1. The NYT made the whole thing up (as much as I despise them, I don't think this is the case).
2. There isn't one "senior administration official" who authored it, but a compilation of quotes and secondhand references from multiple people that gives a message completely out of context.
3. The op-ed was written by a real person who actually does work in some capacity in the Trump administration.
4. [THIS IS MY TOP THEORY RIGHT NOW] ... The op-ed was written by someone who was a Trump administration official, but left office months ago ... maybe even last year. The thing is full of such vague references that -- with one exception that I explain below -- it's hard to pin it down to a specific time in the last 18 months.
So here's my theory, folks ...
The only item in this op-ed that makes it contemporaneous is the reference to John McCain in a past tense ("We may no longer have Senator McCain ..."). The op-ed was written 6-10 months ago by someone in the Trump administration who worked with the NYT through an intermediary for vetting and verification. The person doesn't work in the administration anymore, and could be someone as senior as Rex Tillerson or Gary Cohn.
The op-ed was written for the New York Times sometime after John McCain disappeared from public view ... with the understanding that it would be published with the reference to McCain in the past tense shortly after McCain's funeral.
Call me crazy, folks -- but I think there's a pretty decent chance this is exactly what has happened here.
Bob wrote it. It is full of his anonymously sourced crapola