President Trump has ratcheted up his assault on press freedom by launching a manhunt for leakers inside the White House, according to a new report.
Since March, the president, 79, has grown increasingly “nervous” about the forthcoming release of New York Times reporters Jonathan Swan and Maggie Haberman’s book, Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump, Zeteo reports.
Close aides and advisers are said to have informed the Substack newsletter that Trump has “loudly demanded to know who in his Cabinet or his team” spoke to the duo from the Times. In response, officials have launched a hunt for the leakers, Zeteo reported, citing insiders.
Some allies and officials have shown genuine concern about what might happen to any leakers who are found, with Trump and his most loyal officials, like self-styled Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, on a public rampage against the press.
“The leak hunt is a big deal right now,” one unnamed administration official said. Another claimed that they were warned that “if you talked to Jonathan or Maggie [you] better be good at covering your tracks.”
Trump caught wind of the growing issue in March and burst into random, ill-tempered meltdowns over the leaks, crying “treason” and demanding the names of those who might have worked with the book’s authors, Zeteo reported. The book is set for release on June 23.
The news has provided context for a seemingly random outburst Trump had about Haberman last month. He called her “just another SLEAZEBAG writer for The Failing New York Times” in a Truth Social post, adding, “I’m thinking of adding Maggot, and some of her ‘associates,’ into my Florida-based Lawsuit against The Times.”
In September last year, Trump filed suit against New York Times Company, Penguin Random House LLC, and individual authors, alleging that they defamed him during the 2024 U.S. presidential election.
That suit is the latest in a series of actions against major news outlets. Both CBS News and ABC News agreed to pay $16 million each to settle lawsuits that the president brought against the networks.
He is also suing the BBC for defamation over the way its “Panorama” show spliced together a speech he made before the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Earlier this week, Trump threatened to jail journalists who reported that a second U.S. airman was missing after Iran shot down a fighter jet a week prior. The president condemned what he described as a “leak” of information to an unnamed journalist, saying he would pursue the media organization that published the details unless they turned over the name of their source.
“We’re going to go to the media company that released it, and we’re going to say, ‘National security. Give it up or go to jail.’”
On Thursday, Trump’s FBI Director, Kash Patel, announced the arrest of a U.S. Army veteran who gave hours of on-the-record interviews to a journalist.
The White House has been contacted for comment.
