The Core

This isn't just a current POTUS issue, but you can see it rising against governments around the world.  Worth a read.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/16/world/americas/deep-state-leaks-trump.html

So is the United States seeing the rise of its own deep state?

Not quite, experts say, but the echoes are real — and disturbing.

I take issue with the above quote, though. The US (and even my state of NC) has a thriving Deep State.

TL;DR: "Officials, deprived of the usual levers for shaping policies that are supposed to be their purview, are left with little other than leaking."

Leaks have always been strategic.

I remember some famous journalist (not Woodward or Bernstein, but of that stature) say that he always asks "What is the agenda of the person giving me this information?"

Anytime you see unsourced quotes from government officials, you know that someone is running a shadow campaign for or against the executive and, even for the experienced investigative journalist, it's not always obvious which it is. I think it's in Dune where the recurring quote is "A feint within a feint within a feint."