What they’re saying: A source familiar with Trump’s thinking said the president has privately used the word “courage.” “Clearly what he likes about him is he’s holding his ground, not running for the tall grass,” the source said.

“You can’t be attorney general if you have to walk away from really important work that an attorney general should be doing. And so you have a duty to really think carefully before you just throw up your hands and say: I don’t want to take that on or I want to run from that particular controversy.”

Whitaker isn’t out of the running for the permanent job, but there is some internal opposition to him because of a sense of how difficult he will be to confirm.

Trump has shown no great urgency to settle on a permanent replacement for Jeff Sessions and seems happy with Whitaker’s current status, a source with direct knowledge told Axios.