“Some of President Trump’s lawyers earlier this summer concluded that Jared Kushner should step down as senior White House adviser because of possible legal complications related to a probe of Russia’s involvement in the 2016 presidential election and aired concerns about him to the president,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“Among their concerns was that Mr. Kushner was the adviser closest to the president who had the most dealings with Russian officials and businesspeople during the campaign and transition, some of which are currently being examined by federal investigators and congressional oversight panels. Mr. Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law and confidant, has said he had four such meetings or interactions.”

“Another issue was Mr. Kushner’s initial omission of any contacts with foreign officials from the form required to obtain a security clearance.”

Alex Jones on his show:

Ladies and gentlemen, I was told this by high level sources and it was evident and especially after Reagan was shot in his first year in office when he was acting like Trump, and doing the right things, that he never really recovered. They gave him cold blood, and his transfusion that causes brain damage. They slowly gave him small amounts of sedatives. It’s known that most presidents end up getting drugged. Small dosages of sedatives till they build it up, Trump’s such a bull he hasn’t fully understood it yet.

But I’ve talked to people, multiple ones, and they believe that they are putting a slow sedative that they’re building up that’s also addictive in his Diet Cokes and in his iced tea and that the president by 6 or 7 at night is basically slurring his words and is drugged. Now first they had to isolate him to do that. But yes, ladies and gentleman, I’ve talked to people that talk to the president now at 9 at night, he is slurring his words. And I’m going to leave it at that. I’ve talked to folks that have talked to him directly…

Now I’m risking my life, by the way, to tell you all this… They drug presidents because the power structure wants a puppet. The president needs his blood tested by an outside physician he trusts.”

McClatchy: “A major construction company owned by the Chinese government was hired to work on the latest Trump golf club development in Dubai despite a pledge from Donald Trump that his family business would not engage in any transactions with foreign government entities while he serves as president.”

“Republicans who dared to cut deals with Democrats have long had to fear retribution from conservative activists like Rick Manning, president of Americans for Limited Government. He had railed against a 2015 debt-ceiling compromise as ‘absurd,’ and as recently as March called for President Trump to use the vote to ‘create real reforms’ to cut spending,” the Washington Post reports.

“But when Trump shocked the nation last week, handing Democrats a major victory by accepting their terms for a clean three-month suspension of the borrowing limit, Manning says he felt no ill will for the president. Instead, he blamed House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) for forcing Trump to work with Democrats.”

New York Times: “The aggressive regulatory effort, which runs counter to the Trump administration’s less-is-more credo about government meddling, has led to policy changes related to gun ownership, gay rights, reproductive choices, immigration and other divisive political issues, according to a New York Times review of government documents and court records, as well as interviews with more than four dozen people involved in or briefed on the efforts.”

“The overhaul is unfolding behind the scenes in Washington at agencies like the Health and Human Services Department, where new rules about birth control are being drafted, and in federal courtrooms, where the Justice Department has shifted gears in more than a dozen Obama-era cases involving social issues.”

Former White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and current White House Counsel Don McGahn have both hired white collar lawyer William Bruck, Law360 reports.

“It makes all of their normalizing and ‘Trumpsplaining’ look silly and hollow. Trump betrays everyone: wives, business associates, contractors, bankers and now, the leaders of the House and Senate in his own party. They can’t explain this away as a 15-dimensional Trump chess game. It’s a dishonest person behaving according to his long-established pattern.”

— GOP strategist Rick Wilson, quoted by the Washington Post, on his party’s congressional leaders.

A Trump adviser tells Mike Allen that after a tumultuous seven months in office, it had finally dawned on the president: “People really fucking hate me.”

“For someone who has spent his life lapping up adulation, however fake, it was a harsh realization. This is a man with an especially acute need for affirmation. This week’s bear hug of Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer opened Trump’s eyes to one solution: Stop doing things that people hate, and start striking deals.”

An important point: “But we can’t overstate the level of despair among Republicans.”

Playbook: “OMB Director Mick Mulvaney was thrashed by his former House Republican colleagues yesterday in a closed door meeting, GOP lawmakers called Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin a Democrat and scoffed at his requests and Gary Cohn is still on the outs with President Donald Trump. Those are the three people most intricately involved in tax reform, which the White House wants done by the end of the year.”

Politico: “Rumors of Gary Cohn’s demise in Donald Trump’s White House have swirled for weeks. But Cohn is intent on remaining with the administration to finish tax reform — though it’s unclear how long he would stay beyond its passage.”

The New York Times reports:

Mr. Kelly made a point, one staff member said, of throwing his arm around Mr. Cohn in solidarity, in full view of the news media, as they exited Marine One last week on the South Lawn.

But he has not always been successful. Several aides said Mr. Trump is freezing out Mr. Cohn by employing a familiar tactic: refusing to make eye contact with Mr. Cohn when his adviser greets him.

“White House communications director Hope Hicks has retained a personal attorney, as the special counsel’s investigation into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia is expected to heat up this fall,” Politico reports.

Special counsel Robert Mueller’s team is planning to interview “up to a dozen” White House aides in the coming weeks, Politico reports.

The Washington Post says Mueller wants to interview six aides “including trusted adviser Hope Hicks, former press secretary Sean Spicer and former chief of staff Reince Priebus.”

“In addition to Priebus, Spicer and Hicks, Mueller has notified the White House he will probably seek to question White House counsel Don McGahn and one of his deputies, James Burnham. Mueller’s office has also told the White House that investigators may want to interview Josh Raffel, a White House spokesman who works closely with Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner.”

“In a reflection of how serious the administration is taking the matter, sources tell the Daily Beast there are currently efforts underway to organize a legal defense fund for White House staffers. Such a fund would help cover the legal bills associated with Mueller’s probe, which are expected to be large.

“A Washington white collar attorney told The Daily Beast that everyone questioned by Mueller will likely need to retain counsel. Those lawyers will likely bill between $500 and $1000 per hour.”