Trump administration thinks it can sniff out anonymous NY Times op-ed writer by calling it a physical threat: report

TMZ is reporting President Donald Trump's administration is going to use alleged physical threats as a means of sniffing out the author of the anonymous New York Times op-ed.

Sources close to Trump told the site that there are White House staffers who believe the "senior administration official" issued a threat in a line of the op-ed.

"So we will do what we can to steer the administration in the right direction until -- one way or another -- it's over," the op-ed reads.

Staffers think the Secret Service should investigate because the line could refer to a possible assassination plot. It was enough for the pro-Trump site to demand security to "get on this" in their headline. However, they confessed that at least one source said the real endgame is to find the source of the op-ed.

Trump tried a similar tactic Wednesday night when he said that the op-ed writer breached national security and questioned whether it was treasonous.

“Does the so-called ‘Senior Administration Official’ really exist, or is it just the Failing New York Times with another phony source?” he tweeted. “If the GUTLESS anonymous person does indeed exist, the Times must, for National Security purposes, turn him/her over to government at once!”

The line could refer to any means of the president leaving office, the majority of which have nothing to do with a threat of violence.

The Secret Service doesn't comment on the potential of any investigations and did not do so again here.