United States

In December 2017 Flynn was indicted and pled guilty to the charge of lying to FBI, reportedly regarding his contact with Kislyak. Also pleading guilty to having lied to the FBI was George Papadopoulos, a onetime adviser to Trump who had tried several times to arrange meetings between representatives of the Trump campaign and Russians. Papadopoulos had been informed that Russian government officials had compromising information about Hillary Clinton. As the investigation moved forward, it appeared to focus on several key areas of inquiry, the role and nature of cyberattacks and information-influencing operations (including fake news), money laundering, the possibility of collusion by the Trump campaign with Russia, and whether obstruction of justice had occurred.

On July 13, 2018, indictments were issued for 12 Russian intelligence officers for their role in the hacking of the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee in an attempt to influence the 2016 presidential campaign in Trump’s favour. The indictments painted a detailed portrait of a complex undertaking by Russian agents that included attempts to infiltrate state election boards, money laundering, “phishing” efforts to access the e-mail of Democratic Party and Clinton campaign officials, dissemination of the stolen documents through WikiLeaks and false online personas, and financing through the use of cyber currency (such as Bitcoin). In the wake of the indictments, Trump continued to vociferously question the authenticity of the intelligence community’s accusations of Russian involvement.

Cabinet turnover

Almost from the outset, turnover was rampant in the Trump administration. Among the first to go was the chief of staff, Reince Priebus. He was replaced by Homeland Security head John Kelly, a former Marine Corps general who reportedly imposed order on a White House often characterized in the press as chaotic. Also early on, Sean Spicer’s duties as press secretary were assumed by Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Especially notable were the departures of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and national security adviser H.R. McMaster, both of whom were widely perceived as moderating influences on Trump’s inclination toward impetuous actions in the realm of foreign policy. Trump loyalist Mike Pompeo, whom Trump had appointed as director of the CIA, took over at the Department of State, while John R. Bolton, a controversial former UN ambassador, became national security adviser. Both men were much closer to Trump’s worldview than their predecessors had been. Accusations of corruption and ethics violations led to the resignations of a number of Trump appointees, including Tom Price as secretary of Health and Human Services and Scott Pruitt, who had worked to eliminate regulations as the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. They were the most prominent of the cabinet members who were alleged to be living in high style at taxpayer’s expense.

Trump’s European trip and the Helsinki summit with Vladimir Putin

In July 2018 Trump stirred controversy on a trip to Europe. At a meeting of the heads of government of NATO countries, he accused the other member states of not paying their fair share for the organization’s operations. While visiting Britain, he gave a newspaper interview in which he was critical of British Prime Minister Theresa May’s handling of her country’s withdrawal from the EU (“Brexit”), while he praised Boris Johnson, her political rival within the Conservative Party. Trump then characterized the EU as a trading “foe” of the United States. All this riling of traditional U.S. allies occurred in the lead-up to Trump’s summit meeting in Helsinki with Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin, which followed on the heels of the indictments of the 12 Russian intelligence agents.