Donald Trump’s presidency was this weekend facing fresh turmoil after a week of unadulterated disasters that culminated in the removal of his chief of staff.
With his legislative agenda stalled and his White House descending into civil war, Trump appeared to be losing support in a Republican party that had previously rallied round him.
Senior Republicans in Congress scolded the president over his threat to fire the attorney general, Jeff Sessions, and voted in favour of tougher sanctions against Russia, thwarting Trump’s attempts to seek warmer relations with Vladimir Putin.
The president was also under siege over his abrupt Twitter announcement that transgender people would be banned from the military and his unscripted remarks in set-piece speeches, one of which appeared to endorse police brutality.
Commentators said the past week was the worst endured by any US president in living memory and warned that as Trump became increasingly isolated and volatile, the situation could rapidly deteriorate – especially if he is tested by an international crisis.
Charlie Sykes, a conservative author and broadcaster, said: “You have a White House in meltdown because the president is a pyromaniac.”
Frustrated by the failure of his healthcare bill in the Senate, Trump on Saturday used Twitter to demand a change in the Senate rules that would make it easier for the majority party to pass legislation.
“Republican Senate must get rid of 60 vote NOW!” he wrote. “It is killing the R Party, allows 8 Dems to control country. 200 Bills sit in Senate. A JOKE!
“If the Senate Democrats ever got the chance, they would switch to a 51 majority vote in first minute. They are laughing at R’s [Republicans]. MAKE CHANGE!”
Trump has mused about Senate procedure before, returning to the issue whenever particularly frustrated with Congress and in doing so demonstrating a shaky understanding of how the upper chamber works.
The Republican healthcare law failed because the party could not muster 50 votes from within its own 52-strong group, using a special budget process called reconciliation that avoids the 60-vote threshold.
A day earlier, in a major shake-up, Trump replaced Reince Priebus after only six months as chief of staff, installing in his place the homeland security secretary, John Kelly, a retired US Marine Corps four-star general with little experience in civilian government or the legislative process.
Trump announced the move in a tweet a day after his new communications director, Anthony Scaramucci, accused Priebus of leaking information to reporters in a vulgar tirade that made Republican stalwarts wince. The brash Scaramucci called the chief of staff “a fucking paranoid schizophrenic”.
Trump, a former Democrat, styled himself as an outsider when taking on the Republican establishment during the party primaries. When he pulled off a shock victory, many were reluctant to embrace him but did so out of expediency. It is still said most would secretly prefer the vice-president, Mike Pence, to be in charge.
But Priebus – whose 189-day tenure was the shortest in modern history for a White House chief of staff – followed the deputy chief of staff Katie Walsh, communications director Mike Dubke, press secretary Sean Spicer and press aide Michael Short in being axed or opting to resign. One by one, Trump’s links with the party establishment are being severed.
While the establishment is in retreat, Trump’s inner circle is dominated by two other constituencies: nationalists such as Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller, and New Yorkers with Democratic leanings including Jared Kushner, Gary Cohn, Dina Powell and Scaramucci. Trump’s allies had long been critical of Priebus for bringing Republican insiders to the White House and overlooking those who helped get him elected.
Trump himself is said to have regarded Priebus as weak and to have publicly demeaned him. The Washington Post reported: “At one point, during a meeting in the Oval Office, a fly began buzzing overhead, distracting the president. As the fly continued to circle, Trump summoned his chief of staff and tasked him with killing the insect, according to someone familiar with the incident.”
The paper added: “The West Wing has a regular fly problem.”
Despite his deep Republican connections, Priebus could not weigh in sufficiently to get the party to repeal and replace Barack Obama’s healthcare law. That dismal failure may encourage Trump to revert to his old self, as a non-politician railing against the Washington status quo.
The president said in a speech to police officers in Long Island, New York, on Friday: “They should have approved healthcare last night, but you can’t have everything. Boy, oh, boy. They’ve been working on that one for seven years. Can you believe that? The swamp. But we’ll get it done. We’re going to get it done.”
The feeling of blame appeared mutual. The website Axios reported: “Heard at House [Republican] conference meeting [yesterday] morning, this was the reaction to the healthcare bill: ‘Lots of Senate blaming. Lots of McCain blaming. But a surprising number of members [standing] at the mike in conference blasting Trump. One called him an ‘embarrassment’.”
The White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, said she did not think Priebus’s departure would affect White House relations with the Republican party.
“I think we’ve still got a good relationship,” she said. “We’re going to continue working with the party and doing what we came here to do.”
Trump has no legislative achievements to show for his first six months in office. His chances of introducing tax and infrastructure reform look increasingly precarious.
The president is also increasingly threatened by the investigation headed by the former FBI director Robert Mueller into links between his administration and Russia. And he faces a string of crises on the international front, from North Korea’s increasingly active nuclear missile programme to growing tensions with Iran.
The focus on the president’s relationship with Moscow rumbles on, Trump insisting on Saturday that Russia had never wanted him to become president. Citing a news report claiming that a hostile research firm which produced a salacious dossier about Trump carried out other work commissioned by Russia, Trump tweeted: “In other words, Russia was against Trump in the 2016 election – and why not. I want strong military and low oil prices. Witch Hunt!”
On Friday, the White House said that Trump would sign a bill passed by Congress tightening sanctions on Russia. The Kremlin has demanded the closure of American properties in Russia and announced action against US diplomatic personnel.
