On Monday morning, with conditions soggy in Bedminster, Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut, spoke with CNN about investigations into Mr. Trump and his team.

A short while later, an aide reached the senator with an update: The president was at it again.

“Interesting to watch Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut talking about hoax Russian collusion when he was a phony Vietnam con artist!” Mr. Trump wrote. Before joining the Senate, Mr. Blumenthal made misleading remarks about having “served in Vietnam” when in fact he served in a Marine Reserve unit in Washington. Mr. Trump himself received five deferments from the draft, including one for bad feet.

Asked hours later how his recess was going, Mr. Blumenthal drew a long breath.

“Well,” he said by phone. “It feels like it’s barely begun.” He added that he was on the way to visit a veterans’ health center.

For Republicans, the break has delivered a different kind of angst after a failed health care repeal effort in the Senate. Most have chosen to avoid the types of raucous town hall settings that could provoke confrontations with voters.

But at least they are home.

Initially, Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, said that the chamber would remain in session until midmonth. Mr. Trump himself had insisted that lawmakers stay in town until the health care impasse was resolved. (He also called out Mr. McConnell on Wednesday in a tweet expressing further disappointment in the repeal stumble.)

By last Thursday, three days into August, bipartisan consensus reigned inside the Capitol in the case of Washington v. Anywhere Else.

Sensing the prospect of mass exodus, lawmakers swiftly passed important legislation to finance the Food and Drug Administration, approved dozens of presidential nominees and set off on their “state work period.”