President Donald Trump's White House is permeated by a feeling of distrust, causing a steady flow of information leaks and turmoil, according to Politico.
Recently revealed details of Trump's phone conversations with foreign leaders sparked renewed concern over the president's temperament, the latest in a series of mishaps that caused Trump to withhold the details of his executive order on immigration even from top Republicans.
"Someone would have leaked it," an unnamed administration official told Politico.
"Trying to nail down who the leakers are is like trying to count the cockroaches under the couch," Trump advisor Michael Caputo said.
"We'd hear a little bit of it," said a senior Republican aide in House Speaker Paul Ryan's office. "We kind of knew it was out there, but we couldn't figure out exactly what they were going to say, and when they were going to say it."
Republican leaders didn't learn about the order until they saw news on TV.
"Then we spent all weekend trying to clean up their mess," one person said.
"Had they given a grace period, had they run the proper legal traps, I don't think this would have looked much different than the Obama order on Iraqi refugees aside from Trump going out of his way to still provoke a reaction," a senior national security advisor to a Republican senator told Politico.
Trump's top aides have expressed their distrust of federal agencies as well, reportedly over their being "stacked with Democrats and people loyal to former President Barack Obama."
"Every time something got to one of the agencies, it got out," one person said, referring to leaked transition memos. As a result, the agencies will have to operate without the full support of the White House.
"They are really limiting their contact with us," one federal employee said.
Despite these reports, Trump counselor Kellyanne Conway insisted that the leaks did not come from White House staff.
"Obviously we're not commenting on private conversations in that way. We give a read out to the media on most conversations but we don't release transcripts and we certainly don't mischaracterize them as some others have. This is the practice for us though. We're the ones not leaking," she said on Fox News Thursday.
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