Story highlights Gloria Borger: Friends and allies worry having hard time defending Trump. Is he at a tipping point?

She says no one is willing to tell the President when he is wrong

(CNN) A telling story: There is a friend of President Donald Trump's, who has known him for years -- and has defended him for just as long -- who now says he can't quite do it anymore. "I always thought that once he understood the weight of the office, he would rise to the occasion," this friend says. "Now I don't."

Another Trump friend now says he's trying to find a way to distance himself from "that mess" in the White House. His advice, he admits, is often unheeded.

It's hard to know, when you live in the eye of the storm, whether the White House is truly at a tipping point. That's also because, in this White House, there is a storm-du-jour: the Gen. Mike Flynn fiasco, the Trump charge about Obama wiretapping him, the firing of FBI Director James Comey, and the latest controversy over Trump's reportedly sharing classified information with Russians in the Oval Office.

White House staff, says one outsider who has spoken with multiple senior staffers this week, are "disconsolate." And, he adds, "These are the real loyalists. These are the people who truly care about Donald Trump."

And even if the White House staff is at a tipping point, there's a larger -- and more important -- question: Is the President himself?

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