Trump shrugs off leak of his ample 'Executive Time,' which is good because Axios has a new batch of leaked calendars

Trump sits at his empty Oval Office desk

(Image credit: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images)

published 11 February 2019

The leak of President Trump's internal calendars showing he devoted 60 percent of this workday to unstructured "Executive Time" spooked the White House, and in response, "enraged White House officials" launched a mole hunt to catch the leaker, Axios reported Sunday, confirming a report in Politico. "This crackdown has not stopped the leaking," Axios notes, posting four new leaked private schedules that show Trump spent about half of last week in "Executive Time."

Trump indicated how much this betrayal is not "a source of repeated embarrassment" that has "infuriated" him, as Politico reported, by tweeting on Sunday that his leaked calendars "should have been reported as a positive, not negative. When the term Executive Time is used, I am generally working, not relaxing. In fact, I probably work more hours than almost any past president."

In fact, Vanity Fair's Gabriel Sherman reports, the leaking of the schedules, "which revealed how little work Trump actually does, was a signal of how disaffected his staff has become." The main problem, one former West Wing official told Sherman, is that "Trump is hated by everyone inside the White House." Sherman's 10 sources said Trump's management style, paranoia, penchant for blaming staff for problems he created, and increasing tendency to "run the West Wing as a family business," have left staff burned out and resentful, and several high profile aides are eying the exits, including Whit House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney.

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The Trump White House, of course, "has pledged to root out leakers in the past — most recently after a New York Times op-ed penned last year by a senior administration official identified only as 'part of the resistance inside the Trump administration,'" Politico notes. "In the wake of the op-ed's publication, the White House embarked on a search for the official that has yet to turn up the culprit."

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.