Well done with ketchup: Trump "has been seething as he watches round-the-clock cable news coverage."

[Miles Archer]

The president has been seething as he watches round-the-clock cable news coverage. Trump recently vented to an associate that Carter Page, a onetime Trump campaign adviser, keeps appearing on television even though he and Trump have no significant relationship.

Stories from Breitbart News, the incendiary conservative website, have been circulated at the White House’s highest levels in recent days, including one story where talk-radio host Mark Levin accused the Obama administration of mounting a “silent coup,” according to several officials.

***

Advisers pointed to Bannon’s frequent closed-door guidance on the topic and Trump’s agreement as a fundamental way of understanding the president’s behavior and his willingness to confront the intelligence community — and said that when Bannon spoke recently about the “deconstruction of the administrative state,” he was also alluding to his aim of rupturing the intelligence community and its influence on the U.S. national security and ­foreign policy consensus.

“It’s not paranoia at all when it’s actually happening. It’s leak after leak after leak from the bureaucrats in the [intelligence community] and former Obama administration officials — and it’s very real,” said Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. “The White House is absolutely concerned and is trying to figure out a systemic way to address what’s happening.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/inside-trumps-fury-the-president-rages-at-leaks-setbacks-and-accusations/2017/03/05/40713af4-01df-11e7-ad5b-d22680e18d10_story.html

[tanyev]

1. Seething, huh. That's not a good thing to do when you have a high-sodium deep-fried diet.

[Zambero]

2. Like it or not

Leaks are part and parcel of how Washington works, and have been from day one. The best defense against them is not to give the leakers an incentive for doing so, something that is completely lost on the current (so-called) administration and hyper=partisan Congress. Then again, the die was already cast once Russian interference in the 2016 election was openly condoned by Trump and his campaign. That tip of the iceberg is now completely overshadowed by intelligence community findings. Whenever critical investigations are stalled, stymied, or not given impartial treatment given sensitive nature via appointment of a Special Prosecutor, the leakers will emerge sure as the sun rises.