In a series of tweets on Tuesday, President Donald Trump offered a snapshot of the controversies swirling around his White House. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Trump, battling against Mueller probe, reignites culture war The president fired off a series of tweets on Tuesday that captures the state of his presidency.

Pressuring the Justice Department to hustle out its internal review of the Hillary Clinton probe. Attacking his attorney general for recusing himself from the Russia probe. Needling the Philadelphia Eagles for snubbing him. Hyping the chance of “something big” coming out of the North Korea talks. And blaming Democrats for the controversial policy of separating families at the border.

This is Donald Trump’s presidency just over 500 days in.


In a series of tweets on Tuesday, Trump offered a snapshot of the controversies swirling around his White House, even as he embarks on a historic effort to denuclearize North Korea that has evaded his predecessors and earned grudging hope from his critics.

But the landmark diplomatic push has been overshadowed at times by the stream of other scandals — and the president’s amplification of them online — including Trump’s efforts to undermine and distract from special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe, which poses an existential threat to Trump’s presidency.

Trump began Tuesday by wading once again into the Justice Department’s internal matters, rhetorically asking his followers “what is taking so long with the Inspector General’s Report on Crooked Hillary and Slippery James Comey” and expressing concern that the report is “being changed and made weaker.” That report, which Justice Department inspector general Michael Horowitz said last fall would likely be finished “in late winter/early spring,” has yet to be released.

Later Tuesday, Trump lashed out once again at Attorney General Jeff Sessions, blaming his recusal from all investigations related to the 2016 election for the “Russian Witch Hunt Hoax” — the president’s term for Mueller's investigation. The president has been outspoken in his criticism of Sessions and on Tuesday wrote that “Jeff Sessions didn’t tell me he was going to recuse himself...I would have quickly picked someone else.”

While Trump’s willingness to speak out on issues related to the Justice Department has become commonplace in the 16 months since he was inaugurated, it is a practice that has put him outside of the norms maintained by his modern predecessors. Past presidents have mostly allowed the Justice Department to operate with a large degree of autonomy from the White House in order to avoid even the perception of political influence in the justice system, a precedent Trump has largely ignored.

Trump also sought to shift blame onto Democrats for his administration’s newly installed policy to separate minor undocumented immigrants from the adults with whom they illegally cross the border, a measure that has split families who are detained as they try to enter the U.S. Trump reiterated his position that Democrats are at fault for the policy, even though it was formally rolled out last month by Sessions.

The attorney general, in an interview Tuesday morning with conservative talk radio host Hugh Hewitt, defended the practice even as Trump criticized it online.

The president also leaned in on a culture war issue he ignited last fall, promoting the White House event scheduled for Tuesday afternoon that was intended to honor the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles until Trump disinvited them Monday evening because a number of players were planning to boycott. Instead, Trump said the Tuesday afternoon event will be dedicated to the national anthem and other patriotic music — an effort to needle players who kneel during the anthem to protest racism.

Referencing the NFL’s new policy requiring players to stand for the anthem but allowing them to remain off the field for the song, Trump wrote online that there would be “no escaping to Locker Rooms” at his White House event. He also listed off the World Series, Stanley Cup, college football and NASCAR champions his administration has hosted without incident, omitting the NBA Champion Golden State Warriors, who he also disinvited after their 2017 title.

But peppered among the president’s Tuesday morning tweets were posts championing the strength and growth of the U.S. economy under his administration, a period that Trump said could mark “the best economy in the history of our country.”

And he also teased his upcoming meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, scheduled for June 12 in Singapore, that he said “will hopefully be the start of something big.” Trump administration officials and allies have expressed home that the talks will ultimately yield the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, a longtime goal for presidents of both parties that has, to date, proven out of reach.

Trump also doled out a handful of primary endorsements, including to House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), both close allies of the president. Trump also offered endorsements for California gubernatorial candidate John Cox and Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker.

