Our president is simply unpresidented

By Dana Milbank Opinion writer June 5 at 5:11 PM

The president has gone rogue.

Not one-eighth of the way through his term, Donald Trump has each day become more isolated: from his own appointees and staff (whom he routinely contradicts and undermines); from world leaders (whom he regularly offends); from the courts (whose integrity he has repeatedly assaulted); from his current director of the National Security Agency and his past director of the FBI (who are both expected to give damaging testimony this week on the Russia scandal); and even from his most ardent supporters (whose enthusiasm has softened markedly in polls).

In the space of a few hours on Monday, Trump managed to attack not just Democrats (“OBSTRUCTIONISTS!”) and the mayor of London (“pathetic”) but also the judicial system (“slow and political!”) and even his own Justice Department (for submitting a “watered down, politically correct” measure to the Supreme Court). He undermined his own administration officials and lawyers, who for legal reasons had painstakingly argued that Trump’s ban on travel from several Muslim-majority countries was not a “travel ban.” Tweeted Trump: “I am calling it what we need and what it is, a TRAVEL BAN!”

On top of all this Twitter madness, Politico’s Susan Glasser reported that Trump blindsided his secretary of state, defense secretary and national security adviser, who had made sure that his speech to NATO reaffirmed the alliance’s collective-defense clause. Trump removed the language — the cornerstone of the military alliance — at the last minute without even telling the advisers.

Trump reacted Monday to all the chaos he created by hunkering down further, canceling without notice a scheduled “pool spray” with reporters at which he was expected to answer questions.

more
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/our-president-is-simply-unpresidented/2017/06/05/5e5c35b6-4a2b-11e7-9669-250d0b15f83b_story.html