Week 29 in Trump's America: “Not a vacation” threatening North Korea

Week 29, in one sentence: Donald Trump headed to New Jersey for a “working vacation” where he repeatedly threatened North Korea and crashed a wedding; failed to address the bombing of a Minnesota mosque; made some progress in his eternal battle against leakers when Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced plans to review policies protecting journalists; called out a Democrat senator over his lie about going to Vietnam, leaving out his own four deferments, including one because his feet hurt; went after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for neither repealing nor replacing Obamacare; played golf, at least according to social media; at least started the paperwork to declare the opioid epidemic a “national emergency”; thanked Putin for expelling 755 U.S. diplomats from Russia; and spooked the world and financial markets when he said military solutions were “locked and loaded” against North Korea.

The president kicked off a 17-day “working vacation” by heading to … New Jersey, specifically his golf club in Bedminster. As a private citizen, Trump was a loud critic of President Obama’s golfing — even though his own golfing is on track to far surpass Obama’s. The president was also a vocal critic of Obama’s 17-day-long vacations.

Meanwhile, the president’s least favorite Cabinet member, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, told a room full of reporters the Department of Justice was reviewing policies that allow journalists to protect the identity of unnamed sources without going to jail. It’s part of a broader effort to crack down on the steady stream of leaks coming out of the federal government. If you haven’t heard, Trump hates leaks. By going after them, Sessions will likely curry favor with his boss, who has taken to publicly insulting the attorney general for recusing himself from the Russia investigation.

Trump once again violated a federal rule that forbids federal officials from commenting on jobs reports until at least one hour after the numbers are released.

Trump wants you to know his vacation isn’t really a vacation — and that he never takes a holiday from Twitter. Trump attributed his trip to New Jersey to “long-planned construction” at the White House. “This is not a vacation – meetings and calls!” he tweeted.

Trump praised Sessions’ decision to go after leakers and the journalists who publish their comments. “After many years of LEAKS going on in Washington, it is great to see the A.G. taking action!” Trump tweeted after weeks of publicly criticizing and threatening Jeff Sessions. “For National Security, the tougher the better!”

One thing the president didn’t tweet about was the mosque bombing in Minnesota. White House national security analyst Sebastian Gorka later said on MSNBC that the attack may have been faked. “People fake hate crimes in the last six months with some regularity,” he said, without offering an example.

Trump had a call with South Korea’s president and tweeted out his excitement over the conversation, especially punishing North Korea. “Very happy and impressed with 15-0 United Nations vote on North Korea sanctions,” the president tweeted. The United Nations has imposed new sanctions on the Hermit Kingdom on Sunday for its continued testing of intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Trump has made a habit out of crashing weddings held by guests at his resorts. Video on Instagram showed the president, clad in golf attire and a red MAGA hat, exiting his golf cart to greet guests.

Trump spent a good amount of his third not-vacation day tweeting insults at Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut. Thematically, Trump stuck with calling out Blumenthal for not serving in Vietnam. (Blumenthal lied back in 2010 that he did.) Ironically, Trump received four student deferments, one because of bone spurs in his heels, that kept him out of Vietnam, and the president once compared avoiding sexually transmitted diseases to his own “personal Vietnam.” Trump, of course, also tweeted a lot about the “Fake News media.”

Trump’s attacks came after Blumenthal’s appearance on CNN, during which he voiced support for the FBI’s continued investigation into whether Trump’s campaign joined forces with Russia to influence the 2016 election. Blumenthal also expressed concern over the Department of Justice’s sudden focus on weeding out officials who leak information to the media. “Your bullying hasn’t worked before, and it won’t work now,” Blumenthal tweeted.

Trump issued his gravest threat yet to North Korea: If the Hermit Kingdom continues to agitate the U.S., it will face “fire and fury like the world has never seen.”

A day later, North Korea — unfazed by Trump’s bombast — threatened Guam, a U.S. island territory. State media in Pyongyang reported that a plan to fire missiles near Guam would be ready for Kim Jong Un’s consideration within days.

VICE News reported that Trump gets a folder full of positive news about himself twice a day. It’s known as the “propaganda document,” White House sources say. The folders contain screenshots of positive cable news chyrons, admiring tweets, transcripts of fawning TV interviews, and sometimes pictures of the president looking powerful on TV. Former Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and former Press Secretary Sean Spicer reportedly fought over who got to deliver the packet to Trump.

Jeff Sessions’ Department of Justice abruptly switched sides in the middle of landmark voting rights case. That’s the second time the DOJ has switched its position in a voting rights case under Trump. The Justice Department now supports the Ohio government in its showdown with civil rights groups over a policy started last summer that purges inactive voters from its rolls.

While Trump promised a “major briefing on the opioid crisis” in his morning tweets, the announcement fell flat. A White House task force led by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie had already recommended the president declare a state of emergency around the issue; instead, Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price told reporters the administration didn’t need to declare anything to handle the crisis right now.

While much of the world bristled with anxiety as tensions escalated between Washington and Pyongyang, the president seemed more than relaxed. He spent this day of his “working vacation” playing golf with a buddy who, in a now-private Instagram post, described the match as coming “down to the 18th hole.”

The president — apparently missing the irony — tweeted from his golf club that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell should get back to work. The tweet was just one in a series that lambasted McConnell and the Senate’s failure to repeal and replace Obamacare. “Can you believe that Mitch McConnell, who has screamed Repeal & Replace for 7 years, couldn’t get it done,” Trump tweeted.

Trump’s attacks come on the heels of the Senate Majority leader’s comments that Trump came into office with “excessive expectations” of what could be accomplished by Congress. Trump has a habit of publicly insulting his own party members, including his most recent nemesis, Sessions, and Republican Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona, a vocal critic of Trump, who’s running for Session’s old seat.

Five female transgender service members sued the Trump administration over the president’s plans to ban them from serving in the military in “any capacity.” Considering the Pentagon hasn’t made any official policy changes yet, the lawsuit will have to overcome the “ripeness doctrine,” a term used to describe if an issue is ready for judicial action. It’s possible the lawsuit won’t make it far.

Trump conceded he’d made a mistake with his North Korea threats — maybe they weren’t “tough enough.” You’ll remember, the president essentially threatened to destroy the country earlier in the week with “fire and fury.” Speaking from his New Jersey golf retreat, Trump declined to discuss the issue further as to not disclose military strategies.

Trump also finally announced that at least he plans to declare the opioid epidemic a “national emergency.” He’s “drafting up paperwork,” despite his secretary of health telling reporters the move wasn’t necessary just days earlier.

During his two impromptu press conferences that day, Trump ignored his press secretary’s “one more question” sign and forged ahead to:

• lob more criticism at McConnell about his failure to repeal Obamacare
• thank Putin for “cutting down on payroll” when the Russian president expelled 755 U.S. diplomats from Russia as a response to new sanctions
• say he “hadn’t given any thought” to firing Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who’s overseeing the Russia investigation, despite the president’s close advisers saying that was on the table.

After spending the past couple days trading threats with North Korea, President Trump changed course Friday and attempted some measured, statesmanlike diplomacy.

Just kidding! He threatened North Korea again, this time in fewer than 140 characters. “Military solutions are now fully in place, locked and loaded, should North Korea act unwisely,” he tweeted. “Hopefully Kim Jong Un will find another path!”

The continued standoff has spooked markets around the world.

Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner is also going to pay for his failure to tell the government about over $10 million in assets. The Office of Government Ethics slapped him with a fine for a late filing of his financial disclosure form.