The anonymous senior Trump official works in economics and is probably Larry Kudlow

Le Petit Anglais
Sep 5, 2018 · 3 min read

(edit 06 Sep): I regret the use of “probably” in the title. There are a lot of similarities with Kudlow’s writing but “probably” (probably) overstates my confidence — it could be someone else with a background in economics.)

Earlier today, the New York Times published an article by a “Senior Administration Official” in the Trump administration who described themself as ‘part of the resistance’. A lot of speculation has floated as to the identity of the official — I believe it is Larry Kudlow.

Firstly, the article talks about economics in unusually specific detail. It also *doesn’t* mention immigration which makes the Sessions wing less likely or even *judges* which would probably be the number one thing most establishment Republicans would choose, especially if they were Christians (Kudlow is Jewish and seemingly quite socially liberal).

Then, it uses a couple of phrases which are uncommon outside of economists. Specifically “steady state”

which I really haven’t seen discussed other than by economists (random coincidence — it was the title of my previous post on Medium!).

One person who has used “steady state” in writing before is … Larry Kudlow.

Another phrase much commoner in economics than out is ‘first principles’ — it is not unusual to hear this term mentioned in graduate classed, academic talks and papers.

One person who has used “first principles” in writing before is … Larry Kudlow.

The single most unusual word used in the article is ‘lodestar’.

One person who has used lodestar in writing before is … Larry Kudlow.

Another unusual aspect of the New York Times’s article is the author’s rampant use of hyphenation. They use hyphenation 13 times in 775 words. Kim Jong-Un is somewhat commonly hyphenated, but most of the others are highly unusual “mass-marketing”, “near-ceaseless” etc. — these phrases usually aren’t hyphenated.

One person who uses hyphens with extreme regularity is … Larry Kudlow.

Another peculiarity of the NYT article is the frequency with which the author commences sentences with “But” — 7 out of 50 of the NYT’s articles start with “But”, a no-no in some writing circles. In the last two of Kudlow’s sole-authored articles for National Review he starts 14 sentences with “But” (out of 120). For comparison, National Review’s four most read articles (all by different authors) contain only six sentences starting with “But” (out of 136).

It’s not a slam dunk — someone else with an economics background could have written the article. There’s mention of early regime cabinet discussions re. 25th amendment — Kudlow could easily have overheard this on the grapevine but he didn’t join the administration until this year. And words like lodestar could be a red herring — perhaps Kudlow would be smart enough to avoid using such an unusual word that seemingly directs an arrow at him. But he has to be a very serious contender.

Le Petit Anglais

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Twitter: @DinoStraciatela

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