Trump team ‘scrambling to get back on script’ after ‘terrible’ first weekend in office

By David Ferguson

Donald Trump reportedly spent his first weekend in office on an emotional roller coaster as he obsessed over Twitter posts about his inauguration and lashed out at critics — against the advice of his top advisers, who are now “scrambling to get back on script.”

The New York Times said Sunday night that Trump spent a “rocky” first weekend in office as he echoed his campaign trail cycle of “angry Twitter messages, a familiar obsession with slights and a series of meandering and at times untrue statements, all eventually giving way to attempts at damage control.”

“The lack of discipline troubled even senior members of Mr. Trump’s circle,” reported the Times‘ Peter Baker, Glenn Thrush and Maggie Haberman, “some of whom had urged him not to indulge his simmering resentment at what he saw as unfair news coverage. Instead, Mr. Trump chose to listen to other aides who shared his outrage and desire to punch back. By the end of the weekend, he and his team were scrambling to get back on script.”

During the inauguration itself, Trump reportedly became “increasingly angry” as Twitter users posted photos of his inauguration crowd next to Pres. Barack Obama’s much larger audience from 2009.

“But he spent his Friday night in a whirlwind of celebration and affirmation,” the Times said. “When he awoke on Saturday morning, after his first night in the executive mansion, the glow was gone, several people close to him said, and the new president was filled anew with a sense of injury.”

“Several senior advisers urged him to move on and focus on the responsibilities of office during his first full day as president,” but Trump’s need to hit back would not be denied. He devote a major portion of his speech at CIA Headquarters to lashing out at the media for what he perceived as unfair inauguration coverage.

Then he sent out newly minted Press Secretary Sean Spicer at 6 p.m. on Saturday to deliver a hot-faced, defiant press conference in which Spicer flatly stated that Trump’s inaugural audience was the “largest ever,” took no questions and stormed out of the White House Briefing Room.

Even stalwart Trump supporters like L. Lin Wood are concerned that the administration is off to a bad start.

“To someone who believed we might have a good opportunity to change, it’s just a terrible start.

Because he’s got a long way to go,” Mr. Wood told the Times. “This is going to go downhill quickly if it’s not changed, and that’s not good for any of us.”