“I don’t like calling people liars, but the reality is this president has a problem.”

— Former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA), quoted by The Hill.

President Trump’s current team of lawyers “lacks the security clearances needed to discuss sensitive issues related to a possible presidential interview with Special Counsel Robert Mueller,” Bloomberg reports.

“Trump’s former lead lawyer John Dowd had been the only member of the president’s personal legal team with a security clearance… When Dowd quit in March over disagreements with Trump on legal strategy, Jay Sekulow became the lead lawyer on the investigation and is still waiting for his clearance.”

President Trump’s lawyers “are preparing for a legal showdown with special counsel Robert Mueller,” CNN reports.

“Trump’s legal team is bracing for the dramatic possibility that Mueller would subpoena the President, setting up a collision that could force a lengthy court fight and test the legal limits of the President’s power all the way up to the Supreme Court.”

A new Politico/Morning Consult poll finds that 62% of voters say the Trump administration is running “very or somewhat chaotically” — nearly twice as many as the 32% who say it’s running very or somewhat well.

However, a majority of Republicans, 68%, say the Trump administration is running well.

President Trump “has insisted he is eager to make the case to the special counsel, Robert Mueller, that he has done nothing wrong. But the questions that Mr. Mueller wants to ask show why the president’s lawyers have countered that an interview would be a minefield for Mr. Trump,” the New York Times reports.

“It is not just that the president has a history of telling demonstrable falsehoods, while the special counsel has already won four guilty pleas for the crime of lying to investigators. The questions would pose additional challenges for Mr. Trump.”

“Many of Mr. Mueller’s questions… are so broad that Mr. Trump would need a detailed command of a range of issues. And, complicating efforts to try to adequately prepare him for such an encounter, the president’s lawyers do not know everything that the special counsel has learned.”

Doug Sosnik: “Rather than trying to minimize the impact of the scandals, Trump seems to look for new opportunities to introduce his personal problems into the Oval Office. His words and actions simply serve to remind the public how obsessed he is with the accusation that his campaign colluded with the Russians during the 2016 election, as well as with the criminal investigation of his personal lawyer.”

“These mistakes will increase pressure on his Republican congressional supporters — particularly in the Senate — to disavow him at a time when Trump can least afford it. No matter how well the Democrats do in November’s midterm elections, Trump’s fate will ultimately be determined by Republicans in Congress. They are the only ones who could put enough political pressure on the president to either leave office or decline to run for a second term.”

“So far, congressional Republicans haven’t had to pay a price for supporting Trump. That is likely to change if Republicans, as is expected, suffer significant losses in November.”

“In a tense meeting in early March with the special counsel, President Trump’s lawyers insisted he had no obligation to talk with federal investigators probing Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential campaign,” the Washington Post reports.

“But special counsel Robert Mueller responded that he had another option if Trump declined: He could issue a subpoena for the president to appear before a grand jury.”

“Mueller’s warning — the first time he is known to have mentioned a possible subpoena to Trump’s legal team — spurred a sharp retort from John Dowd, then the president’s lead lawyer.”