>> reporter: like this. it may be cold comfort in this chaotic era. others are speculating it's the president's chief of staff. >> an unnamed senior administration official. >> kelly would be high on my list. >> reporter: general john kelly has a military background and the buzzword lodestar, used in the op-ed is a military term. >> sounds like a military term to me. >> reporter: others are quick to point out lodestar is a word mike pence likes to use. >> vigilance and resolve will be our lodestar. be our lodestar. with vigilance and resolve as our lodestar. >> it's too obvious to say lodestar when you're pence. you've used it a million times. >> if you want to be conspiratorial, it's even possible someone wrote it knowing that the word "lodestar" was a favorite word of vice president pence and wanted to either cast suspicion on the vice president or wanted to distract attention from themselves. >> reporter: the guessing game moved into hyper drive with