Week 26 in Trump’s America: We'll get something done “eventually”

Donald Trump continued to defend Don Jr. for taking a meeting with a Russian lawyer; attacked the press because they were covering Don Jr. and not Hillary Clinton’s emails; saw his approval rating dip to the lowest point in 70 years for a president six-months in; called for Obamacare to be repealed without a replacement after the GOP’s healthcare bill failed; gave a pep talk to senators after the plan to repeal also failed; changed his travel ban’s restrictions to be more grandparent-friendly; celebrated “Made in America Week,” even though he and his daughter oversee businesses that manufacture goods overseas; said he wouldn’t have hired Attorney General Jeff Sessions if he’d known Sessions would recuse himself in the Russia investigation; said it would be wrong for special counsel Robert Mueller to investigate his businesses as part of his Russia probe, even though he reportedly is; accused fired FBI Director James Comey of trying to blackmail him (again); wished Sen. John McCain well as he battles an aggressive form of brain cancer; and is reportedly considering digging up dirt on the man appointed to investigate him: special counsel Robert Mueller.

A week of drama surrounding the June 2016 meeting Donald Trump Jr. took with a Russian lawyer ended with a new revelation: Russian-American lobbyist and ex-Soviet spy, Rinat Akhmetshin, admitted that he, too, had attended. And he wasn’t impressed.

Trump Jr. initially downplayed the meeting, but he later published his own email correspondence in which Rob Goldstone, a publicist and former Trump associate, offered “very useful” information from a Russian lawyer to the Trump campaign as “part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.”

“If it’s what you say, I love it especially later in the summer,” Trump Jr. responded.

You can catch up on the entire Trump-Russia scandal in just 6 minutes here.

In the latest blow to Trump’s travel ban, a federal judge ruled that grandparents and other close relatives of legal U.S. residents can’t be restricted from entering the country.  That defied “common sense,” the judge wrote in his decision.

Trump can’t seem to shake another world leader’s hand without causing a minor scandal. This time, he and French President Emmanuel Macron spent 29 seconds shaking hands when Trump arrived in Paris. Macron called their first white-knuckle encounter a “moment of truth.”

Trump later scowled through a marching band’s Daft Punk medley, while Macron smiled and bopped his head, as part of France’s Bastille Day celebrations.

Trump hailed the stock market “hitting another all-time high” despite the “Russian hoax” story about his son (which Trump Jr. admitted himself to his 1.86 million Twitter followers.)

Trump spent Saturday at the U.S. Women’s Open at his New Jersey golf resort, where a mixture of cheers and jeers greeted him, though the president claimed his supporters “far outnumbered the protesters.”

Trump’s approval ratings dipped to a low not seen by a sitting president in his first six months in 70 years: Just 36 percent of Americans approve of Trump’s performance, according to a Washington Post/ABC News poll. While defending himself, Trump rounded the numbers up to “almost 40%” before decrying the poll’s accuracy.

Trump attackedhis long-defeated nemesis Hillary Clinton again, this time because of negative media coverage of his son. Trump questioned why the “Fake News Media” was scrutinizing his son while ignoring a failed presidential candidate and private citizen for her email scandal. (The media has covered Clinton’s emails a lot.

The GOP’s fourth attempt to repeal and replace Obamacare died. Two more Republicans — Sens. Mike Lee of Utah and Jerry Moran of Kansas — defected and effectively killed the vote. And even if they hadn’t, a vote couldn’t happen because Sen. John McCain was home in Arizona recovering from a “craniotomy” procedure to remove a blood clot above his left eye.

Without even a mourning period for the legislation, Trump called on Republicans to simply repeal Obamacare without a replacement. “As I have always said, let ObamaCare fail and then come together and do a great healthcare plan,” the president later tweeted, even though he hasn’t always said that. “Stay tuned!”

The Secret Service denied a claim by a Trump family lawyer who defended Don Jr.’s meeting with a Russian lawyer by asking, “Well, I wonder why the Secret Service, if this was nefarious, why the Secret Service allowed these people in?” The agency fired back in a statement saying “Trump Jr. was not a protectee” at the time of the meeting.

The Trump administration once again changedits policy on who can and can’t come to the U.S. under its ban on refugees and travelers from six countries with Muslim-majority populations. Now, “grandparents, grandchildren, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, aunts and uncles, nephews and nieces, and cousins” of U.S. residents are eligible to bypass the ban and receive visas.

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer returned, off-camera, to the briefing podium on the first day of what the Trump administration dubbed “Made in America Week.” But Spicer wouldn’t comment on the Trump family’s businesses, which manufacture many goods abroad. “It’s not appropriate for me to stand up here and comment about a business,” Spicer said. “I believe that is a little out of bounds.”

But plenty of other Trump allies don’t feel that way. Kellyanne Conway infamously implored Fox News’ viewers a few months ago to “go buy Ivanka’s stuff,” which includes clothing and shoes made workers in countries like Bangladesh, Indonesia, and — yes — China.

Republican women killed a plan to repeal Obamacare without a replacement. The president and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had called for a simple repeal, but three Republican senators — all women — announced their plans to vote against a repeal-only bill. Notably, the women were excluded from McConnell’s all-male working group that helped create the last Republican healthcare plan. Trump said he was “disappointed” and that “eventually we’re gonna get something done.”

The same day, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that 32 million Americans would lose their insurance and premiums would double over the next decade if large parts of Obamacare were repealed without replacements.

The White House confirmed a previously undisclosed talk between Trump and Putin. The world leaders spoke at the G-20 summit a second time for roughly an hour, according to news reports. But Spicer said that Putin and Trump spoke only “briefly” near the end of a dinner for G-20 leaders and their spouses, and a “second meeting” never happened. Earlier that day, the two world leaders held their first official which went four times longer than planned.

Trump made the decision to end a covert CIA program that arms and trains Syrian rebels who oppose Syrian President Bashar Assad. The overdue move will please a lot of people, including the Kremlin, but also guarantees that Assad will remain in power, analysts told VICE News.

Speaking of the Kremlin, the White House announced that it intends to nominate former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. as the new U.S. ambassador to Russia. Huntsman is a billionaire whose family’s chemical company reportedly has numerous business dealings in Russia.

Trump incorrectly said he’s “signed more bills … than any president, ever.” He’s signed 42. From the New York Times:

An eighth person was identified as an attendee of the June 2016 meeting between Trump Jr. and a Russian lawyer at Trump Tower. The full guest list now includes:

• Don Jr.
• Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner
• Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign manager
• Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer
• Rob Goldstone, the music producer and publicist who organized the meeting
• Anatoli Samochornov, a Russian translator
• Rinat Akhmetshin, a Russian-American lobbyist
• And newly revealed Ike Kaveladze, a senior vice president at Crocus Group, a development company run by Azerbaijani-Russian oligarch Aras Agalarov

The president stunningly admitted that he never would have hired Attorney General Jeff Sessions if he’d known Sessions would recuse himself in the Russia investigation. “Sessions should have never recused himself, and if he was going to recuse himself, he should have told me before he took the job and I would have picked somebody else,” Trump told the New York Times.

That wasn’t the only shocker in the interview:

• Trump said it would be wrong for special counsel Robert Mueller to investigate his businesses as part of his Russia probe. (An unnamed source told Bloomberg the investigation now includes that.)
• Trump said Comey tried to blackmail him.
• Trump said he’s never made money from Russia.
• Trump claimed the first lady of Japan can’t speak English. (She can.)
• Trump said French President Emmanuel Macron “loves holding [his] hand.”

Trumpcare came back again after the president gave a pep talk to GOP senators in an attempt to rally them to get something passed on healthcare next week.

In what’s expected to be the most high-profile testimonies in the Russia investigation yet, Don Jr., Manafort, and Kushner will all appear before Senate committees next week.

Trump stopped by a meeting held by a task force he set up to investigate (bogus claims of) widespread voter fraud — which legally shouldn’t be influenced by the president.  Trump’s commitment to the claim that “illegals” voted in the election also undermined co-chairman and Vice President Mike Pence’s description of the commission as a “fact-finding” operation yet to make up its mind about voter fraud.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions brought back a policy banned under the Obama administration that allows local cops to take cash and property from suspected criminals without filing charges. The new rules will allow local cops to seize these assets under federal law, even if local law prohibits the practice.

Trump sent a get-well-soon message out to Sen. John McCain, who was diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer.

Sessions said he’s staying on as attorney general “as long as that is appropriate” after Trump more or less admitted that he regrets hiring the former Alabama senator. But White House Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that Trump “clearly” has confidence in the attorney general.

President Trump’s  team is reportedly looking for ways to curtail or discredit Mueller’s probe into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to swing the 2016 election, both the New York Times and the Washington Post reported Thursday. Trump has reportedly even asked about pardoning aides, family members, and himself.

Apparently no one told Mar-a-Largo that it’s “Made in America Week.” Donald Trump’s private Palm Beach golf club requested permission to hire 70 new foreign workers, according to Department of Labor records released Thursday.