President Donald Trump’s administration received harsh criticism after Axios reported on the scheme the White House is using to try to identify leakers.

“President Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, has told several White House staffers he’s fed specific nuggets of information to suspected leakers to see if they pass them on to reporters — a trap that would confirm his suspicions,” Axios reported Sunday.

“This hunt for leakers has put some White House staffers on edge, with multiple officials telling Axios that Meadows has been unusually vocal about his tactics,” Axios noted. “So far, he’s caught only one person, for a minor leak.”

Here’s some of what people were saying about the report:

When the people you trust to confide your leak trap scheme leak your leak trap scheme… https://t.co/RZ71A1yQxW

— Tony Fratto (@TonyFratto) July 12, 2020

the ole "Tyrion Lannister" move! https://t.co/0kohWchbzP pic.twitter.com/8z2ZtazvDl

— jay cowit (@jaycowit) July 12, 2020

Great plan — as long as you can keep it a secret. https://t.co/YiM0gyRPas pic.twitter.com/IXqfq7l9JW

— Kyle Whitmire (@WarOnDumb) July 12, 2020

"It's a level of paranoia that we never even saw in the Nixon White House," says presidential historian Chris Whipple of the current hunt for @WhiteHouse leakers.

— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) July 12, 2020

I've always found that this kind of behavior from the boss is fantastic for morale and increases loyalty to the organization exponentially. https://t.co/Jlxdn6st4s

— ROBERT MANN (@RTMannJr) July 12, 2020

undercover officer tells some suspects that he’s undercover https://t.co/clBVxy5Cwu

— Philip Bump (@pbump) July 12, 2020

The priorities of this White House during a national crisis are totally out of whack. https://t.co/dpLSUomIAi

— Helen Kennedy (@HelenKennedy) July 12, 2020

Feels like this plan doesn’t work if you tell people you’re doing it https://t.co/HKXBePPBmD

— Matthew Zeitlin (@MattZeitlin) July 12, 2020

The problem is, how do you make up a fake story about the Prez that's SO crazy and stupid, it's guaranteed to not be secretly true. We all believed that Gorilla Channel story, no problem. https://t.co/YuSiJVU4uH

— Lon Harris (@Lons) July 12, 2020

Mark Meadows is cribbing the governance tactics of Tyrion Lannister https://t.co/28v3rPKMGy

— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) July 12, 2020

Which would have been a brilliant plan if he himself ha’t leaked that he was doing this…#BonfireofInanities https://t.co/sHZSmyQq02

— Mark Russell (@Manruss) July 12, 2020

The coronavirus death toll is over 137,000 and here’s what the president’s chief of staff is busy doing… https://t.co/GV0YfldtVp

— Jenna Johnson (@wpjenna) July 12, 2020

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