Trump is reportedly so paranoid about leakers in the White House that he has discussed making his staff take lie detector tests

SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images

US President Donald Trump has consistently complained about frequent leaks from the White House.

• US President Donald Trump is so concerned about the presence of leakers in the White House that he has repeatedly suggested the use of lie detector tests to weed them out, Politico reported Tuesday.
• Sources told Politico that after seeing or reading reports about the inner workings of his presidency, he would demand that leakers be found, and put forward the idea of lie detector tests numerous times.
• "He talked about it a lot," one former official told the publication.
• "I have been with the president since July 2015 and can say unequivocally that I have never heard suggesting polygraphs as a way to stop leaks," Stephanie Grisham, the White House press secretary said.
• Trump currently faces an impeachment inquiry after a whistleblower raised concerns about his conversations with Ukraine's president.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

US President Donald Trump is so paranoid about the presence of leakers in the White House that he has repeatedly suggested that all staff be compelled to undergo a lie detector test, Politico reported Tuesday.

Four former administration staffers told the publication that Trump has raised the possibility of making staff and aides take a polygraph test numerous times after stories with leaked information about his presidency have appeared in the media.

Read more: GOP lawmakers are reluctant to defend Trump on Ukraine because he's so erratic

"He talked about it a lot," one former official told the publication. After reading and watching reports about his presidency: "He'd be angry and ask, 'Why can't we stop these things?'"

"He wanted to polygraph every employee in the building to unearth who it was who spoke to the press," another former official told Politico.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report.

Stephanie Grisham, the White House press secretary, told Politico: "I have been with the president since July 2015 and can say unequivocally that I have never heard suggesting polygraphs as a way to stop leaks."

Jose Luis Magana/AP

Trump reportedly wants to subject staffers to lie detector tests to weed out leaks.

Read more: Trump is dragging down Biden with him as the Ukraine scandal threatens to upend his presidency

Information about the infighting and inner workings of the Trump White House has long been leaked to the media, with verbatim transcripts of phone calls with world leaders published in news reports in the early days of his presidency.

The leaks have consistently enraged the president, and the number of officials patched into his phone calls with foreign heads of state sharply reduced to cut off leaks, and details of sensitive calls moved to classified storage.

Trump currently faces an impeachment inquiry by House Democrats into his attempt to push Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate domestic political rival Joe Biden, one of the frontrunners for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

President Donald Trump listens during a bilateral meeting with with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky on the sidelines of the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York City, New York, September 25, 2019.

Trump has denounced the person who provided information about a call with Zelensky to the whistleblower whose complaint ignited the impeachment inquiry. Trump has even said he is seeking the whistleblower's identity.

"I want to know who's the person who gave the whistle-blower the information because that's close to a spy," Trump said in September in a closed-door meeting at the UN headquarters in New York, according to the New York Times.

"You know what we used to do in the old days when we were smart with spies and treason, right? We used to handle it a little differently than we do now."