Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders had just wrapped up her daily briefing when her gleeful predecessor came bounding up the White House driveway Thursday afternoon. He had been in meetings off campus, he said, and hadn’t been able to catch his old show on television.
A departing press secretary with what appears to be at least a mild case of senioritis, smiling Spicer also didn’t have much to say about the latest, drama-filled episode of “As The White House Turns.”
.. Did he have any defense of Trump’s Twitter announcement Wednesday that transgender individuals would be barred from serving in the military?
“You can ask Sarah,” he said. It’s no longer, really, his problem.
.. Spicer was greeted by reporters departing from the briefing room, some of whom thanked him for putting in his time — a once combative relationship turned friendly and jokey in its final hurrah.
One reporter extended, as a chewy olive branch, a packet of cinnamon gum, Spicer’s addiction made famous by comedian Melissa McCarthy on “Saturday Night Live.”
The Buck Stops Everywhere Else
Trump undermines his own travel ban and Justice Department.
World leaders who stoop to attack municipal politicians in foreign cities look small, not that we can recall a precedent... In a humiliating coup de grace, the mayor’s office put out a statement saying he “has more important things to do than respond” to Mr. Trump’s social-media insults. The U.S. Commander in Chief also has better uses of his time than making himself look foolish... If Mr. Trump’s action is legal on the merits, he seems to be angry that his lawyers are trying to vindicate the rule of law. Attorney General Jeff Sessions would be justified if he resigned.. If this pattern continues, Mr. Trump may find himself running an Administration with no one but his family and the Breitbart staff. People of talent and integrity won’t work for a boss who undermines them in public without thinking about the consequences. And whatever happened to the buck stops here?.. In other words, in 140-character increments, Mr. Trump diminished his own standing by
- causing a minor international incident,
- demonstrated that the loyalty he demands of the people who work for him isn’t reciprocal,
- set back his policy goals and wasted time that he could have devoted to health care, tax reform or “infrastructure week.”
Mark it all down as further evidence that the most effective opponent of the Trump Presidency is Donald J. Trump.
Sessions Is Said to Have Offered to Resign
The situation between Mr. Sessions and Mr. Trump has grown so tense that the attorney general told Mr. Trump in recent weeks that he needed the freedom to do his job and that he could resign if that was what was wanted, according to the two people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal White House matters. Mr. Trump did not take him up on the offer.
.. Mr. Sessions was upset when the president appointed a task force to tackle the opioids crisis in March and tapped Gov. Chris Ch
Donald Trump Racks Up Few Wins So Far
.. Other presidents have seen approval ratings significantly worse, but they have all come at later points in their presidencies, Gallup found.
President Bill Clinton hit a low in his first summer in office of 37%, but it marked a bottoming out from which he climbed back to win re-election.
Presidents Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush each reached the 20s in the latter years in their first, and only, terms of office, and didn’t recover.
- .. The selection of Judge Gorsuch, who now serves on the federal 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, is a rare case in which the president has managed to clearly fulfill a campaign pledge,
- as was his promise to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership and
- expedite approval of long-stalled pipeline projects.
.. His description of the revised ban as a “watered-down version of the first one” already has complicated the government’s arguments in support of it.
.. Mr. Trump lashed out at lawmakers in the House Freedom Caucus who withheld support for the White House-backed health-care bill after deeming it insufficiently conservative. He said he would “fight them” in the 2018 elections, if he had to. The rift, some conservatives have said, is mutual.
.. Ms. Walsh, in charge of assigning West Wing office space, gave Mr. Dearborn an office he found inferior to the space allotted to his assistant. Mr. Dearborn and the assistant switched offices, which angered Ms. Walsh. Aides loyal to Mr. Dearborn cheered Ms. Walsh’s White House departure, while other insiders—including top Trump adviser Steve Bannon—heaped praise on her.