Donald Trump is angry and frustrated with the federal investigation into Russian meddling in our election. In his view, the inquiry doesn’t just call into question the legitimacy of his election. Now he feels his own family is a target and under siege. Trump blames the highest-ranking members of his Department of Justice for this state of affairs, and he granted an interview last week to the “failing” New York Times (as he likes to call it) to complain publicly.

When Trump sat down with three Times reporters in the Oval Office on July 19, news of the ongoing Russia controversy was unusually quiet. For the preceding 48 hours or so, the White House had been dealing with a more ordinary crisis: the collapse of Obamacare repeal in the Republican-controlled Senate. The White House had been working hard to figure out how to revive the Senate’s health care bill. Just before his interview with the paper, Trump attended a lunch with GOP senators to discuss prospects for repealing Obamacare.