It’s the end of the Trump ‘reset’ narrative as we know it

President Trump and first lady Melania Trump board Air Force One for travel to Poland and Germany on July 5. (Carlos Barria/Reuters)

The notion that President Trump might be on the verge of a “reset” or a “pivot” — or any other word that means change — is finally dead. Media coverage of his just-begun foreign trip proves it.

The “reset” narrative has been one of the most persistent of Trump’s two-year-old political career. Journalists wondered whether he might temper his style in the general election, after he won, when he took office, after his first address to Congress, after his first military action, when he went abroad for the first time.

Always, the answer was no — or not for long. Now, it seems, there is no reason to wonder anymore. Trump is who he is, and the idea that a tamer, more focused president might return to the United States is conspicuously absent from reports previewing his participation in the Group of 20 summit in Germany and his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday.

[At G-20 summit, it looks more and more like Trump against the world]

Recall that headlines like this one from Politico marked Trump’s maiden voyage overseas, as president, in mid-May: “Trump looks to foreign trip for reset after domestic drama.”

During the nine-day period when Trump was out of the country, a reset actually seemed possible. As I wrote upon his return, on Memorial Day weekend, “the president maintained a no-drama Twitter stream during his time abroad” and interrupted coverage of Russia-related matters with more favorable accounts of his encounters with world leaders.

“Now that Trump is back in Washington,” I concluded, “the question is whether his White House can manage to use the trip as a lasting reset.”

It could not. The story of the past five weeks can be told in highlights from the president’s Twitter feed:

That’s a lot of drama, and it shows once and for all that Trump simply cannot resist the urge to snipe at anyone who miffs him, be it the media, the mayor of London or his own Justice Department. Trump’s declaration that his conduct is “modern-day presidential” clearly signals that he sees no reason to change.

The president might be at his most statesmanlike in Europe this week, but by now the media knows what to expect when he gets back.