The stress is catching up with Trump

Posted on: October 11, 2017 at 08:38:46 CT

A cadre of White House insiders and close associates of President Donald Trump have painted a grim picture of an increasingly volatile Trump, who in the last few weeks has found himself at the center of near-constant battles that have frequently spilled out into the public.

Trump's most recent feuds, social-media spats, and public wars of words have pitted the president against critics — a handful of whom are from his own party. And the arguments have become increasingly bitter; a reflection of a volatile and isolated Trump, people interviewed by The Washington Post said in a report published on Monday night.

A person close to Trump likened the president to a "pressure cooker," according to The Post; someone who could "explode" if not given a chance to "blow off steam."

"I think we're in pressure cooker territory," the person told the newspaper.

The report comes at another challenging time for Trump's still-nascent presidency. More than nine months into his first term, Trump has not yet succeeded in implementing the ambitious agenda he touted on the 2016 campaign trail. Repeated failures to repeal Obamacare have been a consistent source of angst for Trump, and his immigration agenda has suffered a number of false starts before the US Supreme Court handed the administration a nominal victory in June on the president's controversial travel ban.