President Trump's fourth week in office-and indeed his presidency thus far-has been defined by a sense of unpredictability. The courts have thwarted his arguably most well known executive order, which enacted a "travel ban" from seven Muslim-majority countries. Nevertheless, the ban caused chaos at travel centers around the world and spurred an international wave of protests and lawsuits. Trump himself is frequently the source of confusion. He often and publicly contradicts the statements of his Press Secretary, who is supposed to speak for him. As Arizona Republican Senator John McCain (the Republican Party's 2008 presidential nominee) asked reporters on Wednesday, many are wondering: "Who's making the decisions in the White House? Is it the 31-year old [Stephen Miller]? Is it Mr. [Steve] Bannon? Is it the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff? I don't know." Ultimately, as Senator McCain stated, the "whole environment is one of dysfunction in the Trump administration."
The dominant subject of media scrutiny this week was the resignation of Mike Flynn, President Trump's national security advisor. Flynn's nomination was controversial from the start. He had a received a speaking fee from a Russian television network that is considered by United States officials to be an outlet for propaganda. He attended an extravagant 2015 dinner in Moscow, during which he sat next to Vladimir Putin. When former President Barrack Obama imposed sanctions on Russia in retaliation for the country's hacking of the Democratic National Committee, Flynn was found (in a retrospective investigation) to have been in contact with the Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
On January 12th, 2017, Washington Post columnist David Ignatius reported on Flynn's correspondence with Kislyak. The next day, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer denied that Flynn and Kislyak had discussed the sanctions. On January 26th, Acting Attorney General Sally Yates stated to White House officials that the two men had, in fact, discussed sanctions and furthermore that Flynn might have been subject to blackmail. Although Flynn once again denied the accusations on February 8th, one of his spokespeople stated on that 9th that Flynn was not, "100% sure." On February 13th, the Post and the New York Times released reports that stated that Yates had warned the White House about Flynn's contact with the Russian ambassador. Flynn resigned an hour and a half later.
Trump has taken to blaming news networks and personnel leaks for Flynn's resignation, stating, "General Flynn is a wonderful man. I think he's been treated very, very unfairly by the media - as I call it, the 'fake media,' in many cases - and I think it's really a sad thing that he was treated so badly." Such a statement is in line with Trump's ongoing fight against the free press. He has tweeted that the news media is, "the enemy of the American People." His Chief Strategist Steve Bannon has referred to journalists as "the opposition party." At his press conferences, Trump has begun to favor calling on journalists from conservative news outlets, in the hope of receiving more benevolent questions. Trump's attacks on free press remain popular amongst his strong base of non-college-educated white voters. However, his approval ratings are declining amongst his college-educated voters, many of whom elected to vote for him by virtue of his being a protest candidate.
- http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-trump-week-four-20170214-story.html
- http://www.npr.org/2017/02/19/516049981/5-questions-after-a-chaotic-week-in-the-trump-white-house
- https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/politics/2017/02/15/after-nearly-four-weeks-trump-presidency-chaos-abounds/y1fNrzhEjP1U6HxeoKsdvI/story.html
