David Graham: “Here is the paradox: Everyone, from the president to his staff to the Congress to the pundits to the people, knows that the current situation is a disaster, and yet there is no apparent way to end the situation.”

“That means until at least the end of 2020, the situation will remain much as it is, with a president widely acknowledged to be dysfunctional and no way to change that. It is as though the United States is stumbling, never quite falling on its face but never fully righting itself, either, caught perpetually mid-stumble. The only certainty is more weeks like this one. There is no exit.”

A new Axios/SurveyMonkey poll shows that 55% of Americans (and 54% of independents) think President Trump’s mental fitness is a legitimate issue.

However, most Republicans say the questions are “unfair and politically motivated.”

A new Atlanta Journal Constitution poll in Georgia finds President Trump’s approval rating at 37% to 59%.

“More than one-fifth of Donald Trump’s U.S. condominiums have been purchased since the 1980s in secretive, all-cash transactions that enable buyers to avoid legal scrutiny by shielding their finances and identities,” BuzzFeed News reports.

“Records show that more than 1,300 Trump condominiums were bought not by people but by shell companies, and that the purchases were made without a mortgage, avoiding inquiries from lenders.”

“Those two characteristics signal that a buyer may be laundering money, the Treasury Department has said in a series of statements since 2016.”

James Hohmann: “The White House likes to blame Congress for dragging its feet, but that’s only part of the story: As of this morning, there is no pending nominee for 245 of the 626 jobs we’re tracking. Among them: deputy secretary at Treasury and Commerce, director of the Census, director of ATF, director of the Office on Violence Against Women at Justice and commissioner of the Social Security Administration.”

“Many of these jobs have ‘acting’ directors, but these people aren’t fully empowered and cannot indefinitely stay in these roles without being confirmed by the Senate because of laws related to vacancies. The lack of permanence creates uncertainty and makes strategic planning difficult. It also makes it harder to manage career staff, who are less likely to follow orders they disagree with when they realize that their boss is a short-timer.”

Jonathan Chait: “Four days ago, David Brooks broke the news in the New York Times that President Trump is actually a sober-minded and competent public servant.”

Wrote Brooks: “People who go into the White House to have a meeting with President Trump usually leave pleasantly surprised. They find that Trump is not the raving madman they expected from his tweetstorms or the media coverage. They generally say that he is affable, if repetitive. He runs a normal, good meeting and seems well-informed enough to get by.”

“It is safe to say that this column has not aged well in the short time since its publication.”

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), who was in the Oval Office meeting with President Trump on Thursday, told reporters today that media reports surrounding Trump’s “shithole countries” comments yesterday were accurate, according to Axios.

Said Durbin: “The president started tweeting this morning, denying that he used those words. It is not true. He said these hate-filled things, and he said them repeatedly… I cannot believe that in the history of the White House — in that Oval Office — any president has spoken the words that I personally heard our president speak yesterday.”

“There was a time when brassy letters spelling ‘Trump’ had money-making allure. But now the board of a 376-unit luxury condominium tower on Manhattan’s West Side is asking a court to declare that it has the right to yank President Trump’s name off the building if enough residents decide they don’t like his politics,” the AP reports.