While You Were Offline: Trump Executes Perfect Self-Own With Pelosi Tweet

Oh, what a week it’s been. A week where President Trump awarded the next Group of Seven summit of world leaders to one of his golf resorts and then changed his mind; a week where acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney essentially admitted Trump withheld military aid to Ukraine in an attempt to get the country's government to investigate Democrats and then released a statement walking it back; and a week where it was revealed that the president's top China adviser made up one of his regular sources. It was a week with the first all-female spacewalk. It was, as absolutely surreal as it sounds, also a week where it seemed there might be a Brexit deal on the horizon, although it'll likely be delayed. What else have people been talking about? They’ve been talking about this.

What Happened: With everything going on in the world, you can sometimes forget that there are also those out there who just want to create ugly memes that incite violence against the media for reporting stories they don't like.

What Really Happened: It's been a while since we've had an old-fashioned horror show based around a meme of the president assaulting a media organization, hasn't it? Remember when he "wrestled" CNN in a GIF? Those were the days.

Stories about the violent video very quickly went viral as people responded to the reports of its screening.

The video was, as many pointed out, a bastardization of a scene from 2014's Kingsman: The Secret Service.

As people started wondering about the origins of the clip—leading to the Twitter suspension of a popular pro-Trump meme maker who had not made the clip—some of those who were (literally) targeted in the video itself spoke out publicly on the subject.

The Takeaway: So, has Trump ever seen the video? What did he think?

What Happened: If President Trump’s use of Twitter led you to believe that he might be a master at longform letter writing, well, this week brought some exciting news for you.

What Really Happened: In presidential history, there have been many letters of note, and multiple times a well-written letter has changed history with its statesman-like demeanor and ability to create a narrative that will live for the ages. And then, last week, there was this.

As if the quote "Don't be a tough guy. Don't be a fool!" doesn’t make clear enough, President Trump's letter to Turkish President Erdogan—sent days after a phone call between the two that, for all intents and purposes, green-lit the Turkish invasion of Syria—was quite the missive, threatening him in almost cartoonish language. And, despite what many suspected—or perhaps hoped—it turned out to be genuine.

But how successful was the letter? That's an open question, even if the answer is clearly "Not very." To be generous, however, even though Erdogan reportedly threw the letter in the trash immediately, by Thursday a "temporary ceasefire" was announced in Syria. That ceasefire, however, only lasted five days. Oh, and Turkey violated it hours after it began.

Meanwhile, some people were finding humor in the letter.

The Takeaway: If nothing else, the letter added something to the already voluminous cache of catchphrases of the Trump era.

What Happened: After a White House meeting on the situation in Syria went off the rails, President Trump sent a tweet that likely didn't get the reaction he was hoping for.

What Really Happened: On Trump's 1,000th day in office, the White House held a meeting with the president and congressional leaders on the ongoing situation between Turkey and the Kurds in Syria. It could've been an opportunity for Trump to address his involvement in the situation, which started around the time he announced the withdrawal of US troops from the region. As became very clear when Democrats left the meeting and talked to the press just 20 minutes after it began, that wasn't what happened. At all.

Reports about what had happened during the meeting started leaking out quickly, and they were wild.

The White House spin on this was, shall we say, not particularly convincing.

Meanwhile, winning the Foresight on Twitter award…

Let's look back at that photo about "Nervous Nancy's unhinged meltdown" again, shall we?

Indeed, in the day after the meeting, the photo had already achieved iconic status and was widely seen as validation of Nancy Pelosi's version of events.

The Takeaway: Ah, politics, the "I'm rubber, you're glue" that actually matters.

What Happened: President Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani had the kind of week that was so bad it's hard to imagine it was all squeezed into seven days.

What Really Happened: Rudy Giuliani is, to be polite, at a very strange period in his career right now. Enough people think so that there was even a New York Times documentary about his evolution from hard-nosed NY prosecutor to … private attorney seemingly working for free for longtime friend, and President of the United States, Donald Trump, who appears to be at the center of an attempt to recruit foreign governments to meddle in US elections, and also maybe some campaign finance shenanigans too. What a long, strange trip it's been. It would be bad if this week brought any more unfortunate revelations about "America's Mayor," wouldn't it?

Yeah, none of that looks great for Rudy. Then, as all of that was shaking out, this happened.

Ladies and gentlemen, Rudolph Giuliani, a man who apparently has legal training, somehow.

This is all looking pretty bad, it’s true. Could it get any worse?

OK, sure; that Giuliani is apparently part of a counterintelligence probe into foreign influence on the 2016 election is certainly just adding fuel to the fire, but at least now all the shoes have certainly dropped. Right?

Yeah, sure, one of the two associates arrested last week while trying to flee the country is pinning it all on Giuliani, that's definitely no good, but now they can't get any worse…

This is beginning to get ridiculous.

Man, I just give up.

The Takeaway: As absolutely crazy as Giuliani's week has been, here's a somewhat staggering possibility: All of this is just prologue to what could be even more dramatic in the near future.

What Happened: As a welcome palette cleanser, let's take a look at what Lady Gaga is up to these days.

What Really Happened: For those wondering what Lady Gaga's first post-A Star Is Born move was going to be, this week provided an unexpected answer as she managed to drive a certain element of the Twitterati insane with one simple question.

There, of course, were those who decided to try and answer her question (the last one, by the way, comes from the creative director of the company behind the game).

And then there was this wonderful exchange:

For those who are as confused as Gaga, he's someone who makes half a million dollars a month playing Fortnite, which is one of those things that you can't think too much about. As this was unfolding, the exchange—and Gaga’s question in general—were somehow being reported as news by the media. Admittedly, gaming media covered it far more breathlessly than mainstream media, but you can understand why. Soon, folks in various spheres started wondering what was going on, and started getting suspicious of the Fame Monster's apparently sudden interest in the game, and lack of ability to use Google.

Please note: These are predictions, not announcements. Well, not yet, anyway … Oh, and for those concerned that Lady Gaga had, in fact, misspelled the name of the game in question, don't worry; some were so eager to award plaudits to Gaga they’d forgive any perceived slight.

Meanwhile, others imagined what would happen if Gaga started playing the game herself.

And then, of course, there were those who just couldn't help themselves.

The best response to the question of all, though, was this:

The Takeaway: Let's be real, here.

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