NSC announces departure of top official as White House denies rumors she wrote ‘A Warning’

There has been speculation in right-wing media that Deputy National Security Adviser Victoria Coates was the anonymous Trump Administration official who, in 2018, wrote a New York Times op-ed that was highly critical of Donald Trump and followed it up with a book in 2019. On Thursday, the National Security Council (NSC) announced that Coates is leaving the NSC for a position in the U.S. Department of Energy — although an Administration senior official is denying that Coates’ departure has anything to do with rumors that she wrote the op-ed and the 2019 book, “A Warning.”

CNN anonymously quotes a White House senior official as saying, “The White House leadership rejects rumors that have circulated recently and does not put any stock in the suggestion that Victoria Coates is the author of ‘Anonymous: A Warning’ or the related op-ed in the New York Times.’”

That senior official, according to CNN, also stated, “Dr. Coates’ transition to the Department of Energy has been in the works for several weeks and reflects the continued trust and confidence the Administration places in her as she takes on this sensitive role at the Department of Energy, where she will continue working to implement the president’s agenda.”

Published by the New York Times on September 5, 2018, the op-ed was headlined, “I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration” and was written from the perspective of a conservative who wanted Trump to be a successful president but was incredibly frustrated by his erratic behavior. And a year later, in November 2019, that same person offered a lot more details on White House chaos in the book “A Warning.”