The What’s-Going-On Presidency

Playbook: “Over the last week, the Trump administration has taken several tactical and political steps that would be seen, in any other administration, as such massively stupid political blunders that one would wonder if someone is asleep at the switch.”

“Usually, if one disagrees with the White House on the substance, you might be able to discern what the administration is trying to achieve ideologically. These all seem, to some degree, to be self-defeating. And they are all grabbing headlines in a week where President Trump should be riding high after the letter from Attorney General Bill Barr.”

Among the blunders: Re-litigating health care, gutting the Special Olympics, nominating Stephen Moore to the Federal Reserve Board and stepping up Trump’s war on Puerto Rico.