Welcome to the high dudgeon presidency.

President Donald Trump has established a clear pattern during his two months in office: He is often offended by enemies real and imagined, willing to lash out at any moment, unable to restrain his impulse to spew insults, and eager to keep allies and adversaries off balance. He likes to take the public and the news media by surprise as he generates interest in himself with questionable and sometimes erroneous statements. This is what passes for normalcy in Trumpworld.

Earlier this week, he couldn't resist needling Republican allies as he urged them to support a bill overhauling the health care system. During a meeting with House Republicans at the Capitol, Trump warned that many would lose their seats in next year's midterm elections if the bill failed. "I'm going to come after you," he told Rep. Mark Meadows, R.-N.C., a holdout on the Trump bill and chairman of the conservative Freedom Caucus. White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said Trump was joking, but others felt that Trump was making a veiled threat.

In any case, he made news with his remarks and stirred up both friends and foes, just as he intended.

On Monday, he suffered a major blow to his credibility when FBI Director James Comey said there was no evidence to support Trump's outrageous claim on Twitter that former President Barack Obama "tapped" the phones at Trump Tower, the Republican presidential nominee's 2016 campaign headquarters in Manhattan. Trump never provided any proof, and his allegation infuriated Obama loyalists and caused concern among many Republicans who fear that they can't rely on what Trump says.

Comey told the House Intelligence Committee, "I have no information that supports those tweets, and we have looked carefully inside the FBI." Comey also said the FBI is investigating whether members of Trump's campaign colluded with Russia to influence the 2016 election and defeat Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Trump has said there was no collusion and that the media are generating "fake news" about the Russia connection to undermine his presidency. Trump said the real issue is the illegal leaking of classified information designed to hurt him.

He always seems to be a tweet away from disaster, and his off-the-wall remarks regularly divert attention away from his agenda, such as health care and tax reform. This hurts his cause. Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., a member of the Intelligence Committee, told the New York Times, "The tweets make it much more difficult for us as we try to build a case against these leakers. We always have to be answering questions about the tweets – it puts us on defense all the time when we could be building a case for the president."

The larger point is that every day seems to bring another tale of turmoil. Trump regularly lapses into a state of indignation, resentment and anger. He enjoys surrounding himself with controversy, always wants to dominate the news, and relishes bullying people and intimidating his rivals. He has named senior advisers who are forever jockeying for position. This leads to an administration where no one seems sure what the message is supposed to be, where aides contradict each other, and where a regular challenge is to make the best of Trump's impulsive behavior. All the while, Trump seems intent on disrupting Washington with his colossal ego and a preoccupation with his own celebrity.

So, where does the Trump presidency stand? Historian Douglas Brinkley told the Washington Post, "This is the most failed first 100 days of any president. ... To be as low as he is in the polls, in the 30s, while the FBI director is on television saying they launched an investigation into your ties with Russia, I don't know how it can get much worse."

This may be overstating the case (even though many Trump critics agree with Brinkley). Despite Trump's credibility problems and his tumultuous approach to governing, he still may eventually win congressional approval of legislation to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, the signature law of Obama and Democrats in Congress. It isn't clear whether most Americans would be helped or hurt by this measure, but passage would amount to a political victory that could partially restore Trump's appeal as a can-do leader. Trump is also likely to win Senate confirmation for Neil Gorsuch, his nominee for the Supreme Court, which could also regenerate his momentum. And White House aides say he is methodically keeping his campaign promises, which voters admire.

In the end, it will be how Trump affects people's lives that will matter most: whether Americans find and keep good jobs, whether their incomes increase, whether they believe their leaders are on their side, whether they feel safe, whether they sense that the country is heading in the right direction.