President Donald Trump ended a bumpy week of criticism about his dealings with Russia, using tariffs to influence trade and his questioning of Federal Reserve policy by digging in his heels.
“All he’s hearing in D.C. is ‘you can’t do this, you can’t do that.’ He can’t criticize the Fed, he can’t criticize the intelligence community,” an unnamed source closed to the president told The Wall Street Journal. “He’s obviously going to get frustrated by the can’t-do mentality.”
After meeting Russia President Vladimir Putin on Monday, the president spent the remainder of the week reversing or softening his comments that Russia didn’t try to interfere with the U.S. election in 2016. Laster in the week, Trump ordered a top aide to invite Putin to visit Washington this fall, amid congressional midterm elections.
Trump may have undermined his credibility in making future announcements about the administration’s plans to stop interference of midterm elections, a White House official told the WSJ. Part of his reluctance to spotlight the issue of election interference is a worry that the issue casts doubts on his legitimacy as president.
The White House’s conflicting messages show Trump’s increasingly defiant approach of persisting in the face criticism, according to the WSJ.
“The president doesn’t respect norms,” a source told the newspaper. “Norms are rules written by somebody else.”
Trump also ignored criticism on his conduct on trade and monetary policy. Trump threatened tariffs on $500 billion in Chinese imports in the same week that longtime ally Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) warned in a letter he would try to curtail presidential trade authority.
He escalated criticism of the Fed, saying the central bank is hurting U.S. economic expansion by raising interest rates, making the dollar more expensive compared with Chinese and European currencies. His comments depart from a tradition of presidents refraining from speaking specifically on monetary policy. The White House clarified his comments by saying he respects the Fed’s independence.
“He had the most challenging week of his presidency in terms of living up to his own expectations,” Andy Card, former chief of staff to GOP President George W. Bush, told the WSJ. “He’s come to recognize that it didn’t go the way he thought it would go. I’m not sure he likes learning the lessons he’s learned.”
Trump’s approval rating remains high among his base, with 84% of registered GOP voters approving of his job performance, according to a Reuters/Ipsos survey conducted July 13 to 17.
The week ended with reports that Trump did not know he was secretly taped by ex-lawyer Michael Cohen as they discussed a possible payment to an ex-Playboy model over an alleged affair, according to news reports.
CNN reported Friday that former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, now a member of Trump's personal legal team, said Trump learned earlier this week of the tape, which was first disclosed by The New York Times.
The recording was seized when the FBI raided Cohen's home, office and hotel room in April. Agents acted on search warrants based in part on evidence from Russia special counsel Robert Mueller's investigators.
The White House has consistently said that Trump denied the affair.