Story
Trump’s Russia sanctions mess keeps getting worse
The sanctions fight with Congress was still unraveling on August 1, as the White House dealt with the consequences of a bill it could not stop and did not seem eager to embrace.
Edition · August 1, 2017
The Daily Fuckup: August 1, 2017
On a day when Trumpworld was still trying to manage the fallout from Russia sanctions and the transgender military ban, the White House kept stepping on rakes and calling it strategy.
August 1 found Trumpworld in cleanup mode, not triumph mode. The Russia sanctions fight was still generating diplomatic and constitutional blowback, and the transgender military ban was drawing organized pushback from retired military leaders. The common thread: the administration kept turning self-inflicted wounds into bigger, more public problems.
Closing take
The pattern here is simple enough to spot even through the spin: Trump was still learning, loudly and in public, that impulsive moves and loyalty-first politics do not substitute for a functioning government. On August 1, the fallout was already visible in Congress, in the Pentagon, and in the broader political noise cloud hanging over the White House.
Ranked by how bad the fuckup was
5 stars means maximum fallout. 1 star means a smaller self-own.
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