The worst week of the Trump presidency came last week, a summer squall in spectacular strokes. My fellow U.S. News blogger, Peter Fenn, said Donald J. Trump's actions at the six-month mark in office are "a full-frontal assault on the presidency and our system of government."

Yes. But wasn't it sweet to see his side lose the late-night Senate "skinny" health care repeal debate by three critical votes? Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Susan Collins, R-Maine, were brave solid "no" votes all along, and John McCain, R-Ariz., added his thumbs down with a surprising flourish that saved Obamacare.

But it appears clear from Trump's downward spiral that the worst is yet to come. Americans should assume that Trump will go into free fall at some point. His presidential pattern, so far, is to show how low the American president can stoop and get away with it, starting with the travel ban on several Muslim-majority countries. Insulting our allies to their faces was not far behind. His attacks on the press were virulent. His approval ratings have slumped ever downward, now to about 35 percent.

In six months, never did anyone say, "He's getting better at this."

The last seven days brought a perfect storm, a culmination of all things Trump. First, White House spokesman Sean Spicer resigned in protest. So inept few would miss him – or so we thought. Spicer's reason to exit was the portent of slick Anthony Scaramucci, the new communications director.

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It would be hard to invent someone more perfect for Trump than this swaggering character, professing his love for the president in his first stand on the podium and then, in days, cutting colleagues into shreds, in the ugliest language Washington has heard in a long time, if not ever. Veteran CBS Newsman Bob Schieffer found it "embarrassing" to discuss on the air.

Poor Reince Priebus, Trump's now-former chief of staff, didn't stand a chance after this colorful sailor bluster. He was gone in a wink. Wisconsin bland, his days were already numbered in his boss's mind, but Scaramucci's verbal scalding put on an exclamation point on his firing. It showed where the president's heart lay: down in the gutter.

Meanwhile, Trump's rampage against "very weak" Jefferson Sessions, his attorney general, ramped up on Twitter. No president does that, until now. What puzzles the politerati is that Sessions was the first senator to endorse him. So much for loyalty, which Trump is said to prize.

By shunning Spicer, Priebus and Sessions, Trump cut his strongest ties to the Republican Party establishment and to the arch-conservative base which Sessions represents. As president, he is out in his own political wilderness – or jungle.

Sending in John F. Kelly, a former Marine general, to tame the chaos in the White House as the new chief of staff will be hard on everybody. The chaos is coming out of the Oval Office, and that beast has never been tamed by anyone. Despite his reverence for generals, Trump does not take orders or direction. Kelly, who served as homeland security secretary, will try to impose discipline on free-wheeling Stephen Bannon, the White House chief strategist, and loose-talking Scaramucci in a high-octane brew. A career military officer, Kelly lacks a fine-tuned political finesse. A master of the art was James Baker, chief of staff to President Ronald Reagan.

Chris Whipple, author of the bestselling "The Gatekeepers," a history of White House chiefs of staff, finds the most important trait is telling the president things he does not want to hear. Kelly may tell him those things; whether Trump will hear them is another matter.

Of all the places in the world to take a president, a Boy Scout Jamboree would be safely in the square of American optimism. But not so this president, who slighted Barack Obama, the previous president. Trump treated the talk as his usual "us versus them" campaign rally. He described Washington as a "sewer." So much for inspiring young people to go into public service. "A Scout is clean in thought, word and deed," so they say. Not Trump.

Trump's outburst by tweet on banning transgender people from the military did not land well with the military. Marine Gen. Joe Dunford is taking no steps to enforce it, in a quiet sign of resistance.

Obamacare survived the storm, 51-49. That the Senate narrowly defied and defeated Trump's wishes, as Vice President Mike Pence vainly tried to turn McCain's vote around on the Senate floor, may also be a glimmer of hope.