Trump seeks to alter course after self-inflicted missteps

Bloomberg

Donald Trump will try to turn the corner this week after one of the most calamitous stretches of his presidency but heads into that next phase weakened by self-inflicted missteps that have left him on the defensive.
Trump had aimed to use a partial trade deal with China and a US-brokered ceasefire in northern Syria to change the subject from impeachment, and demonstrate that he was still a consequential actor on the world stage, able to rise above the House Democratic attacks that he has described as a “coup.”
Instead, he’s drawn fire from his own party on his handling of Syria, where he gave tacit approval for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to mount a military operation against former US Kurdish allies. Senator Majority Leader Mitch McConnell wrote an op-ed criticising Trump for the move, and generals have lined up to criticise him.
The Chinese, meanwhile, damped his claims of victory on trade by suggesting the trade deal touted by Trump wasn’t finalised, and its exact status remains unclear.
The surest evidence of Trump’s weakened state was his reversal of the decision to hold the next year’s Group of Seven summit at his Doral property in Miami — a move that led even some die-hard Trump fans in Congress, including Alaskan Senator Lisa Murkowski, to say he’d gone too far.
Trump’s first public appearance of the week was expected to be on Monday morning. Often such events turn into contests of which official can offer the most effusive praise for Trump; the latest one could be more somber.
It could also put the spotlight on his embattled acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney. Some of Trump’s closest associates are gathering names of possible replacements for Mulvaney, who may end up taking the fall for a flat-footed approach to the impeachment inquiry and for not giving his boss sharp enough insight.
Mulvaney delivered a blow to Trump’s impeachment defense by publicly admitting — only to backpedal hours later — that the White House held up millions of dollars in aid for Ukraine in order to force a politically motivated investigation in the former Soviet republic.
He made that admission as part of a news conference to announce the news that Trump Doral Miami had been chosen to host the 2020 G-7 summit of world leaders.
Speaking on “Fox News Sunday,” Mulvaney said that he and the president had spoken, and that Trump had been shocked by the negative reaction to the choice of Doral.
Trump’s support among Republican voters and lawmakers has been showing cracks. Little-known Representative Francis Rooney of Florida became the first House Republican to express openness to voting to impeach Trump.