And then there’s the is-this-even-real-life-anymore cherry on top of this head-spinning week: Mr. Trump’s suggestion that the United States buy Greenland from the Danes disintegrated into a full-blown diplomatic meltdown when Denmark’s prime minister called the notion “absurd.” The president retaliated by calling her “nasty” and canceled a state visit to Denmark — not a great look ahead of a Group of 7 summit in France. China, which stands to gain from an unstable America, announced retaliatory tariffs on United States imports on Friday, sending global markets down. And when the Federal Reserve chair Jerome H. Powell suggested on Friday that the central bank could only do so much to counteract the damage of the trade war, Mr. Trump lashed back, calling him the “enemy.”

Facebook’s Lose-Lose

Republicans have long accused Facebook of filtering right-wing voices and content. In an attempt to put the matter to rest, the company invited Jon Kyl, the former Republican senator from Arizona, to investigate the allegations, and he released his report on Tuesday. The inquiry could not substantiate that partisan bias exists in Facebook’s algorithms, but still, no one was satisfied. Republicans in Congress dismissed the results as “a smokescreen,” while Democrats slammed Facebook for entertaining the complaints in the first place.

Image Credit... Giacomo Bagnara

What’s Next? (Aug. 25–31)

Meeting of the Minds

Mr. Trump will have a tête-à-tête with Britain’s new prime minister, Boris Johnson, this weekend at the Group of 7 meeting in Biarritz. They are expected to discuss Britain’s impending departure from the European Union, set for Oct. 31. While both leaders are outspoken proponents of Brexit, the meeting will be a tightrope walk for Mr. Johnson, who is not known for his subtlety. Foremost, he needs Mr. Trump’s blessing for a trade deal with the United States, which would soften Brexit’s inevitable blow to his country’s economy. But he also can’t appear too friendly, as Mr. Trump is deeply unpopular in Britain as well as the rest of Europe.