Trump Tries One More Media Blitz to ‘Control the Agenda.’ It Isn’t Working.

Starting in the final year of former special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, President Donald Trump would periodically repeat to his personal lawyer and political advocate Rudy Giuliani a key, three-word phrase. “Control the agenda,” he’d privately tell his attorney, according to three people who’ve heard the president say this. Trump would deploy the phrase specifically when commenting on, and attaboying, Giuliani’s latest television appearances, media hits that would at times turn comically combative, careen off the rails, and seem to create bigger public-relations headaches than they were worth. No matter, the president typically advised. So often, the point wasn’t to keep the...