ANALYSIS — President Donald Trump had himself a week, just not the kind political observers have become accustomed to, spending much of it behind closed doors while unable to broker a deal with Senate Democrats.
He dissed a Republican icon over trade policy. He backed down on plans to exclude Democratic governors from an annual gathering of state chief executives. His border czar ended a contentious immigration enforcement surge in Minneapolis that left two American citizens dead. And a typically friendly pollster delivered a stinging rebuke.
Trump was also noticeably subdued during an energy deregulation event Wednesday in the White House’s Roosevelt Room, where coal industry leaders presented him with a trophy featuring a coal miner statue for being the “Undisputed Champion of Beautiful Clean Coal.” The president spoke in a tone that was lower than normal and took at least a half-dozen friendly questions from right-leaning outlets. And he appeared to have little regard for statistics as he tried to downplay the power of the office to force down consumer prices.
