“Leaks are most often an outsider’s tool, and they look different from a vantage of power”

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Leaks are most often an outsider’s tool, and they look different from a vantage of power. As a candidate, Trump mentioned WikiLeaks frequently and approvingly at rallies, in interviews and in two out of three presidential debates. As president-elect, Trump responded to news of Barack Obama’s offer of clemency to Chelsea Manning, WikiLeaks’s first major source, by calling her a “TRAITOR” on Twitter. Now that Trump is president, his public flirtation with leaks has given way to his deeper and longer-held instincts for secrecy — his early presidency, like his campaign, has used sweeping nondisclosure agreements to an unusual degree.

John Herrman, “Full Disclosure”, The New York Times Magazine (12 February 2017), 13.

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