗普愤怒反击并发推文称之为叛徒，“如果这个白宫高级官员真的存在，那出于国家安全的考虑，《纽约时报》也应该把他交给政府”。

Trump, appearing at an unrelated event Wednesday at the White House, lashed out at the Times for publishing the op-ed. /VCG Photo

Trump was furious, tweeting Thursday morning that "The Deep State and the Left, and their vehicle, the Fake News Media, are going crazyy - & they don't know what to do".

On Wednesday night, Trump tweeted a demand that if "the GUTLESS anonymous person does indeed exist, the Times must, for national security purposes, turn him/her over to the government at once!" White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders called on the "coward" who wrote the piece to "do the right thing and resign."

Trump, appearing at an unrelated event Wednesday at the White House, lashed out at the Times for publishing the op-ed. /VCG Photo

可这个人到底是谁？

CNN列出了13个可能写这封匿名信的人，包括白宫办公厅主任凯利、副总统彭斯、白宫法律顾问麦克加恩、国防部长马蒂斯，甚至是特朗普的女儿伊万卡、女婿库什纳以及第一夫人梅拉尼娅。

In an analysis by CNN, the author could be one of 13 people, which includes virtually many people in the Trump White House.

The text of the op-ed was pulled apart for clues: The writer is identified as an "administration official;" does that mean a person who works outside the White House? The references to Russia and the late Sen. John McCain-do they suggest someone working in national security? Does the writing style sound like someone who worked at a think tank? In a tweet, the Times used the pronoun "he" to refer to the writer; does that rule out all women?

The newspaper later said the tweet referring to "he" had been "drafted by someone who is not aware of the author's identity, including the gender, so the use of 'he' was an error."

第二天，高官们的接连否认更像是各种形式的誓言。

副总统发言人贾罗德•阿根(Jarrod Agen)表示，“神秘作者”不是副总统迈克•彭斯(Mike Pence)。同一时间，正在印度出访的美国国务卿迈克•蓬佩奥（Mike Pompeo）表示如果他觉得他已无法“执行指挥官的意图”的话，他会辞职。“我不得不告诉你，我认为媒体在这方面做出的削弱本届政府的努力令人非常不安”，蓬佩奥说。

国土安全部部长克尔斯蒂恩•M•尼尔森(Kirstjen M. Nielsen)的发言人表示，“尼尔森没有写这篇文章, 她正忙着保卫祖国，而不是撰写这种匿名且虚假的文章。”

国防部、财政部和住房与城市发展部的新闻官员也代表他们的上司进行了否认。

The US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, who is in India now, denied writing the anonymous opinion piece, saying, "It's not mine." He accused the media of trying to undermine the Trump administration and said he found that "incredibly disturbing".

"Secretary Nielsen is focused on leading the men & women of DHS and protecting the homeland – not writing anonymous & false opinion pieces for the New York Times," Tyler Houlton, press secretary for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), said in a statement.

Dan Coats, director of National Intelligence later issued his own denial, followed by Defense Secretary James Mattis, Housing Secretary Ben Carson, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, budget director Mick Mulvaney and others; and with several prominent administration members delivering on-the-record denials, the focus could now fall on other senior aides to do the same, with questions raised about those who stay silent.

之后，白宫新闻秘书萨拉•赫卡比•桑德斯(Sarah Huckabee Sanders)在推特上发文表示了极大的愤怒，并说若想知道“这个没胆量的懦夫”到底是谁，应给《纽约时报》打电话，然后附上了电话号码。

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders tried to head off reporters' inquiries of Trump officials, tweeting that the questions should be aimed at The New York Times, which she said was "complicit in this deceitful act." Trump, appearing at an unrelated event Wednesday at the White House, lashed out at the Times for publishing the op-ed.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders's twitter screenshot /CGTN Photo

而在此之前，包括纽约时报在内的诸多媒体甚少发布匿名评论文章，因此有人猜测，不透露作者姓名也是为了保护其安全。

Actually, it is highly unusual for the western media to publish an anonymous column.

"It is rare for editorial pages to allow writers to write anonymously at all, and such decisions have often been reserved for situations where it is believed the author’s safety could be endangered", Wall Street Journal said on September 6.

“So much of the value of an op-ed is the weight the author brings to the issue through their experience. If you don’t know who that person is, it is very hard for the reader to determine whether it is important or not,” said Greg Kesich, editorial page editor of the Portland Press Herald.