Somebody call for a plumber, the White House is springing leaks.
The second Trump administration has been buttoned up when compared to its chaotic 2016 vintage.
During President Donald Trump‘s first administration, power plays between White House aides routinely spilled out into the press, with reporters sometimes being used to advance personal, political, and policy agendas within the West Wing that was more ideologically divided than his second term.
The internal politicking of Trump’s second administration hadn’t really reared its head in 2025, but those tactics are finally starting to emerge, particularly after the second fatal shooting of an anti-ICE protester in Minneapolis last weekend — nine months before this year’s all-important midterm elections.
The White House has downplayed the leaks, telling the Washington Examiner, “there’s nothing the fake news loves more than leakers who have no idea what they’re talking about.”
“While the fake news embarrasses themselves with false narratives, the Trump administration has remained committed to implementing the president’s agenda and delivering for the American people,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said.
Regardless, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, or someone close to her, this week appeared to be playing political offense and defense.
For example, there were reports that Noem strategized with the White House before last Saturday’s maligned press conference after the shooting of Alex Pretti.
During that briefing, Noem told reporters that Pretti was “brandishing” a weapon before he was killed after an angry exchange with Border Patrol agents he was observing conducting an immigration law enforcement operation.
There were also reports that White House deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller was responsible for the language of a DHS social media post that alleged Pretti’s gun and magazines made it look “like a situation where an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.”
Others have defended Noem and Miller by contending their response was premised on reports from Border Patrol commander at large Greg Bovino, whom Trump this week replaced in Minnesota with border czar Tom Homan.
Miller later told reporters Bovino’s agents were not following the White House’s guidance regarding having two groups of agents, one responsible for “criminal aliens” and another for “disruptors.”
In Obama White House deputy press secretary Eric Schultz’s experience, leaks are a “symptom of discord.”
“When White House staff feel confident in their internal processes and in each other, there’s little incentive to speak out of turn,” Schultz told the Washington Examiner. “But when internal fiefdoms, blame games, and turf wars take hold, all bets are off. The rupture between Stephen Miller and DHS could prove to be a major breaking point for the administration.”
Andrew Bates, who had the same job as Schultz in former President Joe Biden’s White House, agreed “it would be in Trump’s political interest to fire Stephen Miller.”
“The oldest president in history got suckered into making ICE a secret police force for some basket case loser who acts like Sid from Toy Story,” Bates told the Washington Examiner of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Miller. “The result is the worst poll numbers for any modern president and the most economic pessimism in 12 years.”
Republican strategist Cesar Conda, however, was more circumspect, arguing that White House aides “always leak — it comes with the job.
“What’s notable here is that this White House has been far more disciplined than most, so when leaks do happen, they stand out,” Conda told the Washington Examiner. “These leaks suggest staff are feeling real pressure as governing gets harder and the midterms get closer. People are on edge about political missteps and how they could play in tight races.”
To that end, Trump’s average approval rating this month dipped to its lowest point of his second term, 42.2%, and matched his highest disapproval, 55.6%, according to RealClearPolitics.
Meanwhile, Democrats have an average 5 percentage point advantage in generic congressional ballot polling, per the same polling aggregator.
At the same time, Conda, Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s former chief of staff in the Senate and founding partner of Republican lobbying firm Navigators Global, underscored that the recent leaks do not seem to be intended to undermine Trump directly.
“They read more like internal warning flares — ways to flag concerns and steer decisions before small problems turn into bigger political ones,” he said.
Nevertheless, Northeastern University political science professor Costas Panagopoulos reiterated that leaks “tend to proliferate as internal cohesion fragments and dissent grows.”
“If the messages coming from the administration become too mixed or give the impression actors are not on the same page, heads may roll,” Panagopoulos told the Washington Examiner.
Noem did manage to make it through the week amid bipartisan calls for her resignation, though Trump did not ask her to provide a report on her department’s work during this week’s Cabinet meeting.
When reached for comment, a DHS spokesperson told the Washington Examiner that the department’s “initial statement was based on reports from [Customs and Border Protection] from a very chaotic scene on the ground.”
“That’s precisely why an investigation is underway, and DHS will let the facts lead the investigation,” the source said.
Noem was more contrite during an interview with Fox News anchor Sean Hannity in which she conveyed that she understood “we can always do better and we seek to do that every single day.”
“We want to make sure that we not only improve protocols on the ground in chaotic and volatile situations like this, but that we continue to find the truth around this situation and get the facts to the American people,” she said.
Trump’s second administration has been less leaky than his first, but it has simultaneously been tougher on leakers.
Trump this week, for example, sued the Internal Revenue Service and Treasury Department for $10 billion after they did not protect the president’s tax information between 2018 and 2020.
In addition, the FBI searched a Washington Post reporter’s home last week as part of a leak investigation into a Pentagon contractor who allegedly helped her cover the federal government workforce and the Department of Government Efficiency.
Those developments coincide with other leaks, including a report the White House was frustrated with Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy for campaigning for his son-in-law’s congressional bid during last year’s government shutdown. There are also leaks that Trump has been complaining about Attorney General Pam Bondi for being “weak” and “ineffective” after he publicly implored her to prosecute his political opponents, such as former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.
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The Department of Transportation criticized the Duffy report, remaining adamant that Trump “loves and trusts Sean, which is exactly why he wanted him out there during the shutdown — to communicate that air travel was safe and to make the case for reopening the government immediately.”
The Justice Department similarly scrutinized the Bondi report, and the Washington Examiner, citing a statement from Trump in which he repeated that the attorney general is “doing an excellent job.”