Here are a few leaks that have come out of the Trump administration in just the last 24 hours:

* President Trump abruptly ended a phone call with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull after condemning a refugee deal with the country and telling Turnbull "this was the worst call by far" he has had with a world leader.

* Trump threatened — his administration insisted it was "light-hearted" — Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto with sending American troops into his country.

* The White House asked Judge Thomas Hardiman to drive toward D.C. to amp up the drama in advance of Trump's Supreme Court pick on Tuesday night. (Hardiman was passed over in favor of Colorado federal appeals court judge Neil Gorsuch.)


I wrote recently that not only was this the leakiest White House I'd ever seen but also that the leaks — whether purposely or not — seemed to cast the president as a child who badly needs to be managed. What's truly remarkable is that the leaking appears to be growing even more frequent and even more deleterious to President Trump's image within just the last few days.


The third leak is, to me, perhaps the most baffling. White House press secretary Sean Spicer spent a decent chunk of his briefing on Wednesday disputing media reports that Hardiman and Gorsuch had both been encouraged to come to Washington in a sort of "Cannonball Run"-like competition to fill the vacant seat on the highest court in the country.  Which makes this sentence — and its sourcing — from Maggie Haberman and Glenn Thrush all the more amazing:

Three administration officials who did not want to be identified said Judge Hardiman hit the road to Washington to help them maintain the illusion that the selection process was still competitive.

Three. Administration. Officials. These are not people opposed to Trump. This is not the loyal opposition. These are people who work within Trump's administration, people he and his team hired to help him run the country.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/02/02/the-leaks-coming-out-of-the-trump-white-house-right-now-are-totally-bananas/?utm_term=.bab2c8fedf5e

 

Last edited by Goose (2/04/2017 1:40 pm)