He still has time to do more damage

The two months between Independence Day and Labor Day offered a fresh and vivid portrait of the president as seen by Trump’s critics — incompetent, indecisive, intolerant and ineffective.

[...]

[It] was what some Trump advisers and allies characterize as a lost summer defined by self-inflicted controversies and squandered opportunities. Trump leveled racist attacks against four congresswomen of color dubbed “the Squad.” He derided the majority-black city of Baltimore as “rat and rodent infested.” His anti-immigrant rhetoric was echoed in a missive that authorities believe a mass shooting suspect posted. His visits to Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso after the gun massacres in those cities served to divide rather than heal.

Trump’s economy also began to falter, with the markets ping-ponging based on the president’s erratic behavior. His trade war with China grew more acrimonious. His whipsaw diplomacy at the Group of Seven summit left allies uncertain about American leadership. The president returned from his visit to France in a sour mood, frustrated by what he felt was unfairly negative news coverage of his trip.

[...]

In the final lull before the 2020 campaign starts to intensify this fall, Trump could have worked strategically to solidify his position and broaden his appeal. Instead, his words and actions this summer served to further divide the country and to harden public opinion about the ever-polarizing president.

[...]

[Republican strategist Alex] Castellanos said that some of the chaos of the summer is mere Washington “kerfuffle,” but what could have lasting impact “is not just the trade war, but a cold war with China and the uncertainty that may well impair economic growth going into November 2020.”

“That’s what we’ll remember from the long, hot summer of 2019,” Castellanos concluded.

[...]

Asked about Trump’s summer, the White House offered a detailed, 26-point list of what officials characterized as key successes. The highlight reel ranged from the highly specific (meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and imposing more sanctions on Iran and Venezuela) to the vague (releasing a strategy that “aims to increase women’s leadership in efforts to prevent conflict and promote security”).

  WaPo

Like a hopeful employee padding a resumé.

“I don’t know how anyone could see this summer as anything but successful with the president continuing to deliver on his promises to the American people despite the negative news coverage of this administration,” said Judd Deere, a White House spokesman.

Name one. And the rash of federal judges doesn't count - that's Mitch McConnell.

“President Trump has accomplished more at this point in his first term than any president in history and his policies are building a safer, stronger and more secure America.”

No matter how many times or ways you say it, Judd, it's still not true.

But some White House aides and outside Trump allies offer a grimmer view, describing an administration in which the president has crashed through the remaining guard rails. The chief of staff is still in an “acting” role and jobs that multiple aides once handled are now being filled by fewer staffers, and the president and his team failed to drive a sustained message or capitalize on what they view as winnable fights on the economy and immigration.

A Republican operative in frequent touch with the White House described the mood from the “staff guys and gals” as one of weariness. “Exhaustion, fatigue, wake us when it’s over,” said the operative, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to summarize the sentiment of private conversations. “They’re just tired.”

[...]

“Trump squandered a summer of opportunity to enhance his reelection campaign,” Dan Eberhart, a Republican donor and chief executive of Canary, a drilling services company, wrote in an email. “While Democrats are divided and focused on their own primary, President Trump could have focused on solving the trade war, a genuine infrastructure plan or a decisive foreign policy victory. Instead, he fanned the flames of the trade war, attacked Baltimore, ‘the squad’ and the Federal Reserve, and failed to add a cornerstone achievement to his 2020 election credentials.”

The truth is that he couldn't have done anything other than what he did. He is incapable of leading or behaving in any way other than narcissistic spite.

Eberhart concluded: “As a Republican, all you can do is hope it doesn’t end in a wreck.”

It already is a wreck.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.