New White House strategy: Deny collusion, attack Cohen, hope Trump stays cool

Trump picked a fight with John Brennan
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Tuesday evening brought a deluge of brutal news for President Trump — his campaign chairman and longtime lawyer both became convicts, and the lawyer, Michael Cohen, implicated Trump in a federal crime, among other events. But until early Thursday morning, Trump seemed relatively calm, and "the White House morphed into the uneasy eye of a political hurricane, testing Trump with each block of cable television," The Washington Post reports, citing three advisers.

"The mood inside the White House was grim," The New York Times adds. "But there remained a pervasive belief, rightly or wrongly, that things have looked this bad before." Still, advisers "admitted they had no strategy for countering the news" about Cohen's fingering Trump and no plan "to put a spin on the conviction of Paul Manafort."

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.