Last weekend

Despite two of them attacking Donald Trump in speeches last week, the five living ex-presidents received a pat on the back from their successor on Saturday when the former Potuses (Poti?) appeared together at a fundraiser concert for those affected by recent hurricanes in Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. “All five living former presidents are playing a tremendous role in helping our fellow citizens recover,” an unusually congenial Trump said in a recorded message.

Play Video 2:15 Five former US presidents attend hurricane benefit - video

Trump also confirmed that he would not block the long-planned release of thousands of never publicly seen government documents related to JFK’s assassination, but left open the possibility that some or all could remain redacted if the intelligence services recommended it.

Monday

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Myeshia Johnson, wife of St La David Johnson, who was among four special forces soldiers killed in Niger. Photograph: Joe Skipper/Reuters

The row between Trump and the family of dead American soldier Sgt La David Johnson escalated when the serviceman’s widow, Myeshia Johnson, joined criticisms of the president’s condolence call. Johnson’s contention that the call from Trump made her feel “very upset and hurt”, and that the president had forgotten his name, refocused attention on Trump’s actions after he and White House chief of staff John Kelly had attempted to shift it on to congresswoman Frederica Wilson, who had first publicised the family’s criticism and about whom Kelly made false claims.

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Meanwhile three of the many women who have accused Trump of sexual misconduct told the Guardian about their hopes the Harvey Weinstein case might prompt a change in the treatment of women by powerful men. (The president has called their accounts “total fabrication” and “pure fiction”.)

Tuesday

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Senator Bob Corker in Washington. Photograph: J Scott Applewhite/AP

What might have been a perfectly nice lunch with Republican senators was overshadowed on Tuesday by Trump’s public feuds with two of his hosts. First Bob Corker, who has since announcing his retirement, never misses a chance to aim a barb at the commander-in-chief, called Trump an “utterly untruthful president” who was “debasing our nation”. Them was fighting words, and Trump duly responded with five mean tweets about the man he calls – with due apologies to anyone who cares about the correct use of the apostrophe – “liddle’ [sic] Bob Corker”.

JFK files reveal FBI warning on Oswald and Soviets' missile fears Read more

After the meal, another frequent thorn in Trump’s side, Jeff Flake of Arizona, announced that he too was quitting the Senate, because the Republican party no longer had room for someone who wanted to stick to its “core principles” instead of indulging “a more viscerally satisfying anger and resentment”.

Wednesday

Facebook Twitter Pinterest JFK and the first lady in Dallas, Texas, less than an hour before his assassination. Photograph: Reuters

Briefly returning to scratch the wound of his condolence call before heading off to Dallas for a fundraiser, Trump explained why he was so certain he had in fact remembered Sgt Johnson’s name.

“They put a chart in front – La David – it says La David Johnson,” he said, demonstrating what the chart looked like with his hands. “One of the great memories of all time,” he added of his own recollecting prowess.

Trump did seem to forget that he was president, though, when he tweeted excitedly about the forthcoming release of the JFK documents. “The long anticipated release of the #JFKFiles will take place tomorrow,” he wrote as if sitting waiting by his laptop with a bucket of popcorn. “So interesting!” It’s possible that as head of state and head of government of the United States, the US National Archives and intelligence services might well have told him what was in the secret documents if he’d only asked. But who knows?

Thursday

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Attorney general Jeff Sessions speaks about the Trump administration efforts to combat the opioid crisis. Photograph: Brendan Mcdermid/Reuters

On Thursday Trump made his long-awaited announcement that the US’s opioid crisis was a “public health emergency”. But experts suggest that the fact he made no new money available would severely limit the federal government’s ability to deal with the problem, while Trump’s reliance on “just say no”-type arguments regarding a crisis that began with massive overprescription of legal painkillers by doctors suggested he was essentially fighting the last war. “If we can teach young people, and people generally, not to start, it’s really, really easy not to take them,” the president said at one point.

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Late on Thursday evening, the JFK documents were finally released – but with thousands of pages redacted after what seemed to be a last-minute plea from the CIA and the FBI. In a rather defensive statement, the president said: “I have no choice – today – but to accept those redactions rather than allow potentially irreversible harm to our nation’s security.”

Friday

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Robert Mueller, head of the Russia investigation. Photograph: Larry Downing/Reuters

Trump’s sop to the security services was still playing on his mind. “In the end there will be great transparency,” the president promised. “It is my hope to get just about everything to public!”

He also weighed in to finally resolve the question of whether his campaign colluded with Russia to swing the 2016 election in his favour, currently the subject of a number of congressional inquiries and an extensive investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller.

“It is now commonly agreed, after many months of COSTLY looking, that there was NO collusion between Russia and Trump,” Trump declared definitively, adding: “Was collusion with HC!”

Presumably Mueller is packing up his files as we speak. Nothing to see here.