We begin on Friday, July 10th, President Trump commutes the 40-month prison sentence of longtime friend and confidante Roger Stone, who was convicted on seven felony charges brought forward by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, including witness tampering and making false statements to Congress. Trump’s clemency came after a federal appeals court panel denied Stone’s request to delay an order to report to federal prison.
Saturday, July 11th, Mueller pushes back against Trump’s commutation of Stone’s sentence, defending his investigation in the Washington Post, writing that Stone was a “central figure” due to his communications with Russian intelligence officials as well as Wikileaks, and that he “remains a convicted felon, and rightly so.”
Later that day, President Trump visits Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, sporting a mask, an issue that he’s been inconsistent on which has made him subject to widespread criticism.
Sunday, July 12th, the White House begins attacking Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, by sending out a list, tantamount to opposition research, to the press of comments that Fauci made which were ultimately proven wrong.
Skipping ahead to Tuesday, July 14th, President Trump holds a news conference in the White House Rose Garden to announce sanctions of China for its treatment of Hong Kong. However, he spends a good chunk of time attacking his likely opponent Joe Biden in what critics have called a substitute rally.
Wednesday, July 15th, President Trump travels to a UPS facility in Atlanta, but prior to leaving, he distances himself from an op-ed written by White House trade adviser Peter Navarro, who penned in USA Today that everything Dr. Fauci told him has been wrong. Trump tells reporters, “we’re all on the same team, including Dr. Fauci” and that Navarro “shouldn’t be doing that.” Navarro’s op-ed was initially reported as him going rogue, but the Los Angeles Times later reports that Trump encouraged Navarro to write the piece and gave him the green light. Fauci, meanwhile, calls the whole episode “bizarre” that ultimately “hurts the president,” in an interview with the Atlantic.
In the evening, Trump shakes up his campaign by demoting campaign manager Brad Parscale and promoting Bill Stepien to fill the leadership void.
Before we forget, standing in solidarity with Goya Foods, President Trump posts a photo to his Instagram sitting behind the Resolute Desk with a small sampling of Goya products. Observers have called the recent kerfuffle with Goya, “the Bean Wars,” after Goya CEO Robert Unanue expressed support for President Trump at a White House press conference the week before, leading to a boycott of the company by Trump’s most fervent critics. Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, also posted on Twitter a photo of her standing with Goya Foods.
It probably shouldn’t come as a surprise to many, but President Trump turned the tables on the culture war. He somehow turned his critics, many of whom are Hispanic, against a Hispanic-owned business with “the bean wars,” and got his supporters to purchase Goya products in bulk. What a time to be alive.
