The hunt for the mole began as soon as The New York Times published an anonymous op-ed by a senior Trump administration official declaring that many in the government are working to thwart the president they serve. One senior administration official described a White House in “total meltdown” by Wednesday evening, after the president went on television to directly attack the author and the Times, an assessment corroborated in interviews with more than a dozen current and former White House officials and outside advisers.