They say you should follow the money...

I keep reading things like this:

Politico story
Obama's speech

Where people are saying they don't know why someone did a particular action.

Let's think about this logically a second...

Who might benefit from having put this op-ed into the paper?
Conspirators
    No, I don't think so.  What would it do other than make their life under trump hell?  He's already called for lie detector tests, with mandatory firing of anyone who fails.  (I agree...let's start with trump first).

Bob Woodward
    I don't think this is from him either.  Why freak out trump after already just releasing a new book thats...guaranteed to freak out trump already?

Republicans
    There's an outside chance that the Republicans did this so that voters would start thinking there really is a cabal or deep-state thing going on, and will bump supporters.  They already know that this election will be crushing for them...maybe this is their hail mary.

Democrats
    The Democrats could benefit if they pressure trump into doing something so heinously stupid that even his supporters cannot stomach it.  (This seems a long shot considering the rich tapestry of gorge-inducing items trump has done to put voters off, and people are still stupid enough to back him.)   I can't imagine this one to have any possible validity, Democrats already have so much trump misbehaviour to choose from...why invent more?

Trump
    Trump has already started shouting about how the cabal should be unearthed, possibly by forcing the NYT to tell who their source is.  This puts journalism at risk (journalism is the *only* thing standing between a dictatorship and democracy).

Putin
Xi Jinping
    I'd say it's a tie for both of these countries to put that op-ed in the NYT. 

Can you imagine any better way to completely decapitate the government and populace of the US?  Either the US populace along and/or the bulk of government is focused on this just now.  The US simply doesn't have time or inclination to worry with other countries.

Russia wants to deflect criticism about the novichok killing in the UK right now.  Why not try to discredit the President?

China wants to do something that takes trump's mind off the tariffs levelled on China.

​Who stands the most to gain here?