Is Trump really considering a massive White House shake-up?

A  story published at the lefty blog Axios over the weekend and picked up by liberal news sources said that President Trump is considering replacing just about everyone in the West Wing.

At the urging of longtime friends and outside advisers, most of whom he consults after dark, President Trump is considering a “huge reboot” that could take out everyone from Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and chief strategist Steve Bannon, to counsel Don McGahn and press secretary Sean Spicer, White House sources tell me.

The sources, as usual, are anonymous making their story difficult to confirm. But Newsweek gave it a shot using SNL as confirmation…

Indeed, the rumors were addressed by Saturday Night Live this weekend, when Melissa McCarthy’s take on Spicer was asked at a press briefing: “If he’s your friend, why is everyone saying he’s about to fire you and replace you with Sarah?”

Axios was started by the co-founder of the left-leaning politico Jim VendeHei and is run by Politico’s former Chief Revenue Officer Roy Schwartz.

The article is a hit-piece intended to paint the president as a poor leader, who is “angry” and “frustrated.”

“He’s frustrated and angry at everyone,” one of the quoted anonymous sources told Axios. “He’s never going to say he did a bad job.”

To complete the picture of an insecure and nepotistic president, the article takes aim at his trust in his family.

If Trump follows through, his innermost White House circle would shrink from a loop to a straight line of mid-30s family members with scant governing experience: Jared and Ivanka. So while the fighting and leaking might ease, the problems may not because it’s the president, not the staff, calling the shots.

The “leaks” coming out of the White House are plentiful and perhaps some sort of re-organization and/or staff replacement is required. A message should be sent that if you release unauthorized information to the press, you will lose your job. But this story is likely overblown. The whole thing is built solely on the accounts of sources that have integrity issues and that may be hoping to garner favor with media outlets in hopes of future employment.

Some changes will likely occur in the communications department. Sean Spicer infamously held a department meeting in January where he attempted to crack down on leaks from his office. That meeting got leaked to the press indicating a widespread problem in Secretary Spicer’s area of responsibility.

When asked about Sean Spicer in an interview with Judge Jeanine that aired Saturday, the president said that “He’s been there from the beginning” and that Spicer is a nice man doing a good job, but “he gets beat up.”

If you’re waiting for the rumored canning of everyone from “Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and chief strategist Steve Bannon, to counsel Don McGahn and press secretary Sean Spicer”, you will be waiting awhile.