LEAKS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “The White House is considering shrinking its communications team in the coming weeks, two officials with knowledge of the expected changes tell CNN, with one objective being reducing the number of leaks and the overall goal being restructuring the entire press shop. Discussions of staff reduction have ramped up after it leaked that a staffer made an off-color joke about Sen. John McCain, who has brain cancer, during a daily communications meeting. Staffers are not expected to be fired outright, but pushed out slowly or shifted to other departments in the administration outside of the West Wing, the officials said. It will also likely affect junior aides without clearly defined responsibilities. The reason staffers aren’t expected to be fired directly is because, although the White House has taken several steps to combat leaks including canceling the daily communications meeting, senior officials aren’t confident about who it is exactly that is doing the leaking, one official noted. Multiple officials inside the West Wing see the leaks of information as impossible to prevent. Dozens of senior White House officials speak to reporters on a daily basis, including, at times, President Donald Trump himself.”
-Kaitlan Collins, “White House weighing shrinking communications team after McCain leak,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, May 17, 2018 9:03 pm