White House of cards collapsing

[B]urned-out aides are eyeing the exits, as the mood in the White House is one of numbness and resignation that the president is growing only more emboldened to act on instinct alone.

[...]

Several high-profile aides, including John F. Kelly, the president’s chief of staff, and Joe Hagin, a deputy of Mr. Kelly’s, are said to be thinking about how much longer they can stay. Last week, Mr. Kelly told visiting senators that the White House was “a miserable place to work,” according to a person with direct knowledge of the comment.

  NYT

He'll either be denying that, walking it back, or actually quitting. Place your bets.

The turnover, which is expected to become an exodus after the November elections, does not worry the president, several people close to him said.

Who imagined it did?

Mr. Trump, who desires a measure of chaos at all times, is reveling in the effects of his own mercurial decision-making, the people said.

Stephen K. Bannon, the president’s former chief strategist, said in an interview that Mr. Trump’s love of conflict had driven his approach to the presidency. “This is how he won,” Mr. Bannon said. “This is how he governs, and this is his ‘superpower.’ Drama, action, emotional power.”

I'd put it like this: Pugnacious, malicious narcissists thrive on turmoil, drama and striking out. It's a superpower in the same sense as a tornado.

Rather than trusting the people around him, Mr. Trump has taken to working the phones more aggressively to seek counsel from outside voices, particularly two of his longest-serving advisers — Corey Lewandowski, his first campaign manager, and his longtime friend David Bossie.

Among the president’s other confidants is Scott Pruitt, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. Mr. Trump has dismissed the advice of several aides who have tried to persuade him to fire Mr. Pruitt in light of the growing questions about misuse of his authority. The two speak frequently, and the president enjoys discussing his negative view of Jeff Sessions, the attorney general, with the embattled E.P.A. leader.

On Friday, the president told reporters that Mr. Pruitt “is doing a great job within the walls of the E.P.A.,” but that “outside, he’s being attacked very viciously by the press.”

[...]

Mr. Trump’s reliance on outside advisers, [Kathryn Dunn Tenpas, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution] said, also signals an “emasculation” of the chief of staff in the White House, who is meant to serve as the president’s confidant and gatekeeper.

“It seems as though Chief of Staff Kelly is losing power by the day,” Ms. Tenpas said. “It’s almost like a battery that’s draining. I’ve not seen any presidency operate effectively without putting somebody in there that you respect and you can trust.”

He doesn't respect anyone. And the only person he can trust is Ivanka. Come to think of it, why doesn't he make her chief of staff?

[O]ne of Mr. Kelly’s deputies, Mr. Hagin, whose connections to the Republican establishment have been a target of Mr. Trump’s outside advisers, is looking for a way out: He is said to be considering departing for a high-ranking job at the C.I.A., according to The Washington Post.

Hagin is the guy who reportedly set up the Singapore meetings and kept the details from Trump so he couldn't tweet about them.

The communications office is likely to lose several staff members, some voluntarily but most at the request of a president who often complains that he has the biggest communications team and still gets terrible press.

[...]

Mr. Trump has remained fixated on leaks back home. He has recently pitted aides against each other in his search to find those who may be disloyal.

“Is he the leaker? Is she the leaker?” Mr. Trump asks visitors to the Oval Office, or outside advisers he talks to on the phone, whenever the names of specific staff members come up.

Some aides have sought to stoke the president’s fears about leaks, trying to identify people who could be disloyal: At least one senior aide is dropping inaccurate stories into the West Wing rumor mill to identify people who speak to reporters.

A miserable place to work, indeed.  It's going to need an exorcist when Trump leaves.