IVANKA/MELANIA/SPORTS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/TRUMP PEOPLE: “Melania Trump’s split with her husband over NBA superstar LeBron James is the most glaring example of a growing trend: The President’s family and some top officials are adopting positions at odds with his most divisive statements. The public feud between King James and the imperious President is on one level a personal and even ideological clash between two of the richest, most famous entertainers in American life whose outsize images outshine the confines of the roles they currently play. But it is also offering new insight into the President’s unashamed willingness to launch attacks that touch on the most sensitive fault lines of American life, like race and freedom of expression, that even some of those closest to him find difficult to publicly defend. In recent days, Trump’s daughter Ivanka has said she does not share her father’s view that the press is the enemy of the people, only for the President to reinterpret her remarks for his 53 million Twitter followers. Trump’s counselor Kellyanne Conway echoed the comments of the President’s daughter Sunday. But only after Trump reinforced his attack in a way that made his daughter’s personal damage control effort last week look tame by comparison.”
–Stephen Collinson, “How LeBron James and Melania Trump laid bare the contradictions in the Trump White House,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, August 4, 2018 1:22 am