There’s probably nobody left in the Western world who hasn’t heard about the recent op-ed article in The New York Times. But if you somehow did manage to hide under a rock while all that happened, NY Times just published an anonymous opinion piece titled “I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration.” The article, while being sort of pro Trump, claims pretty much the same things as Bob Woodward’s new book, that there’s a group of officials within Trump’s opposition that are “working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations.”
As the article was published anonymously, although the identity of the senior official in the Trump administration is known to NY Times, the bookies around the globe have now started placing odds on identity of the anonymous author.
One of the favorites is Vice President Mike Pence, who depending on the bookmaker, has odds of 1:3 to 2:3, which shows that some bookies are rather sure it’s Pence. One of the reasons for that is the usage of a word “lodestar” and Pence happens to be one of the very few, if not the only person in the administration who has been heard using that word in his speeches.
Of course, Pence isn’t the only one in the list, other likely candidates for the author are Betsy Devos, John F. Kelly, or Mike Pompeo. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has quite good odds of being the anonymous author too, as does Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. With lower odds, around 10:1 to 12:1 are also members of Trump’s own family – Ivanka and Jared. One betting site actually listed Trump himself as the potential author a well with odds of 25-1.
Betting on politics isn’t really a new thing in general, betting on election results (for example via 888sport) is already old news, some bookies have also created bets on whether ‘White House will Confirm That Donald Trump Has Had a Hole-in-One’. During Trump’s inauguration speech you could also bet on words he would be using in his speech, or how many times he would tweet on Jan. 20th 2017. Or if you want to bet now on whether Trump will be the official Republican candidate in 2020, you can do that as well.
While bookies have set odds to different things in the past, from whether Trump will be impeached to the exact impeachment dates, placing bets on the identity of the anonymous author seems to be sort of a new thing.
Photograph by Congerdesign