President Donald Trump on Tuesday denied what he called “fake news” reports of “big infighting” in his administration.
“Don’t let the FAKE NEWS tell you that there is big infighting in the Trump Admin,” Trump tweeted from the official @POTUS account. “We are getting along great.”
Don’t let the FAKE NEWS tell you that there is big infighting in the Trump Admin. We are getting along great, and getting major things done!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 7, 2017
Trump faced a tumultuous end to the week after receiving glowing reviews from pundits for his (mostly) on-script address to Congress last Tuesday.
On Thursday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ spokeswoman confirmed that he met before the election with Russia’s ambassador to the United States, though Sessions denied having any “communications with Russians” during his Senate confirmation hearing.
Trump said that he retained “total” confidence in Sessions and didn’t think “at all” that Sessions should recuse himself from an investigation into any ties between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Sessions nevertheless recused himself later the same day.
Several outlets reported that Trump, who spent the weekend at his Mar-a-Lago estate, was extremely frustrated at his staff for the unfavorable news cycle.
He complained that his senior staff “just keep getting in their own way,” CNN reported on Monday, citing an unnamed source familiar with the situation who said there were “a lot of expletives.”
CNN and the Washington Post both reported that Trump expressed his anger at senior staff members, including White House chief of staff Reince Priebus, during a meeting in the Oval Office on Friday.
TIME cited unnamed sources close to Trump who said it was the angriest he has been during his month-and-a-half-old presidency.
An unnamed source told TIME that Trump felt personally let down by his staff’s inability to squash reports about Session’s contacts with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
And in a video from outside the Oval Office obtained by CNN on Friday, White House strategist Steve Bannon was seen gesturing vigorously during a conversation involving Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner. CNN reported that Priebus and White House press secretary Sean Spicer were also present.
