Donald Trump tried to lay down the law Monday on aides who leak information to reporters from inside the White House, calling them 'traitors and cowards' whose days as administration employees are numbered.

At the same time, the president downplayed the validity of the leaks themselves – and made no move to apologize for one West Wing staffer's insult to a Republican senator, revealed last week in a politically costly breach of confidentiality.

'The so-called leaks coming out of the White House are a massive over exaggeration put out by the Fake News Media in order to make us look as bad as possible,' Trump tweeted before leaving to visit first lady Melania at Walter Reed Medical Center.

'With that being said, leakers are traitors and cowards, and we will find out who they are!'

President Donald Trump laid down a marker on Monday, promising to catch White House leakers who have become a constant thorn in his side

While Trump blasted disloyal staffers, he also claimed much of the dirt they dish is false, and exaggerated by reporters in order to paint him falsely in a bad light

Mrs. Trump was hospitalized Monday following a kidney procedure to address what her spokeswoman referred to as a 'benign' medical condition.

The Trump administration has been unusually porous from Day One, cycling through different centers of gravity among White House leakers.

White House communications aide Kelly Sadler still has her job despite mocking Sen. John McCain's battle with cancer during a staff meeting – a detail that was promptly leaked by someone who was in the room

In the initial half-year of the administration, some of Trump's most senior aides were among the most sieve-like.

The president himself sometimes lets a proverbial cat out of the bag by venting to longtime New York City business friends who have their own motives – and vibrant relationships with the press.

Leaking has recently become a more pedestrian sport, however, with low- and mid-level aides throwing vicarious shade at one another to settle scores or hobble their internal competition for limelight and plum assignments.

An administration official told DailyMail.com on Monday that Trump's tweet was 'definitely a direct response' to the most recent leak-related embarrassment, dating back to Thursday morning.

Kelly Sadler, a mid-level communications aide, reportedly told colleagues in a closed-door meeting that they shouldn't worry about whether Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain disapproves of CIA director nominee Gina Haspel, because 'he's dying anyway' – a suggestion that he's too ill to cast a vote in person.

The blowback was ferocious and bipartisan, with elected officials calling alternatively for public apologies and Sadler's head on a platter.

McCain, a Senate institution and a Vietnam-era war hero, is recovering from brain cancer surgery.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders confirmed Friday, and again Monday, that Sadler still has her job.

American Conservative Union chairman Matt Schlapp (left) defended Sadler on Monday, painting her as a quasi-'victim' of malicious leaks

Schlapp's wife, too, told fellow White House communications aides that she stands with the callous Kellly Sadler

McCain, an Arizona Republican, is recuperating after a recent surgery, but could hold the deciding vote on confirming a CIA director if he is well enough to return to Washington

Matt Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union – whose wife is a senior Trump communications aide – is among Sadler's few defenders in public.

'She's ... a little bit of a victim here,' Schlapp said Monday on CNN, equating her to a casualty in a war of anonymous leaks.

'None of us were in that room. And the people who leaked what she said are clearly people who have an animus against her.'

Schlapp's wife Mercedes told a similar meeting on Friday that '[y]ou can put this on the record... I stand with Kelly Sadler,' according to a leaker to Axios who framed Mrs. Schlapp as an unapologetic defender of the politically indefensible.

Another source provided the news website with a glowing review of Sarah Sanders' crisis management.

'I am sure this conversation is going to leak, too,' Sanders said, according to a second West Wing blabbermouth. 'And that’s just disgusting.'

There was discomfort in the room after Sadler made light of McCain's diagnosis during a communications staff meeting on Thursday, but on Friday senior staff member Mercedes Schlapp said she supported the aide

'The View' co-host Meghan McCain, the senator's daughter, marveled on Friday that Sadler has been allowed to keep her White House position

A third described her in fawning terms: 'Sarah cares so much about the team, the cause, this country and this President [sic]. Sarah did absolutely the right thing in condemning the remark but also condemning the selfish action.'

Aides in the White House press office universally write the word 'president' with an upper-case 'P,' even when Donald Trump's name doesn't follow it.

McCain has begun to talk publicly about his wishes for his funeral. He has pointedly said he doesn't want President Trump to attend.

Sadler has yet to comment about her flippant jab at McCain but she called to offer an apology to his daughter Meghan – who says she was promised a public 'sorry' but isn't holding her breath for one.