“From the Justice Department to Veterans Affairs, vast swaths of the government have top positions filled by officials serving in an acting capacity — or no one at all. More than two years into Trump’s term, the president has an acting chief of staff, attorney general, defense secretary, interior secretary, Office of Management and Budget director and Environmental Protection Agency chief,” the Washington Post reports.

“To deal with the number of vacancies in the upper ranks of departments, agencies have been relying on novel and legally questionable personnel moves that could leave the administration’s policies open to court challenges.”

“The lack of permanent leaders has started to alarm top congressional Republicans who are pressing for key posts to be filled.”

“You can’t impeach somebody for doing the best job of any president, in the history of our country.”

— President Trump, in an interview with CBS News.

The massive leak of President Trump’s private schedules “set off internal finger-pointing and speculation more fevered than any since the New York Times‘ anonymous op-ed,” Axios reports. “White House insiders said the leak sowed chaos.”

Said Cliff Sims, author of Team of Vipers: “There are leaks, and then there are leaks. If most are involuntary manslaughter, this was premeditated murder. People inside are genuinely scared.”

Maggie Haberman: “A White House aide is weaponizing his schedules, which says a lot about how people in the White House feel about the man they work for.”

Wall Street Journal: “Chris Christie, a friend and confidant of President Trump, gave him a no-nonsense piece of advice early in his White House term: Don’t tweet about the Russia investigation. Doing so would only prolong a high-stakes probe that Mr. Trump believes is both unfair and an unwanted drag on his presidency because prosecutors would scrutinize each tweet, Mr. Christie warned. Mr. Trump would hear him out and they would argue about it from time to time, Mr. Christie said in an interview, but in the end the president didn’t listen.”

Said Christie: “He knows full well I think it’s a bad idea. I told him back in February of 2017 there is no way to make this investigation shorter, but there are lots of ways to make it longer… Every time he said something new or different, the prosecutors have to chase it down. It makes the investigation go on longer.’ ‘It’s obvious from what’s gone on for almost the last two years now that he’s not followed the advice.”