WASHINGTON, DC, United States (AFP) — For months, US President Donald Trump has repeatedly fumed on Twitter about leaks to the “fake news” media seen as casting his administration in a bad light.

Now he apparently plans to do something about it.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats are to hold a briefing today to address “leaks of classified material threatening national security”.

The announcement comes after six months of political intrigue and open feuding in the White House, which has manifested itself in a torrent of damaging revelations to the media.

It also comes after a leak that was unusual even by the standards of this administration — the publication by The Washington Post of the contents of private phone calls between Trump and foreign leaders.

The newspaper published the full transcripts yesterday of conversations the Republican billionaire leader held in January with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

Trump urged Pena Nieto, according to the transcripts, to stop saying publicly that he would not pay for the promised border wall with Mexico and he told Turnbull, after an acrimonious exchange, that theirs was his “most unpleasant call all day”.

While Trump has yet to address the leak of his personal calls, he has raged against “illegal leaks” in the past and even went so far as to lash out publicly at Sessions last week for taking what he called a “very weak” position on the issue.

In a move seen in part as a bid to impose more discipline on the White House, Trump last week also named John Kelly, a no-nonsense retired Marine Corps general, to be his new chief of staff.

Leaks have long been the currency of politicians and journalists in the US capital, and they figured prominently in the 2016 presidential campaign with the publication by WikiLeaks of emails from Hillary Clinton’s campaign.