Analysis: Trump challenged by cold reality from top allies
A president used to bending US politics to his will faces two stinging losses in a matter of days, writes the BBC's Anthony Zurcher.
Watch: "She folded like an umbrella" - Trump attacks Jeanine Pirro over Reflecting Pool
It's been a humbling few days for Donald Trump, even if the American president is reluctant to acknowledge it.
In a series of setbacks, Trump has faced adversity in matters both large and small; two of which he cares about dearly and one that could determine his and his party's political fate for the remaining two years of his presidential term.
From a flawed attempt to renovate a Washington landmark to questions about his pick to head the justice department to increasingly complicated efforts to end his war in Iran, the president has been handling tricky issues - many of his own making.
Trump's response has been a familiar one. A first term refrain - that the president makes his own reality with "alternative facts" - is still the operative one. He sticks to beliefs even in the face of contravening evidence.
Unlike his first term, however, when many of his most notable conflicts were with dissenters in his own administration, this time around he has butted heads even with those who have proven themselves the most loyal to him.
On Friday, US Attorney Jeanine Pirro, a former Fox News host and stalwart Trump ally, moved to drop felony destruction of property charges against former Olympian David Hearn, who federal prosecutors had accused of intentionally damaging the Reflecting Pool near the Washington Monument.
"The damage was the result of a botched installation and not vandalism," she wrote in a 20-page court filing announcing her department's decision. She attributed her decision to prosecute Hearn as the result of misleading information provided by the Department of Interior.
Trump may embrace alternative facts, but the evidence Pirro confronted – what she would have had to defend in court, before a judge and potentially sceptical jury – provided scarce support for her case. And so she abandoned it.
If the Reflecting Pool case was an instance of Trump being forced to face legal reality, up on Capitol Hill it was an unpleasant political reality that confronted him.
'She folded like an umbrella' - Trump slams Jeanine Pirro over Reflecting Pool case
Trump administration drops Reflecting Pool vandalism charge and admits 'botched' repairs
One of Trump's closest allies – his former criminal defence attorney Todd Blanche – was hitting stiff headwinds in his bid to become attorney general on a permanent basis.
Two Republican senators, John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, had joined Democrats to block Blanche's nomination. They were demanding
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