Political commentator and national security expert Marcy Wheeler has linked three recent episodes involving President Donald Trump’s attacks on the media and new threats from the White House to an internal power struggle surrounding chief of staff Susie Wiles, a position that sits at the center of the West Wing’s staffing decisions and the management of information reaching the president.

Writing Thursday, Wheeler discussed a letter sent by new White House Counsel Will Scharf to Politico complaining about the outlet’s owner. The letter, first reported by Marc Caputo, alleged that articles published between Oct. 14 and Oct. 17 were “demonstrably false and defamatory” and part of a conspiracy to “manufacture a narrative of dysfunction and infighting in the White House.”

Scharf demanded that the stories be retracted and corrected “or face the consequences.” A defamation claim involving a public official would have to clear the “actual malice” standard the Supreme Court established in its 1964 New York Times v. Sullivan decision. Caputo’s report also included a comment from one of Trump’s aides describing Politico’s owner as a foreign-owned right-wing billionaire; Politico has been owned by Germany-based Axel Springer since 2021. The letter is available in the published document, while additional reporting on the dispute was published by Axios.

Wheeler argued that the attacks could be part of the White House’s effort to establish explanations and assign blame ahead of what she described as an inevitable electoral “bloodbath,” with the November midterm elections approaching. The three articles cited by Scharf concerned reported power struggles involving Wiles and other administration officials, and the White House issued on-the-record denials regarding the reports.

The first was an Oct. 15 article titled “Trump’s ice maiden is under fire,” published in Politico’s morning newsletter, “Playbook.” Trump called the report “fake news.” A second Playbook report described a White House “freakout” over the earlier article. According to that report, Trump “blew up” over the story and called it “unbelievably stupid and false.”

The third article, titled “Susie Wiles helped set up Fox interview ahead of press secretary’s exit,” concerned former press secretary Katie Zacharia’s interview with Sean Hannity. The report suggested that Zacharia had been set up for the interview. Politico later issued a correction saying that Zacharia had arranged the interview herself.

The correction stated: “CORRECTION: An earlier version of this report, including its headline, mischaracterized the role White House chief of staff Susie Wiles played in then-press secretary Katie Zacharia’s interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News. POLITICO’s follow-up reporting indicates she did not play a direct role in setting up the interview.

“White House chief of staff Susie Wiles ‘offered positive reinforcement’ for Katie Zacharia to appear on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show last week, according to a senior White House official.”

Wheeler said Trump did not appear ready to invoke the Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA, against Politico’s owner, despite what she described as his history of disregarding the law. FARA requires individuals acting on behalf of foreign governments or political parties to disclose that work to the Justice Department. She suggested that, although Politico might be concerned about a legal fight, the consequences were unlikely to go beyond access to the White House press pool, the small rotating group of reporters assigned to cover the president.

The White House has also faced difficulty identifying sources who leak information to the press. A previous report said Wiles and FBI Director Kash Patel were trying to find the person who disclosed that a jet gifted by Qatar was not equipped for international travel near Iran. Trump reportedly had to hide in a food cart while boarding the older presidential plane. It remained unclear why the aircraft switch had to be conducted so secretly or what the plane lacked.

The White House called the disclosure a colossal breach of national security but never identified the leaker.

Wheeler said the broader issue was an effort by the White House counsel to suppress reports that Wiles could be made a scapegoat for the expected electoral losses. “As the cited article lays out (and cites four people who are getting calls from Trump about replacing Wiles; it should be noted that Trump always solicits advice from Hannity), Trump is testing whether to replace Wiles with people that include Stephen Miller, who (along with Boris Epshteyn) is reportedly close to Scharf,” she wrote in her analysis.

The second Politico report said Trump aide Natalie Harp, who typically surrounds Trump with news intended to keep him happy and calm, printed the first article. That report denied that Trump or anyone else at the White House had read it. Scharf’s letter, however, indicated that White House officials had seen the article and its follow-up.

“How else would ‘Scharf have come to complain about it and the follow-up, you dummies? This threat from Scharf is, quite literally, a legal freak-out,’” Wheeler wrote.

Wheeler speculated that the leaker could be someone such as Miller and that the disclosures might be connected to his effort to obtain the chief of staff position. She concluded that the White House counsel was pursuing “something legally and logically stupid to punish Politico for reporting what is really going on.” How Politico responds to the retraction demand, and whether the White House follows through on it, remained unresolved.