Last weekend

This column faded to credits last week with Donald Trump locked in a spat with the mayor of Puerto Rico’s capital city, a row he escalated in typical fashion on Saturday. Attacking Carmen Yulín Cruz for her “poor leadership ability” as the island struggled to recover from two devastating hurricanes, he lamented of the citizens of the US territory in colonial style: “They want everything to be done for them.”

The president has had difficulty striking the right tone in the wake of hurricanes that have wrecked Texas, Florida and now Puerto Rico, but during the latest disaster tactlessness seemed to give way to an irritated paternalism.

Trump took a different tack with his secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, but nevertheless undermined him too. Tillerson had said the US had opened direct lines of communication to North Korea. This, said Trump, was a waste of time. “Being nice to Rocket Man hasn’t worked in 25 years, why would it work now?” the president asked on Twitter, conflating Kim Jong-un, who took office in 2011, and his father and grandfather.

Monday

The scene of the mass shooting in Las Vegas. Photograph: Rex/Shutterstock

Late on Sunday night one of the awful rituals of American life began again when a gunman in Las Vegas shot dead 58 people and injured almost 500. On Monday Trump called the shooting – the worst in recent American history – an “act of pure evil”. His press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, deflected talk of gun control reform by claiming: “There is time and place for political debate, but now is the time to unite for the country.”

Tuesday

Donald Trump tosses paper towels into a crowd at Calvary Chapel in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico. Photograph: Evan Vucci/AP

Trump used different language to say much the same thing, telling reporters “we’ll be talking about gun laws as time goes on” as he set off to visit Puerto Rico. At a press briefing on the island, Trump praised his administration’s performance and chided the storm-wracked citizens for the cost of the recovery effort: “I hate to tell you, Puerto Rico, but you’ve thrown our budget a little out of whack.” As comedian Jimmy Kimmel remarked: “Next time you allow a storm to ravage your island please think about – we’re not made out of money – think about the cost.” The president also threw paper towels out to locals at a relief centre as if they were basketballs.

Wednesday

Donald and Melania Trump meet police officers in Las Vegas. Photograph: Lvmpd Handout/EPA

Visiting Las Vegas, Trump displayed the same clumsiness evident when visiting natural disaster zones, noting of the shooting: “It’s a very, very sad day for me, personally.” He continued to deflect the debate over gun control, telling reporters: “We’re not going to talk about that today.” In Washington, pressure was building for a relatively minor reform: the banning of the “bump-stock” devices that were found in Stephen Paddock’s room and which make semi-automatic weapons fire much faster, to horrific effect.

Elsewhere the absurd side of the Trump presidency was on display again as Tillerson disavowed an NBC report that he had considered resigning but refused to deny the bit in the story in which he called Trump as a “moron” at a meeting of White House national security officials and members of the cabinet. “The @NBCNews story has just been totally refuted by Sec Tillerson and @VP Pence,” asserted Trump, which was true … except for the bit about him being a moron.

Thursday

A bump stock device is shown next to an AK-47 semi-automatic rifle at a gun store in Salt Lake City, Utah. Photograph: George Frey/Getty Images

The National Rifle Association came out in favour of regulations on bump stocks in a rare concession. Sanders welcomed the relatively inconsequential move, but continued to parrot the usual pro-gun talking point that the wake of a shooting was not the time to attempt to prevent future shootings. “We’ve had one of the most horrific tragedies ever on US soil,” she said. “I don’t think we’d want to go out and make rash decisions while we’re still having an investigation.”

Trump seemed keen to pile another problem on to his plate on Thursday night, using a group photograph before a dinner with military leaders to warn cryptically that the evening represented “the calm before the storm”. Iran experts presume he was referring to a plan to withdraw from the deal that halted Tehran’s nuclear programme, which would raise tensions in the Middle East and could make it harder to strike a similar bargain with North Korea. Congress may not follow Trump’s lead – expected next week – by reimposing sanctions, however, and the European signatories to the deal and Iran itself are thought keen to keep the deal alive.

Friday

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders speaks to the media. Photograph: Mark Wilson/Getty Images

The administration rolled out a couple of characteristically regressive moves, expanding the number of employers allowed to flout rules that require company healthcare plans to cover contraception at no extra cost, and undercutting federal protections for LGBTQ people in what one advocate called a “licence to discriminate”. The moves followed new justice department guidelines saying that a federal law banning sex discrimination in the workplace did not apply to transgender employees. At the White House, Trump was celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month and greeting manufacturing workers. Asked about his “calm before the storm” comment, he replied: “You’ll find out.”