■ President Donald Trump got things done in 2017, but he sure didn’t make it easy.

D.C. shake-up, wins full of histrionics

This is the third installment in a three-part series examining President Donald Trump’s first year in office.

President Donald Trump entered the White House determined to change Washington rather than allow Washington to change him.

The road map was simple: insult the Washington establishment, announce hasty policy changes, humiliate the home team, rail against the Russia probe, and never forget to bash the news media. It produced a rocky first month for Trump that led many in Washington to wonder whether his presidency would survive into 2018, and if it did, whether this unorthodox executive could get things done in hostile territory.

But if Trump’s first month in office was notable for its mixture of chaos and dysfunction, the last month of 2017 showed a constant combatant who had reason to believe that his refusal to back down paid off with passage of a sweeping tax overhaul.

Trump was magnanimous during his victory speech in November as he reached out to voters who did not support him and pledged to serve as their president too.

Trump’s inaugural address told America “no more mister nice guy.” The victor declared war on Washington. As elected officials from both parties observed from their places of honor, he assailed D.C. elites who “reaped the reward of government while the people have borne the cost.”

It was clear that the acceptance speech was the exception, not the rule. Trump had chosen not to ditch the brash style and reality TV formula that won him the most coveted prize in politics.

Rough start

The curtain opened with a lean, loyal staff of longtime retainers and family members competing with a thin bench of Beltway insiders to survive in a high-profile pressure cooker. Trump began with a playbook that promised more drama than necessary to get things done.

On day two, Trump sent out newly minted White House press secretary Sean Spicer to scold the press corps for “deliberately false reporting” on the size of the crowd that came to celebrate Trump’s inauguration.

Fact checkers had a field day refuting Spicer’s inartful claims. PolitiFact rated his remarks “pants on fire” false. The Washington Post fact checker gave Spicer “four Pinocchios.”

The spokesman’s reward? The much-lampooned “Spicey,” played by actress Melissa McCarthy, became a staple on “Saturday Night Live.”

In month one, Trump fired national security adviser Michael Flynn for lying to Vice President Mike Pence about post-election phone conversations with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.

Critics who were convinced that the Trump campaign had colluded with Russian officials felt vindicated. Flynn had spent less time in the key position than a pop-up store at Christmas.

As the FBI and congressional committees investigated Russian meddling in the 2016 election, Trump denounced the story as “fake news” devised to rationalize Hillary Clinton’s surprise loss in November. He would continue to fixate on the unfairness of the probe and Flynn’s fate through most of 2017.

On Feb. 16, Trump gave his first press conference in the East Room. During the 77-minute session, which turned out to be his only solo press conference in the White House to date, Trump berated the “dishonest media” and contended that Flynn “was just doing his job.” Message received. Trump would not make