Getty Trump fumes over leaks at private meeting with Republicans

President Donald Trump fumed about intelligence community leaks during a meeting at the White House with his earliest supporters in Congress, according to two of the attendees.

“He was furious about that," said Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.), one of 11 lawmakers who huddled with Trump and posed for pictures with him in the Oval Office on Thursday.


Kelly said Trump vented that the departure of national security adviser Michael Flynn — over revelations that he misled Vice President Mike Pence about his communications with Russia in December — is "not the issue" compared to the leaks that made those revelations public.

Rep. Lou Barletta, another Pennsylvania Republican who attended the meeting, said Trump "talked a lot" about the leaks and said they could have national security implications.

The topic was prevalent in what was an otherwise jovial meeting between a band of lawmakers and the president they helped elect. Rep. Chris Collins (R-N.Y.) said Trump called the meeting when, during a recent conversation with Trump, they began reminiscing about their weekly meetings during the campaign.

Collins said the members were invited into the Oval Office for pictures around the president's desk. And he said amid broad policy discussions, he also asked the lawmakers what they were hearing from constituents in their districts.

"He wants the real, unfiltered, what’s going on," Collins said, "not necessarily watching CNN, MSNBC or even Fox. There were 11 of us from 11 different parts of the country able to share with him the responses we're getting when we’re at the supermarket, when we’re at Home Depot."

Collins said he relayed that his district has swung even harder for Trump since the election, despite "a few people who walk by and a certain finger on their hand goes to my face."

"I'll admit" it, he said. "But that’s one person in 20."