Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally Posted by Greedy,Greedy,Greedy

Leaking is a time-honored tradition. The amazing thing about the Trump leaks is that they are mostly people looking to undermine the administration they are a part of. I wonder whether some of this is to protect a reputation later on, so X can say, I may have been part of the administration, but I wasn't part of and object to the idiotic thing they did on Y.

I don't think they're trying to undermine the Administration. In some cases they are trying to get an airing for views that they don't think are being heard by normal channels, something that makes a lot of sense when the President appears to be most influenced by what he hears on Fox & Friends. In other cases they are trying to undermine specific people in the administration for their own personal advanced. Olivia Nuzzi's recent article about Hope Hicks (in New York magazine) makes it sound like this is a full-time job for Corey Lewandoski, and he's not the only one. Sometimes the leaks are about things like who is dating who, and who is squandering taxpayer dollars on what, but since government does policy and outsiders actually care about, sometimes these leaks drift into policy matters as well. But Trump doesn't care all that much about policy, and he attracts strivers who don't either, so they all care less about the harm they do there.

The President likes conflict among his subordinates, so he essentially encourages this.