New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman revealed the mood inside the White House amid President Donald Trump's frustration.
During a Thursday appearance on CNN, Haberman was asked about the White House environment as Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt wrapped up her final day. CNN anchor Laura Coates noted that the second Trump administration isn't seeing as much turnover as the first, but she expects "a lot of midterm anxiety" in the White House right now.
"What's the morale like right now in the West Wing?" Coates asked Haberman.
"A midterms [race], as you know, is often a time when people leave White Houses. These are grueling jobs. There are, you know, intensity times a thousand," Haberman explained, but she added that staffers are feeling more pressure than usual as Trump is in a bad mood.
"It's not a happy environment by any of the reporting that we have," Haberman said. "The president has been in a pretty frustrated mood for a while about Iran, which, again, is of his own making."
Haberman added that Trump "does not have the patience for long-term diplomacy or having these lengthy conversations to try to get out of a situation."
Haberman and fellow New York Times reporter Jonathan Swan wrote Regime Change, which looks inside the White House during Trump's second administration. She told Coates that the book noted that Trump expected the conflict in Iran "to be a quick war."
Trump expected that "this would be over fast, and that just is not how it worked out, and now there is a further depletion of munitions, and there are stories about that all the time," Haberman said. "And he is frustrated about leaks and on and on and on."
As a result, "It's just not a happy environment" in the White House right now. "It is normal that people want to leave and want to go make money at this point, but it is very much not a happy place right now."