Trump allies fear a summer of discontent will complicate fall
WASHINGTON — After a summer of staff shakeups and self-made crises, President Donald Trump is emerging politically damaged, agitated and continuing to buck at the confines of his office, according to some close allies.
For weeks, the West Wing has been upended by a reorganization that Trump endorsed and, later, second-guessed, including his choice of retired Marine Gen. John Kelly as chief of staff. The president recently lashed out at Kelly after a boisterous rally in Phoenix, an incident relayed by a person with knowledge of the matter. In private conversations, Trump has leveled harsh criticism on the rest of his remaining team.
Seven months into his tenure, he has yet to put his mark on any signature legislation and his approval ratings are sagging. Fellow Republicans have grown weary of his volatility, and Trump spent the summer tangling with some he’ll need to pass a government funding bill, raise the borrowing limit and make a difficult bid for tax overhaul legislation.
“He’s in a weak position,” said Christopher Ruddy, CEO of Newsmax and a longtime Trump friend. “A lot of the Republican establishment has not been supportive,
WASHINGTON -- The Justice Department has no evidence to support President Donald Trump's statement in March that phones in Trump Tower were wiretapped on the order of his predecessor, Barack Obama, according to a court filing.
The assertion came in a motion filed in a Freedom of Information request from a government transparency watchdog.
“Both FBI and NSD confirm that they have no records related to wiretaps as described by the March 4, 2017 tweets,” DOJ said. his poll numbers are down and he has spent most of his early presidency appealing to his base while most presidents would be seeking more consensus.”
That sentiment was echoed in interviews with 10 White House officials, GOP operatives and others with close ties to the president.
Some White House officials believe Trump found his footing during the response to Hurricane Harvey, which they say has given him an opening to show presidential leadership. He on Saturday made his second visit to the region in a week. The White House has asked Congress for an initial $7.9 billion in emergency aid.
At an Oval Office event Friday, Trump struck a rare unifying tone: “As Americans, we know that no challenge is too great for us to overcome — no challenge.” But the government’s largely well-receivedhandling of the storm has not soothed Trump’s frustrations, according to those who speak with him regularly. Trump told one associate he missed his old life. And he’s focused on the prospect of losing support among his core supporters.
A Fox News survey released last week put his overall approval rating at 41 percent and notably cited a 7 percentage point drop among conservatives and a 9 point drop among whites without a college degree.
The recent reorganization in the White House has done little to determine the ideological course of Trump’s presidency or shed light on how Trump will approach the looming showdowns in Congress.
Trump said he would shut down the government unless Republicans give him money to build a wall along the Mexico border and is also considering rolling back deportation protections for young people brought to the U.S. illegally as children, a step he previously intimated to advisers that he would rather avoid.