'The president is self-destructing' as news cycle threatens to generate blue wave: report

A wave of optimism reportedly swept the White House after the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, reports Vanity Fair. But that feeling was short lived.

According to the magazine, insiders say Trump has been frustrated by the current news cycle. After a week in which one of his supporters sent packages containing pipe bombs to his critics—and a virulent anti-Semite murdered 11 people at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh—the president appears to be alarmed at the prospect of Democrats sweeping Congress.

“The president is self-destructing,” an official said.

If the expected blue wave does materialize, that likely means Trump administration officials will be buried in investigations. That, in turn, is making some officials likely to leave the White House, Vanity Fair reports. "There’s going to be a lot of departures,” a former West Wing official told the magazine.

White House officials have suggested the president give an address emphasizing unity.

Instead, the president has opted to go in the opposite direction. Likely at the behest of Bill Shine, his media director and former Fox News boss, Trump is instead ramping up attacks on immigrants and the media.

That strategy would explain why Trump is claiming he has the legal authority to end birthright citizenship (he most likely does not) and why he's fear-mongering about the caravan and pledging to send thousands of soldiers to the border. In fact, far from an "invasion," the caravan is comprised of about a thousand people (far more try to come across the US border).

Read the Vanity Fairreport.