Trump Tries a Familiar Tactic: Providing a New Story Line

The following article by Katie Rogers and Maggie Haberman was posted on the New York Times website July 19, 2018:

President Trump at the White House.The invitation to the Russian president adds to growing questions surrounding Mr. Trump’s shifting stance on Russia. Credit: Tom Brenner, The New York Times

WASHINGTON — President Trump spent much of Thursday playing up his economic accomplishments and attacking his regular list of rivals, including Hillary Clinton and the news media, which he again called the enemy of the people.

As he tried to leave in his wake Monday’s news conference with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, analysts and critics spent the day wondering whether the misstep would create a lasting problem for him.

As they ruminated, supporters who had publicly called out the president this week for standing beside Mr. Putin in Helsinki, Finland, and saying he did not believe Russians meddled in the 2016 election, seemed to be pivoting. By conceding that he had misspoken on the issue, they hoped, the president had already wriggled his way out of yet another one.

View the complete article here.