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WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s first weekend in office unfolded much the way things often did during his campaign: with angry Twitter messages, a familiar obsession with slights and a series of meandering and at times untrue statements, all eventually giving way to attempts at damage control.

The problem is that what works on the way to the White House does not always work once a candidate gets there.

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To the extent that there was a plan to take advantage of the first days of his administration, when a president is usually at his maximum leverage, Trump threw it aside with a decision to lash out about crowd sizes at his swearing in and to rewrite the history of his dealings with intelligence agencies.

The lack of discipline troubled even senior members of Trump’s circle, some of whom had urged him not to indulge his simmering resentment at what he saw as unfair news coverage. Instead, Trump chose to listen to other aides who shared his outrage and desire to punch back. By the end of the weekend, he and his team were scrambling to get back on script.

New presidents typically find the adjustment from candidate to leader to be a jarring one, and Trump was not the first to get drawn into the latest flap in a way that fritters away whatever political goodwill comes with an inauguration. Former President Bill Clinton got off to a tough start by engaging on issues that were not central to his agenda, most notably gays in the military, and took a while to learn how to focus on his highest priorities.