The Daily Fuckup: June 12, 2017

Edition · June 12, 2017

The Daily Fuckup: June 12, 2017

On a day when Donald Trump’s travel ban got smacked down again in court, the administration also kept digging itself deeper on the Russia questions that were hanging over the White House like a storm cloud.

June 12, 2017 delivered another rough stretch for Trumpworld: a federal appeals court again kept major limits on the revised travel ban, underscoring how often the White House was getting corrected by judges for overreaching. The broader mood around the administration was still poisoned by the Comey fallout, with Trump’s own messaging continuing to invite scrutiny instead of calming it down. The through-line was simple: the president kept trying to impose will-by-tweet politics, and the legal system kept answering with no.

Closing take

The common denominator on June 12 was not bad luck. It was overreach, followed by correction. Trump kept treating legal, constitutional, and political restraints like annoying speed bumps, and the result was more public defeats, more attention on the Russia mess, and more proof that his reflexive hardball style was creating the very blowback he claimed to hate.

Ranked by how bad the fuckup was

5 stars means maximum fallout. 1 star means a smaller self-own.

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9th Circuit Keeps Trump’s Travel Ban on Ice

Travel ban blocked Confidence 5/5

★★★★☆Fuckup rating 4/5 Serious fuckup

A federal appeals court left the core of Trump’s revised travel ban blocked, dealing the White House another judicial rebuke over a signature campaign promise. The panel said the administration had not shown enough legal justification for the broad restrictions on travelers from several Muslim-majority countries and refugees. The ruling kept alive the sense that the president was trying to govern by maximalist order and getting clipped back by the courts.

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Story

Comey Fallout Keeps the Russia Cloud Hanging Over Trump

Russia hangover Confidence 4/5

★★★★☆Fuckup rating 4/5 Serious fuckup

The day after James Comey’s blockbuster testimony, Trump was still trying to wave away the damage, but the Russia story was only getting bigger. The former FBI director’s account kept raising questions about whether Trump had tried to pressure the bureau and whether his firing of Comey had been an attempt to slow the investigation. Even without a new dramatic revelation on June 12, the fallout was still working against Trump, not for him.

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