10/8/2019

TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/TRUMP PEOPLE/WHISTLEBLOWER: “President Donald Trump has compared White House leakers with spies and mused obliquely to other officials about executing them. He’s attacked reporters by name. He rails frequently against media accounts of his administration, dismissing them as ‘fake news.’ But privately, the president is so obsessed with the leaks about him that he has frequently discussed whether to order polygraphs of White House staffers after major disclosures, according to four former White House officials — in what would be a stark and politically risky departure from past practice…The new details of Trump’s repeated interest in polygraphing provide important context on the president’s state of mind as Democrats demand answers about the White House’s handling of records of his interactions with foreign leaders.”

Daniel Lippman, “Inside Trump’s obsession with polygraphs,” Politico, October 8, 2019 5:00 am