United States

Later in August a firestorm of criticism met Trump’s response to a demonstration in Charlottesville, Virginia, by members of the so-called alt-right (a loose association of white nationalists, white supremacists, extreme libertarians, and neo-Nazis) that erupted in violence, resulting in the death of a counterdemonstrator. After initially laying blame for the violence on “many sides,” Trump was compelled to more strongly condemn white supremacists, the Ku Klux Klan, and neo-Nazis. In impromptu public remarks, Trump then reversed his stance, not only agreeing with the protestors’ opposition to the removal of a statue of Confederate icon Robert E. Lee but also stating his belief that there had been “some very fine people” among the white nationalist protestors, remarks that further escalated the condemnation of his response to the incident as racially divisive.

The events in Charlottesville dovetailed with Trump’s dismissal in August of his chief political strategist, Steve Bannon, an anti-globalist populist who had helped engineer Trump’s election, first at the helm of Breitbart News, which provided a platform for the alt-right, and then as the executive director of Trump’s campaign. Bannon had clashed with other members of Trump’s inner circle and belittled them in remarks made that month in a phone conversation with the coeditor of the liberal publication The American Prospect.

All the events of the first portion of the Trump presidency unfolded in a widespread environment of concern over Russian tampering with the 2016 U.S. presidential election and against the backdrop of investigations into the possible connections between Russian officials and operatives and members of the Trump campaign and the Trump administration. Michael Flynn, Trump’s national security adviser, was forced to resign in February, having lied to Vice President Pence regarding the nature of Flynn’s telephone conversation in December 2016 with Russia’s ambassador to the United States, Sergey Kislyak. Some two weeks before his resignation, the White House had been warned of the Department of Justice’s belief that Flynn was vulnerable to blackmail by Russia. That concern had arisen as a result of the FBI’s examination of the communications between Flynn and Kislyak that had come to the agency’s attention through routine monitoring of the ambassador’s communications.

Jeff Session’s recusal, James Comey’s firing, and Robert Mueller’s appointment as special counsel

From July 2016 a secret investigation had been conducted into possible collusion between Russian officials and prominent members of the Trump campaign. On March 2, 2017, Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from oversight of that no-longer secret investigation after controversy grew regarding his own meetings with Kislyak before the election and over statements Sessions had made during his confirmation hearing regarding the possibility of preelection contacts between the Trump campaign and the Russian government. Almost from the outset of the first reports of Russian involvement in the election, Trump had been dubious of the veracity of the accusations and downplayed their significance, casting them as an outgrowth of Democrats’ sour-grapes frustration at losing the presidential election.

In May Trump dismissed Comey as director of the FBI shortly after Comey testified before Congress, in part about the bureau’s investigation of possible Russian intervention in the election. Purportedly, Trump fired Comey at the recommendation of recently appointed Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who, in a memo solicited by the president, criticized Comey’s handling of the public announcements related to Clinton’s e-mails. Soon after Comey’s dismissal, however, the president made it known that he had planned to fire Comey regardless of the Justice Department’s recommendation, at least partly because of Comey’s handling of “this Russia thing,” which Trump repeatedly characterized as a politically motivated witch hunt. Following his ouster, a memo written by Comey came to light summarizing a meeting with Trump in January 2017 at which Comey claimed that the president had both sought a pledge of loyalty and indirectly asked him to halt the investigation of Flynn’s activities.