Last week, Special Counsel Robert Mueller subpoenaed records from the Trump Organization in his ongoing investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. This week, Trump for the first time criticized Mueller directly on Twitter, writing, "Why does the Mueller team have 13 hardened Democrats, some big Crooked Hillary supporters, and Zero Republicans? Another Dem recently added...does anyone think this is fair? And yet, there is NO COLLUSION!" The attack is an attempt to discredit the Russia probe as a fundamentally biased investigation along party lines. Many prominent Republicans have likewise expressed distrust of Mueller and his team. Yet Trump's tweet set off alarms within his own party. "If he tried to [fire Mueller], that would be the beginning of the end of his presidency, because we're a rule-of-law nation," stated Republican South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham on CNN, "When it comes to Mr. Mueller, he is following the evidence where it takes him, and I think it's very important he be allowed to do his job without interference, and there are many Republicans who share my view." If Trump attempts to remove Mueller, many Republicans believe, his administration will never recover its credibility.

On the subject of Russia, the White House announced on Thursday that it was enacting long-awaited sanctions against the country in an attempt to admonish Moscow for its attempted election interference and continuing cyberattacks. In total, the Trump administration placed sanctions on nineteen individuals and five entities. "The administration," said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, "is confronting and countering malign Russian cyber activity, including their attempted interference in U.S. elections, destructive cyber-attacks, and intrusions targeting critical infrastructure." Recent reports have confirmed that Russian intelligence has attempted to compromise the United States' energy grid. The targets of the sanctions are the Internet Research Agency, which was responsible for generating "troll" accounts during the 2016 election, Yevgeniy Viktorovich Prigozhin, one of the Internet Research Agency's principal financial backers with ties to Putin, the Federal Security Service, the Main Intelligence Directorate, and a number of other involved intelligence organizations and individuals. How Moscow will respond to these sanctions remains to be seen.

On the home front, President Trump suffered a foreboding loss in Pennsylvania's special election when Democrat Conor Lamb defeated Republican candidate Rick Saccone. Trump and Vice President Pence themselves campaigned for Saccone, and Lamb's victory in the deeply red GOP district now bodes ill for other Republican candidates in the upcoming midterm elections in November. Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan himself advised incumbent Republicans to be aware of surging Democratic enthusiasm in their own races. Interestingly, Lamb ran a successful campaign by de-emphasizing his ties to the Democratic Party. He ran as an independent thinker with Democratic leanings, while still appealing to subjects that the GOP's voters hold sacred, such as gun rights. Aspects of this model are what Trump voters found appealing in the first place. Other Democratic candidates may now be able to integrate this approach into their own campaigns just in time for November.