Reince Priebus, Trump’s chief of staff, told me the same: “The President has full confidence in Sean,” he said. “What he thinks is that this is a media narrative that’s B.S., that’s what he thinks.”

So where is the narrative coming from? Spicer declined to comment on the record for this article, but Bannon and Priebus dismissed the leaks about his fate as scuttlebutt from lower level staff. Or maybe “the media, the opposition party” was just making it up, Bannon said.

Many people sympathetic to Spicer in and out of the White House believe otherwise. Five of these sources think the person behind the leaks is Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s ever-visible White House counselor. Though they offer no hard evidence, they say Conway is trying to offload blame for administration setbacks on Spicer to prove she is the more effective public advocate and earn a lasting place in the President’s inner circle.

“She’s clearly guiding a press narrative that he’s not up for the job, and that they’re reviewing other candidates,” one GOP strategist said. “It’s becoming abundantly clear that Kellyanne is making Sean’s job impossible.”