--- title: Sarah Sanders Tells Americans to Call the New York Times description: Press Secretary Sarah Sanders tweeted the number of the New York Times opinion desk in an effort to reveal the identity of an op-ed writer. canonical: https://time.com/5388847/sarah-sanders-new-york-times-op-ed/ author: Rachel E. Greenspan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-09-06T18:20:17.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T21:21:54.317Z article:section: Politics og:title: Sarah Sanders Told Americans to Call the New York Times Over Anonymous Op-Ed og:description: Echoing a tactic Trump used during the 2016 campaign. og:url: https://time.com/5388847/sarah-sanders-new-york-times-op-ed/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt616bac1624cb63c2/69893997db2987f78a2609ab/sanders-new-york-times-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: trump-new-york-times og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Sarah Sanders Told Americans to Call the New York Times Over Anonymous Op-Ed twitter:description: Echoing a tactic Trump used during the 2016 campaign. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt616bac1624cb63c2/69893997db2987f78a2609ab/sanders-new-york-times-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Sarah Sanders Told Americans to Call the New York Times Over Anonymous Op-Ed by [Rachel E. Greenspan](https://time.com/author/rachel-e-greenspan/) ## Rachel E. Greenspan Sep 6, 2018 6:20 PM UTC  This photo shows an anonymous opinion piece in The New York Times in New York, on Sept. 6, 2018. This photo shows an anonymous opinion piece in The New York Times in New York, on Sept. 6, 2018.Richard Drew—AP/REX/Shutterstock by [Rachel E. Greenspan](https://time.com/author/rachel-e-greenspan/) ## Rachel E. Greenspan Sep 6, 2018 6:20 PM UTC White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders encouraged Americans to flood the New York _Times_ switchboard in protest over an [anonymous op-ed](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/05/opinion/trump-white-house-anonymous-resistance.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage) from a member of the Trump Administration. Calling the author an “anonymous coward” and a “gutless loser,” Sanders tweeted the opinion desk’s phone number, urging Trump supporters to ask about the identity of the writer, who criticized Trump’s “amorality” and poor management skills. “The media’s wild obsession with the identity of the anonymous coward is recklessly tarnishing the reputation of thousands of great Americans who proudly serve our country and work for President Trump,” she wrote. > [](https://twitter.com/PressSec/status/1037728144642506752) The _Times_ defended the choice to grant anonymity to the author because he or she is “a senior official in the Trump administration whose identity is known to us and whose job would be jeopardized by its disclosure.” On Wednesday, Trump called for the _Times_ to disclose the author’s identity, calling it a threat to national security. “If the GUTLESS anonymous person does indeed exist, the Times must, for National Security purposes, turn him/her over to the government at once!” he tweeted. The tactic echoed something Trump did during the 2016 campaign, when he retaliated against Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham over criticism by sharing his [cell phone number](http://time.com/3966564/lindsey-graham-trump-phone/). Graham eventually had to change his phone number. It’s also happened to members of the Trump Administration. In June, the news site Splinter shared Trump aide Stephen Miller’s personal phone number, leading Twitter to [suspend the accounts](http://fortune.com/2018/06/20/twitter-suspends-accounts-that-posted-trump-advisor-stephen-millers-phone-number/) of those who shared the number or the article. “It’s against our policies to share other people’s private information on Twitter, including directly linking to that information. Today, we temporarily blocked accounts that shared this information until they deleted the Tweet that violated our rules,” a Twitter spokesperson said at the time. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5388847/sarah-sanders-new-york-times-op-ed/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5388847/sarah-sanders-new-york-times-op-ed/"},"headline":"Sarah Sanders Told Americans to Call the New York Times Over Anonymous Op-Ed","datePublished":"2018-09-06T18:20:17.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T21:21:54.317Z","description":"Echoing a tactic Trump used in 2016","url":"https://time.com/5388847/sarah-sanders-new-york-times-op-ed/","keywords":["White House","Donald Trump","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt616bac1624cb63c2/69893997db2987f78a2609ab/sanders-new-york-times-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Rachel E. Greenspan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/rachel-e-greenspan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt616bac1624cb63c2/69893997db2987f78a2609ab/sanders-new-york-times-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"trump-new-york-times","caption":"The New York Times op-ed discussing mayhem in the White House","creditText":"Richard Drew—AP/REX/Shutterstock","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5388847/sarah-sanders-new-york-times-op-ed/","name":"Sarah Sanders Told Americans to Call the New York Times Over Anonymous Op-Ed"}}]}] ```