The author has been generally deemed a coward - with the right knocking him or her for their pre-midterm "hit-job," while many on the left have suggested that the author should have published the piece under their real name in order to attach more credibility to a series of anonymous complaints about the President that the New York Times just doesn't have the journalistic credibility to pull off anymore.

Indeed, the piece appears to have backfired - while President Trump has demanded that the Justice Department launch an investigation into the article for the sake of national security. 

Speaking at a Thursday night campaign rally in Billings, Montana, Trump said: 

for the sake of our national security, the New York Times should publish his name at once. I think their reporters should go and investigate who it is. That would actually be a good scoop. 

That would be a good scoop. Unelected deep state operatives who defy the voters to push their own secret agendas are truly a threat to democracy itself. And I was so heartened when I looked