Inside isolated Trump days in the middle of the fallout of Russia



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BRIDGEWATER, N.J. – Faced with the condemnation of allies and enemies on the Capitol, President Donald Trump was outnumbered, even in the Oval Office. The main aides came together to convince the president to publish a rare return of comments that he had made raising doubts about the findings of Russian secret services in the United States while he stood alongside Vladimir Putin

. Bolton and Chief of Staff John Kelly united in the West Wing Tuesday in their assertion that the Commander-in-Chief had some cleaning to do. They brought with them words of alarm from Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, as well as from a host of congressional leaders and supporters of the President for whom the Public praise of Mr. Trump was too far away.

Even for Mr. Trump, a leader who has come more and more out of the constraints and guidance of aides, the position of "the man against the world" is proved untenable. Mr. Trump might like to do things his way, avoiding advice and precedents like no president before, but he never likes to be alone

coming out of the scene with Putin after his joint press conference in Helsinki, Mr Trump's second summit with an accusatory leader in as many months. The highly choreographed business had been sought by the US chief to strengthen his credibility abroad and favor his favoritism in his country, and he believed that the latter had accomplished his task

. Monday night, Mr. Trump's mood darkened.

He told the confidants in the days that followed that he was satisfied with the way his summit with Putin had unfolded, believing he had taken the measure of the man and opened the door the road on a number of thorny issues. He even said that he thought it had gone well publicly.

On the long flight back to Washington, the president began calling allies and assistants and began mocking the negative media coverage, even of Fox News, according to five outside allies and Republicans close to the White House who are not allowed to speak publicly about private conversations.

The critics he received were stifled – Mr. Trump rarely takes pleasure in leading the confrontation – but it was a foretaste of what was waiting. on his return to Washington, where valiant allies like Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich were pronouncing

when he arrived home, the parade of critical statements Trump's more isolated than he's been in the White House since last year's controversy over white supremacy protesters in Charlottesville. Some in the president's circle saw parallels in the response to this incident, when the president rebuffed his critical comments from "both sides" for protests in the city of Virginia, to return later to his original position – that the White supremacists and their detractors shared responsibility for the violence.

Trump waited 27 hours, sent five tweets and sat for two TV interviews after his first comments in Helsinki before claiming that he had used a confused "double negative" and meant "would "instead of" would not "in a key phrase to her" The sentence should have been: I do not see any reason why I would not do it – or why it would not be Russia, "said the president on Tuesday before a press conference. meeting with Republican members of Congress

The next day brought a new challenge. Mr. Trump seemed to answer "no" to a reporter's question asking if Russia was still targeting US hours later, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders emerged to say that Trump had simply tried to end the interrogation. "Sanders" created a new headache for the administration when she said that the White House was still considering a Putin proposal to allow access by Russian law enforcement forces to Americans that The Kremlin accuses unspecified crimes in exchange for US access to interrogations of Russian agents indicted for their alleged roles in interfering in the 2016 elections. State, on the other hand, rejected the proposal – which Mr Trump had previously described as "incredible offer" – "absurd".

Many people in the White House did not see the error in the comments of Sanders He was just thinking of the Kremlin offer, but he was providing tinder to the bipartisan storm.

As every attempt by the White House to remedy the situation fails to stem the growing bipartisan reaction, Mr. Trump's mood deteriorated. He was angry at the two American journalists, including one of the Associated Press, who was asking questions at the Helsinki press conference, and he was looking forward to the lack of support that he believed to have received Congressional Republicans.

The Director of National Intelligence, Dan Coats author of a rare statement refuting the remarks of the president The TV interview of the ATS Thursday at a conference on security at Aspen, Colorado, who challenged the president, as the intelligence chief questioned the wisdom of Putin's meeting and hoped that Trump would not meet the Russian leader.

"I saw the White House staff in a new state of resignation about their work.

"I saw the screaming title on cable television that there is discomfort in the West Wing and I can not wait to meet it. Presidential Advisor Kellyanne Conway. "I do not see that."

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Lemire reports from New York. Associated Press writer Ken Thomas contributed to this Washington report.

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