Unable to rein in President Donald Trump’s compulsive, ill-tempered tweeting habits, his staff has been reduced to peddling a bizarre narrative: the media is too focused on the president’s own words.

Trump has specifically stated that he prefers to broadcast the White House’s message himself, due to the fact that he too often sees his top aides and surrogates as incompetent and lacking. The White House reiterated on Monday that the president likes to use Twitter to circumvent a media it considers hostile and petty.

But White House officials themselves are now complaining that people are too focused on the president’s statements on what they concede is his preferred method of communication.