A White House Aide Recorded Meetings with Trump to Impress His Friends

A junior White House aide has been recording meetings with President Trump to impress his friends. This news comes after a long list of embarrassing—and frankly, hilarious—leaks arriving from the West Wing every day.

According to Business Insider, senior White House officials have declared the leaks a “national security risk.” Following the leak concerning Kelly Sadler’s unfortunate remarks about Sen. John McCain suffering from brain cancer last week, the White House has begun cracking down on phone usage. Now, officials must leave their personal phones in storage lockers, the number of attendees of daily communications meetings has been limited and each official is checked with a scanning device that detects nongovernmental phones before entering any meetings. Yet, the entire administration can’t get it under control. They are all either leaking information or making career-ruining statements that are recorded and then leaked by their peers. Trump, despite his adamant anger with leakers, is not in the clear, either. As Business Insider notes, during the 2016 campaign, New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman stated:

During the campaign, several advisers privately called Trump “leaker-in-chief,” bc of his tendency to be blurt stuff 2 friends on phone.

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) May 16, 2017

It’s all just one big game of who can tell on who. Take the Sadler comment from last week: After the statement was leaked, Sarah Huckabee Sanders scolded the staffers and her disciplinary speech was leaked, as well. Whether it was out of spite or humor, it was a jab at Trump nonetheless. As for the “leaker in Chief,” he continues to blames the leaks on any news media outlet that is not Fox News. According to the New York Times, Trump blames the media for having “the worst press.” Yet, current and former aids have told the Times that Trump has an “inherent sense of paranoia.” In the past few months, he has become angry with his staff and blames them for his lack of good press. Behind closed doors, Trump is cracking down on his entire staff in an attempt to stop the leaks, but on Twitter he blames the media. Either way, he is constantly paranoid about getting more bad press. A few White House aides have told the Times that the new crackdowns have “engendered a sense of distrust in the West Wing.”

Basically, the entire administration is full of blabbermouths tattling on each other while the American public waits for actual government business to take place. Trump can continue to crack down and take away staffers’ phones, but it’s clear he doesn’t have many friends around him in the West Wing.