Through it all, people who know him say, Trump rages, often alone in the residence on the top floor of the White House. It’s easy to forget in another day of new, hourly news cycles, but Trump started his Wednesday by calling his attorney general “DISGRACEFUL!” and getting a rare brushback from Jeff Sessions, the man who used to be his only friend in Washington, insisting that he wasn’t going anywhere and wasn’t much concerned with what the president had to say to him.

He tweets at his TV. He wonders why his chief of staff, John Kelly, keeps him from calling his friends. A circle of old advisers stays in touch, making phone calls to offer advice and a little companionship.

Several people in that informal circle responded to the news of Hicks’ departure by quietly seeding the thinking that Kelly’s about to get dumped himself. Kushner’s been stripped of his access to Top Secret intelligence, which many people worry he was using to improperly access the nation’s crown jewels, but his big concern this week has been a paranoid hunt for who’s leaking secrets about him.