Financial Times: “In the days to come, the president and his advisers will doubtless work to amend or reinterpret what was said over the weekend. None of this will obscure the challenge facing the US. To the extent that it is the role of the president to provide moral leadership, the White House is unoccupied. That void must be filled, and it falls first to the Republicans, the party in control of the legislative branches, to do so…”

Politico: “Inside President Donald Trump’s White House, no one seems to be looking forward to September. Senior officials have described the coming month as ‘brutal,’ ‘bad’ or ‘really tough’ because of the confluence of complicated issues — but they also say it’s pivotal to getting the presidency back on course. Aides hope to have a better blueprint for how the president wants to proceed on a series of thorny issues — the nation’s debt ceiling, the 2018 federal budget, tax reform, infrastructure spending and perhaps another stab at repealing Obamacare — after a series of meetings in New York this week.”

“Their goal is to partially temper Trump’s expectations, hammer out some compromises and get a competing band of aides on the same page… Trump, who is impatient, wants it all done immediately, said people close to the president — and he has ratcheted up pressure on aides in recent weeks, even though he doesn’t always engage with the substance of issues.”

Playbook: “Washington has always been a place for people with sharp elbows. The old saying ‘Politics ain’t beanbag‘ is apt and accurate. The difference: it was done behind closed doors. Trump insiders seem to revel in the credit they get for knifing whoever is on the outs with Trump. Crowing about shoving people under the bus seems more prevalent than ever.”

“There have been a lot of pieces about how the Trump administration and the various players who have come to Washington have impacted D.C. Cache now comes from hanging out at the Trump Hotel and the stock of pubs like Breitbart has soared as the White House looks to leak info to sympathetic reporters. But the most stunning example of a pervasive culture shift in the past several weeks has been the overt campaign by conservative operatives and factions in the West Wing to take out National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster. Lots of people have told us unflattering and sordid details of people’s lives that may, or may not be true. But the steady drumbeat of personal attacks against aides in this White House is stunning.”

Michael Gerson: “One of the difficult but primary duties of the modern presidency is to speak for the nation in times of tragedy. A space shuttle explodes. An elementary school is attacked. The twin towers come down in a heap of ash and twisted steel. It falls to the president to express something of the nation’s soul — grief for the lost, sympathy for the suffering, moral clarity in the midst of confusion, confidence in the unknowable purposes of God.”

“Not every president does this equally well. But none have been incapable. Until Donald Trump.”

“Trump’s reaction to events in Charlottesville was alternately trite (‘come together as one’), infantile (‘very, very sad’) and meaningless (‘we want to study it’).”

“President Trump has told close associates that he believes Steve Bannon is behind damaging leaks about White House colleagues, putting the chief strategist’s job in fresh jeopardy,” sources close to the president tell Jonathan Swan.

“Trump has told associates he’s fed up with what he sees as self-promotion by Bannon, who did not join the core team this week at the president’s golf club in Bedminster, N.J.”

“Bannon’s time with Trump has diminished since the new chief of staff, retired Marine Gen. John Kelly, took over and imposed discipline on the circus around the Oval Office.”

Associated Press: “Faced with perhaps his gravest international crisis yet, President Donald Trump this week responded precisely as his some of supporters hoped and his critics long feared. The mix of plain-spoken bluster, spontaneity and norm-breaking risk that defined his political rise defined his approach to a round of fresh threats from nuclear North Korea. When Pyongyang punched, Trump counterpunched harder – much as he did on a debate stage flanked by political opponents.”

“But this was not a Florida debate stage or a low-stakes celebrity Twitter war of the sort Trump perfected before entering politics. It was a standoff over North Korea’s rapidly developing nuclear program, complete with trading threats of war and the safety of millions in the balance. Over the course of the week, Trump unleashed provocative rhetoric and dismissed the careful or precise diplomatic language favored by his predecessors.”

“Still, Trump’s strategy was familiar. He tweeted regularly. He took it personally. He spoke off the cuff. He talked – a lot – holding a two-day blitz of press conferences, each yielding moments that immediately sparked chatter, confusion, criticism and attention.”

Politico: “The role of chief strategist Steve Bannon has come under particular scrutiny in several conversations, particularly because he has a large staff, including an outside public relations expert, but no specific duties.”

“In a number of daily meetings, Kelly generated a list of concerns, including aides without clear portfolios, decisions that aren’t made with proper vetting and internal fights — particularly a sustained campaign against national security adviser H.R. McMaster. He has met with top aides, including the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, about making changes, the four officials say. In some of the encounters, he has suggested that people should be more concerned with the president’s agenda and less concerned with their own.”

“The roster of villains in President Trump’s world is legion. The list of people he has been willing, even eager, to publicly attack includes not just Mitch McConnell, his latest target, but Jeff Sessions, Chuck Schumer, Paul Ryan, John McCain, Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama,” the New York Times reports.

“And don’t forget James Comey, Robert Mueller, Andrew G. McCabe, Rod Rosenstein, John Podesta, Nancy Pelosi, Lisa Murkowski, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rosie O’Donnell, Meryl Streep, the mayor of London and the cast of Saturday Night Live. The countries he has assailed include not just North Korea and Iran but also Germany, Canada, Mexico, China and Sweden.”

“But for all of that feistiness, for all of those verbal and online fisticuffs, there is one person who is definitely not on Mr. Trump’s target list: President Vladimir Putin of Russia.”