Much has happened in the first two weeks of July.

This past Monday, Trump announced that he had picked conservative judge Brett Kavanaugh to replace retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy for the Supreme Court. Given that the Senate has a Republican majority, however, it's expected that he will pass the Senate confirmation hearings. If confirmed, Kavanaugh will be the second Supreme Court Justice that Trump has appointed.

On Wednesday, Trump attended a NATO summit in Brussels. Trump had little to contribute except scorn for the proceedings, complaining that other NATO members are not fulfilling their obligations to the alliance, and suggesting that member countries double their defense spending from 2% to 4%. As per White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Trump pushed for the increase because he wants to "see [US] allies share more of the burden and at a very minimum meet their already stated obligations," despite the fact that the US itself is expected to spend 3.5% of its total GDP on defense. Trump subsequently claimed that ally countries had agreed to "substantially up their commitment," though other NATO members disputed this characterization.

On Thursday, Trump arrived in the UK for his visit with Queen Elizabeth II. Trump's visit did not exactly go smoothly. First, thousands of protestors gathered in the UK to rally against Trump's arrival (though a rally of Trump supporters was also scheduled to gather the following day). Prior to the meeting, Trump criticized British Prime Minister Theresa May's handling of Brexit in comments to major British tabloid The Sun; though when subsequently asked about it, Trump denied ever having criticized her. And Trump also caused a minor outcry by appearing to act rudely to the 92-year-old Queen.

And on Friday, the Justice Department announced that it would indict 12 Russian nationals for interfering in the 2016 presidential election. The White House responded with a statement emphasizing that no Americans were charged in the indictment and that the meddling did not necessarily affect the vote count. The statement did not include any condemnation of Russian interference. Trump also personally responded to the indictment via Twitter by blaming the Obama administration, saying, "Why didn't they do something about it, especially when it was reported that President Obama was informed by the FBI in September, before the Election?" Trump's scheduled meeting with President Putin of Russia is still scheduled to go forward on July 16 in Helsinki.

Meanwhile, the trade war with China rages on, though Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin has characterized it differently. Trump also accepted the resignation of EPA Chief Scott Pruitt, again praising him for doing an "outstanding job" despite the ongoing investigation against him for ethics violations.