Way back in September 2018, The New York Times published an op-ed by “a senior official in the Trump administration whose identity is known to us and whose job would be jeopardized by its disclosure.” The op-ed was a hit piece from the deep state that was supposed to pull back the curtain on President Donald Trump’s fitness for office and detail how a brave cabal of “fellow Republicans” were battling Trump’s idiocy from inside the administration.“Anonymous” followed that up with a 2019 book — A Warning — expanding on the same theme.

Well, the identity of “Anonymous” is now reported to be former Deputy National Security Advisor Victoria Coates. RealClearInvestigations (RCI) reports the rather humorous answer to the obvious question of her job future: “Rather than fire Coates, the White House has quietly transferred her to the Department of Energy, where she awaits special assignment in Saudi Arabia — far from the president.”

We get it. Donald Trump severely disrupted the status quo in DC and people who’ve built their careers on that status quo don’t like the change. Thus, people like Coates (if the allegations are true) and former National Security Council member Alexander Vindman take it upon themselves to protect “the way things ought to be.” That isn’t to say these folks are always or entirely wrong about Trump or their preferred policy. Coates is no lefty, but is rather what RCI calls a “longtime and loyal operative of [Ted] Cruz.” But these folks aren’t the elected president of the United States; Trump is.

Update 4/21: After publishing our article, Coates’s former colleagues at Red State, Erick Erickson and Dan McLaughlin, penned an op-ed at National Review arguing in no uncertain terms “Victoria Coates Is Not ‘Anonymous.’” The pair argue that, based on their longtime personal relationship with her, the RealClearInvestigations representation of her rings false and unpersuasive. So we’ll consider this case not closed, and we’ve amended our story accordingly.