Trump loyalists are playing the blame game over anonymous op-ed

Trump loyalists are blaming Republican insiders for stoking the toxic atmosphere that gave rise to a scathing anonymous op-ed, written by a self-proclaimed “senior administration official,” now roiling the White House.

“It seems to be the result of a deliberate attempt to place Trump opponents in this administration,” former Trump campaign aide Michael Caputo told The Post.

“We’ve been purged,” one former White House official told The Washington Examiner. “That’s the bottom line. And the people who have stayed behind are not at all loyal to our president.”

Last week, an op-ed published in The New York Times called the president amoral and claimed some administration officials were working to subvert his agenda. An enraged Trump then urged the Justice Department to sniff out the author.

Reports in conservative news outlets have pointed fingers at several current and former administration figures – including former White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson – for Trump’s latest troubles.

Critics say they insisted on hiring inside-the-Beltway bureaucrats and Bush administration veterans instead of firm Trump supporters for hundreds of executive branch jobs.

“There are Republican stalwarts of the swamp who never came around to support the president,” Caputo said. “A good number went quiet and burrowed themselves into the administration.”

“It speaks to some kind of sad desperation on the part of ‘never- Trumpers’ – even those inside the administration – that stems from the collapse of the Russia collusion narrative,” said City Councilman Joe Borelli (R-Staten Island), Trump’s New York campaign chairman in 2016.

“With nothing but positive news about the economy and the job market, all of their fears have come true,” Borelli told The Post. “Now, they hope for the demise of their own party based on the failure of policies they once advocated.”

Caputo called the op-ed “not just cowardly but diabolical” – pointing to the anonymous author’s use of terms and phrases unique to Trump confidants like Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of Defense James Mattis and Chief of Staff John Kelly.

“Not only is the writer trying to throw false blame on others, he’s also trying to gaslight the president into believing his most important advisers are plotting against him,” Caputo said. “He’s trying to create a crisis.”