6:59 p.m. ET, March 23, 2018
Here's a recap of this week at the White House
President Trump and first lady Melania Trump will soon depart the White House and head to West Palm Beach, Florida, for the weekend.
It was busy and newsy week at the White House and on Capitol Hill. Let's look at what happened:
Monday: The President and first lady spoke in
New Hampshire about the opioid crisis. He proposed the
death penalty for drug dealers and "
very bad commercials" to scare kids off drugs. After Trump
lashed out at special counsel Robert Mueller's team over the weekend, Republicans
warned Trump
not to fire Mueller.
Tuesday: Trump said
he congratulated Russian President Vladimir Putin on his recent election win, even though he was
warned not to do so.
Wednesday: Trump,
in a series of tweets, called out Mueller, continuing his recent aggressive attacks on the Russia probe.
Thursday: The morning started off with news that
John Dowd, Trump's lead lawyer handling the response to the Russia investigation, had
resigned. Trump later unveiled
new tariffs on Chinese goods, as a result the
Dow plunged more than 700 points. Later that night, Trump took to Twitter to announce that he was
replacing H.R. McMaster as national security adviser with former US ambassador and Fox News analyst
John Bolton. Former Playboy model
Karen McDougal, in an interview with CNN, confirmed that she had
a 10-month sexual relationship with Trump before he was President, saying they were together "many dozens of times."
Friday: Congress passed
a $1.3 trillion spending bill just after midnight. This morning, Trump
threatened to veto the bill. But, in a surprise news conference this afternoon, Trump
signed the bill, saying he had "
no choice" because of the funds it provides to the military.