For much of America, the past four weeks of Donald Trump’s presidency have been a wild roller coaster ride.
A wave of top-level hirings, firings, resignations, and public feuds have nearly dominated headlines over the last month. And though not all of the Trump administration’s travails were of President Donald Trump’s doing, it is clear that things are not all good in the White House.
One of the most significant examples of that can be found in Trump’s approval ratings, which hit new lows this week on the heels of a days-long quarrel with North Korea over its nuclear-weapons program, and the fallout from a deadly white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. And that’s only part of the story.
Here’s what happened in the Trump administration during the last four weeks:
Another White House shuffle
Shake-ups among Trump’s senior staff are nothing new in his administration, but the increasingly high-profile shuffles over the last four weeks have garnered so much news coverage, the administration has been a regular target of “Saturday Night Live” and late-night talk shows.
Sean Spicer, Trump’s first press secretary who was known for his tenuous relationship with the reporters, resigned on July 21, amid rumors he strongly opposed the hiring of Anthony Scaramucci as communications director.
Within days of Spicer’s announcement, chief of staff Reince Priebus was also ousted, amid reports of his contentious relationship with Scaramucci. Priebus was chastised by Scaramucci, who accused Priebus of leaking information to the press.
Ten days after he was hired, Scaramucci was fired over an explosive interview he gave to The New Yorker, in which he called out several members of Trump’s senior staff in a profanity-laced tirade.
With Spicer, Priebus, and Scaramucci out, Trump made then-Homeland Security secretary and four-star Marine Corps general John Kelly the new White House chief of staff.
On Friday, August 18, White House chief strategist Steve Bannon also left the administration and return to his job at the right-wing website Breitbart News.
The ‘beleaguered’ Attorney General
Attorney General Jeff Sessions drew ire from Trump during an interview with The New York Times on July 19. Trump blasted Sessions’ recusal from the FBI’s investigation into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 US election.
Calling Sessions’ recusal “very unfair to the president,” Trump said that had he known Sessions was going to recuse himself, he would have “picked somebody else.”
A few days later, Trump criticized his “beleaguered” attorney general again on Twitter.
Many in the Republican Party denounced Trump’s comments on Sessions, who was one of Trump’s first and most ardent supporters early in the 2016 campaign.
Repeal-and-replace failure
Trump’s widely touted plan and the GOP’s seven-year quest to repeal and replace Obamacare came to a screeching halt on July 28 when the Senate’s “skinny repeal” bill failed in a late-night vote.
Following the vote, Trump admonished Senate Republicans on Twitter, accusing Congress of letting “the American people down,” and suggesting sweeping changes to the legislative process.
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