It was a week in which Donald Trump dived back into the gutter over Islamophobia, alienating one of America’s key international allies, and which ended with the Russia investigation coming one crucial step closer to the president, with his former national security adviser Michael Flynn confirming he had “flipped” and was now working with special counsel Robert Mueller.

Last weekend

But first to Trump’s claim on Twitter that Time magazine had offered to make him “Person of the Year” but he had turned them down because he would have to do an interview and a photoshoot. His self-aggrandising phrasing – “Time Magazine called to say that I was PROBABLY going to be named ‘Man (Person) of the Year’, like last year” – was widely mocked, including by the tennis ace Andy Murray and the Veep star Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and, for what it’s worth, Time said he was “incorrect” and that his statement contained “not a speck of truth”. But as we know, Trump has worked hard to devalue the notion of truth, and there were even reports this week that he has started to deny that the voice on the infamous Access Hollywood tape that rocked his campaign belongs to him.

Monday

‘We have a representative in Congress who they say was here a long time ago. They call her Pocahontas.’ Photograph: Pool/Getty Images

Trump’s habit of making unbelievably crass racial remarks was on full show on Monday, when he paused during an award ceremony for Navajo veterans of the second world war to make a joke about “Pocahontas” – his name for the Democratic senator Elizabeth Warren, who has claimed Cherokee ancestry. Trump made the joke in front of a large portrait of his predecessor Andrew Jackson, who in 1830 signed the Indian Removal Act, which led to the forced removal, relocation and deaths of thousands of Native Americans from the American south. Trump had the painting placed in the Oval Office after he became president.

Tuesday

A demonstration in Stockholm against alleged slavery in Libya. Photograph: Claudio Bresciani/EPA

That Trump’s tweets have an impact in the real world was demonstrated clearly on Tuesday when it emerged that Libyan media had seized upon a post from the president attacking CNN to challenge a report by the US broadcaster which suggested modern-day slave auctions were being held in the country.

Wednesday

‘Don’t focus on me.’ Photograph: Matt Dunham/Pool/EPA

One of Trump’s talents seems to be to find new ways to shock his critics when they think they have become inured to his offensiveness, and his decision to retweet three anti-Muslim videos posted by a British far-right group on Wednesday certainly did that. As usual, the White House dug in with its typical disdain for facts, with the press secretary, Sarah Sanders, telling reporters: “Whether it’s a real video, the threat is real.” Trump himself erupted in annoyance that evening, telling the British PM Theresa May – whose spokesperson had condemned him – to mind her own business. “.@Theresa_May, don’t focus on me, focus on the destructive Radical Islamic Terrorism that is taking place within the United Kingdom,” the president wrote. “We are doing just fine!”

Thursday

Trump’s tweets tried to ‘elevate the conversation’, Sanders said. Photograph: Alex Wong/Getty Images

That did not go down well in Britain, where the House of Commons held a parliamentary debate on Trump’s behavior and one leading politician called him an “evil racist”. May – rather than her spokesperson – rebuked the president, saying: “I am very clear that retweeting from Britain First was the wrong thing to do,” but as usual, the White House was unrepentant, Sanders claiming that Trump had been trying to “elevate the conversation” by sharing the anti-Muslim videos. She admitted, however, that Trump had not known who the Britain First deputy leader, Jayda Fransen – who has been convicted of religiously aggravated harassment – was before he broadcast her tweets to his 43.7 million followers.

Friday

Michael Flynn. Photograph: Xinhua/Rex/Shutterstock

Friday brought a serious development in the Russia inquiry, as Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with the then Russian ambassador, Sergey Kislyak, and revealing that he was cooperating with Mueller in his inquiry into possible collusion between the Trump camp and Russia over Moscow’s interference in the 2016 election. As well as establishing that there was a possibly illegal overture to the Russians about easing sanctions policy by a number of senior members of the Trump transition team, it was suggested by legal experts that the fact Flynn had only been slapped with a relatively minor charge suggested he had been recruited by Mueller to give evidence against a much bigger fish. The former national security adviser’s charge sheet also raises the possibility of the Trump staff who knew about his conversations with Kislyak being prosecuted for false statements if they claimed not to have been aware of them. The big unknown remains whether the Trump team’s pro-Russia moves were one half of a quid pro quo in which Moscow helped Trump during the campaign.

The week ended with a rare bit of good news for the president – the Senate passed a tax bill in the first major piece of legislation of the Trump era. When its impact on healthcare, the deficit and middle-income people’s taxes becomes evident, however, it may feel less of a victory.