

Michael Flynn, pictured at a White House news conference on Feb. 1, resigned as national security adviser Monday night. (Photo by Carolyn Kaster/AP)

This post has been updated several times since its original publication on Feb. 1, to reflect new reports on members of President Trump's administration.

President Trump often seems impervious to bad press. According to Harvard's Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, 77 percent of Trump's coverage during the general-election campaign was negative, yet he won anyway.

But Trump is a unique figure, and the people in his orbit are quickly learning that the president's Teflon coating does not rub off on them.

Michael Flynn resigned late Monday from his position as White House national security adviser four days after The Washington Post reported that he privately discussed U.S. sanctions against Russia with that country’s ambassador to the United States during the month before Trump took office, contrary to public assertions by administration officials. His tenure lasted just 24 days.

[Michael Flynn resigns as national security adviser]

Flynn is the latest member of Trump's team to be hampered or taken down by media scrutiny.

Monica Crowley, Trump's pick for a communications job at the National Security Council, withdrew in January after CNN and Politico reported on plagiarized passages in her book and her doctoral dissertation.

Anthony Scaramucci, slated to serve as a White House liaison to the business community, is in danger of losing the gig, the New York Times reported earlier this month in a front-page story that probably didn't help his cause. The former campaign fundraiser's confirmation is on hold because of internal concerns about the appearance that a Chinese conglomerate, which struck a deal to acquire Scaramucci's investment firm in January, is trying to buy influence in the Trump administration.



Anthony Scaramucci, President Trump's pick to serve as a liaison to the business community, speaks to reporters at Trump Tower in New York in November. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

The Huffington Post reported last week that Andrew Puzder, Trump's nominee to lead the Labor Department, previously employed an undocumented immigrant as a housekeeper. The New York Times explained the stakes: “The revelation potentially could derail a nomination that has elicited controversy because of Mr. Puzder’s views on overtime pay, sick leave and automation.”

According to multiple reports, Trump is souring on White House press secretary Sean Spicer, who has been savaged in the media because of inaccurate and sometimes baffling briefings. In private, the president has reportedly criticized everything from Spicer's performance in front of journalists to his wardrobe.

[Michael Flynn’s resignation proves some Washington rules still apply to Donald Trump]

So although Trump promotes the idea that bad press is insignificant (“It doesn't matter as much, like it used to matter,” he told Dr. Oz in September), members of his team are finding out that their boss is an exception. For them — and for their job security — bad press actually does matter.

The result of this realization has been an awful lot of swiping at one another in conversations with (who else?) reporters — all on background, of course. Trump aides appear preoccupied with covering their own butts while shifting blame onto others.

[3 theories that explain why the Trump White House keeps leaking]

Here's an excerpt from the Times report on Scaramucci that illustrates the phenomenon:

Allies of Mr. Scaramucci’s said the sale of his company was a red herring, and attributed the delay in his swearing-in to objections from Reince Priebus, the White House chief of staff, who they said had not favored giving Mr. Scaramucci a White House position. Mr. Priebus’s allies denied that.

Citing “a source familiar with the situation,” Politico reported that Priebus went so far as to tell Scaramucci to step aside but later recanted.

Meanwhile, Spicer seemed more worried about defending himself than Scaramucci.

“It wasn’t announced,” Spicer told Politico. “I never said that he had a job.”

Got that, journalists? If the Scaramucci appointment falls through, don't blame Spicer for giving you incorrect information.

Negative coverage might not hurt Trump much, but it can damage members of his team, who are waking up to the fact that rules broken by the president still apply to them.